Greetings from the Parthenon, the place to go if you've lost your stairmaster.  Can you say screaming calf muscle?

We took an awesome boat trip around the Greek islands. I went snorkeling with my Dad and we saw three different kinds of fish. One was a silver fish with light blue on the top, the other fish had a black dot by the fin, and the last one was brown with stripes and was eating something in the sand. The water was as clear as a swimming pool. Later on, we went snorkeling in a different place but the water wasn’t as clear. When we were in the water, I saw a lobster, three or four stingrays, and the bottom of the ocean was all grass.

All the world's a classroom for Chapel Hill fourth-grader

By JEAN BOLDUC
chh@herald-sun.com
933-8883
Chapel Hill Herald
Sunday
September 10, 2000
Final Edition
Front Section
Page 1

CHAPEL HILL - As his friends back home are settling into their times tables, local 8-year-old Max Lewis is converting lira and drachmas to dollars and back again as he and his parents continue their trip around the globe.

Max, Mark and Julie Lewis of Chapel Hill left in July for a yearlong dream trip that will have them continent-hopping through next June.

Max is doing what North Carolina's standard course of study says all fourth-graders should do to develop their writing skills - he's keeping a journal.

Doing so, according to the state's curriculum, encourages students to increase their independence in using communication skills and strategies.

His parents have seen Max's academic skills grow.

"He has become more expressive in his writing as we have progressed on our trip," Julie Lewis said via e-mail. "Writing his journal has also helped with his memory retention. Focusing on his journal allows him to practice recalling the events of the day, writing them down and then typing them in the computer."

Maybe it was from observing the graffiti left on the pillars of Chillon Castle by the prisoners held there or maybe it has been his parents' daily example, but Max is enjoying writing in his journal each day.

"Writing has always been a challenge for Max," Lewis said. "We are pleased that he has taken more of an interest since our travels began."

Lessons and exercise

Even though Max is halfway around the world, he's not excused from math class.

His mom uses flash cards and some math books they brought along to help him stay sharp and make sure everything still adds up.

There are always opportunities for practical application, too.

"Max knows how to covert the Dutch guilder, German mark, Swiss franc and Turkish lira and the Greek drachmas to the American dollar," Lewis said.

"It was a bit challenging in Turkey, where there are 645,000 lira to the dollar. In Greece, there are 370 drachmas. He is very quick and usually figures it out before we do."

Of course, to pick up a geography lesson, Max need only look out the window or onto the coffee table where there are always books and maps used for planning what to see at the next stop.

Stopping off at Lake Geneva to watch the sunset and the breathtaking view on the way to Montreux, Switzerland, the Lewises took their music lessons at the annual Jazz Festival there.

While in Switzerland, Lewis was struck by the scenery, which she said was more spectacular than anything she saw growing up in Colorado.

"We rode through farms with corn and Swiss chard, around the castle, vineyards, over rivers and through the forest," she said.

On that bike ride, the family realized they were only 2 kilometers from the border of France. Grabbing the chance to "pop into" the French countryside, Lewis said they "went the extra kilometer" and pedaled to the border.

"There was an immediate difference between the two countries. Right away, our path disappeared and was replaced by a very narrow sidewalk bordered on one side by water and the other by speeding cars," she said.

The legends and mythology associated with the Greeks have fascinated Max. During his visit to the Greek Islands, he was able to see firsthand the enduring quality of Greek architecture.

Nutrition-wise, Lewis said her previously picky-eater son has broadened his culinary horizons.

"Prior to our trip, Max thought the five basic food groups were pizza, chicken nuggets, noodles, milk and oatmeal," she said. "Now he eats everything from calamari to schnitzel to whole fish grilled and served with the head and tail still attached."

To keep physically fit, Max has walked and walked and walked.

His mom said he has ridden his bike 18 miles from Switzerland to France, walked up 999 steps to visit the ruins of the Acropolis and walked from morning to night sightseeing.

"Imagine, he used to complain when we asked him to walk the dog!" Lewis said.

Education has been a hands-on, high priority for Max, and none of it has come through a TV set, his parents said. Max hasn't watched television in two months.

Far from the usual

There have been some difficult moments, too. There's a touch of homesickness every now and then, and Max misses his friends.

"We have a few tears," Lewis said.

But after a few minutes on her lap, he's usually ready to play again, she said.

"I always ask him if he wants to go home and he confidently says, 'No,' " she said.

Lewis admitted that a little lap time is not a negative for her.

"Selfishly, I enjoy these little sessions because I realize that in a few years he will outgrow the need to sit on my lap and cry," she said.

The local couple decided to take a year away from their professional occupations when Lewis suffered the unexpected death of her 36-year-old brother, Tom, one year ago.

The anniversary of that loss recently passed, and Lewis was not at her desk selling managed care plans.

She was, instead, in the mountains of Switzerland.

"It's still hard to believe that he is gone ... and I [was] in Switzerland as a result," she said. "There is no doubt in my mind that I would be doing the same old thing ... like chewing the same piece of gum for years and years, if I had not lost Tom at age 36.

"His death reminded me that we must live every day exactly how we want, not how society thinks we should. So I traded in my meetings after meetings discussing 'profitable growth' to travel with my family, thanks to Tom ... a bittersweet story."

Her brother's death also gave Lewis the courage to climb the mountain that produced last month's Where's Max? Geography Quiz photo. The Lewises climbed a peak near the Matterhorn, where Max was pictured.

"Close to the lodge there was a large rock that you could climb and look out over all of the peaks. We decided to climb the rock and enjoy the views," Lewis said. "Somehow from the lodge it looked relatively easy and I was quite surprised when we started to ascend the rock.

"The rock was covered with snow, very slippery with a steep, narrow path. To get up, you had to hold on to a steel cable that was on the inside of the rock, which meant all the way up you looked straight down tens of thousands of feet to the ground below. We were higher than the clouds!

"I was behind Max and he kept letting go of the rope to talk to me. I was more scared than I can remember ever being before in my life."

Lewis said she'd never do it again, while her husband and Max found the climb to be challenging and fun.

"The hike with its scariness was a new highlight for Max and me," Mark Lewis said. "I think even Julie was glad she did it."

For Mark and Julie Lewis, the journal writing is not an academic exercise, but a labor of love. In planning their trip, Mark Lewis looked at scores of Web sites and read the accounts of other "dropout" explorers - people who had left everything behind to see the world.

Some had sold houses, cars, virtually everything they owned to collect the money to travel around the world, he said. During their journeys, those people kept daily journals, preventing the possibility that some of the rich day-to-day details of a life-altering experience might slip away through the frailty of human memory.

The Lewises hope to use their journals to publish a book when they return next June.

Max's journal, they hope, also will translate into a children's book about exploring and learning, whether it's around the world or just around the neighborhood.