Do you have real estate questions? Call Sherie Hawley Your University-Area Realtor. Buyers: Call or email for up to the minute listings. Sellers: Call for a free sellers packet on “Preparing Your Home to Sell” at 1-800-587-1988. Prudential Preferred Properties Independently Owned & Operated 302-4481 Direct i 342-7625 sherie@ppporegon.com Travel continued from page 7 Russo said she recognized the danger of being a woman traveling alone, but said she felt safe by using basic awareness and common sense. “I tried to keep out of dangerous situations,” she said, and most of the time, the other travelers looked out for each other. Dangers did manifest themselves in other ways, she said. Trekking with gorillas in Uganda sometimes brought unnerving encounters with wildlife, she said. The guides, armed with guns and machetes, led the tourists to the animals’ nesting spots. The gorillas are wild animals, she said, but they were used to hav ing people come everyday. She was able to stand within a few feet of a gorilla, but she was not allowed to touch it because gorillas do not have the same immunities to disease that humans do. “A cold could wipe out the entire pack,” she said. Despite the danger to themselves, the curious gorillas had been known to grab tourists and drag them a few feet, she said, but if the captive goes limp, the gorilla will drop him or her, she said. Travel “can also be about having experiences that you might not have planned,” said Anthony St. Clair, writer, editor and traveler for www.BootsnAll.com, a Web site for travelers. St. Clair, who attended the previous “Travel Talks” in Feb ruary, said he enjoyed the infor mal and informative atmosphere of the discussion. “It’s looking at travel in a differ ent way,” he said. Travelers “can discover some possibilities they wouldn’t have imagined.” Russo said she came back to the United States with a new kind of awareness about the people who inhabit the world. “We’re really just one body,” she said. “People think of these coun tries as these mystic things, but people are really united.” She said once people see past the cultural stereotypes, the locals were really interested in learning about her. “It’s a really small world,” she said. E-mail reporter Jen West at jenwest@dailyemerald.com. Kesey continued from page 7 coop or the floor of his legendary bus, Furthur. “He didn’t have any interest in saving them,” Witte said, though he probably saved the later drafts. He said Kesey never talked much about his writing process, so the salvation of his notes was extremely revealing. The book “gives the reader a sense of where these great works came from,” he said. University spokesman Ross West said “KESEY” contains a good mix of drafts of his works, writing by critics and historical information. He said through Kesey’s early sto ries, the reader can see the evolu tion in his views of the world. “There are pages from his note books that gives insight into the mind of a great writer — a peek be hind the curtain,” he said. Witte said he thought the best part of “KESEY” was the inclusion of two chapters from “Seven Prayers by Grandma Whittier.” He described Grandma Whittier as “part crone” and “part hip chick,” and he said Kesey based the fiction al character on his grandmother, who eventually lost her battle with Alzheimer’s disease. “His grandmother was his muse,” Witte said, so when she died, so did Kesey’s inspiration for completing the novel. Seven Prayers “contains his best writing since ‘Sometimes a Great Notion,’” he said. By chance, the reissue of “KE SEY” happened to coincide with Kesey’s own death, Eugene’s com munity reading project “Readin’ in the Rain” and the revival of the UO Press, Witte said. These three events could help with the sale of the book. “KESEY” is the first of five Northwest Review books that will be reissued by the UO Press. “Most people regard Kesey as a very significant, major American writer,” he said, and “probably the most important writer to come out of the Northwest.” E-mail reporter Jen West at jenwest@dailyemerald.com. going overseas? catch the Oregon daily emerald on the world wide web: www.dailyemerald.com * DJ J-RAr UTTUt