Ok, at this point I really am along way behind, but we’ll ee how we go. At the moment I’m sitting in the Admiral’s club in Charlotte Airport (NC) but I’m going to have to leave to board my plane to Fort Lauderdale in a few minutes.
So I think I’m up to Thursday, I don’t think anything of note happened the previous night at the appreciation dinner, except perhaps for the first time and bid on something at the silent action and managed to win. It’s a YETI, FPSPI 50th anniversary cocktail shaker. It wasn’t cheap, but the money we spend is for a good cause, and I did need one. Now I just need to get the Bailey’s to make the cocktails (hopefully duty free on my way home).
So Thursday morning was the opening ceremony. It was pretty good – not too long and a couple of good performances including an Australian violinist. I didn’t really connect with the keynote speaker, I didn’t find him that engaging, but a lot of other people thought it was good, so maybe it was just me. Here’s a couple of pics from the opening ceremony.
After the opening ceremony I when to have lunch with Suz and Cheryl (another AD) – we went to McNutt dining – where all the students were eating. Then it was back to Union St Centre for our evaluator meeting. As usual there was a lot of discussion over the FS, especially about the FSP this time! The FS was pretty good – it was very clear on where it wanted you to go, which did theme to some teams just restating the charge and not doing much else, but there were some good UPs.
After the meeting we had a bit of free time, including time to get dinner so I drove round the corner to Forest dining as I missed the transportation there. After dinner it was shout out time, I was doing Seniors, no real problem there. Ann and I raced through ours pretty quickly. Then it was time to start evaluating, they said packets were bigger and I guess they were in the sense that I had two booklets of teams (no individuals) but I only had 14 booklets in total, which was better than what some people had. We had till 4pm on Friday to get the done. So I evaluated, slept for a few hours and evaluated more. When I was done Emily & Kyla asked if I could do another booklet which I did. Then I had a nap! For the first time in 3 years I actually had the time to go to the CmPS fair, but I napped for a bit too long and then I drove over there I couldn’t find any parking.
After that failed attempt I came back and made a start of my MAGIC booklets, but quickly decided I would be more productive in the morning, so I had an early night. Booklets were due at 2, so after that I had another nap – are you noticing a patter? Then I went and had a drink with Suz & Anne, before we went to dinner and then to the variety show. My usual Saturday night duty of supervising the dance happened, this year was probably easier because Paige & I didn’t have to DJ. We did take requests, but a lot of them didn’t get played, but in general the music was good. (I have a lot of videos from the dance, but I only took one photo!)
After that it was back to the Union St Center and join in with the post evaluation party – I always end up getting to bed too late after this, but it’s part of the fun of IC. I had a good 30 seconds of being April’s MVP because I ’accidentally’ opened a bottle of red wine so we could have more drinks! I made it to be, probably around 2 pm. The next morning I was up and off to the closing ceremony. Nothing too exciting, an Australian Junior Team one the action plan presentation so we got to see them perform that and there were generally some good results from Australia. Thankfully that ended early so Suz didn’t have to leave before it was over. Then it was time to pack & leave. This took me a while to work out what I had bought and acquired and how to pack it all, but within an hour I was all sorted and headed off to Louisville.
(I’m currently on my flight to Fort Lauderdale but I’m going to end here because I only have two minutes of free internet left. I’m slowly catching up – my Kentucky adventures come next.)
I’ll add one more picture I took at IU, including cool clouds!
So Tuesday evening I arrived at Indiana University Bloomington (IU). Did the general check in, parking permit stuff and got all that sorted. I was staying in Cedar Hall in the Union St Centre. All the VIPs were spread across two of the hall at Union St Centre. I was in a 4 person room and the accommodations were nice, better i think that at UMass Bloomington.
As I’ve said before, it’s so weird because aside from furniture, there’s absolutely nothing there. I know thats how College worths in the US, but it’s still a strange concept. You can’t really see in the photos, but a super useful thing about this accommodation was that there was a washer and drier in the room. That meant I could get up to date on my laundry and hopefully can hold out now til Florida where the place I’m staying also has a washing machine.
Once checked in I went down to Target to buy supplies and dinner – once again, shopping so not very interesting. The bed was comfy but I was cold the first night, in fact I was cold the whole time in the dorm, I think the thermostat was set too low.
The next morning was Affiliate Council FPSPI’s governing body, consisting of ADs from all the Affiliates. From what i had head the in person meetings are more painful than the previous ones I attended on Zoom, but this actually all went really smoothly. I think we had the shortest topic discussion ever and we finished AC a couple of hours early. It was good to catch up with a lot of ADs I’d met before and also to see some new ones. Once AC was over I googled and found an ATM, I knew I would need some cash as there is a cash bar at the the Appreciation Dinner on Wednesday night. The IU campus really is beautiful, but only took a few photos.
I’m going to finish this post here so I can leave Starbucks and go and check into my hotel (I’ve killed time up until checkin.) I’ll try and do another post or two tonight to try and get (at least close to) up to date!
So it’s now Wednesday morning and I’m sitting in the Affiliate Council meeting at Indiana Uni (IU). I’ve got two days to catch you up on, but a lot of it was driving.
So after my last post I headed off south towards Peoria. I planned the drive with a stop along the way and made it to my hotel – nothing really interesting to report. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of this hotel room. It was nice, it included a fridge & microwave, although no coffee machine. There was some noise at night but it wasn’t a real problem. The hotel really didn’t need to be much, it was just a place to sleep while in an area where I could catch up with Keith & Sandy.
After checking in to the hotel I headed out to Keith & Sandy’s place in Metamora. It was great to see their house, where Tyler grew up and to meet his sister and nephew’s. It’s your typical smallish mid western town and it reminded my quite a lot of Dalwallinu. After spending some time at their house Keith and I went out for dinner. On the way he drove me round and showed my some of the town and where he used to work. Then we went to Blue Magaritas for dinner – it was yummy Mexican. As is the case with most US meals it was too much, so the leftovers were boxed up to take home. Keith told me I had to try the Dairy Queen experience, so we stopped off on the way home and got Mini Blizzards, they’re similar to McFlurry’s but more American. After that we went back to the house, spent a bit more time there and watched the sunset before I headed back to the hotel to sleep.
(Update- it’s now Sunday afternoon and I’m sitting in Starbucks. I’ve fallen quite a bit behind, but that’s not surprising as IC is busy)
In the morning, I got up, checked out and went to meet Keith & Sandy for a late breakfast / brunch. I had a very yummy omelette, but as usual had left overs. It seems that hash browns are a little different in the US. It came with a side of hash browns which appeared to be cooked (maybe fried) grated potato. It was yummy, jut not the way I’m used to hash browns.
It was really great to see Keith & Sandy, it’s lovely to be able to visit people when you’re travelling so I’m glad I had the time an opportunity to do that. Then it was off to Indiana Uni for IC, the reason I can do this trip! Keith suggested that on the way I stop at Turkey Run State Park as it has some nice scenery and good hiking trails. I didn’t have a lot of time, but long enough that I could spend an hour or so there. After a bit of confusion as to where the entrance was and my phone failing me with no signal I made it. It would have been nice to spend longer there but I had limited time, so I just did a couple of the shorter trails.
They were fun hikes, but it was surprisingly hot and also fairly sticky. I saw one the hikers wearing their bathing suit which felt like would have been more appropriate attire, though sturdy enclosed shoes were definitely necessary. After that I arrived at Indiana Uni and that will be a new post.
But two things I forgot to mention I saw fireflies in real life at Keith & Sandy’s place. Sadly I didn’t think to take any photos but they were cool. What I did take a photo of was one of those tank stand thngy’s because I finally saw them in real life. I’ve seen them in lots of TV shows and it was cool to finally see one in person in the US.
