Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (5/31/07)
Written by Lisa See, this is really a good book. It's only 253 pages, making the book really nice to hold in your hands, but it contains no unnecessary or frivilous words.
The story is about the lives of two women, Lily and Show Flower, from their girlhood until their deaths, in a 19th century county in China, Hunan.
It's difficult to imagine their lives in today's society except that some remnants remain even in American culture - more so in certain religious communities - so that the importance of women's friendships resonates even today.
Men and women in 19th century China (and elsewhere in the world, although perhaps not so well codified) had strictly prescribed roles in society. During this time, footbinding was still practiced (and, indeed was practiced until the middle of the 20th century), and the results of the footbinding was an important part of determining where the girl ended up in society as she became of marriagable age.
Aside from giving us a glimpse of what life might have been like in 19th century China, especially in Hunan, the lifelong relationship between Lily and Snow Flower is a very important part of this story.
The Year of Pleasures & The Year of Magical Thinking (5/25/07)
I couldn't quite get into The Year of Pleasures, written by Elizabeth Berg, although the subject matter was important - how a woman begins life again after her husband unexpectedly dies.
This story was just too neat, and Bette Nolan's life during the year after her husband died just doesn't ring true to me. Nothing is so easy.
The book might be a good summer read, when one doesn't want to concentrate too much on anything. I would say it ranks very high under a list I would call romantic fiction - no, not romantic as in the sense of romance, but romantic in that it just isn't likely to happen the way the story unfolds.
To read about how one might experience the first year after her husband's death, I recommend Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking. Joan, in one of her final chapters, says: "I notice that I have lost the skills for ordinary social encounters.... I hear myself trying to make an effort [at having a conversation] and failing.... I notice that I get up from dinner too abruptly." That rings true to me.
There's nothing romantic about loss.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Little Summary - Russia Tour 07
A tourist's view of Russia surely isn't a real experience. At best, it's a carefully contrived program to acquaint a person with those places and objects tourists like to see. It's like a trip to Disney Land in Anaheim, CA - a little touch of the soil of the United States, but not a real exposure to the people or culture of the US.
Be that as it may, it was the realization of an unspoken dream to be a tourist in Russia. For my generation, the USSR, headed by those in Russia, has been an in-our-face experience. It was Russia we raced against in exploration of space. It was Russia who was the co-protagonist in popular thriller novels of my day, novels by Ludlum and Le Carré. It was Russia who adopted Communism, the antithesis of the American capitalist way of life, and the fear of Communism cost many Americans their freedom of expression under the Joseph McCarthy inquisitions in the 1950s.
Seeing any part of Russia with my own eyes, hearing citizens of Russia while on their soil, and walking on the streets of any part of Russia with my own feet was a monumental experience for me. As an American from my era, Russia represents a close relative whose behavior we whispered and wondered about - a black sheep, perhaps, who we discussed at family gatherings.
For our tour of Russia, the places and objects a tourist likes to see consisted of castles and magnificent buildings in St Petersburg (a most beautiful city) and Moscow (the heart of Russia, as Russians like to say).
Following the pictures I posted along the way, a friend jokingly remarked: I guess we know where Solomon's gold went. How true. Gold leaf is everywhere, and the architecture is something I could only try to imagine from reading fairly tales as a child! Such grandeur is unbelievable, but it exists in Russia. My mind can't comprehend how someone could create designs so perfect! As an example, this hallway at the Hermitage is amazing. Every detail is designed to delight the senses. What genius!
It's been a while since we toured Western Europe (and we usually browse the villages and ruins, foregoing the grand castles and buildings, but I don't recall seeing anything quite so grand.
A real hope of a trip like this is to try to see how people live. That's difficult, because that's not the nature of this type of tour, and the people we see most are our tour-mates. My gentle observations are that:
Be that as it may, it was the realization of an unspoken dream to be a tourist in Russia. For my generation, the USSR, headed by those in Russia, has been an in-our-face experience. It was Russia we raced against in exploration of space. It was Russia who was the co-protagonist in popular thriller novels of my day, novels by Ludlum and Le Carré. It was Russia who adopted Communism, the antithesis of the American capitalist way of life, and the fear of Communism cost many Americans their freedom of expression under the Joseph McCarthy inquisitions in the 1950s.
Seeing any part of Russia with my own eyes, hearing citizens of Russia while on their soil, and walking on the streets of any part of Russia with my own feet was a monumental experience for me. As an American from my era, Russia represents a close relative whose behavior we whispered and wondered about - a black sheep, perhaps, who we discussed at family gatherings.
For our tour of Russia, the places and objects a tourist likes to see consisted of castles and magnificent buildings in St Petersburg (a most beautiful city) and Moscow (the heart of Russia, as Russians like to say).
Following the pictures I posted along the way, a friend jokingly remarked: I guess we know where Solomon's gold went. How true. Gold leaf is everywhere, and the architecture is something I could only try to imagine from reading fairly tales as a child! Such grandeur is unbelievable, but it exists in Russia. My mind can't comprehend how someone could create designs so perfect! As an example, this hallway at the Hermitage is amazing. Every detail is designed to delight the senses. What genius!
It's been a while since we toured Western Europe (and we usually browse the villages and ruins, foregoing the grand castles and buildings, but I don't recall seeing anything quite so grand.
A real hope of a trip like this is to try to see how people live. That's difficult, because that's not the nature of this type of tour, and the people we see most are our tour-mates. My gentle observations are that:
Young women like fashionable clothing and jewelry, just as we do in the US.
- Russian women are movers and shakers and will be instrumental in guiding the country as it recovers from the all-empowered Communist state. I believe (and hope, in this case) the power of the people is equal to the power government, just as in the US. (No, I don't believe the government in either country is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." ***
- Russia is more Western than Eastern, and it seems to be more a part of Europe than of Asia.
- Russian people are more like US people than different from US people.
- Among those who are movers and shakers, there's great energy and drive to build Russian democracy quickly.
- Politics is politics, whether in the US or in Russia.
*** Although stating political or religious beliefs is often an invitation to being flamed by people with acute patriotism, my personal belief is that we elect people the democracy that ideally would create that "of, by, and for the people") who come into office with their own agenda, or they soon develop their own agenda; and that agenda is not necessarily the people's agenda. But, then, knowing that we disagree about what the agenda should be, or the solutions might be, even in our own polite household, I'm not sure I have any answers except to say that good politics must begin at home. My statement, then, is more of a truism than a commentary.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Traveling With a Group - Russia & Baltic States
We arrived back from our trip last Tuesday evening, and we're almost normal again! It was a wonderful trip, certainly worth doing. It would be fun to go back and spend more time in each of the countries. Each seemed to have a slightly different character.
Traveling on a bus with the same group of people for two weeks was an interesting experiment in human behavior. The experience is so intense, you begin to see these people in your dreams! There must be a name for the effect, and if I knew just what it was, I could probably find it in something that's prohibited by the Geneva convention!
Fortunately for us, most of our fellow travelers undertook this group experience with a good dose of politeness toward their fellow travelers, but we did have a couple of people who were "off" with their behavior.
One older guy (I'll call him Jake), who really wasn't well enough to travel, should have been sent home the moment he arrived in St Petersburg (our trip's beginning) and he realized he couldn't walk from the bus to his hotel room.
To have been sent home because of his medical condition would have been reasonable. His behavior toward his fellow travelers, as we went along, should have mandated an enforced departure from the tour. He was demanding of everyone, unwilling to take any seat on the bus except the one he wanted for himself, and he barked at the tour director as though he had hired him as his personal servant. Why would someone sign up for a group tour when what they really wanted was a private experience?
Jake has emphysema, and he knew it before the trip started. He didn't carry oxygen with him, which would have been the one concession he should have made to make the trip doable for his physical condition. He ended up in the hospital with pneumonia about half way through the trip, gave the hospital tons of problems while he was there, and finally secured his release on the next-to-last day of the trip. He demanded to be flown from wherever he was (Was it from Russia? The time line is blurry now.) to Helsinki so he could fly home with the bunch.
He actually wanted to attend our farewell supper the night before we flew out of Helsinki, but we were all (unashamedly) glad that he didn't make it. Anyone else would have flown directly home instead because the trip was over by the time he was permitted to leave the hospital.
There were many in the group who would have shown him compassion except that he was so demanding and uncooperative with everyone who was there. Even in retrospect, many had some measure of compassion for him, but no one wanted to be verbally assaulted by Jake again.
There was one other couple who didn't want to play nice with others, and the husband of that pair (I'll call him Bob, though I never bothered to figure out just who he was) created several little skirmishes during the two weeks we were all together.
As you can imagine when you put 40+ people together at random, 40+ people who have no prior knowledge of each other, you should expect a divergence of religious and spiritual ideologies and be ready to make concessions for your fellow travelers. Bob, however, was politically insensitive and hypercritical, and he wound up in a shouting match with one of the women (I'll call her Sally) when she said something (clever?) about the current US government administration and the policy on Iraq.
I was sitting just in front of him; and to prevent myself from getting involved in the fray, I turned my iPod up loud and tried to concentrate on an NPR podcast. The ensuing discussion behind me was really, really loud and really, really ugly.
Bob is retired (I presume) military, and he took Sally's slightly off, but meant-to-be light, remark as though it were a personal attack on him; and then he proceeded to give us all a strong and loud berating lecture about the merits of Bush's plan. If he couldn't shame us for having any anti-Bush administration thoughts, he could certainly do us physical harm with the language and volume of his vocal outrage!
Yeh, Sally, a liberal modern woman from the east coast, traveling alone, probably should never have made a political comment except to her closest allies, but most of us would have had enough sense to let it go.
To make things fair for the entire group, our touring company uses a system of seat rotation. You and your seat mate rotate, clockwise, around the bus, each day sitting two seats beyond those you were in yesterday. The group made a concession for an elderly woman (age 92!!!!) and her daughter to have the front passenger-side seat and a group of singles to have the back row, but everyone else was to rotate. Bob, the husband in the infamous couple above, decided on his own that he was a paying customer and, as such, had a right to sit wherever he wanted. Huh?
The first time, we thought he was just confused (along with his wife), and we didn't say anything. His less than intellectual verbal outbreak about the Bush administration, with little or no provocation, had convinced us that he was something less than totally stable; and after all, we're all getting a little along in years. So we just unconfused ourselves and found a new order of seating.
The second time, we had a little trouble figuring out just who had mistaken the proper seats and thrown us off, but we all became pretty convinced that it was Bob and his wife.
The third time, when caught (we were getting pretty practiced at figuring out beforehand just where we should be the next day), he gave his "paying customer" speech, and I (of course I didn't have enough sense to keep my mouth shut) asked him how he thought that was supposed to work because we were ALL paying customers and we had formed a community. How was that supposed to be a good community participant. And then, as an aside, I made mention of certain people who didn't know how to play well with others. I think he and his wife sulked the rest of the day because they sat away from us when we stopped for lunch, and she wouldn't look me in the eye for at least 24 hours. But maybe I'm wrong about that thought because ...
They decided on a new seating order one more time (and mind you, we're on this bus only two weeks - 14 days, so that means he messed up, on purpose, more than 25% of the whole time - that we know about). The last time, though, we all just quietly made the adjustment and went about the business of having a great time together. We weren't going to play his little boy game.
Wow! Some people's kids!
Those are the colorful stories about our the people on trip - and they concerned only two people. Not bad, eh? Out of 43 people, 40 were absolutely wonderful, were on their best community-building behavior, were interesting, shared experiences, kindnesses, considerations. I met some people I will remember fondly for a long, long time, and there are a few I will stay in touch with and hope to travel with again some day. How did we luck out!
Traveling on a bus with the same group of people for two weeks was an interesting experiment in human behavior. The experience is so intense, you begin to see these people in your dreams! There must be a name for the effect, and if I knew just what it was, I could probably find it in something that's prohibited by the Geneva convention!
Fortunately for us, most of our fellow travelers undertook this group experience with a good dose of politeness toward their fellow travelers, but we did have a couple of people who were "off" with their behavior.
One older guy (I'll call him Jake), who really wasn't well enough to travel, should have been sent home the moment he arrived in St Petersburg (our trip's beginning) and he realized he couldn't walk from the bus to his hotel room.
To have been sent home because of his medical condition would have been reasonable. His behavior toward his fellow travelers, as we went along, should have mandated an enforced departure from the tour. He was demanding of everyone, unwilling to take any seat on the bus except the one he wanted for himself, and he barked at the tour director as though he had hired him as his personal servant. Why would someone sign up for a group tour when what they really wanted was a private experience?
Jake has emphysema, and he knew it before the trip started. He didn't carry oxygen with him, which would have been the one concession he should have made to make the trip doable for his physical condition. He ended up in the hospital with pneumonia about half way through the trip, gave the hospital tons of problems while he was there, and finally secured his release on the next-to-last day of the trip. He demanded to be flown from wherever he was (Was it from Russia? The time line is blurry now.) to Helsinki so he could fly home with the bunch.
He actually wanted to attend our farewell supper the night before we flew out of Helsinki, but we were all (unashamedly) glad that he didn't make it. Anyone else would have flown directly home instead because the trip was over by the time he was permitted to leave the hospital.
There were many in the group who would have shown him compassion except that he was so demanding and uncooperative with everyone who was there. Even in retrospect, many had some measure of compassion for him, but no one wanted to be verbally assaulted by Jake again.
There was one other couple who didn't want to play nice with others, and the husband of that pair (I'll call him Bob, though I never bothered to figure out just who he was) created several little skirmishes during the two weeks we were all together.
As you can imagine when you put 40+ people together at random, 40+ people who have no prior knowledge of each other, you should expect a divergence of religious and spiritual ideologies and be ready to make concessions for your fellow travelers. Bob, however, was politically insensitive and hypercritical, and he wound up in a shouting match with one of the women (I'll call her Sally) when she said something (clever?) about the current US government administration and the policy on Iraq.
I was sitting just in front of him; and to prevent myself from getting involved in the fray, I turned my iPod up loud and tried to concentrate on an NPR podcast. The ensuing discussion behind me was really, really loud and really, really ugly.
Bob is retired (I presume) military, and he took Sally's slightly off, but meant-to-be light, remark as though it were a personal attack on him; and then he proceeded to give us all a strong and loud berating lecture about the merits of Bush's plan. If he couldn't shame us for having any anti-Bush administration thoughts, he could certainly do us physical harm with the language and volume of his vocal outrage!
Yeh, Sally, a liberal modern woman from the east coast, traveling alone, probably should never have made a political comment except to her closest allies, but most of us would have had enough sense to let it go.
To make things fair for the entire group, our touring company uses a system of seat rotation. You and your seat mate rotate, clockwise, around the bus, each day sitting two seats beyond those you were in yesterday. The group made a concession for an elderly woman (age 92!!!!) and her daughter to have the front passenger-side seat and a group of singles to have the back row, but everyone else was to rotate. Bob, the husband in the infamous couple above, decided on his own that he was a paying customer and, as such, had a right to sit wherever he wanted. Huh?
The first time, we thought he was just confused (along with his wife), and we didn't say anything. His less than intellectual verbal outbreak about the Bush administration, with little or no provocation, had convinced us that he was something less than totally stable; and after all, we're all getting a little along in years. So we just unconfused ourselves and found a new order of seating.
The second time, we had a little trouble figuring out just who had mistaken the proper seats and thrown us off, but we all became pretty convinced that it was Bob and his wife.
The third time, when caught (we were getting pretty practiced at figuring out beforehand just where we should be the next day), he gave his "paying customer" speech, and I (of course I didn't have enough sense to keep my mouth shut) asked him how he thought that was supposed to work because we were ALL paying customers and we had formed a community. How was that supposed to be a good community participant. And then, as an aside, I made mention of certain people who didn't know how to play well with others. I think he and his wife sulked the rest of the day because they sat away from us when we stopped for lunch, and she wouldn't look me in the eye for at least 24 hours. But maybe I'm wrong about that thought because ...
They decided on a new seating order one more time (and mind you, we're on this bus only two weeks - 14 days, so that means he messed up, on purpose, more than 25% of the whole time - that we know about). The last time, though, we all just quietly made the adjustment and went about the business of having a great time together. We weren't going to play his little boy game.
Wow! Some people's kids!
Those are the colorful stories about our the people on trip - and they concerned only two people. Not bad, eh? Out of 43 people, 40 were absolutely wonderful, were on their best community-building behavior, were interesting, shared experiences, kindnesses, considerations. I met some people I will remember fondly for a long, long time, and there are a few I will stay in touch with and hope to travel with again some day. How did we luck out!
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Dedicated to Alex G, Guide Extraordinaire
Moscow, Russia
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.
Alex, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, this photo doesn't begin to do you justice.
It doesn't show the tender, loving care you showed to our group, the consideration you gave to each of us, the professionalism you bring to your task, carefully cloaked in your marvelous humor where we had to listen carefully to catch the gem you were passing along to us, the way you counted and counted again to make sure we were all where we were supposed to be, when we were supposed to be there, the way you repeated information we needed to know because you knew we probably didn't get it the first time.
You are absolutely amazing, outstanding, incredible, and beyond impressive. This was our first group tour. How did we luck out so fantastically!!! Thank you so much!!! Grand European Tours is smart to have you on board!
The photo doesn't even do justice to your hair, which, in this photo, has become tired and is laying down at the end of the day.
The best to you and your family, wherever you are, whatever you are doing!
Russia & Baltic States Itinerary
This was our itinerary for the trip to Russia and the Baltic States tour:
May 7 - San Diego to St Petersburg Russia
Alex Golovko was our tour director for the entire trip. Professional, extremely competent and knowledgeable, Alex met us at the airport and was with us the entire trip, herding a flock of 44 Americans through many sights and cities for two weeks.
May 8 - 10 - St. Petersburg, Russia
Pribaltiyskaya Hotel
May 11 - 13 - Moscow, Russia
Cosmos Hotel
May 14 - Minsk, Belarus
Hotel Belarus
May 15 - 16 - Vilnius, Lithuania
Holiday Inn, Vilnius
May 17 - 18 - Riga, Latvia
Islande Hotel
May 19 - Tallinn, Estonia
Tallink Hotel (formerly the Best Western, Tallink)
May 20 - 21 - Helsinki, Finland
Hotel Radisson SAS Royal
The tour was presented by Grand European Tours (website: http://www.getours.com).
Based on our experience for this tour, we would recommend this company to anyone who wants a thorough sampling of any area. The pace was excellent - not too fast, but never boring. The city tours were presented by licensed local tour guides, were passionate and very informative. Periodically, after Alex provided a short bus trip overview of an area, we were given instructions about how to safely navigate from our hotel to the town center or another interesting place we might like to explore on our own.
The ages of our group ranged from roughly the middle 50s to middle 70s; and, with the exception of one, all were capable of walking reasonable distances and cobbled streets and keeping up with the pace of the others. The one member who couldn't keep up was a misfortune. He shouldn't have scheduled himself for this, or any other, tour. He wasn't aggreeable to the group experience, at the outset; and when he quickly learned that he didn't have enough lung power to walk from the bus to the hotel, he became increasingly demanding of all the other members - especially of the tour director. Thanks to the professionalism and experience of our tour director, this member's inability to stay with the tour was only a little inconvenience to the group as a whole.
Our group was composed of both singles and couples, and people migrated into like-minded groups. Our favorites consisted of two couples just a little older than us, with similar goals and family values, plus a group of women who were traveling alone or with friends. Among the singles, a few were traveling alone without their spouses, two were mother-daughter combinations, and others were widows.
It was amazing that a group of 44 people, most unknown to each other (except for married couples) before this trip, traveled so well together.
This tour will definitely set the standard by which we will judge any other tour we take!
May 7 - San Diego to St Petersburg Russia
Alex Golovko was our tour director for the entire trip. Professional, extremely competent and knowledgeable, Alex met us at the airport and was with us the entire trip, herding a flock of 44 Americans through many sights and cities for two weeks.
May 8 - 10 - St. Petersburg, Russia
Pribaltiyskaya Hotel
May 11 - 13 - Moscow, Russia
Cosmos Hotel
May 14 - Minsk, Belarus
Hotel Belarus
May 15 - 16 - Vilnius, Lithuania
Holiday Inn, Vilnius
May 17 - 18 - Riga, Latvia
Islande Hotel
May 19 - Tallinn, Estonia
Tallink Hotel (formerly the Best Western, Tallink)
May 20 - 21 - Helsinki, Finland
Hotel Radisson SAS Royal
The tour was presented by Grand European Tours (website: http://www.getours.com).
Based on our experience for this tour, we would recommend this company to anyone who wants a thorough sampling of any area. The pace was excellent - not too fast, but never boring. The city tours were presented by licensed local tour guides, were passionate and very informative. Periodically, after Alex provided a short bus trip overview of an area, we were given instructions about how to safely navigate from our hotel to the town center or another interesting place we might like to explore on our own.
The ages of our group ranged from roughly the middle 50s to middle 70s; and, with the exception of one, all were capable of walking reasonable distances and cobbled streets and keeping up with the pace of the others. The one member who couldn't keep up was a misfortune. He shouldn't have scheduled himself for this, or any other, tour. He wasn't aggreeable to the group experience, at the outset; and when he quickly learned that he didn't have enough lung power to walk from the bus to the hotel, he became increasingly demanding of all the other members - especially of the tour director. Thanks to the professionalism and experience of our tour director, this member's inability to stay with the tour was only a little inconvenience to the group as a whole.
Our group was composed of both singles and couples, and people migrated into like-minded groups. Our favorites consisted of two couples just a little older than us, with similar goals and family values, plus a group of women who were traveling alone or with friends. Among the singles, a few were traveling alone without their spouses, two were mother-daughter combinations, and others were widows.
It was amazing that a group of 44 people, most unknown to each other (except for married couples) before this trip, traveled so well together.
This tour will definitely set the standard by which we will judge any other tour we take!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Traveling with a group - May 17 07
We're currently traveling with a Grand European group of almost 45 people, touring Russia and the Baltic states of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Helsinki. This is the first time we've taken an extended organized tour. Our previous group experiences have been few and have never lasted more than one day.
Here we are, 45 people previously unknown to each other, except for our travel partners, living in fairly close quarters for 14 days. Our only common ground, at the outset, is our desire to travel to the places on this tour and learn about our co-inhabitants on this earth. Better understanding surely must lead to better relationships world wide. At the end of the tour, our goal is probably just to get home again and to assimilate all we've learned and put our new knowledge to use in hopes of becoming better neighbors.
We're lucky with our group. We rarely ever have a laggard when it comes time to depart a location. We've had a few temper flares, but these have mostly been self-controlled within minutes (30 or so). We heard a tale of one group where two men actually almost came to blows. That hasn't happened to us.
I never thought about communal living before, except as a far-away concept. This is doable for several reasons. The main reason, of course, is that the members of the group try very hard to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of others. (We all have them, of course, even though we generally think only other people have personality adjustments to make!) Another is that we have an excellent tour guide who laces his conversations with humor, and we're all enjoying the trip itself, seeing previously unknown areas for the first time. Having separate rooms where we can escape from the group and refresh our own attitudes helps tremendously.
I believe, though, that everyone will be glad to have their own private home space in a few more days. People are becoming more sensitive and testy. Two weeks is probably the outer limit for most of these types of experiences.
I'm thankful that our group seems to settle its problems quickly - primarily by avoiding those who irritate them the most. I've found that it's better to have NO opinion on anything, to contribute little to the group discussions. Becoming a better listener is certainly a worthy goal when traveling like this.
Ah, some days I long for the freedom of our own automobile to drive down these roads; but these areas are so new to me that I know we couldn't begin to learn what we've learned on this trip. Our guides have been marvelous; and all in all, the group experience has been more educational (and enjoyable) than uncomfortable.
Here we are, 45 people previously unknown to each other, except for our travel partners, living in fairly close quarters for 14 days. Our only common ground, at the outset, is our desire to travel to the places on this tour and learn about our co-inhabitants on this earth. Better understanding surely must lead to better relationships world wide. At the end of the tour, our goal is probably just to get home again and to assimilate all we've learned and put our new knowledge to use in hopes of becoming better neighbors.
We're lucky with our group. We rarely ever have a laggard when it comes time to depart a location. We've had a few temper flares, but these have mostly been self-controlled within minutes (30 or so). We heard a tale of one group where two men actually almost came to blows. That hasn't happened to us.
I never thought about communal living before, except as a far-away concept. This is doable for several reasons. The main reason, of course, is that the members of the group try very hard to accommodate the idiosyncrasies of others. (We all have them, of course, even though we generally think only other people have personality adjustments to make!) Another is that we have an excellent tour guide who laces his conversations with humor, and we're all enjoying the trip itself, seeing previously unknown areas for the first time. Having separate rooms where we can escape from the group and refresh our own attitudes helps tremendously.
I believe, though, that everyone will be glad to have their own private home space in a few more days. People are becoming more sensitive and testy. Two weeks is probably the outer limit for most of these types of experiences.
I'm thankful that our group seems to settle its problems quickly - primarily by avoiding those who irritate them the most. I've found that it's better to have NO opinion on anything, to contribute little to the group discussions. Becoming a better listener is certainly a worthy goal when traveling like this.
Ah, some days I long for the freedom of our own automobile to drive down these roads; but these areas are so new to me that I know we couldn't begin to learn what we've learned on this trip. Our guides have been marvelous; and all in all, the group experience has been more educational (and enjoyable) than uncomfortable.
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