learnings

Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. - Marcus Aurelius

Nov 8th/9th/10th Heavy moments and tearful farewell at Purdue by Team Nebraska. We did not realise how closely we had bonded till we reached Purdue!! Credit goes to our Prog Coordinator, Joe Mcnulty. He gave such a hectic schedule that we hated it but fell in love with it and with one another!!!! Team Nebraska stood proud and strong at Purdue so much so that others were envious. We are truly a precious and precocious bunch!!!! Boarded the Chicago flight and the Brussels=Chennai flight with a heavy heart. Excitement creeped in as we neared home. Sat up the whole night chatting to dearest mom. Hardly slept for a couple of hours. Now eyes are heavy with sleep.

Nov 6th /7th At conferences and more conferences. it has been an amazing reunion with the teachers from all over. There are 114 of us. So cameras went clicking and the poor Americans had enough with us!! Towards night we had an awesome surprise!!! Joe and Anasatasia- our Lincoln coordinator/ faculty/ husband wife couple.. joined us. We screamed in delight and borught the roof down on seeingthe, .We, Nebraskans are missing each other!!!! They brought a few more lovely pics and a certifcate=== very valuable mementos!!! 7th, We had an exhibition on all our education systems. We interacted with the US teachers who are travelling to our country. It was very interesting. Made more friends!!!! Last evening in the USA!! Yet another surprise visitor was Tim Bayne!!!

Nove 3rd/ 4th /5th We had conferences and workshops to summarized what we had learnt. We also presented our web sites to our team mates. It was countdown time and we were drowned in mixed feelings. Nov 4th night- we had a farewell dinner. It was a lovely evening. 5th Woke up at 3.00 am( a slept-just fr one and half hours). left Lincoln by 4.30. Flew to Minneapolis. Realised that our bags had not arrived- our carry ons! Tension galore!! Continued our journey to Indianapolis. During the flights we hardly got anything to eat.How I missed Indian Airlines!!! Registered our complaints at Indianapolis. A shuttle took us to Purdue. Reached Holiday Inn totally exhausted and hungry. Fortunately got our'lost bags'!!!!

NOv 2nd We took time to complete our web site and also a lesson plan for the Purdue conference. I had a real taste of Customer care here. I had gone to the most reputed store, Best Buy, for electronic gadgets. My intention was to buy an external hard disk. Like a champ I got one gadget. To my horror, after paying 50 and odd dollars it turned out to be a mere enclosure for a hard drive!! Truly it was a humbling experience. I was fraught with worry because I likened the situation to my home country. Mustering courage and along with a good friend I went back to the store and told my problem. I did not have the bill too. To my utter astonishment the sales guy hardly blinked an eye. He took the product from me( which was in pieces as my friend had tried to assemble and install). I was asked if i had paid in cash or by card. And before I could blink an eye I was given a token to go and get another gadget to my satisfaction. No questions were asked, no explanations needed. WOW!! This is what ...

Nov 1st Visited BOYS TOWN. This is a town spread over 300 acres. It's school for the underdogs!! Children who are juvenile delinquents; those who are abused either physically/emotionally/mentally/ those who re either drug/alcohol dependent etc. All the kids are troubled, poor, angry etc. But to my astonishment the atmosphere here is so positive. there is so much of enthusiasm among the staff and students to forge ahead. The teachers work so hard to make the students believe in themselves! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boys_Town,_Nebraska . Please visit this link to know further details. There is also a famous old movie, by the same name, that won Spencer Tracy an oscar. He later donated the Oscar to BOYS TOWN!! It was a soul stirring and a soul searching event for me. It led me to reflect a lot on my role as a teacher!!