Just a note...

I will continue to work more on this blog... I promise! In the meantime... please know there is another blog that was done by the lovely Miss Cheryl and some of the students... follow the link: http://britishandirishheritageajourney.blogspot.com/

July 19th and 20th, 2010

This is my first post of the British and Irish Heritage trip. These are notes from my journal I kept throughout the trip. I will try to add pictures as I go along, but may add some later as well.. if you want to see the whole lot of the pics just let me know and I'll send you the link. ~Cheers!

Well our travel day started with thunderstorms rolling through and lots of delays. Our first flight from Philadelphia to Newark, NJ which is only supposed to be about 45 minutes was delyaed over an hour. Then when we got to Newark, we boarded the plane and sat for 4 hours because of another band of thunderstorms. The airline did at one point announce that we could get off the plane and stick close by if we wanted to, but we told students not to do this in fear of them wanting to take off right away and them wandering off. Coincidentally rhere was a couple on the plane that did this and caused us to lose our place in line for takeoff so it took even longer, but with all said the students handled everything brilliantly. We were finally able to take off around 10PM.

We arrived in London and met up with our Delegate Manager, Johnny. He reminds me so much of my brother Jamison it's too funny. From the airport we hopped on our Mercedes Benz bus and went straight to lunch at a restaurant in London connected to a hotel. It was the students first, but definitely not last meal or fish and chips. They were pretty wiped out, but still ready to head on to our next venture, which was to the London Eye. We all got to see a 3-D movie on the London Eye and then waited in line for a little less than an hour maybe to get on... it was amazing... such beautiful views of the city in our own little personal bubble. Roy, one of my students, has decided anytime I take a picture he is determined to be as serious as can be- little pip-squeek! :) We could see Parliament, Big Ben, the River Thames, and just an overall view of the city..WOW!

After the London Eye we went to our hotel to let students unpack, change, and some thankfully took the chance to take a shower. I wish I had taken a picture of the shower because it was the smallest shower I think I may have ever been in... kind of reminds me of the bathrooms in a cruise cabin. Dinner was nice and easy in the hotel as a buffet with veggies, sheppard's pie, mashed potatoes (which seemed redundant to me but still wonderful), and then a wonderful cake covered in a carmelized dressing of some sort. Students were exhausted and went right to bed. :) YEAH we survived our first day!

Summer Travels

Well, it has been a really busy summer for me and I still have a few weeks left yet. IT started with me leaving school a few days early and heading to Harvard University where I was the Academic lead for the week and also got to sit in on a 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Seminar. Amazing and so wish I could find a way to use more of it in my school.I am determined this year to find a way though.

Harvard was a lot of fun and getting to work with Laura Drew was a dream come true for this girl right here... so fun... actually the whole team was amazing with Annie and Alan there as well. Lots of laughs and think we did a pretty good job in trying to corrupt innocent lil Alan. :) Life was good that week, even with some of the minor snafoos, right Annie??!! I have also found a new-found love for Mad Libs, but that's a story for a different time- even Craig got to be the star in one of those.

A few days after Harvard I was off to D.C. to pick up my second (better) half, Renee. She had just finished a WLF program and we drove straight to the movie theater to watch the next movie in the Twighlight series... not many understand my obsession like she does.. actually she is the reason I have this damn Twighlight-itis. Thanks you for bringing pretty vampires into my life friend. After the movie we drove to my dad's house and spent the night there where we got to relax a bit and explore the town I am from originally. Was a nice way to start off before we headed to another program at George Washington University.

GWU was fun... was not too impressed with the teaching facilities we were given, but nice university nonetheless. We had an interesting group of students though, which if you ever get the chance look up on you tube the mad tv skit from King Burger with Bon Qui Qui... yeah that girl was totally on our program that week. What a great week of getting to be with some good friends, good program, and even more so- some interesting staff. :)

Once the program was over, 48 hours later I was on my way to England... which my next few posts will be all about my trip to the UK and Ireland. :)

Peace.