Filed under: Uncategorized
Apparently the pictures I’ve been posting have not been visible to most accounts at school. Until the “Tech Guy” fixes that, I may not put in so many pics…..sorry
Saga University: We spent the morning here with a welcome by the President and some seminars with teachers and students. Saga U is similar to our Farmington – primarily a teacher preparation school – and that’s the part we focused on obviously. The declining birthrate in Japan is impacting the enrollment at the school. Right now, applications = enrollment. The official explanation is that “Japanese women are reluctant to have more than one child”, but it’s more complicated than that. Workers commonly work extraordinary hours (one jr. high teacher said 9 hrs at school is common, but at her exceptional school she works 12 and still goes home to grade papers. Maternity leaves of absence are not universal. Obviously all of that makes it difficult. I’ll be interested to learn more from my host mother. Saga U’s challenge is to expand the emphasis of the college from just education to education and culture. They have four faculty from the US with a total of 6500 undergrads and 1000 grad. students – 300 foreign. Their school mascot is the magpie (and Deb M., they didn’t have pennants, but I did get a hand towel with the school’s name and mascot.
I next went to a seminar on bullying and violence – comparing US and Japanese schools. We got to discuss this with some Saga U students, the Jr. High teacher, and the chair of the College. Unfortunately he put a damper on the conversation and I’m not sure the students were very open. We did learn that the problem with bullying is universal – that Japan has a big problem with cyber bullying, and like in the US the students most often picked on are those from needy homes who are untidy and low academically. More eye opening was the number of teachers from the US in our group of 6 at this seminar whose schools still have some version of corporal punishment – things that would get a teacher dismissed immediately at good old DRHS. Thanks Ms. E for your pro-active approach.
Saga U reception
Takeo City – Finally!
We finally made it to our final destination! What an incredible journey so far. Takeo City which apparently includes several towns has approximately 50,000 folks. There seem to be three main things going on – Tourism for the hot springs (more later), rice and soybean farming, and ceramics.
The town itself is nestled in a valley along the Takeo River. The valley walls are as tall as Oliver Hill when viewed from the store, but much steeper and sharper. As we entered the town by bus there were lots of small plots of rice – at various stages of cultivation – some recently harvested, some newly planted. I hope to learn more about this later and get some up close pictures. I haven’t seen any dairy cows, but am told there’s a hog farm nearby.
rice fields
OK, so picture this – driving up to city hall in a bus. As we disembark we notice a row of about ten white-shirted office workers lined up at the entrance – pretty cool, we think……..but then they start to clap!, and as we walk through the building to our conference room, they’re lined up along the stairs, along the upstairs hallway – at least 50 or 60, all clapping and bowing respectfully – talk about the red-carpet treatment…….I guess I’m beginning to understand what they mean when they say they really value teachers here……I accepted the warmth for all of you back home…..I hope you got a burst of good vibes.
Greeting at City Hall
Upstairs we had a nice welcoming reception from the mayor with speeches by them and us. They presented us each with a gift of lemongrass teas and herbs, which apparently are produced and promoted here.
We also had a meeting with the Superintendent of Schools and some Board of Education members. The Superintendent showed us a slide show emphasizing the junior high they had just renovated, talked about probems related to declining enrollment (sound familiar?) and gave us an overview of the school district: two senior highs, five junior highs and 8 elementary schools – a couple with around 100 students. There are a total of 3194 elementary students (gr 1-6) and 1560 jr high students (gr 7-9). They had a fireworks display and festival and passed out fans with the picture of the old and new school when they opened their newly renovated school – in case anyone is starting to think about celebrating our new school.
By the way, our group picture with the mayor will be posted on the city’s web site (I hope to get you a link soon) and we’re also due to be featured in the local paper. I’ll be calling my agent soon!
Mayor of Takeo City and Celebrities
Several of us finished off the night with a scrumptuous meal of tempura at a traditional restaurant (this time we invited the interpreter and our fearless guide – so, while not quite as exciting an adventure – we at least knew what we were ordering!…..and then four of us walked up the hill to the onsen (hot springs). Time to go for a run – I’ll save the hot springs adventure………and it surely was…..for the next post.
Thanks for reading.
Filed under: Uncategorized
This was Sunday in Japan…..Checked out of the Tokyo hotel and took a one hour plane ride to Fukuoka. It’s on the most south westerly island. You’ll have to see an atlas because I couldn’t get a copy of the map to paste here. Lot’s to learn technologically!
But! You won’t believe what happened in the airport!
You know how it is these days, you have to check in early, get through security and sit around waiting for boarding. Well, the first surprise happened out the window – a very colorful plane landed and as it approached the terminal it became more recognizable….anybody guess?…..A Pokemon Plane!
Pokemon Plane
After that, I was looking down the waiting area and happened to notice a couple of guys eating lunch with distinctive hair-dos and blue outfits, so, being curious, I wandered over and asked first if they were Sumo, and then if I could take their picture – believe me when I say I asked very nicely!
Sumo Wrestlers
Doesn’t the guy on the left look nasty?! Since it was Sunday and I was taking it easy, and it was an airport you know, so I didn’t want to embarrass them too much in public, so instead of taking them to the mat right then and there (hey, I had thirteen US teachers and two principals watching my back), I opted for a friendly arm wrestle. I won’t disclose who won, since this is a public site and I don’t want to embarrass anyone (or have anyone coming after me for dissing them (because I noticed later that they were travelling with four more!)
Sumo Arm Wrestling
Daizaifu Gate
Holy Water
Part of the Wedding Party
Fortues and Prayer Requests
Torri Gates
As you can see, the path was deserted, but I knew that the Devon look-a-like was just up ahead……an up it went!
Torri Gates Two
The Last Torri Gates
The Cave Shrine
Filed under: Uncategorized
A Day Off in Tokyo!
Way too many choices: Tokyo Disney – Travel the Bullet Train to Kyoto – Mt Fuji – The list went on and on….What would you do? Well today I was ready for a little slower pace right here in Tokyo – no long trips, couldn’t climb Fuji (which of course would have been my first choice in adventure,) so here’s what happened.
The East Garden of the Imperial Palace: Since it was my day off, when confronted by a moat full of 3’ long carp (really hungry by the way), rather than swim or swing from a whip, I chose to brave the samurai guards and entered a world many centuries old full of stonework battlements far surpassing those of Fort Knox and even the south patio of Applerock Farm and a Farmall H. In all honesty, however, the gardens, while highly manicured and relaxing, didn’t hold a candle to the Azalea Gardens of Southwest Harbor.
Highly ritualized, dating back to the time of the samurai (who it’s said took a tea ceremony break from battle periodically with their enemy) the tea ceremony is designed to cultivate the qualities of:
Japense Tea Ceremony:
“Wa” – peace and harmony
“Kei” – respect for each other’s status
“Sei” – purity (which in this case refers to simplicity)
“Jaku” – tranquility
Maybe Ms. Emerson wants to renovate her outer office? I’m bringing home the tea.
Here’s Sandy from California and I in the tea room.
Tea Ceremony
And here’s the Tea Ceremony hostess who was very polite in not cringing and criticizing my gauche moves too much (and who let us sit Indian style!). She, by the way, can getup and down from a kneeling position with both hands full – smoothly…..I guess that’s one of the things you learn in the six years of training. You try it -
Tea Ceremony Hostess
The National Museum and neighboring Flea Market, a pedestrian mall, and the Benzaiten Shrine. Rob (superintendent in North Dakota) and I tackled this adventure together, since just like the bazaars of other countries sometimes viewed in movies which we will not name, watching each other’s back (so we didn’t get lost) was paramount. In addition, the constant temptations were more than one person could resist on his own. We barely escaped with some pearl earrings (Rob – sorry honey), some green tea (me) – hey he’s a superintendent – and assorted Japanese candy for Kit and Aaron.
Green Tea Stall
I knew I’d had enough, when I succumbed to the ultimate temptation and tried to order a hamburger at McDonalds.
I have to tell you that a cheeseburger in Oeno is not the same as a cheeseburger in Dover-Foxcroft although the fries were interchangeable. The cheeseburger had mayonnaise instead of ketchup, mustard and a pickle. It also had a slice of raw bacon (which I chose to politely discard). The bun and the cheese and the patty were identical – it’s something I just had to check out, you know?
Well, a Saturday night on the town coming up…. Who knows what adventures that will bring?????? I know one thing, this being a school related blog and all – Certainly nothing too wild – after all, it’s my day off and tomorrow’s a travel day – to the capital of Saga Prefecture with the greatly shrunk group (15) – The Takeo Tigers from all across The United States.
McDonalds in Japan
Filed under: The Adventure Begins
I started today with a 7K (you figure it out) run around the grounds of the Akusa Palace. This is not where the Emperor lives (You’ll see that in the next post) but there’s lots of guards around the grounds and motion detectors and cameras, so something important seems to be on the grounds. You can’t see much of anything, but it’s a good run because you can’t get lost (which can be very important) since it’s one big fenced in area, meticulously trimmed and cared for, like most everything I’ve seen so far. It was too smoggy to see Mt. Fuji from the Tower Restaurant, but the food was Western Style and quite good.
Adult Paragraph to make sure the school board knows that I’m doing something school related here: The official day started with a seminar on Math Education in Japan. The speaker was the curriculum director for the Ministry of Education,
Mr. Nagasaki w/ interpreter
and since the course of study in all schools is determined at the national level, you might think he was a pretty important person. He humbly suggested otherwise, however, and was quite open about stating that the real power lay in the hands of some math professors at the University of Tokyo. In my post about Adventures in Lecture Land I briefly mentioned how much of the curriculum and instruction are driven.by the entrance exams. Well today, I learned that the math entrance exam for secondary school is strongly controlled by this group of professors. Efforts made 10 years ago to modify the exam to allow use of calculators was thwarted by this group because they felt that the minds of elite mathematicians would not be as capable if technology was allowed. Technology can’t be used on the entrance exam, ergo technology is not used in junior and senior high school, ergo schools have very limited technology, ergo students’ exposure to computers etc. is surprisingly very limited. It probably is also not surprising that since most everything is taught by rote memorization, students don’t like math very well, and while they learn enough to pass the test (in most cases), they don’t know how to apply what they have memorized, they don’t know how to work together to solve problems, and their scores in fact are declining, while the rate of disaffection with school mentioned previously is increasing. The solutions: do more individualized instruction (which translates into more tracking), increase time spent on math (and language by the way) (without cutting out anything else by the way) with recommendations to do more active learning and make math more fun……the problem is that since the exam hasn’t changed, and teacher training (controlled to a large degree by the Universities) hasn’t changed, the teachers balk at changing their approach because their success is measured by the number of students who pass the test!…so the implication was that what they have now is a longer day with more math and language instruction…..and even more disaffected students. A positive piece I took away was that in Japan teachers are supposed to do a fair bit of peer classroom observation, collaborative lesson study, and mentoring…….Stayed tuned as we head south on our journey to Saga Prefecture and see what’s happening in the field. Here’s a couple of math book pages:
4th gr. math on area
Some interesting facts:
· You don’t have to go to school after 9th grade (although most students do)
· There are three terms: from April to July, September to December and January to March
· Right now HS students go to school for 7 hours per day with 2 hours in the middle for lunch, assemblies, and other activities.
· Periods are 50 minutes long
· Saturday is a normal school day for private schools students
-
Scores for students with special needs (even those mainstreamed into regular school) are not counted in a school’s scores.
· Getting homework done in Japan is a problem (this is a shock to most of you I am sure)
OK – enough about Math – on to the Dancing Girls!…..well woman.
Kabuki
One of the traditional forms of Japanese theatre. I won’t thrill you with a lot of words, so here’s some media:
Kuboku dancer w/ musicians
I hoped to send this to you via video, but I haven’t worked the bugs out yet – sorry
We also met as a Host City group for the first time since we’ve been in Japan to get our final packing and transportation orders. We learned that we are the first group to ever go to the town of Takeo, that the people in the town are very worried that that will mess up our visit, and that our group coordinator has never been to Takeo before either!
After all that, an evening on the town!
Took the subway, did some shopping at an Army Navy type thrift store where you could buy used kimonos (if anyone wants me to bring one home, let me know) and yukatas (light cotton robes), got some porcelain fish for the fish tanks in my life (trying to think of everyone), found a toy store called Kiddieland, and ate at a place where instead of checking your coat, you check your shoes in neat little cubbyholes in the wall (you get a number). We shared soba noodles, some chicken with rice (which had a raw egg yoke perched on top (and quickly scooped off) and shrimp with rice. Really cool place. Total cost – less than 2000 yen (about $2 right now). By the way, Sierra, you are the proud owner of 102 yen.
Student Paragraphs to let the students know I’m thinking of them: The math books are very thin compared to ours with a lot fewer words. The books are also smaller in area (maybe 6” x 6”) so they fit easily in backpacks and aren’t heavy at all. The students get to keep them, and students can write in them and do all their work in them!
Filed under: The Adventure Begins
The speakers today on Japan’s education system, economy, and government were excellent. They were knowledgeable, passionate about their subjects, intellegent, generally engaging, and honest – the real deal - including the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan, who is deeply involved in dealing with Japan’s crisis of leadership (multiple resignations of Prime Ministers) and financial crisis. The down side was that, except for questions and answers, they all lectured……the whole day. Fortunately, this is the one and only day that this format is being used. Most of the rest of the time I’ll be engaged in experiential learning, but the day certainly served to reinforce in me the need for most of us to balance lecture with activity and self directed learning….keep reminding me of that students!
A few key points, since today’s blog is mostly directed at adult readers, and then I’ll throw in a couple of pictures.
1. While 94% of teachers are female at the kindergarten level and 63% at elementary school, only 29% are female in HS and 19% are university faculty.
2. The national average of teacher student ratio is 1-20 in elementary school and 1-30 in jr. high with a 1-40 maximum.
3. There has been a recent direction to decentralize the schools w/ less control from Ministry of Education and an increase in local control.
4. The most serious problem in Japanese schools is that schools are too rigid – too much rote repetition – with the primary goal being, not learning, but passing the entrance exam. this results in disaffected youth (especially boys), an increased dropout rate, violence in the schools, a high suicide rate, and unmotivated students – food for thought as we in Maine and the US (in my opinion) seem to be heading more and more in that direction (see heavy discussion in Augusta re: standards based diplomas). The quote that sticks in my mind today is “Academic Achievement is not a true measure of learning….”
5. Economically, the most pressing issue in Japan today is Economic Inequalities resulting in unequal distribution of profits to businesses vs workers and big cities vs. rural areas. NEETS (people Not in Education, Employment or Training )and Freeters (people living on short-term temporary jobs) are increasing markedly. These problems are compounded by a huge budget deficit, increasing social security burden, and distrust in government……….sound familiar?
Now for some of the pictures I promised a few days ago:
The eel is on the left with the black seaweed band around it.
Consul General of Japan
And here’s the Japanese Consulate in San Francisco:
That’s all for now. Tomorrow I have a seminar on Math Instruction in Japan (doing it for you, Norm) and then some Kabuki Theatre, which I’m really looking forward to.
Thanks for reading.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Here’s a view from the restaurant on top of my hotel in Tokyo – just to prove that I am really here!
We arrived at the hotel around 8 at night after customs and immigration and baggage and bus ride bushed to beat the band, but an opportunity awaited – escorted dinner out with a Japanese volunteer. Lori, an art teacher who grew up on a dairy farm in Missouri, and I were matched with Yuki, a senior at a private university outside Tokyo. Yuki spent a year abroad at a California College, and spoke English quite well. He hopes to work for a company that has overseas offices, so he is presently studying Chinese. That and his English skills should serve him well. After a short debate, we ended up on a pedestrian street with a number of hole in the wall restaurants where people gathered after a long day’s work. Ours was a chicken restaurant 
- by that I mean they served chicken in many different ways. We had it in a salad that was much like a chicken Ceasar except it had seaweed as a green. We had it grilled on a stick with onion like a shish-ka-bob, and formed on a stick like chicken hamburg. We had it in a fish soup with vegetables and chicken meatballs cooked right on the table topped off with an egg dropped in.
Oh, and iced green tea. The cooks were about 3 meters away, so we felt definitely part of the action. The only down sides were the cigarette smoke (quite a few Japanese smoke, and it isn’t restricted in most places at this time) and our jet lag. Finally to a restless sleep about 10:30 if anyone care to figure out how long my day was…..I sure don’t want to.
But…….because this is an adventure, and I have an adventurous spirit, I didn’t want to miss the fish auction and markt at 5 AM the next morning! It was incredible to say the least – more kinds of sea creatures than I could imagine existed….sights and sounds and movement beyond belief. A short hop by taxi (I know some of the car and technology buffs would like this shot.
The cab driver opens the doors from his seat, so stand back or you’ll get a face full. By the way all cars are right hand drive and you drive on the left…..different, believe me……and it even affects pedestrian skills because you have to look to the left to see if you’re going to get run over – especially if you can’t hear well!
Oh, yeah, the fish auction……I like tuna, and I got up close with lots of tuna here:
Along with many other things you don’t normally see at Bud’s or the P and L. Yes, these are eels.
. Oh and here’s one of the neater vehicles so far: a motorized three-wheeled cart used to move fish all over the place at extremely high rates of speed with no concern for pedestrians. Those of you who are ATV fans – it’s like your dream come true – three-wheeled bumper cars (I never saw an accident). They turn incredibly sharply and you control the speed by pushing down on the wheel – incredibly simple.
Oh, and did I say these guys are very friendly and hospitable? You should have seen me move……this trip is not without its perks. 
Ok, as usual, I’m cruched for time – so I’ll try and tantalize you with a few nuggets and we’ll wait till I’m stateside to talk about the rest (if there’s any interest). After an orientation session, we took a bus tour of Tokyo, stopping at the Diet (Japan’s Parliament),
Ate lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant,
, visited the Senso-ji temple (Shinto), saw some Kyogen theatre,
, and listened to some traditional Japanese music at yet another fancy reception. 
. And, yes, Mrs. Fournier, I got the CD.
I slept better last night, but still woke early 3:00 AM as my biological clock is still a whirl. Today a number of official seminars are scheduled on education, the economy (that should be fun), and the government. We’ll catch you on the other side.
Filed under: Uncategorized
First let me say that I am not receiving any comments. Maybe no one is writing any, but I believe that not to be true based on e-mails I have received. So, if you want to respond to me, you should probably copy your comment to my school e-mail address .
OK, the Airplane Flight…..first the good news – we made it! And it really wasn’t very bad at all, but I’ve got this adventure theme going, so I’ve got to build it up a little. By far the worst part of the trip was just sitting in the seat for nine hours, exacerbated by periodic turbulance out over Hawaii somewhere. I did a lot of reading, and a bit of snoozing. I sat next to a gentleman who didn’t speak English, and since I couldn’t figure out what he was saying either, our conversation was rather limited. The seating on this plane was nine across. There were easily more people on the plane than there are students at DRHS. The food was nothing to write home about……so I won’t. The math however was intriguing. Each seat had a little screen in front of it and you could watch movies if you chose. You could also, however, display an active map of the Pacific and follow the plane’s progress from San Francisco to Tokyo along with some data about the flight. So for the science and math departments, here’s some math review on dimensional analysis!
Listed below, please find the metric data. Your job (extra credit for my students) is to convert to conventional US measure (answers at bottom – I won’t make you wait a day).
Altitude: 10,058 m
Ground Speed: 879 kph
Headwind: 14 kph
Temp: -48 C
This one, I haven’t calculated, but the total distance was 5162 miles. The flight took about 9 hours, so what was the average net speed?
And even trickier (at least for me). If we left San Francisco on Monday at 1:30 PM, and the flight takes 9 hours (we’ll keep all the times rounded off), what day and time was it in Maine when we landed. (Hint: you’ll need a world map with time zones layed out. Believe it or not the easiest reference for that may be in the phone book!) This answer I’ll hang onto for a while.
OK, here’s the answers for the flight data:
Altitude: 33,000 feet (we actually went up to 37,000 to avoid some turbulence)
Speed: 543 mph (pretty fast for an old man, eh? – How far would that take you starting from DRHS?)
Headwind: 8mph
Temp: -59 F (with not much separating me from that)
Veiw: a lot of white and blue
Filed under: Uncategorized
Rejoice! My checked luggage arrived! I have sneakers! I can run……and in fact I ran between the bed and the bathroom many times last night…..and did more running in place. Apparently, my gastrointestinal tract was not used to the culinary and visual delights offered up at the Consul General’s home last night! I have some great pictures, and hope to show them to you next time. For now let me try a written picture.
We arrived at the Consul General’s home as the sun was setting over the Bay. I could just see Alcatraz. Needless to say, it didn’t look very inviting even in the glow of a Pacific dusk. The Consul General’s home is of Italian Rennaisance design, beige stucco. Inside there was a beautiful curved stained glass window-wall, quite oriental, and a number of Japanese artwork. He and his wife were very gracious hosts, and although he had never been to Maine, he knew some things about it – mostly the coast, but that’s been true of most of those in the group from the United States as well.
Following wine and sparkling water served by tuxedo clad waiters and a few speeches of welcome and thanks, we were offered a buffet that was quite marvelous, and very different from any I’d ever seen. The only things I truly recognized were broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and the rice that goes with the sushi. Mr. Bell would have gone hungry, I’m afraid. Foolish I, determined to live the culture, tried everything, all of which was fabulously presented and tasted very good. There were many different offerings of sushi, dumpling type things with octopus and veggies, many kinds of raw fish, some mini egg roll type items, a tofu item, and some cocunut crusted protein on a stick. Please tell Ricky that I had some raw eel – but didn’t know what I had eaten until afterward. Quite tasty. I guess I earned my just reward in the bathroom.
In the dessert room (some kind of custard?) we could see the Golden Gate Bridge (trivia answer #1), but its cables were not lit, so it wasn’t nearly as impressive at night as our Penobscot Narrows Bridge.
The Orientation sessions this afternoon were very useful and included a panel of past participants on a JFMF trip. Most of the advice was about how not to embarrass yourself when taking a bath in the host familiy’s home….more on that later.
The people in my host city group, with whom I will be spending the bulk of my time are all fine folks. We are very diverse in many ways, geographically, age, subject, etc. I think we will learn a lot just from conversations among ourselves.
On a sad note, for those of you who think this might be something you might like to apply for, this is the last trip. Apparently the Japanese economy has not been doing very well – and can’t afford to continue. There is some hope, however that they may be able to sponsor a teacher to teacher exhange between Japanese and American schools, so that may work out well. There are also a number of other programs in International Education (mostly science and technology related) that are available. More later.
The sun is on its way up, and I will soon be out the door for a run along the back bay, hoping to get my body straightened out, and get a little exercise to balance the nine hour plane trip to Tokyo coming up.
It may be a while until you get the next installment of Mr. Devine Goes to Japan, but we’ll talk to you soon.
Syaonara
Filed under: Uncategorized
Missing Pilots…..rushed takeoffs and landings at an undisclosed location……..O.J. Simpson run through the terminal……feuding ticket agents……clandestine hotel in Crystal City on the outskirts of DC….mysterious circular plots in mountainous valleys….it has all the makings of an Indiana Jones plot…..except for the exotic dancer!
Most people would see delayed aircraft, missing plane connections, the Red Sox losing, lost luggage, getting up at 4AM to meet the new plane, long flights, and interminable terminals…but you ‘ve got to look at the bright side…..I made it!
I think we went over the McKynzie Mountains – glaciers and snowcaps. The circular plots are likely irrigated crops using a huge rotating waterer….and I still don’t have my luggage….
Time to go to the orientation meeting…….maybe I’ll meet the exotic danders at the Consul General’s Reception tonight?
Filed under: On the Way
Konnichiwa,
Genkides (I am fine. Thank you.) and hanging out in the terminal at Philadelphia International Airport waiting for leg 2 of my four leg journey to San Francisco. Next stop Washington, DC, then Chicago. Anticipated arrival in San Francisco is just before midnight.
And in addition to the Red Sox victory in game 1, I can celebrate the reconciliation of the only worry I truly had – my computer connected to the internet without problem! Thank you Paul Shaw, the technical coordinator….my new best friend!
The flight from Bangor followed the coastline on a picture perfect day – light fluffy cumulus clouds, bright sunshine. I was able to pick out Drakes Island quite clearly which brought back many wonderful memories from my childhood, and our most recent summer vacation (I could see the waves McKynzie!) and even pick out the Shorelands (but not the ping pong table).
Everything else was pretty uneventful – I mostly re-read all the etiquette tips, like making sure when I take my foot out of my shoe at my host family’s home to put my foot on the wooden part of the entry, not the stone or concrete, so as to be fastidious about not bringing dirt into the house……sounds like a good plan for our home!
My bag is supposedly checked through all the way to San Francisco, but because I am changing airlines in DC, they had to do some funky stuff on my luggage tag…….so the adventure may in fact truly be just beginning……stay tuned. I’ll check in next from San Francisco.
Trivia Question? What’s the name of the famous bridge in SF?
