Learning to Bow

June 11, 2006


A meeting of friendly and open people upon landing at SFO. I don’t really know what I thought I was going to find amongst this huge group of teachers. There are 200 in all, from all 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

The bus to the hotel – just south of the SF airport, was very modern with video screens in it that showed you the view outside from the of the bus . I really thought this was strange since you were so high up and could look out the windows as usual. This was the first of many indications that the technology piece of this excursion was going to be much bigger than any other sort of adventure I have had, at home or traveling.

Very nice room with a view of the southern part of SF bay. Apparently in Japan, we will have our own rooms, but here I had a roommate who turned out to be very nice, and an “ethnic Mennonite” whatever that is. Many of my colleagues are documenting every single thing about this trip from checking in to meetings and lunch and breakfast. Cellphones, laptops, digital cameras and a fair amount of brand spanking new video cameras abound. This laptop is adding a certain amount of weight to my bag, perhaps more than I anticipated, but it is OK.

The cocktail party before dinner was a good idea for everyone as it sort of loosened everyone up and it seemed like folks got geared up, certainly dressed up for it. I hung around with Reggie who I met at the baggage carousel in SF, and some other folks. The thing that I am noticing, which plays into my Homogenization of America paranoia is that people seem on the surface to be the same wherever they come from. Is this part of Bush’s NCLB stuff? (I’m sure Bush is behind it somehow…) The prevalence of advertising, or what? Except of course if you talk to folks, they aren’t all like that . There a lot of nice people here and there are some people here I do not need to get to know very well. And there are some people that are OK just to talk to certain things about. But mostly it is pleasant enough.