Day 2 of our conference and it has been like any other conference except that sometimes you find yourself in a conversation with someone who forgets that you speak English and a wee bit of French and you have to get the deer in the head lights or the constipation has struck look that is the universal sign for : What the heck is going on......
So let's see... I have learned so much that my head is most likely to explode and that would be rather unfortunate because should that happen, I will leak out all that valuable info and have to start all over again. I have learned that as bad as we think that Lincolnton High School has it , we could be ever so much worse and so I should be grateful for small favors. I am constantly amazed by the caliber of teacher that iEARN attracts and really hope aspire to be like them before I grow up.
So enough of that .... what have I done in the past two days? Yesterday was really rather normal : sessions and the Adobe Youth Voices Premier! What fabulous videos put together by students around the world... I am definitely kicking some AYV kids butts when I get back. We have to get going because I know that LHS AVY can produce equally as high quality as any I saw last night. Today we had sessions in the morning but before they started I managed to go for a walk on the beach and listen to the whales. They are just hanging out near shore playing and chilling. Wish that iPhone cameras could zoom in far enough to get them looking anything other than a black streak in the picture. At any rate, I wandered for a bit and picked up shells and sea glass and took some cool sunrise pictures with a different technique..... not as good as with a camera not on a phone, but not too bad either.
As we finished the first session , we wandered out into the lobby and were over come with the odor of smoke and pretty soon saw billowing black clouds outside the windows...... I started to panic a wee bit, but my brain kept saying , hmm calm down.....that smells like burning tires not burning hotel. Sure enough , we were embroiled (excuse the pun) in a political protest and the protesters were right outside the hotel with a really large banner , tribal drums beating out a constant beat and a huge pile of burning tires. The sky was absolutely black and the smoke was just suffocating. You know that the smart thing would be to stay inside and away from these folks that were protesting the firing of a worker at the hotel and the overall poor working conditions. Now you know what I mean, avoid this right? But you see we had planned an excursion ( just a 2 mile hike up the beach and into town ) to go grab some lunch and soak up the atmosphere during the Argentina game. I mean , we are here , let's do this....... so this means out we go and down past the protesters we head. Successfully navigating through the smoke and yelling , we head off and find an out of the way local place to eat. We figured the normal time for a game would match about how long we would eat. Do you think that the Argentinians could do this quickly? Heck no! So we waited and watched and waited and watched and finally, sometime after three - game over .... we can leave! Now when I say leave, understand that this will not be a quick process. There is a parade of cars , all decked out with team colors, flags, people .. you name it ..being led through town by a police escort and honking their horns and playing music! People are hanging out of windows and all of the businesses are closed.... fire crackers are going off .... children are laughing and running around with flags draped over their bodies and old women and men are crying! I can only imagine how excited we will all be to win our game this afternoon.
Leisurely walking on the beach to avoid the traffic, we are just hypnotized by the pod of whales that are so close we could swim to them ( I mean if the water wasn't 40 degrees). They are spyhopping and rolling and just having a grand time. It is such a calming feeling to hear them and the waves .
Back at the hotel , the others are waiting anxiously for us, afraid we will miss the opening seconds of the game. As we all gather and the game begins, we settled into our seats - you know what I mean ... sort of work your butt around until the spot is just right, right? Game on!!!!! Call for sessions to start!! Say what? you mean now? But you delayed for Argentina's game....come on............arggggh!
By halftime we are done and head down for what we think will be a victory celebration.............we are all there, even a few foreign supporters.....cheering and groaning and yelling and jumping and sighing and .........oh we are losing .......... oh we are losing by 2 ........................Yeah!!! WE SCORE!!!!! tense comes now where close the feeling in the room.......despair doesn't describe the final moments!! But pride covers all and we stand and cheer and clap for our team and speak only words of a positive nature. It was interesting to see how the other countries were trying to understand how we could cheer our team , even after they lost. But that is what it means to be a united country and to be American and proud of it! Way to go Team USA - well played .....
So let's see... I have learned so much that my head is most likely to explode and that would be rather unfortunate because should that happen, I will leak out all that valuable info and have to start all over again. I have learned that as bad as we think that Lincolnton High School has it , we could be ever so much worse and so I should be grateful for small favors. I am constantly amazed by the caliber of teacher that iEARN attracts and really hope aspire to be like them before I grow up.
So enough of that .... what have I done in the past two days? Yesterday was really rather normal : sessions and the Adobe Youth Voices Premier! What fabulous videos put together by students around the world... I am definitely kicking some AYV kids butts when I get back. We have to get going because I know that LHS AVY can produce equally as high quality as any I saw last night. Today we had sessions in the morning but before they started I managed to go for a walk on the beach and listen to the whales. They are just hanging out near shore playing and chilling. Wish that iPhone cameras could zoom in far enough to get them looking anything other than a black streak in the picture. At any rate, I wandered for a bit and picked up shells and sea glass and took some cool sunrise pictures with a different technique..... not as good as with a camera not on a phone, but not too bad either.
As we finished the first session , we wandered out into the lobby and were over come with the odor of smoke and pretty soon saw billowing black clouds outside the windows...... I started to panic a wee bit, but my brain kept saying , hmm calm down.....that smells like burning tires not burning hotel. Sure enough , we were embroiled (excuse the pun) in a political protest and the protesters were right outside the hotel with a really large banner , tribal drums beating out a constant beat and a huge pile of burning tires. The sky was absolutely black and the smoke was just suffocating. You know that the smart thing would be to stay inside and away from these folks that were protesting the firing of a worker at the hotel and the overall poor working conditions. Now you know what I mean, avoid this right? But you see we had planned an excursion ( just a 2 mile hike up the beach and into town ) to go grab some lunch and soak up the atmosphere during the Argentina game. I mean , we are here , let's do this....... so this means out we go and down past the protesters we head. Successfully navigating through the smoke and yelling , we head off and find an out of the way local place to eat. We figured the normal time for a game would match about how long we would eat. Do you think that the Argentinians could do this quickly? Heck no! So we waited and watched and waited and watched and finally, sometime after three - game over .... we can leave! Now when I say leave, understand that this will not be a quick process. There is a parade of cars , all decked out with team colors, flags, people .. you name it ..being led through town by a police escort and honking their horns and playing music! People are hanging out of windows and all of the businesses are closed.... fire crackers are going off .... children are laughing and running around with flags draped over their bodies and old women and men are crying! I can only imagine how excited we will all be to win our game this afternoon.
Leisurely walking on the beach to avoid the traffic, we are just hypnotized by the pod of whales that are so close we could swim to them ( I mean if the water wasn't 40 degrees). They are spyhopping and rolling and just having a grand time. It is such a calming feeling to hear them and the waves .
Back at the hotel , the others are waiting anxiously for us, afraid we will miss the opening seconds of the game. As we all gather and the game begins, we settled into our seats - you know what I mean ... sort of work your butt around until the spot is just right, right? Game on!!!!! Call for sessions to start!! Say what? you mean now? But you delayed for Argentina's game....come on............arggggh!
By halftime we are done and head down for what we think will be a victory celebration.............we are all there, even a few foreign supporters.....cheering and groaning and yelling and jumping and sighing and .........oh we are losing .......... oh we are losing by 2 ........................Yeah!!! WE SCORE!!!!! tense comes now where close the feeling in the room.......despair doesn't describe the final moments!! But pride covers all and we stand and cheer and clap for our team and speak only words of a positive nature. It was interesting to see how the other countries were trying to understand how we could cheer our team , even after they lost. But that is what it means to be a united country and to be American and proud of it! Way to go Team USA - well played .....
I see Tim Howard was unbelievable! Too bad the rest of the team wasn't up to his caliber today.
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