North American Update #2

October 10, 2016

hey there folks....well i am still here in the states, and what a crazy place this is....from the politics, which i cannot even begin to talk about, to the racism issues, to the driving....whoa!! this place is crazy....but of course there are great things about being in the states....my family and friends here being the first thing, my work situation, my access to tons of things i haven't had access to while living 13 years outside of this country.....but it has been and continues to be an adjustment....but one of my favorite things about being back on the east coast of the states is to experience fall!!!!  i love this season and am so happy to see it again with my own eyes.....

so things here are like having new experiences for me, which i appreciate.....i am not sure if living here will be a permanent thing, but it is fun to revisit things and go places i have been to again and experience them all over, as well as try out new things....i have seen a few exhibits and been to some shows of music (many things i never get to see outside of the states), so there have been some excellent adventures happening in the three and a half months i have been here so far....

people have been asking about my job....so here it is in a nutshell.....i work for a company that specializes in hands-on science education for elementary kids....we offer clubs and summer camps in PA, NJ, DE, and MD....i have started helping with a multitude of things and have started to work for their foundation sector as well...where a company sponsors us to bring hands-on science to classrooms of disadvantaged/low performing schools around the nation....we currently hold classes in tulsa, oklahoma; paterson, nj and places in lancaster, pa....i have been to tulsa once already and will go back three more times throughout the school year....what an eye-opening adventure....i also have been working on updating and tweaking curriculum for both the clubs and camps, doing some research and development, performing assemblies for anywhere from 50-300 kids (think ms. wizard type stuff!), have helped teach instructors and am making videos of the lessons being offered through clubs this year....it's a lot of different stuff, which keeps me happy and involved.....just a plug, if anyone has a company or knows a company that would like to help out the foundation and bring hands-on science to an elementary school you know, or we know needs support, get in touch....no more plugs, i promise :)

there have been many other questions about how my life is and how my family is, because as many of you know, i have taken time off to spend time with my folks and other members of my family...it has been a learning experience of living with people again, as i have been on my own for quite a bit of time, and it has been good to be involved in my dad's health adventures with lung cancer....he is doing quite well with it, although i do think the chemo is having both positive and negative effects, as he uses it as a maintenance method once every three weeks....i am glad i am able to be here to support him and my mom with this issue...and feel i have definitely made the best choice to come to the states for a year or two or more....even though i do miss the adventure of being overseas.....it just means i need to keep having adventures here on this turf....

so below are some of my shots from these past three months here in the states, feel free to ask questions or make comments and i hope you enjoy this north american adventure i am experiencing!!!

one of the coolest things that happens due to living in the states and by a large city (philadelphia), is getting to see old friends who come here for a visit or work or something....so i was very lucky and got to visit with my friend joni from seattle....we determined we hadn't seen each other for more than 7 years or so.....i love this aspect of being here....and if anyone is philly bound (or somewhere in the vicinity), please let me know...i have a car and can meet up....yay!!!!

one of my favorite things about being in the states is all of the music i can see live....and festivals i can revisit....like the philadelphia folk festival...this was the 55th year for the festival and what a terrific time was had.....such terrific music from all over the world....
 

and what a great setting and use of the setting....i loved this use of japanese umbrellas in the forest section of the festival grounds.....plus, right by it was a performance celebrating the 30th anniversary of the album graceland by paul simon....they even had his original south african bassist playing for this and eric bazilion from the hooters playing....what a blast from my past...i watched them speak and even spoke with them afterwards....a real highlight!
 

i think this flag sums up my whole visit to the folk fest....it was a beautiful, although rather hot day, filled with amazing musicians and artists....lots of dancing and singing along was had....it was great!
 

one of the other performances i made it to this summer was jimmy buffett....it was terrific....hot again, but terrific....but as any parrot head knows, the parking lot prior to the show is half of the fun.....i went with some crazy folks and had an amazing time, and even had incredible seats due to connections - the 20th row!!!! this was our pre-show tent...including the game stump and lots food and drink for all....we went down on a bus that also brought the band the mango men, who played some great music in the parking lot....
 

my friend monique had never been to a buffett tailgate before, so we went on a wander through the parking lot...one of the many crazy things that stood out to me, was this group of folks who actually brought a "hot" tub with them, which they filled with ice and water because it was soooooooo hot that day....can you imagine bringing this thing to a show????? ahhhhhhhhh, parrot heads!
  

here i am pre-show on my way into the VIP pre-show adventure we had along with our amazing seats....it was incredible, but unfortunately we did not meet and greet with the band....but it was a place that gave us free, tasty snacks and drinks....always a plus....

this is the view from our seats....amazing!!!! i had such a blast and got to sing and dance along to all of the old stand-bys jimmy is known for....i used to go and see him every summer, so this was a huge treat to return and see him again....and he still has it!!!! which is an extra bonus.....fins to the left!!!!!

above is the set up i use for my assemblies for elementary schools for work to get them excited about science....this is our marketing strategy to get kids to sign up for after school clubs....it's lots of fun and filled with booms, fizzes, volunteers and of course ends with the production of fire!!!! woot!!!!
 

one of the other fun festivals i volunteered for was a wetlands festival down in delaware...i worked the fish imprinting station....the fish were rubber, but very life-like....the kids and adults all had fun with this one....above you can see a set of twin boys and their mom painting their fish....they were hilarious!
 

this cool young couple made some amazing two-toned fish...i loved their work! it was another very hot day, but fun was had and i even learned a lot about the wetlands of delaware.....

one of the amazing things about the area i live in is the sky....especially the sunsets.....they are usually stunning and i love seeing the different cloud formations and colors in the evening sky....above is one of my favorite shots of a sunset in the area
 

of course another fun thing this past summer was fourth of july fireworks....which really can't compare to china, but i love the hometown ones that we have....they were actually postponed due to weather on the fourth, but finally i got to see some fireworks in action....i do find it amazing what firework makers can have happen in the sky....love that chemistry!
 

the shots of kids above and below are from tulsa.....we go to two different elementary schools and do hands-on science with K-3rd graders....they come to us in a lab or we go into their classroom and work with them and their classroom teacher....above is a group of kids doing our baking soda and vinegar experiment in a glove....you should see their faces when the glove expands and feels cold....

this second shot is from the same school and the kids are doing the experiment where they mix two liquid plastics and create a form of styrofoam, that gives off heat....from the liquids we produce gas that makes this expand and then it hardens into a solid - making a matter monster....tons of fun....

tulsa was another city that had some amazing sunsets, including this one...this is the view from the hotel we stay in downtown....tulsa is a cute town, very clean, had great food, but i am amazed at how empty the streets become after 7pm....we walked to and from dinner both nights in town and saw very few folks and cars on the streets....there is also really cool art deco buildings in this city....

in front of the courthouse for tulsa we saw this penguin....why a penguin??? why tulsa??? i still have no idea, but it was super cute!

this is a shot from the second school, here you can see the kids totally getting into the making of the matter monsters...this is where they grab the cup by the bottom and pick it up, realizing that the cup is warm (an exothermic reaction!) and that it has turned into a solid....i love their faces here....

and this is a second group doing the glove experiment at the second school.....this one feels cold (an endothermic reaction!) and they are waving hello to me with the "hands" they created!

one other thing that i love about the summer and beginning of autumn is heading to the jersey shore.....we did this over a weekend in september and the the beach was lovely and had very few folks on it.....it was a wonderful couple of days!!!

another one of my favorite things here in the states, especially on the east coast, is fall...you will see more pictures for this, but look at the size of that pumpkin....jen & i had to have a picture with this puppy....simply HUGE!!!! and simply fall!

i also made it to a really cool exhibit with my mom at the amazing longwood gardens....they have this incredible exhibit currently there called nightscapes...it is at night and combines the plants/biomes already in the gardens with lights and music....it is very cool in that the plants, trees and shrubbery act as the screen for the magic of the lights and sounds.....hard to explain, but amazing to see....

and so the next two shots are from the beginning of fall here in pennsylvania.....i love this time!!! the changing of the colors are pretty stunning....from the yellows above and the oranges and reds below....my favorite season.....

i also love the blue of the skies in this time of the year....brings out the colors of the trees even more....all of the maples are turning orange and red these days....makes me just smile....folks here do realize what they have in this season and i am so glad to be experiencing it this year! wow!

of course i needed to end this blog post/update with my newest flight from a place called "world of beer"...what a mind-blowing place.....52 beers on tap that they change out pretty regularly....beers from all around the world, including many craft beers from the states with some pretty bizarre names....a great way to watch sunday football and try new beers.....go eagles!!!!

so there you have it....some of my adventures from the time i have been in the states thus far....it is an adjustment period filled with both highs and lows, but overall i am in the right place at the right time.....i will be back again with some more adventures in a month or so....i hope you enjoyed the pictures and stories here for this particular update.....

hope everyone is well and happy....enjoy the beginning of fall or spring depending on where you are and have fun with family and friends.....

peace out....and have a fab day :)
dani

 

North American Update #1 - I'm Back!

August 4th, 2016

hey there folks....i'm back in the usa....and will be here for the next year, maybe two.....people have been asking if i will still be writing a blog every few months and the answer is....yes!!! i have a job lined up here in the states, doing elementary science, grades K-3.....yes, i know, i will need to curb the sarcasm....but the best thing about the job, besides not having my own classroom and grading assignments, is that i will be traveling to different schools....around the states....so traveling is still in my future....which means the blog continues.....i think my first gig will be in tulsa, oklahoma....so here's hoping i introduce you to some places in the states that i have not been, or maybe you have not been.....so in a month or two i will be posting the first trip......the travel continues....

i did however take a trip to paris before heading back to the states, and even though it was whirlwind four days, it was fun with a friend from ghana, misty, and from meeting up with some old friends and students from croatia - the holtzapples and adian, one of my past students.....a good visit to a great city and fun hanging with friends....love that aspect of what i do....folks i know are everywhere....so on with some pictures from paris and some from being back in the states.....enjoy....

but one last picture from ghana....our last day of school and our amazing anna, the super baker and administrative assistant of middle school, made this incredible goodbye cake for all of us who were leaving.... if you look closely to the upper left corner, you can see my school picture from this past year....it was a great goodbye to all of us who left ghana at the end of the school year.....tasty too :)

onto paris.....this first shot is of the atrium of the place we rented for the four days in paris via airbnb....if you have not used this service, usually it is terrific....unfortunately the guy we rented from this time was a jerk....but his place was nice and in a great and very accessible part of town....and you have to love the way apartments are set up in europe with the atrium in the middle....loved it!

one of the places we visited while in town, as it was misty's first trip to paris and she wanted to tourist-it-up all the way, was the arc de triomphe.....this monument is huge and the start of one of the most expensive streets in town....the champs elysees.....but the arc itself is stunning....it was ordered built by napoleon, for the grand army of france, and was inaugurated in 1836, so we were there for it's 180th birth year....kind of cool....it is the world's largest triumphal arch....

as we wandered around paris, we needed to stop in a few times for the libations on hand....here is my first beer not in africa....it was belgian and it was tasty :) we did this a few times, as euro cup 2016 for football/soccer was happening all over france....games were every night and the amount of fans from the different countries in town was incredible....i saw fans from croatia, romania, ireland, wales, sweden, etc....it was a blast...

i love wandering the streets of paris and how you can suddenly turn a corner, and bam!....there's the eiffel tower....plus, as we were wandering the cheering from different groups, especially the irish, the brits and swedes, got louder and louder....i think there was some message to the followers of these countries to meet and surround the tower....
 

here's a shot, using misty's selfie stick, on the eiffel tower....it was one of the only places you could bring a selfie stick in paris....BUT, you could not bring a flag up of your country....we never did figure out why this was a rule....but luckily, we did not have a flag :)

soccer was everywhere.....they even had this huge fan zone with a giant screen where you could watch games being played outside of paris...no selfie sticks though....but i did love the soccer ball hanging in the center of the eiffel tower....it was huge....
 

one of my favorite things is traveling around the world and catching up with past students and families to see what they are up to in life....and paris was no exception to the meet-ups....here i am with aidan at a local sports bar around the corner from where we were staying....funnily enough, his family's apartment in paris was around the corner from where we stayed as well....couldn't have planned that better if i do say so....luckily the timing worked out.....and now that he is college, aidan is studying science....woot!!! not a surprise at all :)

the next day i was off to one of my very favorite museums in paris.....the musee d'orsay....it is a museum created from a former railway station....and i love the building both inside and outside....one of my favorite aspects though is being able to see out through the enormous clocks in this museum, as you can see from the picture above.....a great way to think about time.....

the shot above is looking down from the main entryway side into the museum....the other two main collections i love are the sculptures, which you can see to the left and right sides, and the amazing amount of impressionist paintings they have....it is mind-boggling...but overall, i love the building the most!!!

one of the other things i love doing in paris is wandering down the seine, which i did....i love seeing the little booths like the one to the left of the picture, where used books and posters are sold....they are called the riverside bouquinistes.....it's amazing what you might find....not many were open this day, as it kept raining off and on, but the next day they were out in full force.....

the other super cool folks we had dinner with, from croatia, were the holtzapples....one of the greatest things about this was that i got to have some croatian slivovitz made from plums and some made from walnuts....it brought back some great memories....as did the conversations about when we were in croatia at the same time.....i love it when paths cross in places around the world....
 

our final day included a stop in st. chappelle.....and even though i have seem many, many churches in my travels, this is always one of my all-time favorites.....the stained glass in this chapel is just incredible and mind blowing.....it is considered a royal chapel, as it was built for louis the IX.....they are in the process of restoring the stained glass, and are using lasers to do this....modern science meets artwork from the past.....a great combination....

of course one my favorite things in all cities is the ability to use public transport and of course the metro in paris does not disappoint....and when riding the metro, you always have to get a shot of the signs for the metro you can find in certain places....like the one above....gotta love the art nouveau of them....
 

we went from one grand chapel to the most famous cathedral of paris....notre dame.....this one is a medieval catholic cathedral in the center of paris....i have two things i love abut this cathedral...one is the rose windows....they are just amazing....as you might be able to see from the shot above.....

and the second thing are the gargoyles.....we did not go up to the top of notre dame, as the line was one the longest i had seen there....being that there were so many soccer/football fans in town, along with the normal amount of visitors to paris in june....it was insane....so we wandered around the cathedral instead.....

and i decided on this wander and photo-taking walk, that my favorite shot this time of the cathedral, was actually the back of it.....we had a stunning time of day and the clouds and blue sky, plus the cathedral made for a great shot....

from notre-dame we headed to my favorite bookstore in the world, found in paris, along the seine....it has grown to include a cafe now, but inside is still as magical as it has been every time i have been there....shakespeare and company....so many books, so little time....this store was opened in 1951 and takes after the one that was around in the 1920's and 30's that was home to the "beat" generation.....love it!

as it started to rain again on this walk, i ducked into a church on the edge of the latin quarter and got to see these cool stained glass windows....i have actually not seen any like these before and i thought they were photo worthy....i don't know the name of the little church, but i sure liked it's windows....
 

this last shot of paris is from the pyramids of the louvre,  the largest museum in the world....unfortunately i did not get to go in this time, as i lost my museum pass to get in.....but the day was so nice, it was great just to sit outside, people watch and enjoy not sweating in the sunshine.....overall it was a whirlwind trip to paris and full of tasty treats, wandering the streets and hanging with friends....a great way to start summer....
 

i returned to the states in time for father's day....and above you can see my dad's gift and my matching version, that my amazing friend thomas the rock star, had made....which you saw in the last post.....anyway...this is called a batakari, also known as a fugu....these are worn generally by women and men in the northern part of ghana.....these are a mark of power & tradition in that part of ghana....so figured it would be cool for my dad to have one.....looks good and a quick shout out of thanks to thomas for all of his help.....

i have been adapting to being back in the states and have been enjoying summertime stuff as well....one of the things i did was go see a phillies game....not their best year by any means, but i do love to go watch a game...i am definitely not a "watch on tv" person.....but when the game is live, it's just a good time....and of course it is always fun to see the phillies phanatic....
 

i got to go to the game with friends of mine from my china days....josh and shannon....they did a baseball stadium tour this summer....ten different games....and crazily, nine of the ten home teams won when they were in the stadium....should have made a bet in vegas i say.....it was great to reconnect and catch a game with them before they headed off to boston for a game on july 4th....a terrific stadium to be in for the fourth.....
 

another thing that changed here in pennsylvania was my folks' mailbox....this is "the dude"....made from metal and really cute....he has had a lot of pictures taken....as he surprises most folks who pass by....very welcoming :)
 

and of course i have been experiencing the many different types of beer here in the states.....soooooo many to choose from, it's overwhelming....actually, there is just so much to choose from of everything....it has been a bit overwhelming.....so the transition to being here has started....and here i am with a friend's flight at the local victory brewery.....yummy....

sooooooooo....there you have it, the beginning of my "reverse" culture shock is in full swing and i am trying to adapt to living someplace i have not lived in since 2003....yes, i am happy to be here, but yes, i am also overwhelmed, and a bit freaked out that i do not have a plane ticket taking me to a new country in the next week....most of my international friends have headed back to their previous jobs or are off on new adventures, and it is wild not to be doing that this year.....but i am adapting to this "new" adventure....and even though i still pay for things with cash, get a bit stressed with the drivers and the politics here, i know i will adapt eventually.....so wish me luck...and if you are in the philly area, be sure to get in touch, as that is where you will find me for the next year at least....hope you are all enjoying summer/winter....to those in new positions, all the best with the start of the new year....and to those returning to old positions....i hope it is a terrific year for you too :)

until the next post....peace out & have a fab day :)
dani