I am now at the furthest west I have ever been in my life. However, I probably would have passed this point going east anyway at some junction.
This is a whole new experience for me and much more interesting than I had originally imagined it would be when planning my trip. Flying from Philadelphia to St. Louis, you pass over quite a lot of landscape - you fly "out there". I imagined what it would be like, but really had no idea what to expect when I landed.
I am impressed, from an intercultural standpoint, by my experience of the Midwest so far. I have seen next to nothing of it on the ground aside from the city of St. Louis. Again, I came specifically to look at a few high schools here to see how they combine technology with face-to-face teaching. My initial impression is that cultural standards are higher than I had ever imagined: the city is architecturally fascinating with all of the red brick construction, there is a wide range of high quality cultural activities and the Mexican restaurants are simply out of this world!
It is funny what living abroad for so long does to a person. In some ways China seems more familiar to me than this place - at least when you go to China you can expect it will be a predictably "different" experience. This place is almost like "home" - but not exactly. It is difficult to pinpoint what it is precisely that makes it not quite like what I had expected. I alway hear stories from Europeans who had never been to New York but felt that they had already virtually known what it would be like from films that they had seen. They go there are invariably wind up on a SoHo street at night in the rain and voila! - expectations are confirmed. That is almost the way I feel here - except that nothing has been confirmed at all. I guess I was expecting more Norman Rockwell than this place has to offer - I am rejoicing in the fact that it is not at all like that!
Still after visiting a few high schools I am still disappointed that the version of blended learning being used here has more to do with monitoring than with effective learning. The search goes on...
While here, and on the Internet, I am continuing to develop an online platform for people from India who are working in Germany. My aim is to share intercultural experiences and develop a program to make the transition to working in Germany more effective. More on this soon....