On my last day in San Jose I decided to stick close to the city and learn about its history. We think of San Jose as the center of Silicon Valley and all the modern technology that brings to mind. However, San Jose’s past goes back to a much simpler time. I set out to learn about some of that. We started with the History Park in San Jose. My daughter Andrea hesitated to go there as she considers it…
Continue Reading “Sites Revealing the Culture and History of San Jose”
In 1974 I moved to the Dominican Republic. I lived there for almost four years. The journey began when I graduated from college in 1973. I had a teaching degree but so did a lot of other Baby Boomers. Finding a teaching job was tough. I ended up subbing that first year out of college. What I really wanted to do was teach overseas, but every school I looked at wanted teaching experience which I obviously didn’t have. One day…
Continue Reading “Life Changing Experiences Living in the Dominican Republic”
One expects to encounter and experience other cultures when traveling. We definitely anticipate this if we are going to another country. However, even within a large country like the United States we can encounter other cultures as we travel around. We may not realize that because we may not understand what culture really is. Defining culture can be challenging. One definition I like is “the way of life for an entire society.” One of the things I like about this…
One of my first posts was entitled “Why Travel?” I listed four reasons for traveling, but of course there are more reasons than that. One such reason is to travel to actually work. Businesses have often sent their workers to various locations to offer face to face contact with clients. In my case I traveled to do what I do best, teach. The location was South Korea. In 2006 recruiters came to the school where I was teaching with an…
Continue Reading “Teaching English in South Korea One Summer”
Six weeks ago I shared with you how the song “The Blessing” has become an international phenomenon. Just a few months after its release, virtual choirs around the world were recording the song as a way to bless their countries during our worldwide pandemic. As the pandemic has continued, so has the creation of new videos. Since my post six weeks ago, I have often searched YouTube and discovered even more renditions of the song. Virtual choirs, solo artists, worship…
After spending our first day in Taipei getting acquainted with the city, we were ready for day two. This day was intended to be a day looking at some of the historical elements of the city. Unfortunately the first part of the day didn’t turn out as well as we had hoped. We were up at a decent time, and perhaps that was part of the problem. The first place we had on our list was the Red House, which…
When you think of international travel, what places come to mind? Caribbean countries and Europe probably come to mind most readily. However, there are many places to travel which will not have the hordes of tourists you might find in some of these places. May I suggest Taiwan as one such place. In 1971 when I toured around the world, Taiwan was one of the places we visited so last year when my daughter suggested my wife and I meet…
Continue Reading “Noodles, Art, and Sand, Discovering Kaohsiung, Taiwan”
A number of years ago my wife’s niece got married in Paris. It was in May so I was unable to go, but she and my daughter went. They arrived a week ahead of the wedding to have the opportunity to tour Paris, and tour they did. I got reports each night about the churches, museums or other places they had visited and how tired they were after walking all day. They tried to see it all. A few years…
