Traveloteacher

On Saturday we were invited to the President's Tailgate at his residence. This tailgate was completely different than the one I wrote about two weeks ago. It was held in his beautiful lush garden. The tables and chairs were all white, the table cloths white and blue, the colors of the Nittany Lions. There were lots of people there and at the beginning of the Tailgate the President introduced his special guests, and among the special guests were we - the Humphrey Fellows! Oh how proud and honored I was to be there wearing my Penn State T-shirt and waving at the other invitees. After the cheerleaders' performance accompanied by the Blue Band we watched a stunning performance of the Musical Theatre group. They danced and sang the songs from the 1920s and the songs, the dance and the setting made me feel as if I was at a fabulous Gatsby's party. The Great Gatsby is one of my favorite books and I felt great! After  lunch we were bussed to the Presi...

We had our official photos taken this past week. Dress code was formal and we all spruced up for the occasion. After our individual photos had been taken we all headed for the Nittany Lion shrine where we took several official photos and dozens of silly ones, which we of course enjoyed very much. The Nittany Lion has been a PennState's mascot since 1904 and the Nittany Lion Shrine is the most photographed site on the campus. The word "Nittany" most likely derives from a native American term meaning "a single mountain".  You can find more about all things Nittany here . The official photos will be published on the  Penn State Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program  website. The credit for the "unofficial" photos above and the photos below goes to Jane. On Wednesday evening we were invited for a dinner at Dean David Monk's home.  Dean Monk is the dean of the College of Education which hosts the H. H. Humphrey Fellowship program.  The food w...

For the second week of classes we were assigned books and articles to read, resources to explore and then discuss in the discussion forums on Angel and Yammer before coming to class for further discussion and sharing.  So I dug into it and studied all the materials before the classes, but in spite of it,  I was stressed out before each of them, because I wasn't sure how it would go, since it's been ages since I was a student. And once again I was surprised to see how the professors easily managed to create a pleasant atmosphere in their classes and make us feel relaxed and at ease. No stress at all, but a feeling of confidence and eagerness to learn. This week also marked the beginning of the football season. On Saturday, the Nittany Lions played their first home game and it seemed that everyone in State College went to the game and tailgate. Not that I'm a sports fan, but I wanted to see firsthand what a tailgate picnic looked like.  And it was a completely new experi...