I’m Robin M. LeBlanc, a Japan specialist-turned scholar abroad in Italy. The posts started out as stories of my daily life in Bologna where I have been conducting research on how urban communities confront economic and demographic decline since 2012. Now I’m back from my home in Lexington, Virginia, USA, where I teach at Washington and Lee University, am Vice President of the Community Anti-Racism Effort of Rockbridge County (CARE Rockbridge) and a cyclist.