Musselburgh Grammer School

Except for two of the field trips that I have been on I have not really talked about life at the Grammer as they refer to it around here. MGS is just like an American high school except that they incorporate the last two years of middle school along with the high school pupils. There are also high schools in Scotland, but they also have all six grades. They are referred to as S1,S2,S3,S4,S5 and S6. I am teaching students in S2-S6, so my S2 pupils (that is their name for students) are younger than any students I have taught before. Also the average age of a student, say an S5 which would be like a junior in the states is generally a little younger. Most students graduate when they are 17 even if they go the full 6 years. Many also leave school after the fourth year, which is the year of mandatory nationwide tests. Those that do not go to University tend to leave at this time. Students can also leave after their S5 year if they already qualify for "Uni". Many of these students take a GAP year (along with alot after S6) A GAP year, which I think we should get in the states, is when the students either travel, donate their time to a good cause, or get work experience. A number come to the states for camp America. They have a more prescribed curriculum than we have (mike woolley would not like it) and many high pressure tests from S4-S6. For that reason there are three different grading scales that I had to learn this year and none of them are like ours. I just finished grading S4 prelims before break which is their practice for their main exams in May. There are alot of other differences. Please leave questions in the comments section and I will answer them in later blogs. The picture at the top is the school and the one at the bottom is my Higher class (S5 and S6) with the electoral map of the 2008 election.

Cheers

Christmas in Edinburgh

I am now heading backward over the past month of activities. We are on our way to London to go on the trip in my previous post. I am going backward a week to my birthday. We went into Edinburgh to see the city at Christmas and it was brilliant. The main area of activity in Edinburgh is the Princes street gardens, where we will be for New Year's or Hogemany as they call it here. During the month of December the gardens have a huge ice rink and tons of what we would call carnival rides, but they all have a winter flair. (something you could not do in Chicago, especially with all of the snow you guys have had) In addition to the rides and decorations there is the German market which is hundreds of shops set up along the street with all sorts of intriguing items from across Europe, but with a German focus. There is mulled wine, sausages, crepes and great arts and crafts, although some of it is of lesser quality. When you stand in certain places the city looks absolutely spectacular. After spending a number of hours in the area, we walked across to high street (the royal mile) and down to the grassmarket area looking for a restaurant called Blue. The reason we went to the restaurant is that the Kelly's got us a gift certificate to this place online before we left last summer. We found the place and had an amazing lunch, of course taking pictures for the Kellys. We then wound our way back along Princes street where all of the shops are with Beth and Monique stopping in many places looking for bargains. I of course spent most of my time in the local book store looking at guide books for Cyprus. All in all it was a tremendous birthday, my first in a foreign country.

Cheers

Failing miserably to keep up to date

It is the Thursday night before the last day of term. I know that I have been horrible keeping the site up to date, much to Ms. Corrigans chagrin and Mr. Kelly's happiness. A lot has happened since my last blog and I did not even finish talking about my October break. Much of what has been going on is at school, where my focus has been of late. However, tomorrow at 12:00 we are leaving from Waverly station in Edinburgh to go to King's Cross in London, from there we have to get a train to Gatewick airport where we have a hotel for the evening. We are then getting a plan to Paphos airport in Cyprus and driving to the Royal Coral Bay Resort where I plan on collapsing for at least 36 hours before I begin to explore. We will be in Cyprus until the 27th, yes Christmas on the beach, never done that before. We return to London for three days after Christmas shopping in Notting Hill before returning to Musselburgh and going to the Princes Street Gardens for Hogemany on New Year's Eve. Other than that we are not doing much over the holidays :) So I should have lots of photos for everybody over the next two weeks. In the meantime here are some of the final pictures from our October break. We left London and went to a little town on the south coast called Combepyne which is where my cousin Debbie and her husband Robert live. They took us to Lyme Regis which is well known from the movie the French Lieutenant's Women. We had some perfect days of weather and the English channel was delightful.

All our best to EVERYONE over the holidays and may all your travels be safe.

Cheers

October Break

They have this fabulous idea in Scottish education call October break. So we had of from Oct. 10 to Oct. 20 and decided to do some exploring. We will have six weeks in total off during the year, so hopefully we will have many adventures. My parents were in town after spending a month in Sweden, Estonia, Russia and the Ukraine. We decided on a nice jaunt down to London again and then to the south coast to vist my cousin Debbie who married an englishmen years ago. Since we only spent less that 48 hours the first time down, we thought we would spend more time and do some of the tourist stuff. On the first day, by accident we went by the fountain that they built in memorium for princess Diana, it is in the middle of Hyde Park and it was a beautiful October day. We then had tea and crumpets at Harrods department store. We then went to St. Paul's Cathedral. After dinner we dropped off my parents at the hotel and went for a late night walk around London, ending again in Leicester square. The next day we went and saw the tourist hot spots of London. We went first to the Tower of London where you can find more history than in a book, not to mention the priceless crown jewels. We then went to the number one tourist spot in the world the London Eye. I will be honest, I had no interest in going on the eye, but it was a pretty cool experience and everyone should try it at least once. The pictures that are included from the first two days are Monique at the Princess Di memorial, Monique with a beefeater (which is what they call the guards at the tower) and finally some shots of London from the top of the world.

Field Trip to York

Hello again all of you loyal readers, although I doubt that I have any left. Those of you who doubted my ability to continue with updates every two weeks were unfortunately right. We have had company for the past month. We have been on our October break and I have had a ton of grading to plow through. I should, however, be able to catch up on the past month in the next couple of days or at least by the weekend. I start with my first blog about some of the students that I have had the pleasure of teaching. Ms. Young, one of the geography teachers in our department planned a trip to York. It is a city in central England that at various times served as the capital of the country. York has a fascinating history that spans the history of England. They have recently done a number of archeological digs in the area and found many remnents of ancient, roman, viking, middle ages and victorian history. The town is well known for the Jorvick Viking Center as York was a major Viking town and the site of a famous, but overlooked battle between two king Harolds in 1066. The English king won but was defeated a month later by William the Conquerer of Normandy changing English history. The students got to go to a mock dig and see how a dig site works. They then went to the real dig and finally to the Viking center. The students were all S1 students which would be like 7th grade in the United States. They all had a blast and we all learned a lot. I do not have any of them in class, but quite a few of them are on my rugby team (i am like third assistant) and they all like to hear me say awesome and hamburger, not quite sure why. Anyway fun was had by all. Will post again SOON!! I promise

Cheers

Running in Scotland

The Scots love outdoor physical activity. A lot of them walk, hill-climb, run and bike and of course golf. One of their bikers won three gold medals in the Olympics this year. So I have tried to fit in by running a little more than I am used to. I was talked to running a 10k at a beautiful manor house right on the Firth of Forth. I trained for about six weeks and even joined the local running club in Musselburgh. The tuesday before the race I went around 7 miles and felt confidant going into Sunday. During the race, I ran the first 3 miles with one of my new colleagues and was right on pace for how fast I wanted to finish. Then came the hill of MUD. A hill that went straight up and was six inches of mud for about 100 yards. I got to the top and I felt glad, until I realize that the entire rest of the race was UPHILL, long sloping grades that went on forever. I found out later that 4 of the 6 miles went up. They are used to hills over here, but I am not. I missed my goal by about 5 minutes and was a little disappointed. Oh well, we had a great time and it was for a good cause (cancer research) and Beth and Monique got to hand out medals at the end. (they volunteered) There were almost 1000 runners and in general it was a beautiful day. I am going to look for another race, but one with less hills.

Cheers

Weekend in London (Part Three)

I know that you have all been waiting in anticipation for the last part of our London weekend. Once again the cruel demands of teaching has kept me from my duties. I have also started my class at Edinburgh University, which I will discuss in a future blog. After we left Wicked we took the tube down to the Tower of London, the famous home of English kings since William the Conquerer. The place where Anne Boleyn lost her head and where the famous Crown Jewels are kept. We did not take the tour because it was late in the day. We walk around the Castle and went across the Tower Bridge, well known landmark that Brandon Fraser ran across in the second Mummy movie. Once we were on the south side of the Thames we walked along as the sun set over London. After having a great dinner in Leicester Square we joined the throng of people from around the world out on a Saturday night in London, it was intoxicating. The following morning, Harriet picked us up and took us out to Hampstead Heath for a great breakfast at an old English estate that now serves as a public park. It had a great view of the London skyline. Finally, Harriet dropped us off at covent garden and we shopped and watch some street performers before we had to go. (yes the natives were there and playing Celine Dion AGAIN--Madrid, Edinburgh, London they are tracking me) When we got back to King's Cross, Monique and I bolted and decided to head off to hogwarts instead. Have a great weekend. Cheers

Weekend in London (Part Two)

On Saturday after we saw Westminster, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square, we received a call from Harriett Thorpe. Beth's brother Russell lived in London when he was younger and went to drama school there. He met Harriett at school and Harriett has become a fairly well know actor in London. She has been in some British TV shows and has performed in many plays and musicals. She currently is starring as Madame Morrible in the hit musical Wicked. Beth had contacted her thanks to Russell a couple of weeks ago and she arranged awesome tickets for us about ten rows from the stage. She was calling to invite us by before the performance to meet some of the actors and see behind the scenes. Monique was beside herself as Wicked is her FAVORITE musical. She could hardly contain herself. We arrived and I first took a picture of Monique next to Harriet's poster outside the theatre. We then got to enter through the stage door and were escorted up to Harriet's dressing room (which was bigger than our hotel room in London) and got to meet Harriet. Beth has met her a number of times, but it was a first for Monique and I. She was absolutely delightful. The second picture is her without her makeup and wig. Harriet said that her two wigs alone cost the production 6,000 pds each which is about $11,000. Her outfits and jewelry were amazing. She then took us onto the stage which is the great picture of Monique in front of the all powerful OZ and under the stage to see where all the sound, costumes and smoke for the production were. It was simply unbelieveable to see everything that went into a major production.(132 people every show) We got to meet the actors that played Boq and Glinda (she was a brunette even though she plays a blond). Finally, after the show, one of the assistants came and got us from our seats and Monique got to meet Fiyero and Morrible (Harriet) right after they had come off the stage at the end of the musical. Of course Monique and Beth thought Fiyero was gorgeous. All and all it was a tremendous afternoon and experience. Thanks again to Harriet for being such a wonderful host.

Cheers

Weekend in London (Part One)

Once again I am sorry to all you loyal readers that it has been awhile. I will reward you with three different posts this week from our weekend in London. We left on Friday morning and took the train down to London which was fabulous, we loved taking the train. The only exception was the bunch of rowdies that rode from Edinburgh to Newcastle and sang to their music the entire way. One of the members of my new department got us some discounted rail tickets through his family so it was a great way to travel. The main purpose of our trip was an invitation to the American Embassy. All of the Fulbright exchangees in England and Scotland were invited along with British teachers who have done exchanges in the past. After some fearsome security (two days after the Yemen bombing) we had an awesome time in the lobby of the embassy. The decorations alone made it all worth while. Unfortunately we were not able to bring our cameras into the embassy so I have no pictures. However, there were amazing scuptures of Lincoln, the Constitutional Convention and unbelieveable art work. (I know I am a history geek) I was also amazed at the number of famous people who have been American ambassadors to Britian including four future presidents. After the reception we went to dinner with a number of the other American families and Monique had a blast with a girl from New York who is spending the year in Brighton. After we left them we walked around London until midnight. Again, I did not have my camera, but it was an outstanding evening. These pictures are from the next morning. The first one is Monique and Beth eating a traditional English breakfast in a London pub. The second one is the traditional guards in front of Buckingham Palace, but they are not out front of the gates like they used to before modern terrorism. Finally, off to the side is Beth and I in front of Buckingham Palace. Stay turned for part two, the musical WICKED.

Cheers

The highland games at Braemar

What an amazing day. We were picked up at 9:00am sharp by Bridget. She exchange to Vancover nine years ago. They have an exchange club here in Edinburgh that is for all current Australian, Canadien and American exchange teachers. It is run by former Scottish exchange teachers and they have a great list of events for us throughout the year. All the books that I read said that I had to go to the Braemar games. It is very hard to describe. It is like a typical track meet, except that they have events that few Americans take part in. My personal favorite and the crowd favorite was the throwing of the Caber. This is a nineteen foot tree trunk that weighs 135 pounds. The contestants must flip it onto its opposite side and then it must land at 12 o'clock. They get graded on style. See the picture at the side. They also have a 57 pound hammer throw which they throw over their heads over a 18 foot bar. But the most amazing event other then the caber is the hill run. This started on this exact spot in 1314 and the winner each year would become the king's messenger for that year. They run up the hill in the picture and back down. The winner finished in 25 minuts. It would have taken me a day just to get to the top. It was an unbelieveable feat. This picture is them halfway up the hill, at about ten minutes. Beside athletic events they also have Scottish dancers and bagpipers which compete for prizes and best of the event. All of these events are going on all at the same time so you are kind of overwhelmed by all of the sounds and colors and action. Finally, if your not sure that it is the kind of place that you might want to go look at the kind of people that hang out there. For all of you americans, that is the QUEEN, and yes I was that close. Kind of cool. Hope every weekend is this fun. Cheers.

You can tell that school has started

Sorry to all of my loyal readers and to the smart aleck Gracie down in Houston but you can obviously tell that school has started. I taught my full second week and then went away for the weekend with students and then had another full week of school and finally went to the highland games yesterday, so I have gone two weeks without an update. I will try not to let that happen again. I have so many pictures and stories to tell I will probably do two different blogs. After my second week of school, I was invited by some of the staff to go to a place called Dalguise. It is the former summer home of Beatrix Potter, author of peter rabbit and a small castle. They have turned it into an adventure camp. 23 staff members took 70 students. Our dorms were in the former stables, and were very nice. We had six to a room in bunk beds. On Friday night they had a Mr. and Ms. Dalguise, except that the boys were girls and the girls were guys. Then after a water fight between the students and staff, they got a little sleep. The next day they did things like raft building, ziplineing, rapelling, the giant swing and jacob's ladder. It was fun to watch students overcome fears and do things many of them would not normally do. My personal favorites were zip-lining and the rappelling which I did numerous times. That afternoon, one of the crazy staff members started a huge shaving cream fight which spread all over the courtyard of the dorms. The following day they did more team building and then we finally came home. That was on August 31st, which is also the last night of the festival with a final fireworks show over the castle, so even though Brian and I were tired, we took our families to the show which was one of the best I have ever seen. We were sitting by the orchestra and the castle made for an amazing backdrop. Everyone's favorite was the waterfall effect down the side of the castle. What an amazing three weeks it has already been.

Cheers

First week of school in the books

Well, I apologize, but this is the longest that I have gone so far without a new entry. I have been getting a crash course in Scottish education this week and have been to exhausted or too busy each night to add to my journal. The Scottish exam system is very different that in the states and it has taken a while for me to get my head around it so that I can best present the material to the students. I was able to see all six levels of student this week as I have classes from S2 to S5 (with some sixth year students) and I covered an S1 class. Both the S1 and S2 classes are younger students that I am used to teaching, but after a re-gaged how quick to go with them I figured it out pretty quick. All of the students have been great and my colleagues have been incredibly helpful. Monique also had a good first week. After a couple of days she decided to move from S2 to S3 which is more her age group so she was a new student twice during the week. However, she went to lunch with friends of Robyn every day who are still in the S2 group. The pictures for this entry are from are adventures last Sunday with Chris. He took us to a bay in the Firth of Forth for a hike in the dunes. He then took us close to the coast and the town of New Berwick which is famous for the puffin birds off the coast. He also drove us around the rest of the East Lothian area that we live in. It is very beautiful countryside and it was a great last day before school started. Next weekend I have an oppotunity to go away to a castle with some of the staff and most of the S6 students for an activity weekend so I should get some great pictures. I am looking forward to it. Would love to hear from all of you out there. Thanks to those of you that have said Hi.

Cheers

First Days of School

I started at Musselburgh Grammer School (MSG) on Thursday. The first two days were institute days so I had some time to get to know my new colleagues. There are two departments in my office, history and geography had one PT (principal teacher) and modern studies (gov't) and moral studies have another PT. Brian, who is my mentor is the PT for the second department. The history group has three teachers including myself. After fourteen years of teaching it is a little unsettling to feel like the new guy. All the forms, requirements, grading, schedules are all new, however that is what this experience is all about, shaking things up a little. I will see the students first thing on Monday bright and early, I am both a little nervous and excited. About half of our office (both departments) went to Edinburgh on Friday night after school. They are all VERY nice and it was fun to learn more about them and let them get to know us. We went to a great italian restaurant and then they walk us around the downtown part of the city. It is still crowded because of the festival. After getting up a little late on Saturday, we went back downtown ( we are getting really good at riding the buses, we like the double deckers) to the Edinburgh Book Festival which is part of the larger festival. Sean Connery presented his new book, but we missed him by two days. A lot of authors from around the world come and present their new books and they have an overwhelming book store with thousand of great books. I restrained myself for now and did not buy any, but I wanted to. We then walk all over the city looking at local places for good fish and chips, which we have not had yet and found a great little place. It was right on a street they have already named for me :) After watching some more of the fringe festival street shows we headed back to the bus and saw this guy. This might not be that weird except look at this picture I took in Seville back in June. HE IS FOLLOWING ME! Wishme luck on Monday. (PS I am inserting pictures into the blog now, because if you click on them you can see a larger version)

Cheers.

The military tattoo (100)

As I mentioned in my last blog we were very lucky to obtain three tickets to the military tattoo. We were going to use this opportunity to learn how to take the bus into Edinburgh, however, about two hours before we were going to leave my mentor, Brian, returned my call and offered to pick us up with his family to meet us and bring us home after the tattoo. After trying to refuse ten times, we said yes. Everyone here is SOOOOO nice. Brian and his family were wonderful and they dropped us off at the foot of the castle. Since Brian picked us up we had more time at the house and were able to see the horse races. Yes this picture of the races is from the window of our living room. We have a racetrack right across the street. Chris said sometimes they have people over and use the light post as a finish line for betting. Mr. Peronto would be right at home. :) After we were dropped off we went up to the tattoo. It was lightly raining and would rain for the entire evening. Brian's family, however, brought extra raincoats and blankets for us to use, so we were not as wet as a lot of people at the end of the night. The tattoo, however, was so unbelieveable you did not even notice the rain. All of my former students who were marching band members and especially those that went on to be in college marching bands this was the ultimate band concert of all time. Beside the unbelieveable marching, music and dancing the constant backdrop was the 1000 year old Edinburgh castle, which made for an almost fairy talesque feeling. I am going to include a number of photos, also at the bottom for those interested. I am also going to try and include some video so that you can get a feel for the entire evening. I would strongly suggest that anyone who can should try to come to this life experience. Before the evening began the annoucer went around and named over 35 countries that had people in the audience and the bands were from India, Singapore, New Zealand, Norway, Thailand and many other countries. There was even an American college Southwest Missouri State. My former students in marching band, you should tell your band directors to apply. Maybe they would accept a high school band Mr. Bailey. There were numerous high school groups from the United States in the audience, an idea for a future trip Mr. Drzonek. This show was also taped for the BBC and will be enjoyed by 100 million people around the world. If you have comcast cable, check it out. Enjoy the videos if they work and wish me luck on my first day of school tomorrow. My exchange partner, Jane, had her first day today and I cannot wait to hear about it. It was also her birthday today so wish her a belated birthday if you see her in the near future. Until next time.

Cheers

The city of Edinburgh

We sufficiently recovered enough from jet lag to take the train into Edinburgh. It is a 7 minute train ride on a very fast train, but the station is a 20 minute walk. I am really enjoying the walking so far, but it definitely forces you to think about time and where you are going. Edinburgh is very hard to explain. The entire city appears to be far older than any structure we have anywhere in the area. It makes the Chicago water tower look young. However, as a history buff I find it incredibly beautiful. During the month of August the entire world comes for the Edinburgh festival and the fringe festival. So as we walked down High street there were plenty of street performers. These guys were by far the best. They were unbelieveable gymnasts, but they were also very funny. They had an impromptu crowd of almost a thousand. We then made our way up to the famous Edinburgh Castle. They have a massive stand set up in front of the castle during August for the very famous Military Tattoo. The picture off to the side is a picture of the Castle with Beth and Monique. Unfortunately, the Tattoo has been sold out since February. Luckily we scored three returned tickets for tomorrow night so stay tuned for some incredible pictures. We won't even discuss the price of the tickets. The young women, who was a law student who sold them said, don't convert pounds to dollars, but it is so hard not to. After an awesome lunch in a cute little place called Maxie's we went over to Edinburgh University where I inquired about taking a course in Scottish history. I hope I am able to enroll. Classes start Sept. 22. This is Beth and me in front of the Main Courtyard of the University. After we were able to get the Tattoo tickets, we had perfect timing and jumped back on the train to Musselburgh. School starts on Thursday, so I am enjoying my few last days of summer as are all my teaching friends. The other new picture is Margot, a friend from the Germany group who has replied to my blog twice already, thanks Margot.

Cheers

WELCOME TO SCOTLAND

It was not easy, but we made it to Scotland. Thanks to some poor flight planning on my part we has a six hour layover in the Frankfurt airport. We left DC at 5:30 Friday evening and were early to Frankfurt. Our flight did not leave until 12:00 noon which is 6:00 in the morning DC time. As of this writing I have been up for over 36 hours. Jane's husband Chris picked us up at the airport with two cars. His sister yvonne picked up all of our luggage and Chris drove us back in a friend's car. Chris was unbelieveably nice as he had food waiting for us in the fridge since he knew that we would be tired. He gave us a once over on the house and will show us some of the more important parts tomorrow. We also had the pleasure of meeting Liam, Jane and Chris' son who will be starting university in Edinburgh this fall. The house is UNBELIEVEABLE. It is a charming two flat with beautiful rooms and furnishings. This is Beth and Monique in the kitchen. One of the Bonnar's friends already stopped by and welcomed us to the neighborhood. Even though we were tired we were a little hyped up, so we went for a long walk around town. We are looking forward to walking everywhere and seeing how we fare without a car which is so un-american. This is Beth and Monique in front of our place. We also walked by the school and got to go in, but I will save pictures for the first day of school. We are looking forward to a full day tomorrow, after A LOT of SLEEP.

Cheers

Last night banquet

It was an amazing last night at the Fulbright sendoff in Washington DC. We had a last night banquet and then all of the countries to which American teachers are traveling to and who are sending teachers to the states each got on stage and did a cultural representation of their countries. There were teachers from Peru, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Latvia, France, Senegal, Poland, Columbia, Mexico, India, Turkey and of course the United Kingdom. I am also pround that my daughter Monique and my exchange partner's daughter Robyn and their new cadre of friends from around the world got on stage and gave the crowd a huge awwwwww with their insightful ideas on what they will experience and how much they have all enjoyed becoming friends in such a short time. In three short days I have had invitations to visit France, Hungary, Bosnia, Turkey, Croatia, Belgium and all over the United Kingdom. I plan on taking as many of these wonderful people up on their offers as possible. I am adding a picture of Jane and her daughter Robyn so that all of my colleagues can see their new mate and my parents will know who to pick up at the airport. Her husband Christopher is not coming for a couple of weeks and will be picking us up at the Edinburgh airport. Also, I fully expect all of my former students from last year to go and introduce yourself and make Ms. Bonnar feel welcome. I am also adding a picture one of the Scotsmen, Robin, who wore his kilt to the banquet. As my partner said "you can't look bad in a kilt" so Mr. Peronto might get his wish of a picture of me in a kilt. I will probably be proving Jane wrong as I can make anything look bad.

Bad Poetry

Tomorrow will begin all Scotland all the time. However, I wrote a horrible poem for a bunch of great people my last night in Germany. Hopefully my poetic skills do not diminish how great the individuals were. It is repeated here as a testament to them. Maybe Scotland will improve my poetic skills, but I doubt it.

A is for Alexander, a sweet man from Munich,
B is for Berlin, too many statues with tunics.
C is for Chris, the group’s youngest and most mature member,
D is for Dennis, who wears a coat in September.
E is for Einstein, who looks just like Don,
F is for FUN, this group can get it on.
G is for Goethe, which is why we’re all here,
H is for Heidelberg, where we'll have our last ****.
I is for Illinois Cathy, everything is her first time,
J is for Jeff, I wish to hell he could rhyme.
K is for Krystal, a pistol from San Anton
L is for Lynn, she wouldn’t throw Jim Kelly a bone.
M is for Margot, whose trigger finger never stops,
N is for Nisha, in my book she’s tops.
O is for Omaha, sweet Melissa’s home town,
P is for Pam, who would never let you down.
Q is for Queen Kelsey, our awesome group leader,
R is for Rhonda, you’ll hear her laugh before your meet her.
S is for Sharon, very classy and tough,
T is for Twinkie, who in Munich had enough.
U is for Underhill, Goethe put the trip on his card,
V is for Vicki, who’s never seen people in Kansas party this hard.
W is for Wanda, whose peanut bag is deep,
X is for excitement, Veronica got so much she couldn’t sleep.
Y is for youthful, which is how y’all make me feel,
Z is the zip which Matthias gave his spiel.

I cannot believe the end is so near,
All of you have become very dear.
Please keep in touch and remember the fun,
Our group is not group six, but number one.
That is the end of my silly little ditty,
I will miss you tomorrow, it will make me feel …

PROST!

Here we go!!!!

Leaving your house for the airport and trying to comprehend that you will not be back for eleven months is something very strange. I am sure that it has not really occured to us that we are not going home. We have already met many lovely people here in D.C. All of the people connected with the exchange program are amazing. We have met people from Scotland, England, France, Africa, Eastern Europe and we have only been here for about six hours. Of course the highlight of the night was meeting my exchange partner, Jane, and her daughter Robyn. Robyn and Monique hit is off right away and went off and enjoyed themselves all evening meeting many other dependent children. They get to go to D.C. and see the Smithsonian tomorrow while I get to sit in meetings all DAY!! YEAH! I think I overwhelmed Jane with a million questions tonight at the banquet and her jet lag was starting to kick in. Then just for fun we have had two fire alarms in the last hour. I typed the first part of this entry from a curb at the front of the hotel. I did not get a picture of Jane and Robyn yet, but I will add one tomorrow. It is starting to feel very real. I hope all of you at Sandburg are ready to welcome Jane with open arms. In the small world department, I met a teacher from New Trier, whose exchange partner I met in Cleveland last May and he graduate from--you guessed it--Carl Sandburg High School. I think it is going to be that kind of year

Cheers

Having fun and counting down

It has been a couple of days and things are starting to look up. With the help of my brothers and their wives we managed to get a ton of things down around the house and it finally looks like we might be able to finish everything before we leave. We are basically packed and just have a lot of last minute calls and paperwork to pull together in order to get ready for our adventure. We have been talking about the fact that it does not seem real and probably will not until we get over to Musselburgh and actually start working. With my next blog I will begin to avail everyone on the history and fun facts of Scotland so I am getting excited about the true purpose of this blog. I know from phone calls that a lot of people have logged on, but no one is leaving comments. For those of you unfamiliar with blogging, all you have to do is click on the comments link at the bottom of each entry. We got to take a break last night and hit the beautiful city of Chicago one last time before we take off. We spent the evening with six dear friends whom we will miss alot in the next year. Hopefully some of them will be able to visit while we are there. The night was fabulous and this morning we went for a walk along the lake bringing back memories of our younger years when we lived downtown. Chicago is a great city, but I sure we will love Edinburgh too, as we have heard nothing but great things. It is hard to believe that we will not be seeing some people for the next year. Please continue to call and say farewell if you get the chance.

Cheers

Jeff

The fun never ends

Future suggestions to everyone who does this, and everyone should try it. 1. Do not have your entire family over right before you leave. 2. Your children will break down when the family dog leaves, (my daughter is a mess right now) 3. You will NEVER finish everything so do not try. It is very weird because you are simultaneously packing for a trip, moving from your house and getting your house ready for someone else to live in it. It probably would have helped if I was not away for half the summer, but hey that will never change. I would love to hear from people it would probably make me feel better. As Roger Waters would say "Is anybody out there?" Shipped our last bag to Scotland today, had our house made completely wireless, and saved three small children from a burning castle. Actually, that last one probably did not happen. We actually are getting into a pretty good position, but we still have lots of the little things to do over the next three days. I know this part is not very exciting, but once I get to Scotland hopefully we can all learn a little about the country. I did speak to my partner Jane today and she is doing many of the same crazy things getting ready to come over here. She has to leave on Sunday so she has two less days to get ready. If I am not going to see you please call and say goodbye before we leave or fire an email.

Cheers

Jeff

Murphy's Law

Well, in the category of what can go wrong will go wrong the last 24 hours have been a winning combination. We have not been able to do anything that we need to in order to get ready to leave and in addition to that my brother who was being wonderful by helping us replace a broken faucet on our tub accidently flooded our bathroom which dripped down into our kitchen ceiling and now we have eighty more things to do. Stress is not something I am used to in combination with travel. Right now I just wish I were back in Germany or Spain with good people having fun. On the plus side, we just sold our second car, so now we are officially carless. That is a very strange feeling for an American, although I guess I must see myself as a European for the next year. I am excited by the prosepct of walking to work next year, I just do not know how we will get around when I return next summer. Anyway the fun continues. I know that alot of you have seen the blog, but I would love if people would leave some comments, that is part of the joy of doing something like this, plus I know that alot of my old friends probably cannot wait to bust me out. Actually, probably true of my new friends too. I will add some more pictures today, be sure to keep going down on the blog if I add new ones. Paul Kelly said he appreciated all the pictures of Dave, since it dressed up the site a little.

Cheers

Tales of Travel Woe

One of our colleagues from the Germany trip just emailed and had a horrible tale of woe on his return trip from Germany. He landed with us in D.C. at 3:30 on Saturday and did not make it back to Florida until Sunday afternoon, by way of the Greenville S.C. airport. These are the things one worries about as they send half their belongings overseas. That is the bizarre process we are in right now. What do we bring, what do we leave, and what do we give away. We have given away like half our stuff. It makes you wonder why you buy so much sometime. Maybe after Scotland I will sell the rest and take a slow boat to the South Pacific. (just kidding Debbie--if your reading this) (My Boss). A new friend recently put travel in perspective and I have a lot to think about. I hope Dennis, my Florida colleague is recovering. Time to go pack some more and move A to B.

Welcome to my site

I have just returned from Germany and I have some serious jet lag. However, I am leaving for my Scottish adventure in nine days, so I thought that I would begin my blog. This is a new experience for me so I apologize in advance for anyone who is logging on during the first couple of months. Hopefully I will learn as I go. The summer has been busy as I have been to Spain and Germany as a warm-up for Scotland and I hope to add some pictures of two very tremendous trips. I have met a lot of wonderful people this summer and I have really enjoyed myself. I think this is great preparation for all the great people I am bound to meet this year. We are in the last stages of cleaning the house and getting the house ready for the Bonnars' who will be moving in on August ninth. We have lots of loose ends to tie up, but other than that we should be ready to leave on August 5th. We will be in Washington DC on August 5,6,7 and 8th and leaving that evening for Musselburgh. The attached pictures will be from my earlier summer trips. To prevent all the early criticism, I realize the cover is from Machu Pichu, but I do not have pictures from Scotland, YET

Cheers

Jeff