Welcome

I guess you are here because you have discovered one of my books and enjoyed it enough to find out more about the author, me. Either that or you’re a potential employer who is investigating me to see if I would be a good fit for your organization. In which case, surprise, I write books as well as teach. Some might look at that as a bad thing, and if so, please explain to me how.

For whoever finds my site, I want to welcome you, and also allow you the opportunity to follow me on a regular basis. Anybody is welcome as long as you keep your posts appropriate, and respect the other followers to this site. As long as everybody follows those two simple rules, I won’t have to kick anybody off. Let the friendly banter begin.

I am hoping to create an interactive site that everybody can enjoy. Of course, I will keep you up to date on the latest writings coming out of my head, and I will also let you know when and where I will be in the world, so someday you might be able to meet me in person. Most people regret that decision, but who knows, maybe you’ll be in the minority.

I will also tell you about my world-wide travels as this is something I do on a regular basis. I’ll show you pictures from places I have been (this one is from Dubrovnik, better known to fans of The Song of Ice and Fire as King’s Landing), and tell you the exciting stories that happen to me along the way. You are also welcome to ask me any questions you may have about the place I have been, and I will try to answer them in a timely manner.

I know it all sounds amazing, and I can see you wondering why you haven’t been a part of this fantastic experience so far, but let me tell you about the most exciting part of following this site – the interactive part.  You were probably wondering when I would get to that part I had promised you earlier. Well, I plan to create a list every month, and I want you to participate in its formation. I do love countdowns, but I am always disappointed in them. So I have decided to take matters into my own hands. You will be able to post your top ten of each monthly list and at the end of each month, I will comprise the total list to give you the countdown for that subject. Look for each new subject on the first day of each month, and the final list of the previous month by the fifteenth.

Otherwise, it is very nice to have you a part of this experience, and I look forward to all of our future posts together.

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Thank you for your response. ✨

The Painted Hills – Central Oregon

Oregon is one of the most diverse states within the United States. It has costal regions, high dessert, mountains, small towns, big cities, and long beautiful rivers. There is a little something for everybody in Oregon, so it should not shock me when I come across a new region that adds to the diversity of this state, but this is exactly what happened as I traveled to one of the more hidden gems out here. The Painted Hills not only showed me a new side of Oregon, but showed me something new that I had never seen before.

The Painted Hills are one of Oregon’s seven wonders, and one that many people do not make it out to. It has been designated as a National Monument, so there are people there, but it does not attract the crowds like Crater Lake of the Oregon coast does. The infrastructure around the location is not as built up as well with not a lot of locations to stay at except for a few campsites in the neighborhood so it makes it hard to plan to get out to the location. Luckily, the location is not an all day place, and can be enjoyably viewed within a couple of hours. It is the perfect place to stop by and see, especially if you are traveling from the Columbia Gorge to the Bend area in Central Oregon.

The Painted Hills have four hikes with a couple of miles from each other. Most of the hikes are less than a mile and are on well designated path to keep people off of the fragile soil of the monument. Three of them are relatively easy to do with very little elevation gain, and the longest hike is the most difficult going straight up a mountain to a spectacular view of the whole region. For the most part, anybody can do the three shorter hikes, and the hardest hike can still be accomplished by most people. They are all pretty close to each other with only short drives in-between them. During the summer months, it does get hot at the location, so make sure to bring plenty of water.

Besides the views that are offered, there is a lot of other interesting things to witness at the sight. There is a small oasis at the ranger station with picnic tables, perfect for lunch. The rangers are also well informed and are willing to ask any questions about the Painted Hills. Even if you do not ask them questions, there are a lot of information signs all around that can tell you about the formation of the hills, what the place looked like thousands of years ago, and about all of the fossils that have been found at the sight.

It is easy to see why the Painted Hills are one of Oregon’s seven wonders. It might not be the easiest of locations to get to, but it is worth the drive to get out there, and even better to make a stop at if you find yourself in the location. It is just another example of why Oregon is one of the most beautiful states in the United States.

Until next time, keep on finding those hidden gems out there.

Welcome to Summer?

If you want to see pure exhaustion, find a teacher who has just finished a long school year. It does not matter the level that they teach, this is the moment in their busy schedule where they have plowed through the final assessments, attended all of those important milestones in their students’ lives such as graduation or promotion, and have tidied up their classrooms enough so it will look like they care about the way outsiders perceive them. The end of the year is a mad dash at the end of a long marathon, and it takes the last remnants of energy that any educator has left in their tanks. I know that when I make my way out of campus for that final time of the school year, carrying my milk crate full of my personal effects, I feel completely spent like I want to flop down on a couch looking to run the laps on television with the remote in my hand. It is about all my mind can handle at this time, but I know in my heart that it will not last for very long.

After all, it is summertime! This time of the year that I find my own choices to do with as I will, and the television will just not satisfy my craving for adventure, and intellectual stimulation. There are so many books I want to read, so many games I want to play, and so many places I want to see that I cannot let that pure exhaustion plant me in my living room. I have to get out, and see what the world has to offer. This means that I look deep within myself to find that reserve I know is down there.

Every teacher has this reserve. They pull from it constantly. It usually comes at the beginning of the day, during a hurried lunch, or right after the final bell when a troubled student stumbles into their room to look for some kind of guidance. This could be anything from help with their writing to advice about relationships to just a friendly face that they need at that exact moment. It is part of the teacher’s job to put aside what they are doing, and all of their worries and concerns, to take care of the needs of their student. And people tend to forget that it is not just one student. The stream of students can sometimes feel like it is ongoing, and at the end of the year that stream really starts to surge. Add on to this, all of the little things a teacher needs to do at the end of the year: create and grade exams, calculate final grades, and tie up any loose ends, and you have the perfect storm where that reserve well will quickly run dry.

The management of a classroom is another thing that most people do not consider when talking about the drain on teachers. I recently had a talk with a friend of mine who works outside of academia about this. He is a manager of a group of twelve people and he was telling me how exhausting it could be to make sure that all of these people are getting the work done that needs to get done. I had to chuckle a little bit because managing twelve people sounds like heaven. He did not consider that a high school teacher has at least five classrooms of people that they have to manage. I am one of the lucky ones that work internationally, so the schools I have worked at cap their classroom sizes at twenty-two students, but that is even worse in classrooms in the United States where due to budgetary concerns, classrooms have exceeded thirty students in them, and I have heard in some places up to fifty-five.

This is why summer is so important to teachers. For those who teach the early years, it is a time to participate in more grown-up activities, to return to that time in their lives where they can once again be adults, to have conversations grounded in logic and reason. For those who teach in secondary schools, it is a time for them to enjoy life free of the hormones and drama that comes with the teenage years, to have days filled with people who are motivated to do what needs to get done and they do not have to be the ones to motivate them, and to have a life free from the constant pressure that their career places on them. It is a time for the teachers to recharge their batteries and get ready to take on the challenges of the next year.

Most summers, it takes a couple of weeks to get caught up on sleep, and find that restful state that is conducive to most other people in the world. It sometimes takes three to four weeks before teachers can let go of the worries of being a teacher and relax enough to feel somewhat human. It is also around this time that teachers start to see the end of summer approaching, so they have to place up mental blocks to avoid the stress that comes with the dawn of a new school year. With that block in place, they can usually to get a place of calm by the start of the school year so they can have the patience and resolve to make it through another one. So when you see a teacher taking it easy for some time have some empathy and understand where they are coming from. It is not an easy job, and the break is a necessary evil so they can do their job well. It is an act of kindness that will go far and help to prepare the next generation of the challenges they will face in this world, hopefully making it a better place overall.

Eat Like A Local – Mexico City Food Tour

One of the greatest parts of travel is eating the local cuisine, and there has been nothing that has excited me than to travel to Mexico for the first time in my life and eat one of my favorite cuisines, Mexican. I know. Here I am, world traveler, who has been to almost 60 countries, and I still have not been to Mexico, even though it is right next door to America. Yeah, I know. There was a time in my life where I thought I would never make it here, but we decided to do a five day stay over in Mexico City before making our way to America for the summer months, and on our first full day here, we went on a food tour with the perfect choice for this kind of excursion, Eat Like a Local.

Eat Like a Local is a food tour company that grew out of an inspiration that tried to create a different experience than the ones that many tourists join when they are traveling around the world. The food tour companies are not always about finding those little hidden gems that the locals know about, but instead, they are looking to make deals with bigger stores to help them bring in more business. This is where Eat Like a Local is different. They want to guide people to those spots that help support the local economy and showcase what Mexican food is all about.

This took us to the markets, and street vendors that are all over Mexico City. It wasn’t just about the food, but also being a part of the local culture as we went to La Merced, an underground market filled not only with fresh produce, but flowers, and many other little necessities that people might need to make it through their day to day routines. It was also great to go through with a guide because she was able to point out some things that I would have never noticed if I had not been with her.

The subway trains were the ones that fascinated me the most. I would have just gotten on and off them without really looking around. The trains looked old, and most of the time packed, so I was trying to find my space without having to get too close to any other stranger on the subway. The ride was a little jittery, but not as bad as some of the other older subway systems I had been on. When it was pointed out that Mexico City had one of only a couple of subway systems that put tires on their trains, I started to understand why.

Each subway stop also had its own decorations. At first, they were used during the Olympics to help guide passengers to the correct stop, but some of them had more symbolic meaning behind them. My favorite was the ducks. The station was originally built on wetlands, but the designer of the station included ducks because it was also the entrance to one of Mexico City’s oldest markets. Because it was such a busy location in the city, it attracted a lot of pickpockets and thieves, and the duck was a symbol of tricksters and criminals. They eventually moved the center of the legislative government to this location, and some people thought that the ducks were a no longer appropriately symbol for this stop. Fortunately, more people thought that they were even more appropriate and they stuck around.

Still, the tour’s main focus was about the food, and there was a huge variety of food to be had along the way. Mainly they involved different types of tacos that were made right there in front of you, and there is a huge variety of tacos to be had in Mexico City. We had tacos filled with pescado (fish), chorizo verde (a green sausage made with spinach, nuts, and spicy meat), carnitas (pork), and mixiote (a traditional way to cook meat that involves boiling it for hours in the skin of an agave plant, and my favorite). Each dish was more delicious than the next and included esquitas (roasted corn), fresh fruit, and quesadillas, and I was able to enjoy all of it. The only dish I could not bring myself to eat was the plate of bugs that was offered to us. I am adventurous and have eaten bugs before, but once in my lifetime was enough for me, and I could not do it again.

The Eat Like a Local food tour through Mexico City was a great way to spend a day and made me so full that I had to wait until later that evening before I wanted to eat again. I would recommend doing it on the first full day that you are in Mexico City because not only is it a great way to get to know the culture, but it also helps to establish the lay of the land as you spend the next few days navigating this large city. I appreciate Panda, our guide, as she showed us around and it will be a day that I soon will not forget.

Teotihuacan Pyramids – Mexico City, Mexico

Every tourist location has its must-do locations; otherwise, you will leave feeling like you really did not experience that place. For Mexico City, it is a location about an hour drive outside of the city, the Teotihuacan Pyramids. This ancient city predates the Aztec culture that is so associated with this part of the world, and it is just as impressive as any of the other ruins that people can visit in Latin America.

Sadly, not a lot is known about this culture except for the fact that it has been around from 200 B.C.E. and that the Aztec people discovered this abandoned location when they first settled in what is now Mexico City. Despite the fact that the history of the place has been pieced together from what archaeologists can determined based on what they find while excavating the site, it was, at one time, an impressive civilization, and this city took up an area about 28 square kilometers, much of which is still taken over by the forest that surrounds this area.

Though they know the size of the original city, they have only recovered an area that is six square kilometers big. The part that they allow visitors to see is by far the most impressive of what has been uncovered. This included the two main temples, the temple of the sun, and the temple of the moon with the path between them also being uncovered. This major thoroughfare would have been where all of the important people of the Teotihuacans would live, but today, it is known as the path of the dead. This is because when the site was first being excavated, archaeologists believed that many of the structures that were left behind were tombs, but this is no longer the believed theory. Still, the name stuck, so like many other sites in Latin America, it is still what it is called today.

The path is just as impressive as the temples that it connects. The smaller steps that were used for the houses leads one to imagine what it would have been like to have lived in this part of the world at the height of its civilization. There are also a well, and murals along the path that if you know where to look, give even more hints of what it would have looked like back in the day. We were lucky enough to have a demonstration of how the Teotihuacans made their paints from the various materials they found in the area, and then how that could be used to make these paintings. It added so much to the experience, and only comes from having a guide to take you through the sight.

I definitely recommend having a guide that will take you through the sight. There are a lot of secrets held in these ruins beyond the murals and names, and the sight does not have any signs that explain what you are looking at. Some companies will even arrange for pickups at certain places around Mexico City, drive you out to the ruins, take you on the tour, and make sure you get back. The whole experience takes no longer than four hours to complete.

This part of Mexico is rich with history, and ancient cultures just waiting for you to explore, and it is a great way to spend a day if you are staying in Mexico City. Though it is a little out of town, and there is some hiking involved, it is mostly flat, and not very long. The hardest part was walking up the Temple of the Moon which has massive steps that you will have to climb up, but it only take a minute or two to make it all the way up. It gives you some amazing views of the whole place from up there, and makes you feel like at one time you could have been a part of the Teotihuacan cultue.

The National Museum of Anthropology – Mexico City, Mexico

When people think of Mexico City, they often think of the great food that is available there, and then they think about the various civilizations that span centuries and makes this one of the most in interesting cultures that the world has to offer. There are ruins both inside and outside of the city that offer a glimpse at these civilizations, but the country was smart enough to gather the most important antiquities and put them together in a museum that allows people to explore these cultures and learn a little about what mankind knows about them. This place is found on the edges of North America’s largest park, Chapultepec Park, and is open six days a week from 9AM to 5PM called the National Museum of Anthropology.

To start off with, this museum is huge and holds a massive collection of mesoamerican pieces that cover cultures from the Mayans to the Aztecs to the Teotihuacans and many more. It is not as large as the British Museum but all of the pieces on display here actually come from the region that the museum is in, and does not take the treasures from other parts of the world to put on display. Though not as big as the British Museum, it would still take more than a day to cover all that this place has to offer. You could probably do it if you wanted to, but you would be exhausted afterwards and everything would blend together in the end, not allowing you to get anything out of the experience that you could if you just took your time instead.

I would recommend just picking and choosing what you want to look at instead of trying to take it all in. The museum is laid-out exceptionally well which makes finding what you are looking for easy. The civilizations are divided up into separate rooms with the main descriptions of what you are seeing written out in both Spanish and English. Unfortunately, when it gets to the more singular piece details, they are usually written in Spanish, so you better brush up on that language if you want to know all the in-and-outs of what you are seeing. But still, there is plenty enough English if you do not know Spanish that you will be satisfied with the knowledge that you will gain visiting here.

I spent most of my three hours in the museum in the rooms about the Aztecs and the Mayans. It is impressive the amount of pieces that were spared from the Spanish colonial period as they went through destroying much of what they had to offer the world considering it blasphemous to their religion and thinking. I am also amazed at how much can be learned about the culture by looking at these pieces because, especially with the Aztecs, much of it was lost due to the conquistadors and priests that came over from Europe. They had spent a lot of the time destroying the stone statues believing that they were blasphemous towards the Catholic religion. I am grateful that there was such a vast collection out there that I was still able to view so much of it, but it also makes me wonder what treasures were lost.

If I have any complaint about this museum, it is a minor one and it is more of a reflection of who I am rather than what this museum has to offer, and that is with the gift shop. Most of the time, I believe gift shops to be a waste of time filled with a bunch of silly trinkets that don’t really mean anything, and this museum keeps up with that tradition, but I still go and visit them anyway to see if I could find a book that would help me learn more about what I just saw. I have found some really good books all around the world that have helped me dig deeper into the cultures I am exploring, and there were some books that looked really good in this museum’s gift shop, except they were all in Spanish. My Spanish is not strong enough yet to be able to read these more complex texts, so I wish that they supplied some books in English so I could have known more about the Aztecs and the Mayans. Still, I should be able to find this information elsewhere, and like I said, it is a small complaint about an otherwise wonderful experience.

Even though it might not be on your radar if you are visiting Mexico City, it is a place that you should consider adding to your itinerary. It is something that is truly a part of the area, and explores its long history. The National Museum of Anthropology is easily one of the best museums I have ever been to, and worth the visit.

Game Day in Mexico City

When we booked our trip to Mexico City a couple of months ago, the World Cup was the last thing that was on our minds. We just thought it would be a great stop-over on our way back to the United States for the summer where we could get a little culture, and enjoy some great food. What we found was a little bit more than that. It was a celebration of a sporting event that brings the world together to see which nation has the best football team for the next four years.

There has been an electric vibe to the whole city ever since we have arrived. I have seen many different jerseys as we have walked around from Columbia to the Netherlands to Ecuador, but the one that is most prevalent has been the green jersey of the Mexican national team. Everywhere we have gone we have seen street vendors selling this jersey, and I have been told that it is easier to find the knock-off version rather than the official version as a symbolic middle finger to FIFA has overcharged for anything concerning this event for the fans that truly buy into all of the hype.

Things built up to a crazy amount of enthusiasm on Tuesday night as Mexico played in their first knock-out game of the tournament. People starting filing out onto the streets around four o’clock to find their special spot where they could watch the game. The bars had all of their seats taken and vendors started popping out from all corners of the city to sell jerseys, horns, drinks, and flags. Everybody was excited to see Mexico move on to the next round for the first time in decades.

It got so crazy last night that there were places where you could not even more except for the way that the crowd pushed you to go. Cars could no longer travel on some of the major thoroughfares because they were packed with people. And the whole crowd cheered their team onto a victory that could be felt throughout the whole city. I have been around the World Cup before, but never like this, and it showed me for the first time how much people love this event.

Congratulations to Mexico for winning the game and moving on, and I wish them the best in the next round.

Karaoke

Life will move slower down in the valley
As we take a pause from our busy days.
We can create nighttime festivity
Where only the bolder come out to play.
We will dust off the old songs from our youth
To sing with the new friends that we have made.
In their simple lyrics we find a truth
Whose remembrance has started to fade.
Our time to control this city is gone,
Passed on to the younger generation,
But for now, we have ’til the break of dawn
To pretend that we still own that station.
So raise your voices to the stars above,
And embrace out past in these songs of love.

A Remembrance to Snow

There was a time when snow covered the land,
Hiding all of the world’s imperfections
To everywhere that eye had spanned,
Forcing us to run to our reflections.
The icy landscape chased away the birds,
Leaving behind a moment of silence.
We took the time to part from our own herds
So we could shed our facade of pretense.
The cold would cloud our breath and bite our nose,
Yet we would fight against the discomfort
As we searched for understanding that grows,
And through meditation we can support.
But for today the only wind that blows
Is in remembrance of days of snow.

Ziplining

Only a rope allow me to dangle
From high above the forest canopy.
Within its threads, my fingers will tangle
To make sure that the ground I will not see
Until I can find it with my own feet,
And not from a free fall from the wire.
Traveling by zipping, I will complete
This moment of fear from being higher,
And I feel like I accomplished something
That was always buried deep within me,
An irrationality that is holding
From experiencing life that is free.
It’s the way we conquer those things that scare,
By overcoming that childish dare.

The Mighty River

Do not take the river’s might for granted,
For it has spent years carving this valley.
It’s hard to follow what it has ranted
As it rushes out to the distant sea,
But if you stand upon its muddy banks,
And pause from your busy day to listen,
The river will regale honestly frank
Tales of how the pride of men it’s taken.
They have tried to dance upon its rapids
In flimsy boats carved out of hollow wood,
And though its rage absolutely forbids
The challenges these men thought they could,
Boats and men have both cracked in disarray
And the river flows mightily this day.