It was supposed to be a 'work' trip. Even my principal was there, and we were supposed to bring back all the latest in second language acquisition research. Instead, it felt like a mini-vacation.
Highlights included an unusually trouble-free Air France flight, a cozy hotel room with a view, doing yoga in said room gazing at sun-drenched Alps, long walks around Lake Geneva and through the Old Town, and leisurely cups of damn good European coffee. And the chocolate. Dear G-d, the chocolate..!
But what made this trip particularly wonderful was finally meeting up with friends I hadn't seen in ages. Among these friends were my mentors from my student teaching days at Frankfurt International School ten (!) years ago. I was tickled to get Paul, Judith and Dick together for the above photo to celebrate their influence on my career. They are AMAZING teachers, and I still brag about how lucky I was to have had them as my mentors.
Another long lost friend I was delighted to see after five years apart was Patience. She works at Leipzig International School, but we met back in 1995 at graduate school in Baltimore. We both got our Masters in ESOL, married a German named Andreas (she is still married to hers-lol!) and moved to Germany.
I also saw not-so-long-lost friends, Sabine and Cecile. Sabine and I worked at Franconian International School, but she came to see me in ATL just a couple years ago to lounge by the pool. Cecile and I worked together at AIS until she recently moved to Germany to complete a second Masters degree (she's smart like that!)
I'll leave you with a picture of the view from my hotel room of the famous fountain that spurts up from Lake Geneva and a really crappy photo of Phil Collins (yes, Phil Collins) who spoke eloquently (and even sang!) at the opening ceremony of the conference because he has a son at the international school of Geneva. (I swear it's him!!!)
