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Europe - 2002
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Melissa was able to work a semester of college into her studies at Oxford, England during the fall of 2002. Her major course of study is history, and the head of that department, Fred Bailey, is a friend of ours at the church we attend. He was the head of the Oxford program during the fall of 2002.
Bonnie Bailey, Fred's wife, was planning to join Fred in the middle of the semester. She kept asking us to come to England for several weeks. We consistently turned her down not wanting to interrupt or otherwise bother Melissa.
Laura casually mentioned that she had a brother who lived in Nice, France. When Bonnie found this out, she became extremely insistent that we come. It turns out that Fred was planning to go to Rome to research future outings, and Bonnie had badly wanted to visit Nice for some time. We finally relented and decided to make an extended trip to include birding in the touring of historical sites in England and on the continent.
Our tours of the historical sites were enhanced immeasurably by having the head of the history department at our side explaining any and everything we saw. He was already quite knowledgeable, but spent extensive time brushing up on sites before we would visit. There is so much in Rome, Naples, and Pompeii to take in, that the trip would have been much diminished without his expertise.
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