Saturday, June 23, 2007

I'm in Atlanta and preparing for Edubloggercon

I am in Atlanta! It is after 1am and I have been travelling for way over 30 hours. It has also been 48 hours since I slept horizontally. I am so pleased to be here however...despite various obstacles along the way, the latest being a hotel that will not accept my credit card and also do not know how to let me make an international call to my UK CC emergency number! It was touch and go at Immigration at LAX earlier today also. I was taken to a different area to 'complete my paperwork' whereby, despite my pleas that I had to catch a connecting flight, the polite but insistent officials took over 30 minutes to sort out the problem. I was getting quite worried as 4 of them were staring intently at their computer screen at my details for a long time! We often have extra security checks coming into the USA, having middle eastern and muslim countries stamped in in my passport always generates a second look. Today however it turned out that someone had reported my passport stolen in Australia! Very odd!

Essentially as an international educator you have to be tough enough to break through these inconveniences. You have to be tough enough to emerge from hours of painful travel (I hate flying!) and want something bad enough to put yourself through this. My family left me at the Changi airport in Singapore (great Internet terminals but not free wifi) after a midnight flight from Dhaka, after an emotional last day in Bangladesh. They arrived in Melbourne hours ago and if I could dial internationally I would be able to speak to them! I subsequently flew went through Tokyo, LAX and then Atlanta. I am good with time zones but once I cross the international date line in the Pacific it gets confusing. Will have to look up dateandtime.com again.

At least I have good wifi in the hotel room. I loved flying into Atlanta! We flew right around the city and the lights were very pretty.

Don't forget we get a chance to discuss international issues, liaisons and Web 2.0 practices globally at Edubloggercon in a few hours. This is the session Vicki and I will host togetehr.
Description: Sharing ideas and experiences for harnessing the power of connectivity through Web 2.0 applications in schools to connect, communicate and create. This is an opportunity to focus on international issues and strategies and tools used for forging links and making online projects work. Also to have a discussion re an action plan for a standard set of requirements to be a Web 2.0 international collaborator. Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis.

Right, that's it, I deserve a bath and 5 hours sleep, if I'm lucky. See you tomorrow!

PS: credit card and international dialling issues now resolved, and the hotel receptionist and I are on speaking terms again...I did apologise and she was very understanding about my snappy disposition.....maybe the tears helped, sometimes it's unavoidable.....I have also spoken to my family and all is well there.......roll on NECC!

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