Am now in St. Petersburg, Florida...
Shall be in this city for a few days, primarily to meet with some counterparts at two colleges wth regards to university collaborations...
I need to get a more active exchange of students going on in my campus, or else...
Actually flew into Los Angeles some days ago...
Visited two universities there and it is really interesting to see the contrast in the running of things...
Anyway, a notable thing about this trip is that, it has been 25 years since I last stepped foot on US mainland soil...
Really, I myself cannot imagine that a quarter of a century has elapsed since I left the US in June 1986...
I had gone to Hawaii a few occasions after that, but that doesn't count, says one of my counterparts...
Being away from the US for so long, I had naturally lost touch with a lot of things...
I have lost my orientation of how far a mile is or how cool 41 degrees Farenheit is...
I felt quite bewildered at the size of the parking lots and the 8-laned freeways...
The oversized food portions, ooh... lucky my missus is accompanying me this time and we can sometimes share the food out...
My sense of distances between destinations went haywired...
Why, for Japan can fit into just the state of California by itself...
So, for many of the drives or rides we were on, they were all like inter-prefectural driving in Japan, judging by the kilometers, um, I mean, miles...
The schedule is tight, and coupled with the jetlag, it is a tiring trip...
Still, I am determined to get the student exchange thingy launched in one form or another...
Ok, need to catch up on some sleep for now...
Good night from Florida...
Gardening, photography, food, fishing, traveling, scuba diving, life in Japan, plus of course, news and views of being away from home...
And good morning from Malaysia. :)
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well and as planned for you and the exchange program collaborations goes well too. ^^
lina... good morning from St Pete... thank you for your kind words...
ReplyDeleteWelcome to the USA Lrong and Y...hope you're able to get started the exchange program. I haven't ever figured out why restaurants here, give so much food for one meal. One meal feeds me sometime 2 or 3 times. Traveling can be tiring...rest when you can! And be safe!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds as if you have a hectic schedule, but I hope your trip results in increased student exchanges. My daughter participated in an exchange between her college and a college in England and found it to be very valuable and rewarding.
ReplyDeleteTheanne... thank you for welcoming us to the US... today, our friend took us to Tarpon Springs and we had a good time taking a boat ride out into the sea... the greek food was excellent... had gyros and bakalava... portions were a little huge but managed to finish my share.
ReplyDeleteGeorge... a hectic schedule it is... but luckily, am taking it quite well... good to know that your daughter had a positive experience with her study abroad program...
will certainly do my best to try make it easier for my students to get involved in such exchanges...
Hope you are having a good time and a fruitful mission!
ReplyDeletekitchen flavours... thank you! Will try to enjoy myelf and workhard too...
ReplyDeletestill there? in US? alahaii.. bestnye.. should post some photos.. :)
ReplyDeletesyanashwa... yes, still here in US... shall be posting some pics after returning back to japan...
ReplyDeleteSteve... thank you for coming by my blog...