What was your best learning vacation?

February 23, 2011 8:48 PM

What was your best learning vacation ever? I'm open to all ideas - I'm interested in great teachers rather than any particular subject, I'd like it to be a minimum of a week long and a max of a semester. Europe, North or South America or Asia, preferably when the weather is cool.
posted by storybored to education (7 answers total)

A two week long road trip accross Bulgaria: I learned about the Thracians, the Romans the Byzantine, the Ottomon Turks and Orthodox monasteries. I learned about Soviet architecture and the effects of Chernobyl. I learned about how the use of depleted uranium shells in Serbia had devastated innocent farmers just over the border. I learned to read Cyrillic. I learned where most of the world's rose oil comes from. In a model village at Gobrovo, I learned how medieval people had developed baskets to set in streams to spin their laundry. I walked on the hill where the Maenads slew Orpheus.
posted by Sara Anne at 9:50 PM on February 23, 2011

Have you been to the Galapogos Islands?
posted by Obscure Reference at 4:34 AM on February 24, 2011

Many cruise ships have onboard lectures, especially if the destination is somewhere remote like Greenland or Antarctica. These lectures are often given by retired professors who were respected in their field.
posted by MighstAllCruckingFighty at 4:57 AM on February 24, 2011

I'm just about to leave on this cruise and it promises to be pretty awesome! Lectures on holistic health and fitness.. All organic food.. Sounds like it's gonna be pretty awesome!
posted by Glendale at 7:10 AM on February 24, 2011

Several years ago, I spent 2 weeks at the Chatauqua Institution, that were well worth the time and money.
posted by paulsc at 9:29 AM on February 24, 2011

This is quite odd, but, Sanskrit. At a beginner's immersion Sanskrit course (1 week) sponsored by the American Sanskrit Institute, I learned: how to FOCUS, intensely; how to empty my mind and fill it up again; how to be patient; how to conquer fear; how to "be present in the moment"; how to meditate (even though meditation wasn't taught, and that was beside the point); how to learn anything, no matter how hard and complicated it seems; how to teach; and lots more, besides. The particular teaching method used by this Institute is what made the experience so useful. They offer courses of various lengths in lots of different locations.

I used to be quite weird, but I'm much more normal now.
posted by Corvid at 12:05 PM on February 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Week long Piano camp in Vermont
posted by storybored at 12:15 PM on February 26, 2011