Last Days at my Grad Assistantship...!

It has been three very good years at the National Survey of Student Engagement, where my graduate assistantship has been located, but Wednesday, July 18, was my last day! It felt weird to clear out papers, books, and other nicknacks that had gathered during my three years at the Survey. It is time to move on (and no, I presently have no idea what I'm moving on TO...trusting God for that!!). Working at NSSE was a great experience - I especially enjoyed working with many wonderful people, including faculty, staff, and fellow students. Here are a few, as I said my final goodbyes.

Pizza at Mother Bear's with Malika (from Kazakstan) and Javier (from Spain). Malika is a year ahead of me in the program and worked down the hall at NSSE. Gemma likes her a lot, too!

I've had a wonderful supervisor in Shimon Sarraf, Assistant Director of Survey Operations and Client Services for NSSE. Here we are, celebrating with a lunch at Samira's (Afghanistan) Restaurant during my final week.

Alison is one of NSSE's full-time research analysts and was a consistent encouragement to me. We worked on several projects together, including a paper we presented at a conference in Charlotte last year, 'Student Engagement and Global Awareness.'

Brian McGowan - a good friend, NSSE colleague, and fellow Higher Education student in my cohort.

Alex McCormick is the NSSE Director and my academic advisor. He played a central role in my IU experience and I am indebted to him for many hours of listening, advice, and encouragement.

Another good friend and cohort member, Eddie Cole, who also worked at NSSE with me.

Tom Nelson Laird directs the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement, a partner survey to NSSE. He has been a great sounding board regarding my dissertation topic and helped me to think through important theoretical issues.

A Hoosier Football Game

"What are you doing on Saturday? Do you want free tickets to the football game?" asked Teresa. "YES!!" I replied, somewhat disbelieving. Free tickets? When does that happen? We have gotten to know Bill and Teresa Welch through a friend of Katie and Kyle's, and they have been very welcoming to us these first months. As it turned out, they had some friends attending the game who had 2 extra tickets (which happened to be "one adult" and "one student")! Jim had been hoping to get to a game this fall but our schedule has been busy and the tickets are expensive, so we hadn't attempted it yet. But thanks to these friends we got to go!!

On Saturday 7th November we had breakfast with the Welchs and their friends, and then headed over to the stadium. The game was set for noon and we arrived at 10 AM, and already lots of community people and students were set up for tailgates in the parking lots, cooking their breakfast/brunch and just enjoying the atmosphere. Kids were running around wearing jerseys and playing catch, radio stations were blasting music at their stands, and the sun was bright and warm. We were so early that we got to watch the Marching Hundred (college band) practice and then we wandered around the stadium. Since this was the first "big college" football game that either of us had attended, we were amazed at all the festivities.


As you can see, LOTS of fans wore red. Jim followed suit but oops, I forgot.

Just before the game began, the band marched out onto the field and performed some pep songs and formations - SO AMAZING!!! (I think this pre-game and their halftime performance was probably the highlight of the event.) Can you tell what letters they have formed here??

Then some fireworks were set off and the team ran on to the field, through the band's formation.

Actually by the time the game started, the stadium (which is huge) was more full than what you see in these photos. I guess at this point people were still getting to their seats and buying popcorn and hotdogs at the concession stands.

We had great seats, towards the top of the stadium and close to midfield. We tried our best to follow along with the pep songs and shout out "Go IU!" at appropriate moments. And hey, we wore our IU hats! (which we got free at a men's soccer game earlier this semester) Unfortunately the Hoosiers lost the game by 3 points to Wisconsin, 31-28. (They are currently 4-7.) They had a chance at the end of the game to convert on a 3rd down and score but didn't complete it. Oh well. (That's IU football for you.) It was a fun day though!! We are feeling more like official Bloomington residents.

A couple more from Okavango Delta (Bots)

This is such a beautiful and colorful shot, portraying the peace of the Delta - I had to post it. One of the students on our trip, Eivind, took it. The second photo is a group shot as we departed the Delta and said good-bye to our guides. Those 2 days were definitely a highlight of the trip!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 4

Once we arrived at Chobe National Park, we had a sunset cruise on the Chobe River hoping to see wildlife along the way. However since the river was flooded at its highest point in 50+ years we didn't see much - except this elephant and hippos!


The following day we crossed the River on a small ferry and entered Zambia. An hour's drive from the border is the town of Livingstone, which "shares" Victoria Falls with neighboring Zimbabwe. The group put on swimsuits and headed over to the park. Since the waters were SO high and rough we weren't able to get many photos - the spray from the Falls totally drenched us!!

Here's Jul at one of the only dry viewpoints at the eastern end of the 1.7 km long Falls. Shortly after this photo we continued along the path and were soaked by the the spray/rain/mist of the Falls. Sorry but photos just don't suffice to capture the experience! We spent the next hour getting soaked and screaming and running along the paths, repeatedly saying, "This is amazing! I can't believe this!" Definitely this IS one of the 7 Wonders of the World.

The Chobe River and Zambezi River join up and then cascade over these Falls. It was one of the most exhilarating sights we've ever experienced!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 3

Above, another picture of our campsite in the Okavango Delta.

One evening we took a mokoro cruise through the river channels and lagoons, to see hippos and elephants and watch the sunset. (That's Jul in the canoe with an elephant in the foreground!)

After leaving the Delta, we headed east back to the center of Botswana and up to the northeastern corner where Chobe National Park is located. One the way we camped one night at "Planet Baobob", a nice site next to the Makgadikdadi Salt Pans with many huge, amazing baobob trees.

Here's one of the 'food groups' helping Gertie, our chef, prepare dinner. We split into five 'food groups' for cooking and washing dishes, each assigned different meals as we travelled. Everyone was wonderful at helping out (and not complaining)! And Gertie's food was amazingly good!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 2

We spent two days and nights at our 'island campsite' in the Delta. It was beautiful, remote, quiet - and yet full of the sounds of birds and animals, and of course of our group as we went swimming in the river, played games around the campsite, practised 'poling' the mokoros and chatted with the Botswanan staff who accompanied us. The women staff spent one afternoon making bracelets and baskets from the leaves of the palm tree that grows prolifically in the area. (below)


On the first morning, our game walk group of 6 people and 2 rangers spotted a large group of giraffe (15+) off in the distance, eating from the tops of acacia trees. Slowly then we kept walking and approaching them until we were only a 100m away, at which the giraffe began to watch us more carefully and started to disperse. Note how the giraffe on the left has darker spots - that's a male.

We spotted a female who had just recently given birth - a very unique sight. There was blood on the backs of her legs and using the binoculars I could see the umbilical cord still hanging down. Incredible. (No we didn't get close enough to see the newborn - way too dangerous!)


Our game walk group (above) and guides Richard and Rogers. And below, real bush walking! We didn't just follow trails and footpaths the whole time; we also just bush wacked - in the truest sense!

Overland Trip to Botswana & Zambia, part 1

For ten days Jim and I helped lead an overland camping trip with international students (mainly Americans doing study abroad at UCT) - what an amazing experience!! All told we had 76 students, 8 leaders and 4 trucks - travelling in two groups of 2 trucks each.

We flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg, drove up into Botswana for 6 days and then over to Victoria Falls (Zambia and Zimbabwe) for 3 days. On the last day we flew back from Zambia to Cape Town.

Here's our truck group of 20 - we had a great time together and were grateful for safe & healthy travels throughout. We had 14 Americans, 2 South Africans, 2 Norweigans, 1 Zimbabwean and 1 Brazilian.


Below, the overland truck that we 'charter hired' for the trip. Built into the truck was a fold-out kitchen and room for all our tents and supplies.

Breakfast on day 1 - waking up to sunrise in Palapye, Botswana was beautiful! One of the trip highlights was seeing the sunrise and sunset every day.

By day 3 we had made it to northwestern Botswana and the Okavango Delta, the world's largest inland Delta and an incredible wilderness destination. We hired 12 staff from a local company who were our guides during these three days; they 'poled' us in the mokoros (canoes, 2 people and 1 guide per) through the Delta and to our campsite. It was an incredible experience!

Table Mountain Hike: few more pics

A few more photos from our recent hike. Okay okay so we didn't get photos to actually show the height ascended and the 'tough' parts but believe me it was a serious, intense hike!



Below, on the top of the Table and headed across - the path was literally ON the cliff edge in some sections. At the right edge of this photo you can just see a few of our group.

The view now down from the mountain and into Table Bay: Lion's Head to the left and Robben Island, the "city bowl" and the Waterfront in the centre.

Table Mountain Hike: 2 Way Travel with foreign students

The new semester and school year begins...

Last week 2 Way Travel (Jul's work) took a group of 50 new American study abroad students on a full day hike on Table Mountain. It was a very sunny and warm day but the views were clear - such beauty that it wasn't hard to get up the energy to keep hiking and climbing! Jim joined too, along with eight other 2 Way Travel South African staff/volunteers to befriend these new students.

View down toward Constantia winelands, where we started.

Early in the hike...this part of the trail was actually paved! In the background you can see some overnight huts for hikers and beyond that the suburbs and another mountain range.

Yep that's a big group! (and this is just some of them)

Now at the top! The highest point on Table Mountain: MacLear's Beacon at 3,563ft, with False Bay and the rest of the Cape Peninsula in the background. Awesome! And I was pretty excited that my back felt good - this was the most physical exertion I've had in a while and I was able to handle it.

With Mike, my wonderful "boss." Don't I have a great job?!

10 Days in Botswana, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (post 5): Victoria Falls

Above: headed to Victoria Falls for the views, the sunset, and a few group pix.

This is what the Falls look like during the dry season (from the Zambian side; much more impressive from the Zimbabwe side). When the Zambezi is full, apparently these falls extend for a kilometer, nearly unbroken the entire way. They are known as “the mist that thunders” in the local tongue, an accurate description of the Falls at high water season.

Jess and I with our truck - we were the Buffaloes. Ruth and her truckload were the Leopards. I know the names sound corny (are we back in Sunday school or something?), but everyone actually got into it.

Me with the guys on my truck: Micah, me, Robert, Luke, Ryan.

The entire group, Buffaloes and Leopards, all together in front of Victoria Falls.