If you will allow me, a touch of sentimentality

("...aren't you always overly sentimental...?")

("...shhh, Imaginary Blog Reader, that can't be true, sometimes I'm sparklingly witty!")

Several years ago I went on a study tour, with my university, to Greece. It was a travel writing course. Needless to say this was completely fabulous....20 creative types running around looking at things, writing about them, and then rewarding ourselves with amazing food and drink. In a gorgeous country. And at one point, as I recall, we rented mopeds.

I remember very vividly having my first run in with a solo traveler. We were having a lecture session at the foot of the Acropolis in an olive grove. If anything can beat that sentence, it is: he was sleeping at the foot of an olive tree, head on his pack, on a mild afternoon in May (at the foot of the Acropolis, let's not forget). Anyhow now I realize that he was probably some random backpacker who had stayed up all night on a cheap train and couldn't get into his hostel until 12. However, at the time, I was absolutely and immediately jealous. I went off into the Parthenon and wrote a long bit about how wonderful it would be to travel alone.

I read my piece later and at dinner had a conversation with one of my professors, Kerry Bakken. I was bitter and angry because I thought that I would never be able to sleep at the base of the Acropolis with a backpack because I am a woman and that brings with it dangers. In the midst of this irritation and frustration, I said that I would never be able to travel alone because of the state of the world and the general dangers associated with being the 'wrong' gender (and hurled a string of abuse at the universe in general).

And Kerry gave me a hug and said, "You're going to have to get over that idea and do it anyway."

While I was walking home last night I was thinking about that day and I felt very satisfied. So, ok, I'm not quite changing the world yet (although if you are ever in Chile and run into an aquaculturist or blood bank technician with passable English conversational skills, perhaps you can thank me). In any event, though, my world has changed quite drastically and that has got to be the first step.