Almost Embarrassingly Dilettantish

So here I am, having been home for a mere 24 hours from my just-shy-of-a-fortnight European vacation, and the main thing I’m doing is making a list of thing to pack for the ski week we’re leaving for on Sunday. Yes folks, the Dilettante is living up to her name vacationing in the lovely cities of London, Porto and Lisbon, and soon to head off to Sun Peaks, BC for—yes—more vacation.

In general, I try to justify my travels—at least to myself—by having the trips be varied in register (i.e. posh and luxurious for one, back packery and Chinese hotels for another), moderately infrequent (i.e. I’ve been in five countries on three continents within three months and that strikes me as a touch excessive, particularly for someone with a newly minted fear of flying), and somehow educational. Fortunately for that last category I was raised by parents who believed pretty much anything could be educational if you did it with awareness, and so I try to make a point of being actively, intellectually involved in the trips I’m taking.

For some, like Jerome Creek, much of the intellectual involvement comes from my writing—just like it does when I’m actually home. In Portugal, much of my intellectual involvement came from using my knowledge—not completely unskillfully—of the language. For Sun Peaks, I will also maintain some habits of home; writing, exercising, practicing some music.

So you see, any vacation is legitimately justifiable if you put your mind to it.