London Calling

#teachersummer2017 has started off with the real deal. I am traveling with a group of students and teachers from school to London for a week. At the end of the week they will return home and I will travel on. We have crammed as much culture as possible into the past few days.

The adventures of group travel with high school students have included but are not limited to:

• Walking long distances at an alarmingly slow pace
• Seeing students experience one or all of the following: their first trip out of the US, big city livin', meals they did not anticipate
• Making sure everyone gets on and off the tube at the right stop*

Sometimes this has made us feel like this:

But mostly we have felt like this:

I won't recount everything we've done since that would be a laundry list of London sights and museums. Highlights have included Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, the Jane Austen Museum in Bath, ice cream in theaters***, and so much art.

More to come of our goofy teacher times!

*No students have been lost** and we did get that other chaperone back eventually

**Yet

***There has never been a show that has not been made better by ice cream at your seat at intermission.

Cartagena!

A teacher summer post in December? The people said it couldn't be done!! 

To them, I say, it's summer somewhere. Go ahead and put a tropical umbrella in your hot cider! And, really, shouldn't we keep summer in our hearts all year long? I think we should and I think we can. 

After a semester at home (ugh, day jobs, amirite?), I managed to squeeze in one last international trip. AT, my ever-ready travel companion, and I left unseasonably warm 70-degree weather in Atlanta for seasonally appropriate 90-degree weather in Cartagena, Colombia. 

Cartagena is a bustling port city with several different neighborhoods. We spent our time in the walled old city. It's charming, vibrant, and exactly the party we needed to end 2015. The majority of our days has been spent walking around and admiring. Narrow streets are lined with brightly colored buildings, most with balconies overrun by bougainvillea.

Vendors and shops sell street food, paletas (think popsicles and King of Pops), brightly woven bags and hammocks, and your regular assorted tchotchkes. 

The city is busy during the day but is really hopping at night when everyone is out in the streets. Light installations are everywhere, though possibly only up for Christmas and New Years. (They look great, Cartagena! I recommend bumping them up to year-round!)

Our hotel is next to a plaza that on our first night hosted an open-air Zumba class from about 8-10pm. I've really got to tell the local YMCA to step it up now that I've seen these folks in action! 

We ventured briefly outside the walls to visit the obligatory fort. It was very fort-y and I feel like I've seen my fair share of forts this year, but had great views of the entire city. 

The trip has been super quick but super fun! Gracias por todo, Cartagena!!