Back in The Inquirer!

A few weeks ago I received a voice-mail message from Athalia Nakula, a staff writer for DVC's student newspaper The Inquirer, asking me if she could interview me for an article she was writing about blogging. I told her I'd be happy to take part. She sent me a series of questions via e-mail, which I promptly answered. Then, a few days later, she wrote me another e-mail saying that the entire focus of the story had changed. Originally she was writing a general story about blogging. After learning about the DVC-in-Italy blog, she decided to change her story to an exclusive on this very blog. I was thrilled!

More questions and answers went back and forth, including a request for names of people who had read the blog regularly. A big thanks to all of you whose quotes appear in the article: Toni, Mallory, Richie (John's mom!), Krista, and my dad. And thanks to all of you who were interviewed but didn't make the cut (those darn space constraints!).

I know that Athalia worked hard on this article, and I really appreciate her efforts and professionalism. The story, which appeared in the November 30 issue, turned out great! Here it is:

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Travel Blogs

Teacher's experiences online

By Athalia Nakula

Staff Writing

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Carolyn Seefer's blog was a "must-read" for anyone wondering what DVC students were up to in Florence last spring.

The business administration instructor started dvc-in-italy.blogspot.com in January to chronicle the "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" of teaching and studying in Italy, from preparation to trip to homecoming.

"I wanted to create a permanent memory of the trip in a format that a variety of people could access," Seefer said.

She wrote about learning Italian, a class field trip to Milan, a day trip to Cinque Terre, and a student reunion in North Beach, among other entries.

"Now that we're home, the blog will remain available online so we can relive our experiences anytime we want," she said.

English instructor Antonia Fannin, who taught with Seefer in Florence, said "Carolyn really raised the bar with respect to communicating with the extended community of a study-abroad program."

Fannin, who was pictured with her father and her daughter in Seefer's blog, said she enjoyed reading about her trips and seeing pictures of their students.

Mallory Cotton, one of Seefer's study-abroad students, said she read the blog regularly while in Italy, as did her parents.

"I really liked the fact that my parents could see everything without me having to do the work," she said, "Carolyn did an amazing job and her efforts were well appreciated by all the students."

Richie Bologni, the mother of a student on the trip, said she read Seefer's blog every other day.

Besides e-mail and occasional phone calls, Bologni said, "The blog was essentially my only means of finding out what my son and the other students were up to in Italy."

Dean of Business Krista Johns said she also read Seefer's blog regularly.

"I liked Carolyn's mix of facts about study abroad and Florence, her inclusion of stories about her experience and that of her students and her pictures, Johns said.

The blog was also a hit with Seefer's family. Frank Brault, her father, said he read it every day.

Many of his friends were planning trips to Italy and used her blog as part of their research on what to do, see, and eat, Brault said.

Seefer said her blog stands out because it "contains lots of honest tips that you'd never find in a travel guide."

While keeping the blog up to date was time-consuming, she said it was worth the effort.

And she admits to being "hooked" on blogging.

Seefer discusses them in her classes, incorporated them into textbooks she recently wrote, and reads several daily on business and education issues.

Seefer's comments about Italy were published Oct. 21 in "Just Back From, " a regular column in the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday Travel section.

"We made the big time," she wrote two days later on her blog.

Condé Nast Best in the World

Each year Condé Nast Traveler pubishes its Readers' Choice Awards, which it calls "The Best In the World." From hotels, to resorts, to cruises, to islands, to airlines, to cities--it's all there.

This special issue, published in November 2007, arrived at my home this week, an issue I always look forward to reading.

I went through list after list until I came to the "Top Cities" page. Right there, at the top of the "Top 10 United States Cities" was San Francisco. No surprise there!

And then I read the "Top 10 Europe Cities":

1. Florence
2. Rome
3. Venice
4. Paris
5. Salzburg
6. Vienna
7. Barcelona
8. Bruges
9. Siena
10. Edinburgh

And suddenly it hit me--in the first half of this year alone, I had traveled to seven of these destinations (Florence, Rome, Venice, Paris, Salzburg, Vienna, and Siena). Prior to teaching abroad, I could claim one (Paris). But thanks to DVC and the opportunity to teach in the Study Abroad program in Florence, I was able to visit 70 percent of the top cities in the world, and, hey, I even lived in one of them! I can't believe how fortunate I am, and I will be forever grateful.

The Big Time--The San Francisco Chronicle!

Stories about the DVC Study Abroad program in Florence during the Spring 2007 semester have been printed in several small publications, including the DVC Inquirer (the student newspaper), the CBEA newsletter, and the Contra Costa Community College District newsletter, but this past Sunday, October 21, we made the big time: the San Francisco Chronicle!

The Sunday Travel section of this newspaper has a regular column called "Just Back From." People send in pictures and text about a vacation they've just returned from. I submitted my information online in June, shortly after I returned home from Florence. You have to meet specific guidelines, one of which is that the writer has to be in the photo submitted, and the photo must clearly show the place that's being discussed. That's why I chose to submit this photo; I'm standing on the Piazzale Michelangelo, with all of Florence spread out behind me.

In addition to a photo, you have to fill in predetermined sections, including "Why I went," "Don't miss," "Don't bother," "Coolest souvenir," "Worth the splurge," and more. In each section you have a limited number of words, so submission can be challenging. After all, there was so much I wanted to say about Florence!

Anyway, after I made my submission, I eagerly checked the Sunday Chronicle each week, going straight to the Travel section. And week after week, nothing appeared. After a while I figured that they weren't going to print my story. Florence, after all, is a fairly common destination, and many of the places they printed each week were much more exotic (Nepal; the Amazon; Didim, Turkey; Yunnen Province, China; Ghana; Cambodia; the Seychelles, etc.) .

And then the day it actually printed, I spent the day in San Cruz, coincidentally with two of my Florence colleagues, so I didn't read the Sunday paper as I normally do. I arrived home from Santa Cruz around 7 p.m. and immediately started checking e-mail, and here's a message I found that one of my DVC colleagues, James, had sent to the faculty listserv:

Subject: Seefer on Florence in this morning's Chronicle

"List member Carolyn Seefer (DVC/Business) is featured in the Chronicle Travel Section this morning, chatting about her time in Florence (where she was last spring with a horde of exchange students). Great stuff."

Thanks, James, for letting me know! I was so excited and couldn't wait to see it myself. So I rushed out to buy several copies (for my parents, my sister, etc.) (although it's available online, a hard copy is just so much more exciting!). I soon learned that finding a Sunday Chronicle at 8 p.m. is rather difficult, and I had to go to seven different stores before I found a few copies at a Chevron station.

So here's the link to the online article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/21/TR92RQA7P.DTL

And here's the text of the article. Enjoy!

JUST BACK FROM: Florence, Italy

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Traveler: Carolyn Seefer, San Francisco

I went because: I accompanied a group of 44 Diablo Valley College students on a study abroad trip for the spring 2007 semester.

Don't miss: Climbing the Duomo, Florence's cathedral. On the way up, you're taken right inside Brunelleschi's famous dome, where you can almost touch the frescos.

Don't bother: Casa di Dante is nothing more than a fabricated tourist trap. Instead, walk down the street to Beatrice's church, Chiesa di Santa Margherita.

Coolest souvenir: Prints of vintage photographs purchased at the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia, the same Alinari whose shop E.M. Forster mentions in A Room with a View.

Worth a splurge: Lunch at La Terrazza del Principe on the gorgeous terrace looking over the Boboli Gardens. The views and food are glorious.

I wish I'd packed: Even though I did pack these, I highly recommend bringing comfortable shoes. You'll be walking on lots of cobblestone streets and sidewalks.

Other comments: Hire a driver and spend a day in the Tuscan countryside. Your driver will arrange winery tours and tastings for you so that you can just enjoy.

This article appeared on page G - 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle

We Made the News, Again!

This time we made it into the California Business Education Association (CBEA) Fall 2007 newsletter, a great organization of which I am a member. Here's the article, which was written by Judy Foster, one of my colleagues at DVC:

Blogging Her Way Through Florence, Italy

Submitted by Judy S. Foster, Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill

How would you like to accompany your business to Firenze--as the Italians call Florence--while teaching your business courses? Well, that's exactly what Carolyn Seefer, a full-time business educator at Diablo Valley College and CBEA Bay Section member did last semester. Carolyn has the distinction of being the first Diablo Valley College business instructor to be selected to participate in the Study Abroad program.

DVC instructors have been offered opportunities to lead fall and spring semester student groups to London, England; Paris, France; and Florence, Italy; and summer language institute groups to Jinan, China, and to Salamanca, Spain.

Last semester Carolyn taught two 3-unit "off-campus" courses in Florence--Business Communications and International Business--January 28 through May 14. So that her colleagues could virtually share in her experiences, she created a blog, which she invites anyone to check out: http://www.dvc-in-italy.blogspot.com/.

If you would like to consider using blogs in your courses, you're limited only by your imagination. For articles, writing tools, and examples on how you and your students might use blogs, go to http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/, a page about Blogs in Education hosted by the University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Haunted by the Candy Aquamatic 3!

Some of you may remember my early trials and tribulations with my Candy Aquamatic 3. Eventually, after much experimentation and the help of a flashlight, I mastered this ancient washing machine, and I actually grew to be quite fond of her!

Imagine my surprise to receive the following e-mail message yesterday:

"Hi,

I'm sorry to bother you with such a silly demand, you're probably a very busy person, being a professor and all, but do you remember writing this:

http://dvc-in-italy.blogspot.com/2007/02/laundry-day.html

This is the only instructions I could *ever* find about this washing machine in the entire Internet! I'm living in Italy (Trento, TN) and I got that machine in my appartment and I have no clue how to operate it!

Did you ever find a manual or instructions for it? Is there any clues you could give me? Anything at all, I'd appreciate it!

Thanks in advance and sorry again for bothering you about this.

Vítor Souza"

Well, I was more than happy to help Vitor out! After all, I too remember how temperamental this little machine can be! If you're interested in my reply, just click the link in Vitor's message above.

Vitor, I hope that you get your Candy Aquamatic 3 working, and I wish you the best of luck. By the way, I should also admit that I'm just a little envious that you're there in Italy, struggling with this machine. You've brought back such fond memories!

A North Beach Reunion

On Sunday, August 26, 25 or so of us returned to where it all ended and where it all began. What? you might ask.

Well, here's what I mean by this seemingly contradictory statement. Last December my DVC study abroad preparatory class spent our last class meeting at Franchino Ristorante, a wonderful Italian restaurant in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. (Hint: if you hunt around in my January postings, you'll find photos from that fabulous night.) Franchino and his family treated us to an evening we'll never forget. It was the perfect way to end the class, and an even more perfect way to kick off our study abroad trip. After all, we would be heading to Florence in a little over a month. I'll never forget near the end of the evening when one student said, "Ms. Seefer, I'm ready to leave right now!" We could all relate.

And, suddenly, in the blink of an eye we were back home. And what better place for an end-of-summer reunion than to return to Franchino. And that's exactly what we did!

We had dinner reservations for 5 p.m. This time our arrangement was a little different, and even better. Franchino gave a fixed price for a three-course meal, but this time we were able to choose off the entire menu. Our only challenge was choosing among all of the wonderful dishes served at Franchino--chicken porcini, chicken amalfitano, chicken posillipo, chicken marsala, veal primavera, veal mustard, veal parmigiana, veal pizzaiola, veal saltinbocca, grilled New York steak, salmone e scampi piccata, sauteed large prawns, calamari, cioppino, and grilled salmon. Heaven!

After taking our orders, our first course was delivered: an amazing antipasti plate that contained mozzarella and tomatoes, grilled eggplant, bruschetta, and other delights. Next came a salad, followed by the entree.

And of course there was the wine! But not just any old wine. You see, Bruce brought bottles of a very special wine that is produced by one of our very own study abroad students, Jack Ballantine (visit Ballantine Vineyards at http://www.ballentinevineyards.com/). And even though Jack wasn't able to join us, he at least knew that he added the crowning touch to our meal!

And no meal at Franchino Ristorante would be complete without the singing! Once again Franchino entertained us with his delightful voice, and he, naturally, grabbed a few of the women for a quick spin around the restaurant. Something tells me that Franchino is quite enamored with our students!

After the meal we all hung out at our tables, enjoying good company and conversation. Some students had not seen each other since Florence, and others are now pretty much inseparable. Either way, it was wonderful to all be together again, enjoying an Italian feast. After all, we had gotten pretty used to that in Florence!

And, much too soon, we realized that it was time to go. We gathered one last time out front of the restaurant for a few group shots. Naturally, Franchino joined us!

It was a bittersweet night. Yes, it was fantastic seeing one another again. But we also knew that many of the students were heading off to four-year colleges and universities, where they will begin new lives.

In fact, Milli was leaving the very next week to continue her education at Columbia. There were hugs and cheers, with an undercurrent of excitement and anticipation for what the future holds. Milli, we are so proud of you! Buona Fortuna!