The countdown is on!

Only nine more sleeps before I head out on this wonderful adventure to the other side of the world - as far away from Prince Edward Island as you can get and still be on the planet! Going back to school to do a PhD with Dr. Pete Hay at University of Tasmania's School of Geography and Environmental Studies is an amazing place to be at this point in my life: I feel like I've won the lottery! And the scholarship from University of Tasmania is the real lottery: thanks to an Endeavour International Postgraduate Research Scholarhip (EIPRS), I can follow my dreams!

My flight takes me from the top of the world to the bottom: from Halifax to JFK to Reykjavik to Copenhagen to Bornholm, where I'm presenting a paper at the Islands of the World XI Conference. Some of us islophiles then head over land and sea to the island of Ven in Sweden, to another conference called Finding our Place: Islands and Social Theory. Then back to Copenhagen Aug. 31 to fly to Frankfurt, Singapore, Sidney, then Hobart, arriving Sept. 2. So where will Sept. 1 have gone, I wonder?

Imagine my surprise when I went on the Guernsey Arts Commission website and saw a photo of me giving my paper at the Art and Islands Islomania Conference (June 23-25, 2010), sponsored by the Commission and SICRI (Small Islands Culture Research Initiative)! It was a fabulous conference that brought together over 30 scholars to talk about the importance of culture in small islands. There was lots of interaction between the presenters and the local Guernseyans, and the island of Guernsey put on a fabulous show, too: what a gorgeous island! I especially loved Herm Island, and taking the ferry to the "mainland" every morning and back "home" every evening... the paradise motif was at its best! The final afternoon of the conference featured an ephemeral art project by Andy Goldsworthy, symbolizing the transient nature of life at the edge. While the tide was out several students worked alongside Goldsworthy to sculpt rounded boulders out of sand, which were then destroyed when the tide came in. How fleeting life is!