Di and I have spent this week in Houston house hunting - or more precisely, looking for a place to live when we move to Houston at the beginning of August.  It was a very successful (and quite efficient) process.  After a day and a half, we had found what we think will be our perfect home, and by the end of the week, the lease papers were all signed, we had met our landlord-to-be, and we finally allowed ourselves to start getting excited about the arduous process of packing to undertake another international move.  For those of you with access to the password-protected section of this website, you can see images of our new home HERE.

Knowing that I was coming to Houston for house hunting, the board and senior staff at Awty saw a golden opportunity for me to perform some other tasks to prepare for the coming year, and before I knew it, my week had been filled with a plethora of meetings, appointments and ceremonies.  And I loved them all!

One special highlight took place on the late afternoon of Tuesday 31st

May (at the end of our only full day of actual house hunting) when I participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for our new three-storey classroom and administration block that will form the front ‘gateway’ to the school when it is completed in July 2012.  The new 65,500 square foot building will comprise 33 new classrooms, administration offices, a new multi-purpose dining area, two art classrooms a digital photography classroom, several meeting rooms and other facilities.

The groundbreaking ceremony included several short speeches, followed by the actual breaking of the ground using golden shovels.  I am a little embarrassed to admit this, but one of my first official acts at Awty has been to start digging up a soccer field! Nonetheless, the need for this new building is acute to replace some old facilities that are no longer state-of-the-art, and what makes it even more exciting is that this is just the first of a huge four-phase building program

that is planned to be completed during the next few years.

After the hectic week of looking for houses and participating in various meetings, it was a welcome relief yesterday (Saturday) to have a day off and be able to do some sightseeing.  Di and I took the opportunity to drive south from Houston to

Galveston, a historic beachside city on the Gulf coast.  Although I had to put up with Di attempting to sing (and remember the words of) Glen Campbell’s 1969 hit “Galveston”, it was a great day as we explored the two most interesting facets of the island - the congested beach resort (left) and the beautiful Victorian buildings of the historical precinct (below right).

Especially interesting for me were Galveston’s carved oak trees.  In 2008, a major hurricane blew through Galveston and destroyed about 40,000 old oak trees.  Some of these have since been transformed into carved sculptures, and the collection continues to grow.  Most of the carved trees are found in Galveston’s beautiful historic precinct, and my only regret was that I didn’t have more time to explore them all.

Overall, I had a great time in Houston this week doing something that I love doing - meeting great new people.  The warmth and hospitality of everyone’s welcomes have been extraordinary, and deeply appreciated by both Di and me.  I always think that the most important factor that makes or breaks the quality of life in any place is the people, and the Awty community is quite simply an extraordinary group of committed, passionate, articulate, idealistic, hospitable people with whom I can hardly wait to start living and working.

Footnote: A few weeks ago, The Awty International School’s student newspaper (“Rampage”) ran a front page article based on a Skype interview conducted with me a few weeks ago when I was in Hong Kong.  You can read the article by accessing the pdf file HERE (655KB).