International Education Week!!

This week at Rollins we celebrate all of the different cultures we have on our campus.  One of the best things about this is the raising of the flags in the Cornell Campus Center.  For each international student, faculty, and staff member we have on campus, we have a flag representing their home country!  We have over 80 flags in our campus center and we will be adding even more this week!  Today we also had a whole bunch of performances including Capoeira, Belly Dancing and Japanese Taiko Drums!  More events happen throughout the week to celebrate all of our international students.  Although ever day we are happy to learn more about the culture of our international students, it is great to have a week that is dedicated solely to that!

Puerto Rico... Isla del encanto...

My last trip of the year was special not only because I got away from the cold weather, but also because it is one of the places I identify with culturally.  My grandmother grew up in San Juan and even got married at the hotel I stayed at on the island.  So this was a very good visit for me culturally.  Professionally, this was the first recruitment Rollins has done in Puerto Rico as far as I can tell.  This is a pretty big thing for Rollins being that there is such a tie to the Puerto Rican community here in Orlando that it would make sense for us to have more students from the island.  As with all things, this just means that we have to do our due diligence and make connections like all of the other areas we travel to get some more students to campus!  As this was my last trip of the year, it was great to know that after my last school visit of this trip, it would be my last of 2008!

Oh, Canada...

Although there was no snow on this visit to Canada, it was quite a rough time just trying to recover from being sick in such a cold climate.  One great thing about visiting Toronto is that I get to go to a lot of places that I used to when I lived there.  This includes my alma mater, Appleby College.  There have been so many changes to it in the past 7ish years that I almost don't recognize it.  It is also going to be the first independant school in Canada to be carbon neutral by 2009.  This really shows their commitment to a sustainble model as a green school!

Another wonderful treat during my trip to Toronto was that I got to see the Maple Leafs play the Habs in the annual Hall of Fame game.  In addition to watching the Leafs win, it was a great Veteran's Day weekend tribute as well as a chance to see many retired and famous Leaf players together on the ice to celebrate.  As always, it was a great trip... except for the whole me being sick thing!

Tokyo - Lost in Translation...

Having watched this movie a few times, I definitely felt the pain Bill Murray had in a land where nothing really is written in a recognizable alphabet. That being said, Tokyo is truly a very modern and exciting city. Getting around is easy once you figure out exactly where you want to go because there are more train options than you would originally think possible! I played arcade Mario Kart, ate sushi, and went to the Yebisu Brew Museum (home of Saporro beer)! For being there for a day and a half I really feel like I did a lot, although outside of Tokyo there is so much more that I could have found. I'll save that for next time. After Tokyo, finally back to some sort of reality in MA...

Crazy intersection with TONS of people...

Mario Kart Arcade

I'm catching up on all my posting so that I have all of my fall adventures up here!