The group has been in Greece now since Saturday evening. The weather was, well, simply amazing. It has been between 65 and 70 degrees each day with the same promised during the remainder of our stay. It was like a shot of endorphins getting off the plane from Berlin. For all the heaviness of Berlin, you feel the energy of Greece, especially Athens, immediately when you set feet on the ground here. It’s no understatement to say that we have all been thrilled so far.

I am sitting here in the hotel Bistro (where we are having class) while students are working on Kant and ethics after the Holocaust in small groups. I can hear them discussing as well Les Miserables, which we saw together in hopes of discussing the connection with enlightenment morality articulated best by Kant himself.

Well, if things were great in England, they have gotten exponentially better in Berlin. After arriving in the old East Berlin (we passed the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, and saw in the road where the old Berlin Wall used to be), we settled into a lovely hotel. Despite the location not being so immediately accessible to needed amenities, we found the close U-Bahn, which takes us all over Berlin. It’s really amazing how public transportation is utilized in these countries. For instance, one could travel on public transportation here the equivalent from Seattle to Tacoma.

We leave England tomorrow. We had a lovely stay in London. We saw the British Museum of History, Les Miserables in the Theatre district, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral (where we climbed to the top and was able to overlook London), along with some other historirc places like Blackfriar's Pub with it's histoy and famous internal decor, Portobello Market where we looked for all things in the movie Knotting Hill, and a host of other amazing things. We minded the Gap, our head and steps often, and the oyster card proved well worth the effort!

We arrived in London after a 9-hour flight from Seattle. Everyone was in good spirits, even if a little tired. We made our way to Cambridge where we are now settled for a few days before heading back to London. After a dinner together in the city center, some returned to the hotel where sleep called, while others were itching to see more of the center.

We had our first official meeting this morning, beginning with a very good presentation by our “Cambridge Group” that provided an overview of the history of Cambridge noting key historical, political and cultural dimensions of Cambridge. Did you know that Oliver Cromwell’s head is rumored to be buried somewhere in Cambridge, though no one knows where (and if they do they are not speaking?). The group then did a lovely job introducing to the class major philosophers who are associated with Cambridge. For example, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Bertrand Russell, and Stephen Hawking are just a few of those linked intimately to Cambridge. Then there is Henry Sidgwick, my favorite! Along with being a noted moral philosopher in the tradition of utilitarianism, Sidgwick was a leading figure at Cambridge University and was responsible for creating what became the first woman’s college at Cambridge. All in the hey-day of Victorian life! We finished with a robust discussion of the relationship between science and morality, since many of the philosophers associated with Cambridge are more inclined to a view of morality that emerges from and is related to a scientific understanding of the world. All in all, a wonderful start to the J-term!

I am Greg Johnson, the faculty leader of this J-term trip to Europe. I have been teaching at PLU since 1999. This January promises to be an exciting adventure for all of us.

An important element in engaging cultures that differ from ours is to engage them with dialogue and humility. The first thing we notice when traveling to other contexts is that we cannot know fully what is thought, believed, and assumed regarding questions of value. And this is a good thing. Most likely there are fundamental differences that are worthy of consideration, and these differences reveal the very things that ultimately make us all who we are.