Sunday, November 29, 2020

The Terror of the Indian Ocean

 One of the great joys of teaching is when ex-students go out of their way to look you up. It happens quite a bit with me, which I'm sure is more of a testament to the excellence of my students than of their teacher. Recently my friend Carolanne Kelly looked me up and suggested we grab some coffee. So, we met at Klinger's, which has become my coffeeshop of choice during the pandemic.  She took me a couple times in college, and I think I may be the only one who ever gave her anything below an A (and yet she forgave me). She's flourishing, and has even started volunteering at the Food Shelf, which I'll happily get to see her more in the future.

She was a member of the crew that went to India/Sri Lanka on one of our earliest trips. Carolanne was an absolute joy to travel with, and was one of those students who inspired everyone by her endless enthusiasm. We'd be sitting in the back of the bus chatting when she'd suddenly say, "I have a question!" and then run up to the front of the bus to quiz the guides. She's known as the Terror of the Indian Ocean for her crimes against it (recounted in a separate blog post).



Halloween at the Food Shelf

 Mainly I just wanted to post this picture, which, for some reason, got a lot of love on FB. As we were closing in on Halloween at the Food Shelf Pedro proposed, quite naturally, that we dress up for the day. Although Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year I've never been much for wearing costumes to school or work. So, I took a bit of a shortcut and simply wore the farwa that one of our bedouin friends gave me in the Wadi Rum (detailed in a separate post); and special extra credit points to the esteemed Liza Ryan for correctly identifying it.

Now, I don't know why this was such a popular post on FB, but it was. Maybe it's simply because I was wearing a mask - or maybe it's the only known picture of me actually doing some work.