Some things change...

Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity. 

~Robert Morgan~

I have been thinking for a while what the next blog would be about and honestly could not come up with a good theme, thought or lesson. I have been correcting too many papers to think too closely about blogging, honestly. However, I have had a few fleeting, disjointed thoughts. If I was to attempt to find a common thread among those thoughts, and it may be a stretch, I could say that those thoughts have largely focused on the things that I love about being here or that I am very impressed by here but are very different from my own experience, while others have been about how similar some things are to my home. This blog will focus on the first section of that list—“Some things change”, with the list of things that are different. The follow up blog—”And some things stay the same”, will discuss those things that appear eerily similar.

Some things change:

• One of the most beautiful things I have observed here is that most everyone says thanks to the bus driver as they get off the bus. I LOVE IT!! It’s so polite and it doesn’t appear to be done by most people just because. Rather, it appears to be done out of gratitude. Those who don’t care just don’t say anything. So, as a line of people get out of the bus they look him or her in their face and say: Thank you, Thanks driver, Ta and other similar things. I guess I don’t have to say that I have warmly embraced this habit; it’s beautiful!
• This one is about teaching. Everything seems so well planned. There are set forms for marking, set guidelines as to what each band of marks represents and it is clearly laid out (in all the cases I have encountered so far) what you are looking for with each assignment as you mark. No guessing here! All students have access to these forms and therefore know exactly what they need to do if they want to excel. Puts the responsibility firmly in their hands.
• The library is AMAZING! You can walk in with your bag, phone or whatever. It is just expected that you will be responsible enough to stick to the rules of the floor. That means that if it is a silent floor each person respects that and if it is a group work floor, everyone respects that.
• Have I mentioned that the library is AMAZING!! Let us not even get into the fact that I put my books on an automatic ‘thingee’ and it gives me a receipt for my books and I get an email when they are due back. Returning is just as simple, place the books on the conveyor belt and get a receipt. AMAZING!!! Of course, as cool as this is, I have lost the human interaction (and I do love to chat).