Way, way late update

OK - I get it. I guess it's time to update. Where to start? Hmmmmm. In May I (I'm saying "I" until Kevin decides to put his 2 cents in - I'm not holding my breath) took off and went to Chihuahua City for a few days with some colleagues from NMU. My impressions were: It is a lot the same as I expected and also a lot different. I was impressed with their diet. Yes it was Mexican food (Kevin warned me I would get overdosed on Mexican food and be tired of it and I said NEVER! Guess what? I was right! I could eat it all the time.) The fruit - I have never eaten so much fruit in all my life. They have fruit with every meal. The enchiladas with mole' (did you know mole' was made with CHOCOLATE? How could I resist?) - yummmmm! I visited a bilingual school - very sparse on equipment as compared to our classrooms but very high on attitude! I went into a 9th grade classroom and remembered why I love teaching those grades so much. I also got a picture of the Curves there - Kevin and I joke that "they're everywhere!" They really are. We got to hobnob with some biggies and I took pictures of a Tarahumara Indian mother and daughter. I learned a lot about the culture, particularly the more advantaged people. I definitely want to go back. There are some beautiful places there and I would like to go camping in the desert and in Copper Canyon in the Sierras.


As soon as I got back we left for about 5 weeks in Oklahoma. We visited with babies and kids, helped my Mom and Andrew with their houses and stuff and sloshed through the rain and rain and rain .... you get it. It rained the last 18 days we were there - every day - straight through. It was a record. Even Mom's yard looked like a lake at times. Andrew literally had ducks swimming behind his house. I'm really not kidding. Mandy, Ella and I managed to get in a trip to the zoo and I visited the egret rookery before the rain started. Driving home it rained so much we had to stop in Kansas City for the night and I-35 was closed going south (good thing we were going north).

We arrived home around 5am on a Monday and I began teaching that morning at 8. I taught every day for 2 weeks then had a couple of days off. Then I took off for one of those events of a lifetime. Somehow I was on a list to attend a NASA education conference and then watch the space shuttle, STS 118, launch on August 8. 2007 from the VIP viewing area at Banana Creek. What an amazing sight! People always ask me if it was loud. I don't honestly know. I was yelling with the rest of the crowd! It was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen. And yes, I really did take that picture myself!



I also learned about the virtual world Second Life and I was pretty embarrassed that NMU, a supposedly high tech university, knew nothing about it when over 100 universities from the US and others from over 13 other countries were involved along with NASA, NOAA, the American Cancer Society, Nature, NPR....... So I am now in there and trying to establish a foothold for NMU. If you want to see me there, my avatar is Clowey Greenwood. Kevin (Makwa Greenwood) is in there too and we have built a log cabin on some virtual land owned by some LDS people (Cumorah Island - part of Adam-ondi-ahman Island). I also have a space (seen behind me above) near the Star Trek museum for my students to hang out and for me to have class with them.


I flew directly from Orlando to Madison where I attended and participated in the Distance Teaching and Learning Conference at the Monona Conference Center. It was a good conference. I got home and almost immediately began teaching a one week seminar in Escanaba. The next week was professional development stuff at NMU and the following week Kevin and I started back to school. Whew!

Kevin is broadcasting for public radio here, WNMU-FM 90.1: http://wnmu.publicbroadcasting.net/. He is typically online on T, W & Th nights from 7-10pm and on Saturdays from 2-8pm. Tune in on the website and listen. He has a great radio voice. He has been very involved with helping the Native American community get some of their events publicized on air as well as NMU's diversity conference.

I gave a presentation about diversity in Second Life during the conference and also sponsored a LDSSA event. Last week we had the annual Seaborg science and math education conference and I presented two sessions about space. So that is a quick and dirty update. The animals have been ornery lately - Amber and Jane went across 553 and had to be separated and controlled, Nurmi learned how to open a side door on his cage and get out. Melvin is just obnoxious but not as much since Amber is home alone - Melvin is glad to see her without that pesky, rowdy Jane (in his opinion). Such is the crazy life!