Day 7

Day 7 was travel back home - all of which went smoothly. I even got to see the rainbow everyone was posting to facebook when we landed. I LOVE that they now have wifi on airplanes. It helped calm me down to watch How I Met Your Mother in the air.

It was great seeing Scott at the airport. Both of us teared up. It was great to be home.


I have some random thoughts for the trip. First, it happens every year and they are all over the place in the US. You can choose to apply to two out of 30 or so places but you can only go to one if you get accepted. Over 500 people applied for 80 slots for my trip but some trips have WAY less applicants. Also, you can be ANY kind of teacher - science, English, special ed, ESL, substitute, public, private, charter, elementary, middle, or high school. You don't just have to be a social studies teacher. Most weren't in my program. We had nuns (sisters) and Spanish teachers and an Indian reservation teacher and everything in between. Applications start in December and are due March 1. There are some summer programs that last 6 weeks (like the South Africa one) and some that last 2 or 3 or 4. They are all over the world too. Some are in Africa and some in Europe. I highly recommend doing this. All provide various amounts for stipends to help you with travel expenses. The programs are listed here: http://www.neh.gov/divisions/education/summer-programs
And starting in December, it will change for the next year.

I highly recommend renting a car so you can see more than what they show you. 


I went the entire program as "Stephanie" instead of "Stevie". It was interesting. Sometimes I didn't even know people were talking to me. But it's weird to hear anyone call me Stephanie except my parents when they were mad at me... or of course, Scott calls me that since it's less of a boy's name. I really have been called Stevie since January 5, 1983. It was an interesting experiment but I am gonna stick to Stevie because I don't really recognize that name. Interestingly, I sign these blogs as Stephanie... weird.

And finally,  I forgot this. Every morning Natives line up at the Portal at the Palace of the Governors to get a spot to sell at.

All items there have to be 100% proved to be authentic. It was neat seeing them all lined up in the morning claiming their spot.