summer slowdown

Like my friend Musings from the Void, I am going to be having a slowing down period over the next month. Since I am in Plymouth, that means one thing - grad school. And there is one thing that I do know from my time here last year and that is there is a lot of work to be done. So I am going to need to concentrate a lot of time and energy into getting these classes accomplished in the way that I desire.

So my apologies for appearing to fall off the blogging wagon (or what will look like it in the next month); I'll do my best to put some pictures up or something like that to keep you entertained.

Or maybe some juicy story will land itself in my lap and I'll be forced to gossip the afternoon away on here. We'll just have to wait and see. Until then, thanks for your patience.

Xpat

plymouth rock

Well, my ass is intact and I've made it to my final destination here in the UK. I've been blessed with gorgeous weather the last few days that has made riding here very enjoyable. I've checked into my room here at the U of P (in Pilgrim House - kinda like the connection to the US) and I'm settled into my accomodations for the next month. I am disappointed that my Skype connection is down at the moment - hopefully someone will help me to get the right proxy settings while I am using this internet connection.

I headed out today to enjoy the weather and to get adaptors for my electronic gear. I need a special fused adaptor so that the techno-nerds here at U of P will 'allow' me to use their electrical outlets. So in search of my needed plugs, I headed down to the shopping center of Plymouth to everyone's favorite electronics store - Curry's.

I got my stuff in less than 45 seconds and was out the door. I started walking around and found that the tennis crazy Brits had set up a giant screen in the main area for those of us who do not have TV to watch. The crowd was relatively thin when I was there but it gradually grew. National hero Tim Henman was playing and as the people got off work and started heading home, they got sucked into a good match. Tim would later go on to lose the match in 5 sets, losing the last set 7-5.

But what really got me was the fact that people were cheering the TV. WHY? Why do people cheer for a person that they do not know, someone who is hundred of kilometers away and can't hear their cheers? This isn't just the Brits, its a worldwide phenomenon. I enjoyed the match and found myself rooting for Tim (I didn't want to be stoned to death there in the shopping plaza) although I did it quietly. But I do know that when I am attached to a specific sports team or person, I tend to do the same as these Brits did today.

So why do we do it? Our cheering isn't going to do any good. Our criticisms yelled at a small black box aren't going to change the outcome of a game. Despite what we might think, the TV isn't a two-way communication device...

So where are the shrinks out there? Where is Dr. Rick Ferdig of the U of Florida? I need some expert opinions here! :) And where is Dr. Ferdig anyways? He's supposed to be here in Plymouth. Where is that Vygotsky-crazed man?

What about the rest of you? What do you think? Gimme something to go on here.

loaded up

The backpack actually goes on my back, the rest - well the rest is just all that I have for the next 5 weeks. All of my clothes are in that small green duffle. Be jealous of my packing skills, its ok. :)

do fairies take ferries?

Well my dear readers, I am off to summer #2 of graduate school. My classes don't start for a while but I am leaving in a matter of a few hours for Hoek van Holland to take the ferry across the North Sea to England. After some time in London with friends of mine, I will be wandering the English countryside for about a week until school starts up. As a result, I will not be able to update here until sometime around the 25th. Check back then for updates.

Come back soon, I look forward to seeing ya 'round. :)

Xpat

first date

Saturday night was something to be remembered. It was an evening for a first date with a colleague from work and perhaps we will chalk it up as an experience.

The evening was intended to be a harmless night - dinner and a movie. Notice I use the word intended.

We were to meet at Rotterdam Centraal and go for sushi from there. My metro was stopped for some reason (I would say unknown except that everyone else knew why because they actually speak Dutch) and I was forced to march the rest of foot. No biggie, its not too far and so I was late by about 10 minutes.

Off to dinner - Happy Sushi is a nice restaurant that caters to the desperately hungry with instant food. I mean instant because it rolls right past your face on a conveyor belt and continues to do so no matter how full (or empty) your stomach is. WARNING - not the place to go if you have goldfish syndrome and eat until you 'splode.

Dinner was good and then it was off to a movie, T's choice. T picked Sin City and we were both a little disturbed with the amount of violence in it. I know, do the homework and see who the director(s) were and it would have been a decent clue. But neither one of us paid attention and as a result - a wee bit o' gore for the night.

But the night was young and we wanted to stay out a bit longer.
"Let's go for a walk."
"Sure, where to go?"
"Down to the river, we can see what's set up for tomorrow." (Airplane races)
"Ok, we can grab a drink too."

I spotted a place and we wandered in for a beer. We finished off our first beers when we noticed a commotion at the window. While it was a bit bizarre to see some fog rolling in, it wasn't unheard of here in Holland. Yet these Dutchies were all pointing at this "bizarre" event.

That was until the woman behind the bar started yelling, "BRAND!"

Now I have mentioned that my Dutch is crap but even I know what that means. It means "FIRE!" and the fog is actually smoke and its coming from the building we are in. Luckily we were seated very close to the door and I grabbed our jackets and made it out of the burning building without and problems.

And in true moronic fashion, we walked outside and watched the building burn. Something not quite smart about that but like all people, we do stupid things at the wrong times. We waited until the fire trucks arrived and then made our way back to a safe distance - like we were going to be any help until then... But we quickly got bored and headed towards another bar, this one of her choice since the last one I picked caught fire.

But as luck would have it, the rain started to fall and the evening was officially done. We could take no more, the rain was just the last sign that the date was in need of being finished for the night. We called it quits and went home.

Alas, it wasn't a total loss. I'm about to go for a motorcycle ride with her right now. :)

keeping the theme

Since Shamash says that I have a thing for wheels in my blog recently, I thought I would add some more - in this case, my main mode of transportation while here in Holland.


- Just for you Slim! ;)

leading by example? can it be done?

Its exam time again here at school. Any long time readers will know that I started this blog about half a school year ago because my first entry was during semester exams. Now I am sitting as the proctor for the Health class final exam, once again doing a marvelous job of making sure that these kids aren't cheating. Or so the adminstration thinks...

Actually, I can trust these kids (in a weird kinda way). Would they cheat? Absolutely. Would they do whatever they could to manipulate me or the system to get their grade higher? No doubt. But could I trust them to do what's right? Easily.

I found this out today with my 8th graders as I gave them their exam in my science class. I put forth 45 questions that tested their knowledge of space science and 1 question that asked their opinion. A dangerous thing to do indeed - does one really want to know the opinion of a 13 year-old? I was curious and so I stuck in the question, "If you had the ability to change one thing in the world, what would it be and why?"

Not one single kid said anything selfish.

Answers ranged from stopping terrorism, to ending poverty, to reducing the pollution of the planet. They are only 13 but they have higher morals than people who are 2 or 3 times their age. They're pissed about the world that we have left them and want to change it for the better. But doesn't every generation say that? I know that I did when I was in high school (I didn't have a brain in middle school so I can say that I thought that). Will they follow through with it? A question I will be posing to them tomorrow.

Recently an article came out (follow link at top) that debunks the idea that hybrid cars are cheaper to run that traditional gasoline powered cars. According to this article, it actually says that it is more expensive to drive the eco-friendly car rather than the gas-guzzling equivalent. The article makes a comparison between the Toyota Prius and its un-green equivalent of the Toyota Camry. In terms of gas mileage to cost, its actually cheaper to drive the Camry. So I will pose the question to them on Thursday if they would drive the Prius over the Camry even though it would be cheaper to drive the Camry. Let's see how they go on that one.

In my own opinion, I know where I fall. I am a teacher and by definition, I am relatively broke. When I lived in the US, I drove a big-ass truck that got an amazing 17 miles to the gallon (hey, it looked cool!). After living in Europe, I have come to appreciate the lack of a need for "bigger is better" and that transportation can be served out with a nice 4-door coupe rather than a 4-door pickup with an 8-foot bed, twin flat screen monitors in the head rests,a thumpingly loud stereo, and a Hemi under the hood. And when I do move back to the US, I will face the dilemma that I am going to pose to my kids on Thursday. What transportation to choose?

I'm going to take the hit in the wallet and buy the hybrid. Its not for me, its because I want to show my kids that there are some grown-ups that do care about what we are leaving behind for them.