Informational Meeting: Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016 6:30 p.m.
This is a meeting for anyone who wants more information about the 12-day service learning tour to India over Spring Break 2017.
Friday, January 22, 2016
Betsy
I have scheduled a Monday meeting with a teacher from Comstock Park who takes yearly trips with EF and has done a tour to India! She and I are kindred spirits already, both of us being avid travelers and teachers. If you have any specific questions you'd like us to talk about, leave a comment, and I'll be sure to cover it with her on Monday.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Permission to proceed - GRANTED!
We have been granted administrative permission to proceed with our planning and recruiting stage of our Go India 2017 service tour! This leaves just one hurdle which is board approval. Fortunately, we bring a healthy set of credentials for international travel to the table. Here is my travel resume:
1. Two summers of my childhood were spent in Germany where I learned to speak fluent German.
2. 1986 I spent three months traveling through Brazil with my mother on a journey to discover the country she emigrated to from Germany after WWII. There I learned to speak some Portuguese and became more savvy with regard to "off the beaten path" travel. I often share my stories of this trip with my students.
3. I have traveled through Europe extensively and numerous time, including France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and many more.
4. I have traveled by train, bus, ship (North Sea, Brazil, and Greece/Turkey), plane, rental car, bicycle, on foot, and more during my international travel.
5. My mother has been an international tour director for 22 years, speaks five languages fluently, and as a result of her job, my children have traveled to approximately 30 countries each from Europe, to South Africa, Australia to China, South America to ...well...you name it, as junior escorts each summer since they were the age of 8. They are now 14 and 16 and will be joining us.
6. My family spent Christmas in the Amazon jungle a few years back. Literally, in the jungle. Many stories to tell!
7. My husband and I have trekked through the Himalayas, surfed through Western Australia, bicycled (last summer) through Tuscany, Italy, and whitewater rafted/bicycled through Costa Rica.
8. Travel has long been a part of my life and that of my family. I was born into travel, and continue to travel overseas with as much regularity as my pocketbook will allow - at least every two years. I know that some people are afraid to leave their homes, but the world is filled with wonderful people and flavors and customs and adventures. I would never bring your children anyplace I wouldn't bring my own children. EF Tours, likewise, would not bring students anyplace that isn't safe. While events around the world dominate our thoughts and threaten to fill us with fear, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of the world is safe for exploration and healthy for all. What's more, it gives our children a clearer picture of who we are as Americans, to others and to ourselves. India will change their lives. It will make them better, wiser, more compassionate, hungry to know more, broader in their thinking, curious, grateful, more informed...well let's let them tell us - when they return:)
1. Two summers of my childhood were spent in Germany where I learned to speak fluent German.
2. 1986 I spent three months traveling through Brazil with my mother on a journey to discover the country she emigrated to from Germany after WWII. There I learned to speak some Portuguese and became more savvy with regard to "off the beaten path" travel. I often share my stories of this trip with my students.
3. I have traveled through Europe extensively and numerous time, including France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Czech Republic, Poland, Austria, Spain, England, Ireland, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, and many more.
4. I have traveled by train, bus, ship (North Sea, Brazil, and Greece/Turkey), plane, rental car, bicycle, on foot, and more during my international travel.
5. My mother has been an international tour director for 22 years, speaks five languages fluently, and as a result of her job, my children have traveled to approximately 30 countries each from Europe, to South Africa, Australia to China, South America to ...well...you name it, as junior escorts each summer since they were the age of 8. They are now 14 and 16 and will be joining us.
6. My family spent Christmas in the Amazon jungle a few years back. Literally, in the jungle. Many stories to tell!
7. My husband and I have trekked through the Himalayas, surfed through Western Australia, bicycled (last summer) through Tuscany, Italy, and whitewater rafted/bicycled through Costa Rica.
8. Travel has long been a part of my life and that of my family. I was born into travel, and continue to travel overseas with as much regularity as my pocketbook will allow - at least every two years. I know that some people are afraid to leave their homes, but the world is filled with wonderful people and flavors and customs and adventures. I would never bring your children anyplace I wouldn't bring my own children. EF Tours, likewise, would not bring students anyplace that isn't safe. While events around the world dominate our thoughts and threaten to fill us with fear, the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of the world is safe for exploration and healthy for all. What's more, it gives our children a clearer picture of who we are as Americans, to others and to ourselves. India will change their lives. It will make them better, wiser, more compassionate, hungry to know more, broader in their thinking, curious, grateful, more informed...well let's let them tell us - when they return:)
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Let's Do PERU 2017! Service Learning at its BEST!
Hello,
Ladies and Gentlemen: Never let it be said that GLDMUN doesn't think big.
I am announcing today an opportunity for all 2017 GLDMUN team members and alum that will provide the kind of firsthand knowledge of the issues and concerns that we address each and every day in debate and Model UN. Issues of education, hunger, clean water, economics and more. I have been working with EF Tours educational travel specialist, Rebecca Muriitwa to develop a service learning opportunity for Spring Break 2017
to PERU
I will be culling my list of all current members of our team, as well as potential candidates for our team moving forward, or those who simply have demonstrated maturity, good character, responsibility, and intellectual curiousity. I will limit the trip to those I have given an invitation. Any other interested persons will need to apply and obtain references as needed. We will host a meeting Tuesday, Feb. 16 @ 6:30 p.m. in the Media Center/Library at GLHS. In attendance, I will have vetted chaperones as well as my own two children, Maggie, 16, and Joe, 14, who have been traveling all over the world on music tours as assistants to my mother for 8 and 6 years respectively and have each been to nearly 30 countries. They have been to South Africa, China, all over Europe, South America, and they will share out about the impact of travel on their education and personal development.
We will be working on the development of two scholarships for students who cannot afford to travel and would otherwise not be able to afford an opportunity such as this, and we will be engaging in fundraising for this trip outside of our fundraising efforts for GLDMUN.
It is my intention to build service trips into second and third world areas every year. Gull Lake offers other extremely worthwhile travel abroad opportunities in language immersion and in classic European tours. We are proud of the range of opportunities we can provide to ALL students with the addition of the service tours.
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