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Our Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe class has ended (except for me grading their final research papers), and we have all returned home or scattered across Europe for more travel before school kicks in. It was a wonderful trip. Not only did we all learn a great deal about Europe, a great deal about traveling, and about sustainable urban ideas, but also about ourselves. The students were amazing; I dragged them from train to train to city to city, and from hostel to hostel and neighborhood to neighborhood; and they kept their energy up, their good humor and spirit, their curiosity, and their generous natures. As a teacher, you can’t ask for more.

There are some specific thank yous in order. First and foremost, is my wife, Kerry. She was our trip coordinator extraordinaire, but far more. She was friend, nurse, doctor, mother, big sister, and counselor for all of the students, and there for me every step of the way. I also want to thank our three fabulous grad students: Sasha Wisotsky, Jessica DeLora and Alex Harker. They helped with nearly every blog entry, deftly driving around the computer program, finding the great pictures and making sure we had something to say. For the last few blog entries, the rest of the class also put together the material, photos and ideas. At the risk of embarrassing them all, thank you to the 2009 SCONERS (that is; “Sustainable Cities of Northern Europe in the Rain” – since it rained a lot!):

Cindy and Jenny Bailey, Gary Bladen, Alex Byrne, Dasha Davidenko, Jessica DeLora, Gabrielle Donoff (aka Canada), Ryan Doyle (aka “to Doyle”), Cassie Freitas, Alex Harker, Lynn Hiel, Bryan Hull, Maggie Jacoby, Janice Lau, Alex Lemberg, Kelly Lier, Ryan McCarter, Carmut Me, Marjorie Phan, Adam Rubin, Toni Shapovalova, Gil Valencia, Emmanuel Villegas, Laura Weinstein, Beth Williams, Sasha Wisotsky, Ruth Xochihua, and Joanne Yee.

This will be the last blog for a while. Thanks to those who noticed us; I hope it was interesting, maybe even enlightening, or at least fun. We may pick up the thread and do some blogs about sustainability over the course of the next few months. We may also try to put some of our best video segments of the tour up on the site. So, pop in occasionally and see what we have added and what we are up to. By the way, the group photos (so far) include one shot of the whole class at the European Parliment in Strasbourg, standing where all the dignitaries get their phot shoot; a shot of some class members enjoying the castle at Egiskov near Odense, Denmark; and a shot of some of the class enjoying the sunset at the Slossberg, overlooking Freiburg, Germany.




Cheers!