The freeways are full at that time of the morning, there is a great system to feed cars into the traffic, they have lights on the feeder lanes, if there is room they will give you a green light, otherwise you sit on the orange light. One lane is reserved for carpooling, and this lane flows quicker than other lanes, but to get off you need to get back into the other lanes and get across 3 to 4 lanes. There is a different policing system, there is the highway patrol, police and sheriffs, all with different duties. If there is a an accident they can block off a section of the motorway and divert traffic back on the next entrance to the highway- all very efficient!
back to Corona, we arrived in a beautiful sunrise and were meet by Jan O'Malley (Kerry, this is Elaine's friend), she had a wonderful day planned for us. The students start at 7.25am, and they finished at 2.15pm. We were privileged to see a range of elective classes to start with, they included, a child development class, which linked to the on-campus childcare( for staff not students), a ceramics class, art class, an amazing choir (we spoke to Petra Shallard's Tempe sister), psychology, drivers ed ( we now know what to do if we get stuck in a desert!) and a dance class ( which stopped and talked to us for ages, they has great questions about NZ and couldn't believe that we didn't have frosting in a can!) Jan picked us up about 10.30, we had lunch in the staff cafeteria ( beef enchiladas, corn chips, refried beans, Mexican rice, and a salad bar, and iced tea), we enjoyed the chance to meet and talk with other teachers over lunch.
We then headed back into classes, AP (Advanced Placement) chemistry, physics and bio. We had a great day, the students were unfailing polite and always willing to talk to us, we meet very dedicated and enthusiastic teachers, and saw the smartboard being used as a teaching tool, small groups and effective teaching,
At the the end of the day, Kathy went back to Hudson and Janice and Trish came and picked me up. We went back to the De Graafs beautiful house where I saw all the pecan trees around their house ( mostly minus the leaves) and meet the dogs! we had coffee, chatted and then went for a walk to the sister cities park, where they have all the student delegate names, it was a bit of an emotional moment for me, thinking back 4 years to when Laura did her exchange and all that has happened since. it was great to see names that recognised from different years eg Sadie Gale. The weather had started to change and got colder, the sky was the most amazing colours, orange and purple.
Crissi picked me up just after 6pm and we all set off for the shoulder to shoulder where we meet next years NZ delegates and many past delegates. We also meet Harry Mitchell and Dick Neuheisel. It was a great night for meeting people, trading stories and feeling the warmth and commitment of the Tempe Sister Cities. We all spoke and received a beautiful poster from Linda Parrish.
Another very full and amazing day
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