(part two) Christy and I finished our breakfast at the hotel up at the top and looked into the fog. The buses wouldn’t start arriving until noon. “Let’s hike up the big mountain,” she said. “Okay,” I said. My lost and found tennis shoes were too small, but I had cut out the toes so… Continue reading More Machu Picchu
Category: teaching
Machu – whatchu?
It was 1977. I was finishing up ten weeks of student teaching in an American oil school in Caracas, Venezuela. My roommate, Christy, wanted to travel for two weeks before we went home to the states. She wanted to visit Machu Picchu in Peru. I’d never heard of it. “It’s the lost city of the… Continue reading Machu – whatchu?
Introvert or Extrovert?
Most people don’t know it they are an introvert or an extrovert for the first ten or so years of their lives. By the time they get to college, they have figured it out. Is your ideal weekend spent with or without people? Are you an introvert or an extrovert or a combination of both?… Continue reading Introvert or Extrovert?
First Dog, Lost Dog
After moving to farm country to teach high school Spanish, I watched my roommate Kristy come home one day with a German Shephard puppy. “Meet Shane!” she said. She hadn’t asked me. She hadn’t asked the landlord. When she did ask him, his response was, “Not in the house.” Kristy made Shane a bed of… Continue reading First Dog, Lost Dog
Sneaking into the Pool
While student teaching in Venezuela, we learned how to have fun with not much money. One of the American teachers had stolen a couple of striped beach towels from an upscale hotel, and she had been sneaking into the hotel pool for years. “Just carry the towel and act like you belong,” Linda said. Christy… Continue reading Sneaking into the Pool
Scariest Student Ever
During my ten years of teaching public school, I had many a student that caused me grief. The 8th grader transfer student who called me a bitch in front of the whole class on his first day. The brilliant 7th grade boy who lit matches in the hallway and dropped them on the… Continue reading Scariest Student Ever
Peace Corps Fail
It was in the spring of my first year of teaching when the call came. I was at Greenwood Elementary in Greenwood, Nebraska. I had applied to the Peace Corps the year before. They had just seen my application. They wanted to fly me to Chicago for an interview that weekend. They gave me 24… Continue reading Peace Corps Fail
