A little bit more about my project...

Here's some background information on my fellowship and what it entails:

The mission of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship Program is to offer college graduates of unusual promise a year of independent, purposeful exploration and travel outside of the United States in order to enhance their capacity for resourcefulness, imagination, openness, and leadership and to foster their humane and effective participation in the world community.

Here's the blurb about my project that appears on the Watson website (http://www.watsonfellowship.org/site/index.html):

Courtney Sato, Wellesley College
"Writing Toward Home": Tracing Poets and Places
France, Ireland, United Kingdom, India, Bangladesh, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Czech Republic, Germany

I have always been told: write what you know. Writing is deeply rooted in place, one's childhood home or neighborhood. I plan to visit the homes of international poets, to re-trace their steps, and seek out specific places developed in their poetry. My aim is to understand how their sense of place seeps into their writing and shapes their creative habits and tendencies. Immersed in these neighborhoods and poetic circles, I will create my own poems in response to the settings and share my poetry with these literary communities.

So, that's what I'm up to this year! My first stop is Ireland and I leave tonight at 10:45 pm! I still need to finish packing. My suitcase is bursting at the seams with items like a silk sleeping bag for hostels, a camping first-aid kit, macadamia nuts for gifts, and a lot of different medicines for any sort of ailment I might have along the way.

My itinerary for Ireland:
Saturday, July 18th (today): Leave Honolulu at 10:45 pm
Sunday, July 19th: 8-hour layover in San Francisco then depart on Aer Lingus for Ireland
Monday, July 20th: ARRIVE IN DUBLIN! Take the train to Sligo, Ireland and settle in for the next three weeks (until August 7th) I'll be attending the Yeats International Summer School for two weeks (http://www.yeats-sligo.com/html/summer.html)
Saturday, August 8th-August 15th: Return to Dublin and check-in at Globetrotter's hostel and stay for a week

After that, my plans are up in the air. I'm excited, but am also equally nervous.

The best way to contact me while I'm away is via email: courtney.sato@gmail.com or csato@alum.wellesley.edu.

I'll write once I find internet somewhere in Sligo!