Houston Blog
My blog from Houston, Texas. Updated most weeks, usually on Sundays.
I spent Monday this week at school unpacking boxes of my books and papers in my new office in the Levant Foundation Building. It was exhilarating to have finally made the big move after all the work and inconvenience of this major building project – not that much of the work or inconvenience fell into my lap; it was all handled brilliantly by Don Davis and his team in such a calm and efficient manner that it – almost – looked as though this huge, complex construction project was actually quite a breeze.
When I arrived on campus on Monday morning, I was greeted with vastly different scenery than I had known when I was last there on 24th June. The structure of the new parking garage, which had only been started in mid-June, was substantially complete, although work on the corner stairwells and exterior was (and is) still actively underway.
Perhaps the biggest difference, though, has resulted from the removal of the demountable buildings. This simple act has transformed our campus, opening up space and allowing our permanent buildings to be appreciated visually in a way that was impossible when they were semi-obscured. I have included a few images that were taken with a simple camera phone to give you the idea; I am looking forward to capturing better images with a real camera before too long.
I visited my old office in “Big Blue”, which was not empty as I had expected. It still contained most of my furniture with labels showing the names of various faculty members who will inherit it in the next couple of weeks.
I then made my way to my new office, which had only been finished a few days earlier. Entering the room, I was confronted by my job for the day – lots of bulging boxes filled with books, papers and ornaments that were begging to be unpacked. I have included a few images below to show the progress for the day. Lots more work and tidying remains to be done, and the pictures still need to be placed on the walls, but with few other people around on Monday, I was able to accomplish most of the unpacking with only a few (but nonetheless very important) interruptions.
When I needed a break from unpacking, I walked around the interior of the new building, and I was deeply impressed. The offices are spacious, light and airy. The classrooms are extremely generous in size, and include all the necessary connections to make each room its own digital learning hub. Moreover, the classrooms all have feature walls with colors that research shows stimulates creativity and learning processes. The corridors are wide, which should mean that bustle is kept to a minimum. The waiting areas are comfortable and inviting, and my experience during Monday’s heat and humidity suggests that the air conditioning works very effectively, even when one is engaged in the intense physical work of carrying and moving boxes and furniture.
After spending Monday unpacking boxes, I left Houston early on Tuesday morning to take a succession of flights to Australia to see my family, including my meeting for the first time with my new twin granddaughters, Amy and Hannah, who were born in late May. I dutifully rose at the sound of my alarm at 3:00 am, left the house at 3:45 am, and was on my first flight departing at 6:00 am. I came to realize (as if I didn’t already know) that the journey from Houston to Sydney is indeed a long one when I noticed that, with the time difference, my arrival in Sydney would not be until just after 4:30 pm on Thursday afternoon.
The length of the journey was emphasized by a somewhat thought-provoking experience. An hour and a half after after I started my journey on Tuesday morning, I received an e-mail at the airport to say that a board meeting (by phone-in if direct attendance was not possible) would be held at 3:00 pm the following day (Wednesday, Houston time), a time which was ten hours before I was due to finish my journey. Fortunately, by a happy coincidence, the timing was such that I was in transit at Singapore Airport at that time (4:00 am Singapore time), so I was able to participate in the hour and a half long meeting. I was really grateful to the staff of Singapore Airlines who set me up for a conference call at such an early hour, for no charge and with access to good coffee, proving yet again that this airline really is a class act.
It has been wonderful to start catching up with family and friends in Australia after so long away from them in the US, and it is something that I will love to continue doing until I leave to return to Houston in early August. Seeing all these very dear people reminds me how difficult it will be to leave them behind in a couple of weeks, and thus how important it is to share this precious time together to the fullest extent possible. After all, nothing is more important anywhere or at any time than good friendships and family relationships - although as a committed educator, I must also affirm that getting an excellent education comes in at a strong second place.
More about that when I get back to Houston!
A transformed campus
Sunday, 22 July 2012
After spending the beginning of the week at school (see below), I travelled to Australia to see my family for a while before the new term begins. The photo to the right was my ‘welcome’ to Sydney when I arrived late on Thursday afternoon.