It Only Took 43 Years!

This brief post begins fifteen or more years ago when my friend and colleague, Cassie Major, asked me while getting my mail at Barre Town School, if I had ever taught a Michael Burgun, I had, years ago at Tumbarumba High School in Australia.  She’d received a message from him looking for me and thus began our return to a time together in Oz.

When I was doing my student teaching at Montpelier High School I ventured into the teachers room after class and started reading an educational journal.  Magazines and journals had these little ads to buy something, or subscribe, or in this case get a job in a land far far away.  So I sent it in and received a letter a few weeks later from the New South Wales Department of Education informing me that if I would like to interview for the opportunity to teach in Australia I should confirm the time and day enclosed and show up at Syracuse University.  Teaching jobs were very scarce in Vermont and not very plentiful in the US in general at this time.

The interview was pretty straight forward and really my first ever.  Two weeks later I received a letter offering me a position and informed me that I  needed to arrive in late January for the school opening in February.  Later I found out that race may have been a issue.  Australia had enacted a law, The Immigration Restriction Act, just after independence from Great Britain in 1901.  This law was eventually abolished in 1973 just after arriving.  I don’t know for a fact that they wanted to see what color I was, but…. .

Technically speaking I was an immigrant and when I arrived they put me in immigrant housing in a suburb of Sydney.  We had orientation classes for a week and then they gave us our posting.  Teachers in Oz are posted by the department of education unlike the US.  The winning town drawn was Tumbarumba located about halfway between Sydney and Melbourne near Wagga Wagga. Tumbarumba is on the periphery of the area known as the Riverina and the Snowy Mountains at an elevation of 670 m with about 1500 population as of 2012 and I’d say it was similar in 1971.

This is where I came face to face with MY first students on a daily basis. Education in Oz was very prescriptive and we had to follow a state syllabus that coincided with the exam at year’s end. I had twenty-five in a class more or less and they called me SIR, corrected my spelling, labour, colour, taught me to say controversy correctly, introduced me to rubbers, erasers not condoms, and chooks, crook, hunting with ferrets, and shooting rabbits at night, lots and lots of rabbits, like 300 in five hours with a .22 caliber.  I learned a lot!  The experience changed my life and solidified my love of children and teaching.

Enter Michael and many others like Cathy, Angus, Kerry, and Russell (Michael refreshed this one).  Barre Town and Tumbarumba had great students, just nice people, and the community embraced us, the two other “septic yanks”. 

So Michael and I then connected on Facebook.  On a recent posting he mentioned he was working in the UK, Denmark, South Africa, Bulgaria, and Spain, Madrid.  Off handily I mentioned he was getting closer to me,  a little tough in cheek.  I didn’t expect it but he responded and said he might be able to squeeze the 20th, Saturday, in for a night and then return to Madrid for his flight to Copenhagen. He took the AVE to Málaga and   Cindy and I drove to Estación de Málaga Maria Zambrano and captured him.  

We did a very brief tour of Ronda, the bridge and the Parador, not much time.  We went back to the house where Cindy had prepared a delicious meal of chicken with sherry, which doesn’t do it justice,  and much more. Bottles of wine went into the night, still beer for me.  Politics was the El Menu del Día, and we agreed.  

Family, Michael has a twenty-nine year old son and fourteen year old daughter and is married to Sara, a pommie, but I’ve come to terms with this as he obviously has.  Michael graduated from The Australian National University in the Australian capital, Canberra, and majored in math.  He does consulting for IT and much more, so when he possibly returns in a few months with his wife we’ll delve into this.

They say you can never go back, but we did.  Names, places, events, they’re still the same, but we are a little older.  He said I influenced his love of history, nice, and he influenced me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

el 27-29 de octubre de 2016, Faro y Sagres, Portugal

Map of our trip to Faro and Sagres, Portugal

Cindy and I ventured out of Spain for the second time.  The first time was to meet with Landen and Lauren in Italy and this time we drove 4 hours to Portugal, a Boston to Barre and return journey.  We had to drive north to Sevilla (120km) and then west to Portugal.  The autovias are excellent and the posted speed limit is 120 km which too many do not drive and exceed by another 25 km easily.  

As we entered Portugal there’s a sign informing you that all tolls are deducted electronically. Since this is an EU country  you can travel between countries with no passport, though Cindy had hers and I had my ID.  Definitely not like crossing into to Canada now from Derby Line or Highgate Springs.  In Portugal as you enter the country you insert your credit card to pay road fees for using the divided highway. They photograph your license plate with overhead cameras and charge your card.  Each section of highway has a toll that is posted and varies in accordance with distance and type of vehicle. Everything worked well for us except one thing.  When we entered Portugal I needed a pit stop and saw a sign for information.  I zipped in but no info and no pit stop, so seeing the exit I zipped out and totally avoided the credit card machine which records information about my car, license plate, and of course my credit card.  This part of the story will continue as we leave Portugal.

Our destination was the city of Faro on the South Atlantic coast.  This city has a population of 75,000 inhabitants and is in the popular tourist area of the Algarve.   We noticed that Portugal, and of course this is only a sliver of the country,  was less busy, meaning: in Spain we see lots of agriculture in the area.  Where olives or citrus could be growing they weren’t, and not knowing the region there may be a very good reason.  The idea of not being busy was also evident in Faro.  Ronda is smaller and touristy too, but lots of activities are going on and the shopping district on La Bola is always full of people.  My impression was that the “Crisis” from 2008 had hit Portugal harder than Spain.  Faro looked like a city that had seen better times.

Faro, Portugal

Stork on a church across from our hotel in Faro

When you eat in Faro this is the place.  We ate here two nights.  Great food and atmosphere and no reservation needed.

Spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, black olives, and octopus, AWESOME!

The next day we drove 100km to the extreme southwest tip of Portugal, Sagres. When I taught the Age of Exploration it began with the early feats of Portuguese explorers rounding the tip of Africa and venturing into the Indian Ocean thereby providing a sea route to Asia.  The king of Portugal’s son, Prince Henry, sponsored expeditions along the African coast that eventually led to the rounding of The Cape of Good Hope and the riches in the East Indies.  Unfortunately this is not all good news since many of these explorers goals were not only economic but to spread Christianity by whatever means necessary.  On the economic side the good news was they brought back products and inventions unknown to Europeans or in scarce supply. Another  bad was the Portuguese also began the lucrative slave trade to the detriment of millions.  Many of these voyages of exploration began here in Sagres.

Sagres Peninsula. You can see the fortress and paths we walked that lead completely around the peninsula.

Entrance to Fortaleza Sagres

Exterior walls of the fortress

 

Recently discovered compass rose located on the floor of the fortress

You can understand why they built the fortress in this location.

As you leave the fortress interior this walkway takes you out to the extreme end of the peninsula. Along this path are numerous gun emplacement.

Cindy holding down the fortress

Great beach area and locals were surfing

All along the walkway around the cliff area people have taken the rocks and created these sculptures.

Fisherman on the edge, and I do mean the edge, and I didn’t see any fall protective equipment. They are fishing from 200 to 300 meters above the sea.

The wind was very strong that day as it may be on many days. Cindy was getting ready to enter the fortress and using the car as a shield from the wind.

The trip was not all about history.  As we came close to Sagres we went by a pottery shop, which Portugal is famous for and Cindy loves bowls.  But I have to admit she was very tame on this ocassion and only bought four coffee cups.

These photo speaks for itself.

Mas

Mucho mas!

We got up Saturday morning and headed home.  Cindy became concerned that we had not paid electronically for using the highways.  As the kilometers moved us closer to Spain I too was wondering what we were going to do.  Just as we arrived there were police in the highway with flags directing us to an area with an information booth similar to the one we went to when we arrived in the country. A very nice lady came to our car and wanted us to complete a survey, WHEW!  We pulled over and went into a trailer and armed with her computer asked us about our travels in her country.  I also told her the story about not having given my credit card when entering the country.  She basically said, “Well don’t worry about it.”  So after the interview we continued back to Spain without incident. Since our return I’ve learned that they have pictures of my number plate, many actually, and I may or may not receive a bill in the mail.  To be continued!

The US Election

It’s over, well not really, but for now!  Tim Crowley probably would’ve had to fire me!

Special Visitor Coming

So let’s go back to Tumbarumba, Australia, my first teaching employment back in 1971. Fifteen or maybe fewer years ago my colleague, Cassie, at Barre Town School came to me and asked if I’d ever taught a young man named Michael Burgun because she had been contacted by him and he was looking for his teacher when he was 13.  Michael was a bright one, and I had lots of bright ones.  So now after graduating from The Australian National University in Canberra in mathematics he has his own company and travels the world consulting.  He posted on his Facebook page he would be in Madrid and I responded telling him he was getting closer to me.  So now he is coming to Ronda and we will be seeing each other on the weekend (November 19 and 20).  Definitely a small world and not so bad as we may tend to think.