Q4: "Might blogging--both the writing and the "job" of blogging you've given yourself--get in the way of [...]"

My cousin David asks, "Might blogging--both the writing and the "job" of blogging you've given yourself--get in the way of your more deeply experiencing the places you'll visit and the people you'll meet? Might blogging make it harder to be fully present during your trip?"

Definitely, but I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing on the whole.

Blogging will certainly get in the way of being "fully present" at times, but so would other ways of staying in touch with family and friends back home, such as sending mass emails or Skype-ing (Skyping?). I'll aim to be "very present," but I have no illusions of a perfection.

The upsides of of blogging will hopefully outweigh my lack of full presence. I created Jeremy Middleman partly to resolve the selfishness of personal travel. I'm going abroad to learn a little bit about a part of the world, and it would be a shame (and perhaps amoral) to keep what I've learned to myself or to restrict what I learn-and-tell to just what interests me -- that's where your questions come in.

There's also a risk, however, in being "fully present" wherever I am, and that's disregarding wherever I'm not. If all goes all goes according to plan, then blogging and fielding your questions will have the additional benefit of learning about aspects of "Romandia" that I would not have explored on my own.

I've been blessed by (hopefully only temporary) unemployment, which has allowed me to spend so much time abroad. Consider this blog a 'tax' on my experience, the revenue of which I'd like to share with you.

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