What a very full day this has been! Breakfast -- always such a treat, so much to choose from so you choose a little of everything! I am SO enjoying the hot tea served five times a day. This morning we had the joy of hearing Champa Patel talk to us about our "roots leading us to our routes." (Joining us this morning were college students from Michigan.) Champa deals with abused youth in Wales and is very energetic, holding all of us in the palm of her hand as she discussed "creating "inclusive societies."
After lunch, again always so delicious, our small group met to continue working on our UK-South Africa project. Michelle is a wonder at Photoshop -- it's been fun working with alongside her designing the pamphlet for our made up organization for our presentation Wednesday. She and I are having a good time working with Kate, Meghan, and Monica from San Francisco. In fact, we didn't want to stop working this afternoon at 4:30 for tea -- we were on a roll! But Dr. Wood came to our rescue and insisted that we stop "work" and enjoy a visit with some Austrian students that were joining us for "tea" and an open discussion.
The students from Salzburg University seem to be impressed with our academic system in the United States. It was very interesting and informative to talk with them. This week, we've used so much of the "learning" from Dr. Wood's class in History and are definitely using the communication skills taught by Carol. After our open discussion, we went to the Schloss Terrace for an Austrian Barbeque which is quite different from our Texas BBQ's back home! Lamb, Turkey, Ribs, Burger, Shrimp, Potato Salad, Aritichokes, Fruit, Cheese, Salad, Baked Beans, Corn on the Cob ... Strawberry Ice Cream! The young man and young lady that Audrey, Chandelle, and I ate and spoke with asked if we taught "American English" or "British English" to our children as they were learning in the states. Our "language" conversation was quite interesting as we demonstrated different accents from Texas, Alabama, and Mississippi! The five of us continued our conversation about college life and found out Salzburg University needs to have an orientation session for new students to help them adapt to their new college surroundings. They don't like wandering around campus not knowing where anything is anymore than we do! TCC, thank you for orientations! It really has been a joy today to meet so many young people.
I'm really looking forward to tomorrow afternoon's session by Dennis Jaehne. Dennis and Jill have been with us all week but we've not heard him "present" yet. We've listened, learned, and are applying Carol's lessons on Inter-cultural communication in a global context and it will be interesting to hear Dennis's take on the same subject. In fact, we've really been hearing that subject taught from all of the faculty at Salzburg!
It's time to meet with my group again -- we're getting close to being done so maybe tonight I'll get to bed before 2 am as I have the past two nights! Sweet dreams Texas!
