It was my fault for having two flights on the same day, but the cause of it goes back to July of 2018 when I had planned this trip with my cousins, only to find out I was accepted as a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms a few days after. Nonetheless, I am lucky and bless to do both these past two days.
Prior to leaving, I was able to go to our Senior Girls in Sports Luncheon and was able to talk to Annie Sakamoto, an original CrossFit elite. She was truly inspiring, kind, and motivating. I was honestly in awe of her and it encourages me more to keep doing CrossFit and meet milestones at my own pace.
Las Vegas-was the usual. I have been there so many times in my 20s that I already know what I like to do there and best places to eat at. BSB was amazing, and they have aged gracefully.
Jetting to Washington DC-was tough, but I did it! I came in late, so I wasn't able to meet a lot of the other Fulbright participants during the reception (bummer) but I was just happy to not be in the "polar vertex" of weather that hit the East Coast.
I didn't realize that my Fulbright selection was real until I sat in my first session. The 48 hours that I was there was a mixture of PD, meet and greet, and understanding what my guiding question will be when I travel abroad. I was able to meet the other 12 people I will be traveling with to Indonesia and it is quite an interesting group from various parts of the United States. Being in that room with them, (strangers) was odd. I am not a people person, it is really hard for me to start conversations, so I mainly did my observations first-but eventually I was able to get to know some of them. Luckily, the person I shared my room with, is also one of my Indonesia buddy.
As the orientation continued I was in awe of the amazing teachers around me and what they do in their school sites in different parts of the country. It is humbling to know that the struggles I deal with on the job is similar to theirs. It was also great to meet teachers from other parts of America to compare and contrast what I have experienced in California. In my last post, I stated I was in a slum, and it really has been a rough couple of weeks with work and life. But after coming back this weekend from DC and meeting amazing people I feel like my world re-centered itself. That school isn't always going to be the way I planned it to be, and that what I can teach my students and what my students can teach me has to have value in the global sense of things. My educational philosophy has continuously morphed in the global ideas, but really ideas of what I expect students to be when they leave high school.