12 hours to Atlanta...

The first of my holiday adventures began along I-75 just north of Gainesville, FL. I was traveling along merrily on my way to visit the fam, when all of the sudden I began to lose control of my vehicle to the point I could not brake. Luckily there were not too many people around me and I was able to pull of the side of the road. I inspected my car and it looked as if nothing was wrong, so I tried again to go further and see if the brakes were working better. They weren't and so I pulled off to the side of the road for good. I called AAA to tow me back to Gainesville, FL where I had my car looked at for about about 3 hours. When all was said and done, it seemed that the problem had been that my wheel had almost broken off of my axle. I had began my day getting on the road at 7am and I finally wound up in Atlanta at about 7:30pm. It was a very long day and I am glad to be home for the holidays!

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Happy Holidays from Winter Park!

Well it seems that 2007 is winding down and the files in my office seem to be getting more plentiful by the day! My international travels have quieted as well as of late. I have managed to make my way up to New England during the latest snow storm which including a flight cancellation due to a plane skidding off of the runway. Aside from the excitement, I enjoyed a lovely Bruins game from 6 rows up from center ice... not bad seats to watch some hockey! The 2-0 blanking of the Blue Jackets also helped make it a memorable game.

In the office, the tree in the rinker room has been decked out with some Rollins colors so that way we can capture both the Christmas and school spirit at the same time. We are through with Early Decision as of the beginning of December, and we are now concentrating our efforts on our Early Action students. This will be a sprint until February due to the volume of files that we have!

Enough about work, tomorrow I am heading up north to Atlanta to spend time with the family for Christmas. On the 28 or 29 I am gonna head back down here for New Years. So it seems that the rest of my 2007 is already planned out! Oh well, 2008 is a whole other year and there are many trips that are ripe to be planned already for the spring (Europe, Miami, New England, etc...). Until then, Happy Holidays and have an enjoyable end of 2007!

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Snow, Tim Hortons and the Turkey Day...

For my first recruiting trip to Canada, I spent a few days in Toronto trying to get more Canadians to Rollins. This was our first trip to Canada to try and get students as an institution and it was important to me being that I got to visit my alma mater. When I first arrived in Toronto, I was greeted by near freezing temperatures and lots of rain, which I was informed, would turn to snow over night. I feared that my visits may be canceled due to snow. The day I arrived of course is the worst travel day of the year, but since I was going Internationally that made my life a little bit easier. Luckily my 7 years of living in Toronto and driving in the snow paid off and I trudged out into the snow! I spent two days visiting schools in the Greater Toronto Area and then a few days enjoying the winter that I will not get to see here in Orlando. Thanksgiving in Canada was still nice, but not the same without the traditional dinner.

I got a chance to meet some great kids at the different schools I visited and a great behind the scenes tour of my old high school. I did do some touristy things as well. I visited the Hockey Hall of Fame, CN Tower as well as Niagara Falls. It was great to see the hall of fame because I had never been before (shame on me), which is terrible since I lived there so long and now I visit it as a tourist. All in all it was a great trip, I had a good time, saw friends and hopefully was able to spread the word about Rollins. Although it is not as heard to sell sunshine when it is cold and snowy outside!

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Paradise...

Island!

I am now situated on wonderful Paradise Island in Nassau, Bahamas. After two long days of fairs, I am finally resting to enjoy my location! With fairs lasting from 9-3 each day, I have gotten a chance to meet lots of kids here in Nassau and has me contemplating where Rollins needs to go next in the Caribbean or in the world for that matter. As I got off of the plane, I was greeted by a bit of wonderful rain which I later find out that is also referred to as "liquid sun". It was also good to see some counselors that I met in Vancouver at OACAC and be able to hang out with them once again. I am here until Sunday, November 18 and then onto Toronto on the 21st to the 25th. The end of travel season is at hand and onto file reading to see who is gonna join us next August for orientation!

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Welcome to miami...

As the first part of a 3 week trip, I spent my weekend in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale. I was there for a few college fairs as well as going around to a few different schools. It was great to get a chance to to spend sometime down south before heading directly up to New England for 2 weeks. For the second year in a row, I attended the wonderful harbor cruise aboard the Miami Magic, which is narrated by this ancient creature who made some of the worst jokes in the history on mankind. That being said, it was a great evening with terrific weather and made for a fun night. That Monday was our South Florida Reception and then with that, Tuesday morning, I was off to Boston!

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Matt Runs On Dunkin's

As my first week of Domestic travel ended about a week ago, I just now have been able to reflect upon how it went. I spent a week traveling across New Hampshire and Western Mass. I had my new Tom Tom portable GPS which guided me on the best routes to all of the schools that I visited as well as well as where each and every Dunkin' Donuts along the way was. This is not a plug for either, but it was nice to know where good coffee was each and every minute along my route. I even have a great new voice on my GPS, which is a star of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, John Cleese! I visited a bunch of different schools and met some great kids who, I hope may become future students of Rollins next year!!

Not all of my trip was work, I did get to spend sometime enjoying the wonderful weather, visit the Sam Adams Brewery and see the Red Sox beat the Twins as the AL Eastern Division Champions! All in all not a bad way to spend the end of September and get ready to start Soxtober! I am on the end of my small hiatus here in Orlando and then I will be off to Miami and New England for the next 3 weeks!

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Viva La Florida!

Now that I have had a great week away from the office all around Central and South America, it is great to be not moving for a little while. It is good to be back home and be able to spend some time with Melo and Zul(my fish). I find myself not having to speak as much Spanish either! Oddly enough, I was mistaken for being a Panamanian or Colombian even though I think my accent tends to have hints of both Spain and Cuba. I have about a 2 week break between the travel I just finished and my upcoming trip to New England. To my surprise there is like no one here at the office because everybody is off some where different in the country trying to find the class of 2012! For me, right now is a mad dash to figure out all of my expenses for the past week, prepare my materials for New England, put together packets to send both to New England and Miami and finally plan my trip to Toronto in November. So basically, it's just another day at the office.

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En Route -->

A map I made of my trip!

CCS - UIO

The final two legs of my journey were Venezuela and Ecuador. Venezuela was a fast day that had me just visiting two schools and then basically heading right to the airport. Both schools that I visited were beautiful and had amazing views of the city. I really enjoyed every bit of my trip that had me there for less than 24 hours! Would be a place that I would like to go back to. The airport in Caracas was really chaotic and took me more than an hour to get through the line for Avianca. Customs and security only took about 5 minutes which you would think it would be the other way around. After finally getting through and getting on the plane, we sat on the runway for a while before we took off. My flight stopped in Bogota, Colombia where I had to get out of the plane and walk around my plane to, go through security, get searched by a cop and then jump on a plane to Ecuador. The flight to Ecuador was quick, and for the second night in a row, I got in after midnight.

In Ecuador, I had a wonderful driver named Rafael, who took me around the city for the two days I was there. He was really a great guy and helped me out tons! The school visits were great and I met some good kids. The most fun part about Ecuador was my touristic day today, Saturday. I visited the Mitad del Mundo (the fake one) and I learned a lot about the culture of Ecuador. I got this really cool fox/wolf mask which I am excited to put up in my apartment. It is a really cool statue and is something that I am glad I got to see! Although this trip I didn't go to the real one, it'll give me something to do next time. I also got to travel into the old part of Quito as well as some pretty churches which are covered in gold. At the end of the day I had a nice little walk around the Artisan Market as well as go back to my hotel and pack. Latin America was a wonderful experience and I cannot wait to come back next year and maybe go somewhere new!

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Panamania

After a long day of uncertainty, I made it through a weak and slow moving Hurricane Felix. My flight to Panama left without a problem and although I did not get to visit any schools in Tegus, I was able to have one interview in my hotel. That went very well and then I had to pack for the rest of my journey. After a long flight, I finally made it to Panama at about 8 at night. That next morning I had to be up very early for my school visits. I traveled to what used to be a US military base and is now the "Ciudad del Saber" or "City of Knowledge". This is located in the "zone", or the area around the Panama Canal. After all of my visits, I spent sometime at the Panama Canal, which was quite impressive. For something that was built so long ago, it is still awe inspiring. Within the past few days they announced the start of the widening of the canal and the ability to host bigger ships that are larger than the current "Panamax" standard which is just big enough to fit through the current locks.

Having spent plenty of time watching ships slowly go through the canal, I moved on the the historical part of Panama City. I got to view the President's house, which is oddly enough white. I also saw the cathedral, the emerald museum and a mall that would put the Mall at Millenia to shame (called Multiplaza). After a long day of constantly being on the move, I jumped on a flight to Caracas which got me in once again at a crazy late hour. This trip is a good one, but definitely tires me out!

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Aventura Hondureña

My first trip to Latin America started out on September 1, 2007 from Orlando early in the morning, and put me in to San Pedro Sula (SAP) Honduras at around 1 in the afternoon. After arriving and getting my first taxi in Latin America, I was off and running. Packing the night before and the time change cut my evening short. I enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Comida Tipica Hondureña, which was steak, beans, avacado, plantains, tortillas and rice, of course! It was great and topped it of with a wonderful Port Royal. Which in short was a very typical Honduras meal. The next day I got up and walked about 2 blocks from my hotel, the Hilton Princess, to CityMall which is a very nice mall. I walked around for a few hours and then decided I needed to augment my collection of fútbol jerseys with one from Honduras. I chose Olimpia because it looked cool and had a Honduras flag on it and there logo included a lion. Afterwards I beat the heat outside next to the pool. So all in all it was a great relaxing day in San Pedro.

My first day of visits was good and I got to meet some great kids. I also had a great driver who took me all around to make sure I got to my visits and the airport on time. Some how I also managed to make sure that Hurricane Felix followed me down here. In two hours, it will hit the coast and hopefully not make my day to interesting. In the airport on my way to Tegus, I noticed many travelers who were changing there arrangements due to the evacuation of Roatan and some of the Bay Islands. Also on my very short flight, I was seated next to a pilot in the Fuerzas Aereas de Honduras. As we were talking during our flight, she was very interested in my life as an Admission Counselor and how I get to travel so much. She was very nice and actually offered me a ride to my hotel. Shows just how nice people are down here. I am also located in a room on the top floor of the Tegucigalpa Marriott, with a great view and I am resting up for my next day. So far I am having a great time and am ready for my next adventure.Powered by ScribeFire.

Back from vacation, ready to head down south...

This is my first week back at work after my wonderful vacation to Boston, New York and Washington, DC. I had a fantastic time playing tourist in some very exciting cities. While I had been to DC before, this was my first trip to NYC. It was quite amazing being able to see all of the famous sights that the city has to offer, as well as much of the wonderful history. I made sure that while I was there I visited the UN, the Empire State Building, Wall Street and the Statue of Liberty. It was great! I definitely am glad I got to see all of these things, although I don't think that living in NYC is quite for me. It is quite a busy place and the pace of life is much faster than all the way down here in Florida. Going to DC was also very fun because I had not been there since my 8th grade class trip. All of the things that I had seen really came to life again since it had been so long. For the first time I saw the WWII monument which had just been added a couple of years ago, as well, I took a tour of the White House which I had never done before.

Now that I am back in Florida, I am doing my final preparations for my my trip to Latin America in 2 weeks, which I am looking forward too very much! I just got my passport back with fresh pages added to it, which will shortly be ready for new stamps!

The International students from the class of 2011 arrived yesterday and are beginning their international orientation. It is very exciting to have the new students on campus and I am excited to go out and start getting the class of 2012!

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More Pages

As my passport is currently in the hands of the state department, receiving more pages, I am limiting my travels domestically until September. With my MBA classes also on hold until September, this will give me a chance to finalize my arrangements for all of my upcoming International and Domestic travel this fall! On Thursday I am flying from Orlando to Providence en route to Plymouth which is where I will be spending this weekend. From there I am off to NYC for a few days and then finally to Washington, D.C. for my cousin's wedding. As soon as I get back, it will be time for all of our international students to arrive and begin their orientation followed by the rest of the first year students only days later. We are looking forward to the start of another school year and welcoming new students to the Rollins community!

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OACAC 2007 Vancouver

After my first experience thrown into the world of International Admission, I am excited to begin my travels in less than 2 months!
With upcoming trips to Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as my domestic travel to New England and Miami will definitely make for a busy fall. For now I have the rest of the summer to prepare for the adventure ahead and make sure that my passport is well rested!