London Program 2018

The London Program at Susquehanna University (S.U.) is a semester long "study abroad" program for business students. The program is somewhat unique since the students all live and attend classes together, rather than being "on their own" as is true of many student exchange programs. The program is about twenty five years old now, and…

A Pub is Not Just a Bar

Nor is a pub just a restaurant, although in the tourist areas a restaurant or bar may well be as close as you will get to a pub. A real pub (the word comes from Public House) is an extension of the local residents homes, a kind of communal living room for the neighborhood, no…

English tea time

One of the cherished British traditions (at least among the tourists from the US) is the High Tea. Most of us have a set idea of what English tea time means: a formal dress party , featuring delicate crustless sandwiches, crumpets and scones, and hot tea all served on the best china. Little girls in…

Last posts from Europe

Coming from the US, it's hard to wrap my head around how small Europe is. I can be in Paris, Amsterdam, or Brussels from here faster than I can travel from Selinsgrove to Philadelphia back home. The front line of the war in Syria is an overnight trip, about the same distance from me as the San Bernardino…

Climate Change is Boring

Paris is in the news again this week, but at least it isn't about guns. It's about a "Historic Agreement". I think a "historic agreement" means something like the UK's Magna Carta or the US's Declaration of Independence. Download the COP21 agreement here. Is it really in the same class? The stated goal of COP21 is to…

Of Refugees and Rebels Or Syria’s Main Exports

This is intended is a quick guide for confused Americans - the last thing Europeans need is another clueless American talking about the issues in Europe - the American RepubliCrats have done quite enough of that. The example of the "time of troubles" in Ireland shows that a political solution can be found to sectarian violence. First the people doing…

Just Say No to Sleazy Jet and Gatwick, Getting Around Europe 1

Gattwick and Easy Jet – Just my experience minus the four letter words that filled my first draft of this post. If this post seems confusing and disorganized, you should have seen it in real-time on the spot. We start with a half hour tube ride to Waterloo to meet the students and get them…

Keep Calm and Take the Ferry: Getting Around Europe 2

After our Gatwick to Prague experience, we decided to try a civilized method of travel by train and ferry. It involved the same half an hour on the tube to Waterloo station, where we changed to a train and rode it about two and a half hours to Portsmouth Harbor, Hampshire in the south of England,…