Overheard one day at the zoo...

Saturday, September 30, saw my erstwhile Australian acquaintance and I, taking a leisurely trip into Washington DC for a spot of zoological research.

Now for those of you who are thinking, "Aha! We knew it! They were checking out the birds again," I would like to point out that the Smithsonian Zoological Park does not have a very impressive bird display. In fact we didn't even get to see any birds, barring one exception, which I will expand upon later.

As with many progressive cities around the world nowadays, Washington DC does not charge entrance fees into museums and monuments. As a tourist on a reasonably firm budget, I appreciate these well thought out, educationally sound policies. However, this does mean that just about anyone and everyone who would like to, can enter these facilities. You can therefore imagine the variety of interesting comments that I overheard from the smorgasbord of visitors while appreciating the animals on display. I have included some pictures to go with each amusing little interlude. I must add, in the defense of the unnamed ignorants listed below, that I am from Africa and have grown up with many visits to game reserves, national parks and a general interest in wildlife documentaries, and therefor have the advantage of some empirical information and experiences.

The first prize winning comment went to a volunteer-guide at the cheetah enclosure. After being asked by an awestruck visitor why cheetahs were endangered, he replied, "Mainly because the farmers in Africa shoot so many of them. The speed at which these creatures can capture a cow is worrying for the farmers, so they have to defend their herds."

Enough said!

Prize winning comment number two.

Little girl says, "Ooh mommy, look at the pretty peacock!"

Mother replies, "Ooh wow, yes honey, isn't she beautiful!"

Firstly, peacocks would be of the male persuasion. Secondly, as the sign slightly to right of this photo states, this is an emu! To digress quickly, the sign also stated that there should have been some wallabies in this particular enclosure. My Aussie mate and I had a good look around and were unable to see any rugby players behind the fence anywhere. We think the sign may have been slightly incorrect.

The rest of the afternoon passed quite pleasantly and I would probably come across as arrogant (if I haven't already) if I were to point out each and every little misinformed comment or statement so I will just add a few more of my favourite pics from the afternoon.

The stuff that urban legends and chain-mail jokes are made of

The following conversation actually happened. A colleague across the hallway from my class was teaching a math class. Keep in mind that we teach fifth grade and that her class is supposed to be the second to top math group in the grade.

Teacher - Please do page 82 #7-8
Kid - How do I know which numbers?
Teacher - It says 7-8
Kid - But what about the ones in the middle? Do I need to do those?
Teacher - Uhhhhhh! - what numbers are between 7-8 that you are wondering about?
Kid - Hmmmmmm..... (actually pondering the question).
Teacher - (Just stared stupidly at her)
Kid - (Finally) Oh there aren't any
Teacher - (Still staring stupidly at her)
Kid - (walks away...)
Teacher - (Still shocked)

Underground, overground, coming are we...

On Sunday August 26, Javier, Javier, Jose and I (yes there were two Javiers in the car) took a little drive out of town to the Shenandoah National Park and Skyline Drive. Skyline Drive follows the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains for about 105 miles (or 160 kilometers if you have grown up and adopted the metric system like the rest of the world.) It is a scenic drive and if you are lucky you get to see some deer, the odd raccoon and some awesome scenery. There are a multitude of trails and viewing stops along the way and it must be said that taking the drive (or half of it as we did) and then stopping for a picnic and a quick 5 mile hike is a very pleasant way to escape from the suburbs and fill an idle Sunday.

The other Javier, Jose and I at the entrance to well, you get the idea...

Skyline Drive

An original carving by Mother Earth

Scenes from an amble

The other Javier

On our way up to the caves we thought we would check out some caves called the Skyline Caves, as advertised by the giant 20 foot billboards all along the roadside on our way to Shenandoah. If the ridiculous adverts weren't enough warning you would have thought that the troll shaped tour guide would have been. Never-the-less, we paid $16 for the opportunity to see how NOT to run a cave-touring operation. Unfortunately, in the name of public safety, they had managed to run some sort of cable or piping over or along every meter of the path we walked along, as well as drill hand rails into the rock on just about every corner. Now maybe this is just me, but I find that his unfortunately detracts from what can be a reasonably pleasant excursion. Even though they managed to turn the caves into a badly designed electrical substation, there were one or two things that I am glad I saw. The pictures below show some of the crystals that were discovered in the caves. Apparently the crystals have not grown any bigger since being discovered in the earlier part of last century. Perhaps it has something to do with destroying the conditions required to grow by adding vast quantities of metal, plastic, foam and concrete? Or am I just being cynical?

Fate smiles again.

One of the concerns that a person has when setting up a life in a foreign country is hoping that you will meet somebody decent to set up a digs with. You hope that you will meet somebody that you will get along with, who is like-minded in their habits and will generally add to the adventure of teaching in another country, rather then detract from it.

So naturally, before leaving SA to come to the US this played on my mind quite a bit. One, if not the biggest, blessing that I have had since arriving in the US then, has been the extremely fortuitous meeting with one, Javier Covo Grandes. Javier is from the Basque Country in Spain and is teaching Spanish at a local high school. Javier is a gentleman and a friend, and although he has no idea of how to cook paella, I am extremely grateful for meeting him and have no doubt that we will share many a beer and a laugh over the next year at least.

And we're back in business

Here we go. I have finally found a way to update this blog. It’s a Saturday morning here in Ashburn, Virginia, I am using my flat mate’s laptop and have picked up somebody’s unsecured wireless signal emitting from somewhere else in the complex. You do what you need to do.

Below are selected picks from my first trip into Washington DC. The centre of DC in my opinion doesn’t really have much going for it once you leave the mall. The mall being the incredibly long (and I know it’s long ‘cause I walked it) strip where all the major memorials and monuments to wars and presidents of the past are situated. This observation is based completely on one afternoon visit in the company of a hard to impress Aussie and a nonchalant Spaniard. I am told however that the bars, clubs and music venues just outside of DC are awesome. The only problem with that is that the cops here are seriously strict about drunk driving. Which is a good thing of course. There are far too many people in the world who have a tipple too many and think themselves bulletproof. So a big"good on ya" as they say in Australia, to the local policing authorities. Virginia has a project running at the moment called "Operation Strikeforce" ( I can just picture Chuck Norris heading up this particular operation, can't you?) to curb DUI incidents. So getting to these places, unless you have designated driver or are willing to pay an astronomical cab fare is not easy.

We went in on Sunday August 19 and had a little stroll around. Managed to miss most of the tourist flurrying. Can’t stand tourist myself! I thought I would try out the ‘black and white’ function on my camera in order to emphases the history of the places we were visiting.

The White House

We knocked but apparently George W was busy with a geography lesson and wasn't taking visitors. Just out of interest, apparently foreign visitors need to apply a month in advance through your local consolute to take a tour of the White House. So taking into consideration that my current immediate mates are comprised of an Aussie, a Canadian 2 Spaniards, a Costa Rican and a Colombian, I don't think we are getting inside in a hurry.

The Stars 'n Stripes in black 'n white at the base of the Washington Memorial

The Washington memorial. Apparently the worlds highest all-masonry structure. How long did they have to search before they found that little piece of info?

Two examples of the many metal engravings that adorn the World War 11 memorial. Each one is abot two meters by a meter in size.

Another view of the WWII memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial.

Uncle Abe

The National Mall viewed from the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Memorial and Capitol Hill in the background.

Arlington National Cemetary. Final resting place of hundreds of thousands of soldiers, JFK and his family, including his brother. Also final resting place of the crew of the ill-fated Space Shuttle and the unknown soldier amongst many others.

JFK's eternal flame

My First American Cultural Experience

Need I say more?

Richmond, Virgina, USA.

So here I am in the big ol’ US of A. Twelve months after applying to the VIF program I finally boarded a plane and spent 24 hours in transit, eventually landing at Richmond Airport. Fate dealt a fortuitous card along the way and seated me next to the only other South African VIF teacher on the plane. So going through immigration and customs was a doddle and the wait in between flights was made a little easier. Since arriving here in Richmond it has been a veritable international smorgasbord. When not busy with various mundane administrative activities and trying to get my head around driving on the wrong side of the road, I have met Philipinos. Canadians, Argentineans and the usual Kiwis and Ausies who manage to sneak in everywhere. I took a walk about Richmond yesterday. It is an interesting mix of historical architecture and modern expression. The area is rich in American history and there are loads of museums. I took a walk about some of the nearby roads and took a couple of interesting photos. The dairy building is obvious but the most interesting thing was the metal sculpture adorning the Richmond Police Headquarters.