In one week I will leave for Lisbon, meet my cousins Jameson Wetmore and Emma Frow, noted synthetic biology researcher, and my Uncle French and Aunt Mary Lu to go to Belem!

Then I’ll find my students at the airport and the generous Claudia Figueiredo will collect my students and me and take us to Sao Luis where I have never been.

There we will be lodged with Marta de Menezes and Luis Graca at Cultivamos Cultura to study biology and art and life in Portugal. Surfing anyone?

Marta’s syllabus will have me snuggling with The Birth of Tragedy by Nietzsche this weekend in order to understand how medium prepares the way for favorable growth.