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Turkey 2016

For this April break I finally managed to go see my friend Mew in Turkey! I have been trying to get to see her for a while now but it finally happened! She lives in Trabzon, Turkey, which is up on the Black Sea. I was able to met her husband Ahmed and her lovely son Deniz, who has the best smile ever!

 

I am very lucky that Ahmed is a dentist so I was able to get a a few of my teeth fixed while I was in town. I have three lovely new zirconium crowns! I recommend them they feel great.

Our first outing was to the Sumela Monastery, which is a Greek Orthodox Monastery. Which is an amazing monastery carved into the mountain. Unfortunately, it was closed because they are securing the mountain above it. It was a lovely area and going back to see it open gives me a reason to go back to Trabzon!

Trabzon is a pretty big port city in Turkey. It isn’t very touristy for westerners, though we did see some Iraqi tourists. You can tell that it is a place where the town center is the main shopping area as there were many shops for everyday things. It also has a very large beach front down on the Sea. It was very interesting to be standing on the edge of the Black Sea as it looked just like an ocean beach front.

We also went to visit a natural lake in Uzungöl. This is a natural lake up in the mountains. It is very pretty. They have make all of the buildings out of the local wood. It gave the village a very natural look. In the summer it would be lovely.

Over all I had a great time and was able to relax. I am very thankful to Mew and Ahmed for hosting me and I hope to go back another time so that we can explore more of Turkey!

From Russia with Love

So as of August I will be living in a new place! I was very lucky to have been offered a role at the Anglo Amercian School of Moscow for the 2016-2018 school years. The role will be nearly the same as what I have had at ACS Egham for the last 3 1/2 years. 

I will be the Elementary IT Integrationist. Which is a fancy way of saying I teach teachers and students how to use IT as a tool in their classrooms.

I went to the job fair in London last weekend with the hopes of acquiring a new job for next year, but also with the understanding that if the right job didn't find me, I might be staying on at ACS for another year. I was very luck that the right job has found me!

AAS is a great school with a great reputation. While it is the same role it will come with a new set of challenges, teachers, students and admin. I am excited to know that the school already uses the Google Apps for Education, which I helped to bring into ACS. They are also trialing Chromebooks which I haven't used so that will be something new for me to learn. 

I look forward to meeting a new group of teachers and seeing how I can help them develop their IT use personally, professionally and with their students. 

I am also looking forward to exploring a new city and country. That is something that I haven't done since I left Thailand.  I am also looking forward to experiencing a serious winter. I am sure the excitement of heavy snow will get old and tiring at some point, but being a Southern girl, I am excited to experience it first hand. 

Please feel free to follow my blog as I plan on writing more on it once I get to Russia and have new things to explore. I watched a show last night on TV where the presenters went to a Cat Circus. Not sure about that but I am sure that there will be many super cool things to see like the Bolshoi Ballet!!!! 

Christmas Abroad

One of the things about being overseas is that you end up spending holidays away from family. This was one of those years for me. Thanksgiving is a given as very few international schools have it off and if they do, it would only be for a few days or a week. But the Christmas holiday is one that is generally long enough to fly home for.

This year on the I am applying for my UK citizenship and because of that I didn't know until October if I would have my passport or not. Turns out that I do have it, but it was too late to even bother with looking at ticket prices! So I planned on spending Christmas here in England with my UK family. Well I call them that since I practically moved myself into their house when I arrived in the UK!

Christmas this year consisted of dinner at Jenny's house on Christmas day with nearly all of the good friends that I have in Southampton. We had the typical English Christmas foods turkey, roasted potatoes, roasted veggies, Yorkshire Puddings, and Christmas Pudding. I added my favorite dish with a sweet potato casserole, complete with proper Jet Puffed marshmallows that arrived a few days before! (Thanks, Mom!) Jenny sets an amazing table complete with the Christmas Crackers that are part of the tradition.

Boxing Day, which is a holiday here in England, was spent at Alex and Claire's. Alex purchased the most amazing piece of beef which was huge but yummy! Again all of the traditional items were around the table, and again I added my sweet potatoes casserole. I think I might have converted a few people to it!

I have to say that for the few times that I have spent Christmas away from my family, I have always been very lucky to be invited to someone else's house or celebration. In 2001 it was Jenny's house for my first Christmas abroad. In 2005 & 2006 it was to a small Thai rice farming village in Thailand to spend it with Caroline making Christmas cookies with the village kids. In 2007 it was back to Jenny's! 2008 was Inka and Gianni in Florence at the amazing Ristorante Accademia, and twice since 2009 when I moved to the UK.

I would have loved to have been able to be home for Christmas but if I couldn't be I have to say this a great way to celebrate Christmas! Thank you to all of my friends who have hosted me during the Holidays, I have truly appreciated it.

Italia Estate 2015

So this summer has been busy. I went home for three weeks then back to England for the New Forest Horse Show. On the Monday before the horse show I finally bought my tickets to visit Sardegna. 

It took me forever to decide because I didn't know if I felt up to another trip this summer, but I am glad I came.  

I come to stay with a friend who I met when I lived in La Maddalena, Italy. I flew in on Monday morning after coughing up the money for a taxi ride straight to Gatwick. 

When I landed it was straight to Ristorante Barbagia for some tomate fruge. This is sliced tomatoes with a tradition cheese made by one man in the town of Ortueri, let me tell you it is yummy, supper creamy cheese that melts in your mouth. 

Then we headed to Tempio in the mountains to my friend's house. 

I have mostly spent the days relaxing and doing not a lot which is good.  

As Tempio is in the mountains I have only had one beach day which is fine by me but have had some pool time!

Even recieved a lovely beach towel set from another friend, for helping her do some work on her website for her shop, Piccole Cose Home, in Baia Sardegna. Please visit her site as she has some super cute kids clothes and amazing items for the home.  

We were going to try to go to Corsica but because of it being so close to the 15th of August, which is a big festival time, they ferry company couldn't guarantee that we could get a spot back! We decided to go have a great lunch of Spaghetti Vongole.

Today I am hanging inside for most of the day because there have been some summer storms, but I did get about an hour in the sun!

Back to the real world on Thursday!

Amsterdam - Day 1

We arrived last night after an easy flight from London.  Our hotel is right across from the Centraal station so it is very convenient!  We had a very yummy meal at the hotel then hit the sack for an early start tomorrow.

We got up early and headed back to the airport to catch the bus to Keukenhof Gardens.  It was already crowded by 10:30 when we got there but Sue and I were able to get lots of pictures! It was set up more like a botanic garden whine I wasn't expecting. It was very nice but I think that I was expecting fields with rows. They had some amazing displays of tulips, daffodils, and other bulbs.  Then they also,had beds of all of the same type, and in one colour then the next bed would me another colour. 

We then came back and had a bit of a break before we headed to catch one of the hop on hop off boats. It was a great way to see around the city without walking!  The buildings along the river are all very similar. Very interesting with cool steep roofs. 

Munich-Getting Here!

Well I made it that is the important part but the getting here was a bit stressful!

Yesterday I woke up to a normal day. Got to school, remembered that I was principal for the day, so I went to pick up the radio and get my breakfast.  That is about where it all fell apart! 

I went to check on a teacher who I knew might have to do a Mystery Skype by herself in the afternoon to make sure that she was okay. When I got there I found out that one of the grade four teachers was out but there was no sub. So, I went in to cover her class. I was about to get them started on some work when our Librarian came in and said, they're supposed to be in library. So off they went and off I went to find the sub coordinator. After a couple of laps of campus I finally found her subbing a 9th grade math class, boy do I not miss 9th grade math!

She then sent me off to find a sub who was only scheduled for the morning lesson in high school.  I found her, arranged for her to cover the 4th grade class, then went back to cover them for the 20 minutes until she arrived.  All this time I was suppose to be in grade two showing the teachers who to use Google calendars to electronically plan.  

ISN'T BEING PRINCIPAL FOR THE DAY FUN!

So that issue was sorted and I head back to shove some food in my mouth during a 10 minute break before I have to go to the other grade four to do a Mystery Skype. I arrived in time, got everyone set up, made a connection to the teacher. We started the Skype only to have several connection issues and have to abandon it half way through. Thankfully the kids were great and understanding. They were coming up with ways to finish the Skype with the other class, who happened to be a class full of future teachers in Belgium!

So off I go to my three hour Display Screen Accessors meeting. I get there a bit early so take some time to read my emails. We are about to start as the trainer has just walked in when I get an email saying "Your flight to Munich has been cancelled." 

WHAT, oh my gosh you can't cancel my flight I have to present at the ECIS Tech Conference, twice! So I get on the phone to one of the teachers who was to travel with me but wasn't in our training and said, please call and deal with this.  

About half way through the meeting I get an email saying that, he has decided not to go and he wasn't sure what could be done. So after the meeting was over I raced to my room to call the travel agent directly. I got her on the phone and they had been trying to get on the phone to Lufthansa for the last two hours with no luck. She said she would keep trying. I told her I was prepared to fly out tonight if necessary.

So off I go to check on the teacher who was doing the Mystery Skype by herself, thankfully it was in full swing and all was good! 

Then I headed to the IT office to find the teacher who was still traveling with me. I stopped to call the travel agent again and she said that they had been on hold with Lufthansa for the last 20 min which was progress and that Lufthansa had flights at 6:00 and 8:00 that had seats so she thought that we could get out. Also she had talked to the hotel and they had rooms. At this point I have not packed or ironed half of my cloths and they were at the Dorm at Cobham (30 min drive).  

Realizing that I needed to leave, I talked to everyone involved and made sure that the lower school was covered and headed towards the Dorm. I managed to get there get my stuff ironed and packed when I got a call at about 3:00 from Emma at the travel Agent saying "I have a few seats on the 4:45" do you think you can make it.  Well I thought to myself, yep if I get a cab now and he drives like a bat out of h*£@!. So I call a cab, grab my stuff and run up to the guard shack, because Cobham was about to be in full dismissal mode.

The taxi picked me up and once I jumped in I said, "Can you get me to Terminal 2 as fast as you can."  

He said "Ah, this is not the best time for fast."

I said "I know just do your best, this is not our fault."

He did great we even filled in a receipt and I paid him while were on the road. So all I had to do when we go to the terminal was jump out and run for it.  I ran in and up to one of the ladies and said "I am on the 4:45 flight." 

She responded, "Go down this side and say I sent you."

So I get to the desk and this lady says "The computer says you have a paper ticket do you?". I later found out that the travel agent had checked us in, but since my phone was playing up I didn't get that email.

Nope I don't, so she sends me to the Lufthansa counter, the guy there sorts it and I run back to the check in counter. I kind of looked like a ping pong ball at this point! The check in lady told me that I made it by minutes.  Fine, minutes is fine as long as I am on the flight!  So I rushed myself through security and got onto the plane.

That is how yesterday went, but now I am in Munich a day early and am going to go be a tourist while I try to wind down to be ready for my presentation Saturday!