Pre-Departure

Inspired by my friend Vinny and several of my friends who kept blog-journals of our semester in Australia, I am keeping this blog to chronicle my escapades in Europe, as well as any random thoughts or observations I get the urge to share.  I took a break from packing to put up this up (yes, last minute again.)  I feel a deep excitement boiling up from the bottom of my stomach, only rivaled by the anxiety from the rush to get ready.

A lot of people have asked me why I'm going to Belgium to study philosophy for a year--particularly where does it fit in my overall life-trajectory?  I am keeping a lot of paths open where it fits in (a career in academia not least among them.)  Truth be told, the biggest reasons for my decision to do this are not consequentialist.  I am doing this as an end-in-itself.  I want to go on this trip to grow intellectually, to meet a lot of new and interesting people, and to encounter and experience a variety of different cultures and worldviews.  Europe offers a host of very different peoples with different customs and identities which have roots that stretch back many many centuries.  In fact my study of philosophy has gone hand-in-hand with my interest in living abroad.  I don't just want to tour around and do the fun stuff, I want to try to immerse myself in the full depth of other cultures, other volksgeister.  Allan Bloom hearkened to this in The Closing of the American Mind:

"I received a postcard from a very good student on his first visit to Italy, who wrote, 'You are not a professor of political philosophy but a travel agent.'  Nothing could have better prepared my intention as an educator.  He thought I had prepared him to see. Then he could begin thinking for himself with something to think about.  The real sensation of the Florence in which Machiavelli is believable is worth all the formulas of metaphysics ten times over."    (p. 63)