Prelude: An introduction to Fred Hoyt’s travels with students
I discovered international travel late, about the same time that I came to Illinois Wesleyan University.
Part of my enlightenment occurred in 1989, when my son, David, was in Europe—for the third time. I mentioned to my wife that we had always wanted to go to Europe, but we had felt we couldn’t afford it—and we couldn’t afford it now because we had been sending him. The logic escaped me.
A little later, she confessed that she had thought about it. The result? “I have tickets so we can join him in Paris for Christmas and New Year’s.”
“But I always go cross country skiing with my troop at that time,” I retorted.
“Which would you rather do?”
“Where should I send you the postcard from Eagle River?”
“You can take the exam as many times as you want until you get it right,” she offered. The third time I got it right.
Paris at Christmas. Midnight mass in Notre Dame, one of the most moving experiences of my life. Christmas ’89 also marked the end of the evil empire. Our hotel was around the corner from the Rumanian embassy, and the anti-Ceausescu crowd besieged the embassy as we watched his fall and execution on the TV. It was exhilarating to see so many places we would read about or had seen in picture books. It stoked my appetite for travel.
There was a trip to China, through IWU, that followed in 1990. I was chosen with Tom Griffiths to accompany an ISU delegation as guests of the China Publication Bureau. The Bureau sent some employees each year to ISU, and in return hosted ISU (and IWU) faculty members. It was a dream come true. China–from Hong Kong to Guangzhou, Kunming, Shanghai, Xian and Beijing.
My long-disused Chinese (3 years at the University of Illinois) returned. I visited places I’d not only read about, but written about in my dissertation. I imagined gunboats at Shanghai, kowtowing to the Emperor in the Forbidden City, or wreaking havoc at the old Summer Palace. An exotic atmosphere marked our trip from Kunming to Dali (home of the Bai nationality. The 11-hour bus ride with academics on the old Burma Road was punctuated with verses of “Hello Dali,” and puns touting the best bais (the dominant nationality) in Dali. By the end of the trip, I understood why the people I had written about in my dissertation, “Americans in China and the Myth of the China Market,” never wanted to come home. I did not either.
An epiphany took place a year or two later, as I sat and mused at the Florida Keys with my Scout troop. The leisure gave me an opportunity to ponder what it meant to be 50. I realized that I had better do what I wanted to do whenever I had the chance. It was as true at 20 as at 50, but I’m glad I had the impetus to seize whatever opportunities I had—and to make some I didn’t have. For the next almost thirty years, I traveled whenever I could. And it started to come down to at least 4 options, one of which is the primary emphasis of this book, the January and then May term trips with Illinois Wesleyan students.
My first trip was in January 1994 (see the next entry). The 1994 visits gradually spread to include other Asian countries, revealing the historical importance of China, and watching the rebirth of the dragon. In 2001—the last trip before 9/11—it was an ambitious venture around the world, via London to New Delhi, to Bangkok, Bali, Saigon, and Hong Kong. Many stops at the airport hotel in Bangkok, since most of the flights were on Thai Air, and routed through the capital of Thailand. I also ventured into parts of Europe, culminating in 2013, which went from London to (for me) Lvov.
May added opportunities to extend the trips and go places I probably wouldn’t take students—such as Mongolia, Tibet, and parts of Eastern Europe. These are included here.
Some of those were with my wife. Carolyn, who her own professional career, and thus had fewer opportunities to join me, given the constraints of her job. Nevertheless, Carolyn came on parts of trips, sometimes during and sometimes for extended trips afterwards. She was especially intrigued by a Baltic visit as a chaperone to the IWU choir. I promised instead that we would go cruising, and I kept my word. That began over a decade of trips, mostly Europe and the Mediterranean, which culminated in a land tour in March 2020, when Covid and we arrived at about the same time in Spain. She accompanied me on a number of business conference trips, including Viet Nam (shortly after it was opened to foreigners), my 1997 sabbatical to India and Southeast Asia, New Zealand, and China/Korea. These are documented in my blogs, but, unless connected with student trips, not in
this book.
Another companion on trips and after trips was my son, David, whose long efforts on the fringes of the academy left him freer than Carolyn to join me, and so father and son traveled to Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Central China, and the Wild West of Xinjiang.
A third fellow traveler was a student turned alumni, JR Glen. An Eagle Scout from Lincoln, JR was a great assist as we visited Tibet, Mongolia, and Burma.
Carolyn was a little uncomfortable with my traveling alone, but I did so in Eastern Europe and various places in “the East.” I would arrange the addons with (usually) Value Holidays of Mequon Wisconsin who would see to it I had guides and hotels and transportation. Thus, on my own, I explored Cambodia, Manchuria, Korea, Yunnan, and other parts of Chinese. With a combination of hubris and a modest but improving Chinese vocabulary, I might add.
The travel courses that I either led or seconded were among the most rewarding experiences I had at IWU, and I think they were appreciated, or at least remembered, by participants. As I was compiling these blogs and recreating some missing gaps (it’s amazing how much I remembered!), I drew on their pictures too, many of them still posted on Facebook at a distance of over a decade. Pictures up despite many of them drowning their posts in contemporary portraits of their growing families! I thank them for their contributions to my memories of IWU—and for their shared pictures.
After 2013, my trips changed. came courtesy (in part) of the US Government. In an effort to educate business people and faculty, the government funded several university outreaches. The Faculty Development in International Business (FDIB) afforded me opportunities to travel with other faculty to explore business and culture in foreign countries. I went on in the 1990s to China, Hong Kong, and Bangkok, and realized these would be good preparation for my student trips. The University provided initial funding through a grant, and the trips became addictive. Most were supported by the “Fred Foundation,” investments in knowledge and pleasure. When IWU curtailed my May terms, the FDIB trips to Cuba, Latin America, and Africa expanded my knowledge of international business.
And finally, I continued to travel with Carolyn as we cruised the Mediterranean and European rivers.
My recollections (contemporary or otherwise) are in the blog, if you’re interested. As I said, this particular collection is focused on the student trips for nearly two decades.
Safe travels and good reading; what a combination.
Frederick Hoyt, Emeritus Associate Professor of Business, June 2025