Leaving on a Jet Plane

What an adventure this process has been!! From applying for the TGC program in June of 2011, to the intensive eight-week online course in Sept-Oct-Nov, to learning of my assignment to Indonesia in December, to the two-symposium in DC in February, to the creation of this blog and the countless hours learning about my host country, to getting gifts for students and adult dignitaries, to packing it all into no more than two suitcases each with a 50 lb. limit, to etc, etc, etc...it is now so hard to believe I'm sitting in the Oklahoma City airport about to catch my first flight.

I want to thank my administration and colleagues at Southmoore for all of their support in this process!! Also thank you to my family and friends for their encouragement and prayers, especially my mother who so graciously dog-sits Tori as I go galavanting around the globe. You are all so special to me and mean more than you will ever truly know or what I could ever express.

And now, as I wait at Gate 6, I am having the first (doubtful the only) "panic" of this trip...I forgot to tie my tennis/walking shoes to my backpack's straps. I remembered toothpaste, nearly 200 donated pencils, cuff links, and my passport, but I'm short one set of walking shoes. LOL. I guess I already need to go shopping and get something special, perhaps made in Indonesia .

May these next two weeks be a wonderful professional experience for my colleagues and I, and may you each virtually experience our adventures as we all roam the roads of lands remote together.

Cousin Peter in China

I received an e-mail early this morning from one of my dad's first cousins who lives in the Houston area.  She knows that I love to travel and to explore new locations so in the e-mail she included a link to her grandson's blog.  Peter Lambert has an eight-week internship in China as part of the World Food Prize Program.  His research while in China is part of an international program to help improve the quality, quantity, and availability of food throughout the world.

The last couple of lines from his July 17th entry grabbed my attention as they relate to the ideas of Global Education (the whole concept of the Teachers for Global Classrooms program I am in). "I am growing more and more fond of this country each day and am discovering many similarities between it and the states.  It just goes to show that people are people no matter where you find them."

Feel free to join me in roaming the remote roads of China as we read Peter's Adventure Blog.