According to the Latin proverb, travelers may change their climate, but never their souls.

While it may be admitted that this statement is essentially true,

there also can be little doubt that travelers may at least change their thinking.

Seeing the world, the different sites, sounds, textures,

hues, and passions of cultures different than our own.

Affords travelers with a unique perspective that

militates against prejudice, parochialism, and pettiness.

As Mark Twain said, travel somehow broadens the mind and softens the heart. More often than not, Travel serves to sunder our

uninformed native preconceptions and to establish more mature perspectives.

For that reason, Travel has always been a component part of a well-rounded education.

The banal prejudice and narrow presumption that inevitably accompany and unexposed, inexperienced,

an undiscerning lifestyle can often be ameliorated only by the

disclosure of the habits, lifestyles, rituals, celebrations, and aspirations of the

peoples beyond the confines of our limited parochialism.

The great Dutch Patriot Grown von Prinsterer aptly commented to his students.

See the world and you'll see it altogether differently.

As a result, in times past, travel was seen as far more significant than just fun and games.

It was for more than mere rest and relaxation.

It was intended to be more than simply a vacation or a getaway.

Instead, it was a vital aspect of the refined instructions

in art, music, literature, architecture, politics, business, science, and divinity.

It was, according to Benjamin Franklin, the laboratory where theory meets practice,

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