The Journey Continues or Insanity Asian Style

Posted by Steve Baskin on Nov 12, 2011 5:18:46 AM

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Welcome back to that Baskin Travel Blog.

For any readers that are new to the blog, welcome! I hope to make a daily record of our Crazed Baskin Adventure. I am currently sitting in a plane bound for Beijing, China with my wife Susie, and four children - twin 14 year-old boys Wiley and Liam and daughters Terrill (13) and Virginia (10). We will be in Asia for 11 weeks and then go to New Zealand for 3 weeks.

The family is separated due to the vagaries of the Hainan Airlines reservation system. Susie managed to cajole them into getting she and Virginia next to each other. All of us are in middle seats except for me. I am in a bulkhead aisle only after the realization that my entertainment system was on the fritz.

I think this early and minor adversity will not be an issue. The boys assured us that they would not watch any of the inappropriate movies (Hangover 2? Really?). Of course, the one movie I watched had even the mildest curse words edited out. If they did the same thing to the “Hangover 2” track, I think it will effectively become a Silent Movie.

Back to the blog.

This is not a luxury junket. We will be staying in hostels and riding overnight trains. We will trek in Nepal and have home-stays in Vietnam. In short, we will be acting like college backpackers, except without the luxury.

We finished a similar 8-week trip through Europe. During it, we covered 11 countries and bonded a great deal. If you would like to get a feel for that trip, please feel free to look through the blog archive.

As a sane individual, you might ask why we are doing this.

At times, I wonder the same thing, Here is the main reason.

As camp directors, Susie and I spend our summers with our camp family, full of exceptional teammates, counselors and campers. We, however, do not get to take summer vacations with our own children.

 

We are thinking of this as a heapin’ helpin’ of summer vacations all linked together.

 

One day in 2010, we were talking about our lack of summer trips as well as the fact that all 4 kids were switching schools in a year. That led to the idea – lets pull them from school and give them an education through travel. We are now living that experiment.

 

Before we begin to describe this adventure, it might be worth sharing a few thoughts from the first trip.

 

Happily, we are still alive and speaking to each other. The former is expected, but the latter is somewhat remarkable to me. I marvel at the positive approach the entire family brought to each leg of our European journey. We spent dozens of hours in a car with 6 people and our luggage. We stayed in apartments the size of a large bedroom. We required teenage boys to wake before noon.

 

In other words, we were taking some risks. As it turned out, they were all “reasonable risks” (to borrow some Camp Champions parlance). It was not leisurely, but they did not mind, In fact, they developed a healthy approach to the trip: “its travel, not vacation!” I think I want to make a t-shirt that says this.

 

We learned a great deal, not only about each other, but about history, culture, arts, beauty and kindness. We consistently found people that were helpful and simply nice. I found this a wonderfully encouraging discovery. Sure, everyone was not nice everyday, but on the whole, people seem inclined toward decency.

 

Of course, I think part of this stems from our deciding to expect people to be positive. Over the years, I have found that people who expect others to be nice are rarely disappointed. Similarly, those that assume the world is full of jerks seem to find jerks just as readily. I am not sure if this is because each group only sees what they expect to see or if they actually bring out the best or worst in others. I suspect that it is a combination. When people approache me with the honest assumption that I am a kind person, I find myself striving to meet their expectations.

 

In any event, the people we met helped infuse our family with a renewed enthusiasm for not only travel, but humanity as well.

 

I cannot imagine a better education for them during that 2-month period.

 

The trip did make our month back in the States a little tricky. After 2 months in Europe with limited technology and full daily agendas, the transition back home was odd. They rediscovered sleeping late as well as the remote control. We did go to our major Texas cities to see our campers and parents, but we had an unusual amount of idle time.

 

We also found that some of the tensions that had formed in Europe were blossoming in the idleness of Texas. Their tones were getting a bit raw. They found it hard to resist the occasional barb.

 

You might wonder if this is the right warm-up for a 14 week journey. Susie and I wonder too.

 

Yet I remain optimistic. I have a basic faith that they will be great travellers and family members once again. Ironically, the kids seem to act better in the face of challenges than in the face of ease. I suspect there is a deep insight in this observation. Perhaps ease is a disease. Perhaps we are meant to strive more than be comfortable. Perhaps it is too late on a long flight to wax philosophical.

 

We will see as we explore even more foreign environs on this trip. I suspect that the kids will soon say, “this is not vacation or travel, it is an adventure!”

 

Steve Sir

 

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Tags: Parents, Alumni, Camper, General, Counselor

Friends in London

Posted by Steve Baskin on Oct 8, 2011 2:33:16 PM

We have loved being in London.  After 7 weeks of living in apartments and rented rooms, we are staying with dear friends.  I was shocked to learn that we have not seen these friends in person since 1996, yet we picked up as if we had not missed more than a year or two.

Some friendships simply transcend time and place.  I am not sure what creates fundamental compatibility, but we have it with this couple of Londoners.

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Tags: General, Counselor

Lost and Louis

Posted by Steve Baskin on Oct 5, 2011 12:04:37 PM

Not Again!

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Tags: Alumni, General, Counselor

Understanding My Father Better

Posted by Steve Baskin on Sep 1, 2011 12:47:44 PM

I started to become aware of international politics in the 1980s.  In addition to being the decade that gave us marginal musical acts, it was also the decade that the Soviet Union cratered and the Iron Curtain was lifted.

I share this because when I was first starting to understand the world, the Soviet Union was in obvious decline.  They failure in Afghanistan had signaled the end of their military aggressiveness and dominance.  I could see all that and I believed that they truly wanted to modernize and become less belicose.

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Tags: General, Counselor

The Budapest Blues

Posted by Steve Baskin on Aug 31, 2011 2:22:56 PM

OK, I do not have the blues from Budapest, but I am struggling with the fact that our apartment here has a virtually non-existent internet connection.  I am seriously longing for the speedy days of dial-up.

Nevertheless, I want to share a few thoughts despite the ridiculous connectivity.

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Tags: Parents, General, Counselor

Walking in Copenhagen

Posted by Steve Baskin on Aug 23, 2011 12:13:39 PM

Our final day in Copenhagen was also a big walking day.

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Tags: Alumni, General, Counselor

Proof We Are Crazy (A Bonus Blog)

Posted by Steve Baskin on Jul 14, 2011 11:45:43 AM
This summer, our older daughter (and third oldest child) turned 13.  That means we now have 3 teenagers at the same time.

 

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Tags: Parents, Alumni, Camper, General, Counselor

Lake Swim Warriors

Posted by Steve Baskin on Jul 13, 2011 7:49:42 PM
I am a little behind in my blog topics, so I want to do a little catch up.  This blog will look back to an event Sunday night and challenges the past two mornings.  
Honoring the 8th Graders
On Sunday, we had the T-Bone Club.  Each term, we honor our oldest campers (the T-Bone Club) with a special meal.  These young men and women have finished the 8th grade are in their final summer as normal campers.  If they return next year, they enter the Senior Camper program.

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Tags: Parents, Camper, General, Counselor

Inspiration (and Confusion) from Senior Campers

Posted by Steve Baskin on Jul 11, 2011 6:18:50 PM

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Tags: Parents, Alumni, Camper, General, Counselor

Campers Adding Unnecessary Excitement

Posted by Steve Baskin on Jul 9, 2011 7:37:45 PM

Exciting letters from home

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Tags: Parents, Alumni, Camper, General, Counselor