Korea Orientation Meeting

I forgot to mention that we had our first orientation meeting today to discuss the details of our trip to Korea. Ann Chan and Pat Fassos, from the department of Human Resources, met with the principals who will be traveling. It looks like there will be ten of us going: eight principals, one assistant principal, and Ann Chan. The itinerary we were presented is very full, as I suspected. It will be a mix of official visits to schools, official dinners in the evening, and site-seeing. I have to put together a presentation about Chicago and Volta that I can use when I visit the schools. I will have to check my photo archive at school for pictures I can use in a slide presentation.

Dogs to Summer Camp

Whenever I want to travel, the big question is always, "What do I do with my pets?" Since I will be gone so long this summer I can't really impose on my friend Pat like I usually do, so I will impose on my mother instead. Imposing on moms is always easier. They accept the imposition as part of their duty. Tomorrow I will be driving up to my cabin where mother is staying and will leave the dogs with her until the end of August when I finish my travels. I think she is actually looking forward to it.

Introduction

Since I will be visiting two countries this summer for the sole purpose of checking out their system of education, I thought it would be good to document my observations and reflections. Instead of using the old paper and pen journal I usually use when I travel, I decided to start a blog. We shall see how this works. I figure this will be a great way to share my experiences with friends, family, and colleagues in real time and it will also be a good accountability tool. I will be able to show that I'm not just fooling around on "company time".

My first trip will be to Busan, Korea. I leave July 5th and return July 11th - a short trip. I will then go to Cordoba, Argentina for a three-week Fulbright Administrator Exchange. I leave July 25th and return August 16th from that journey.

I will write more as we begin to meet to plan the trip to Korea.