Home Again
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2005
1
14
Trip End
Sep 03, 2005
Long Beach,
California,
United States
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Now I am back at work and into the normal routine. I have looked through my pictures a couple of times and hope to edit my video footage before long. Some of it I will share with my German classes, and some of it will be for personal use.
On Tuesday we reported back to school for staff preparation days. As we were waiting for the staff meeting to start, I was talking to one of our Assistant Principals. Chris is from New Zealand and asked me how I like the trip. I told him that while I enjoyed Australia and my visit to Sydney and the Blue Mountains, I preferred New Zealand. Knowing what I now know and having experienced what I experienced, if I were planning this same trip now, I would skip Australia and spend more time in New Zealand. That isn't because Australia is uninteresting or I don't want to see it (I had a good time and want to see the outback some day), but I would have liked the extra days in New Zealand. Then I would have taken four days to go to the Wellington area and spent a week doing activities and day trips in the Rotorua area. But then we all know about hindsight . . . . I also mentioned to Chris that New Zealanders were much more relaxed and seemed more sophisticated or cultured than Aussies, who are much brasher and more "in your face." Chris assured me that I was saying all the right things.
Thursday morning I arrived at school early to make photocopies and be certain my room was ready to receive students. A few minutes before the bell, I suddenly realized that I had failed to photocopy an information sheet I wanted my students to fill out, so I hurried to the copy room. Fortunately, no one else was there, and I was able to make my copies quickly. I arrived back at my room about 30 seconds before the starting bell rang. I had left the room open so my students could go inside and find a seat. When I entered the room, all of my students (This was my German 3 class, and we have worked together for two years) turned and literally shouted, "Guten Morgen, Herr Harrell!" What a wonderful way to begin the school year! All of my classes seem to be full of good students, and while there will be some challenges (I have two split classes: a level2/level4 and a level2/levelAP), I'm looking forward to a great year. This fall our school will be doing some benefit concerts and other fundraising efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. I know I'll be encouraging my students to get involved.
This is my final entry for this year's travel blog. Once again, I hope everyone enjoyed it, and I'll be in touch next summer. My plans are to return to Madrid for comprehensive exams in order finish the MA program, and then I'll be in one of the German-speaking countries. So while it won't be around the world, it should still be fun.
God bless everyone.
Robert
