Well, it was a hollow feeling today. Just knowing everything was over, no lectures to attend, places to go, it was hard getting up this morning. I was able to have a late breakfast pastry with my roommate before he departed. He was going camping in Chaco Canyon before heading back to CA. I stayed an extra day specifically to see/do anything in the city, that I didn't get the chance to do earlier in the week. Well, I basically saw everything I wanted to see, with the exception of heading out of town to see other things. I had interest in going to Abiquiu but you can't take pictures, notes, or sketch. But the one thing that I did want to do was catch up with Neil Summers. My family first met Neil when I was in high school. He attended the Western Film Fair, which was something my family attended for several years between elementary and high school. Neil now lives outside of Santa Fe, and I was able to meet up with him and have lunch a some wonderful conversation.
Packing now, then off to Los Angeles tomorrow to see one of my best friends.
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Well today was the last day. I always hate this. It is reminiscent of the Real World shows that I watched on MTV in high school and college. You get a group of folks together, from all over the country, and have them work with each other, using all over their collective teaching talents. Granted, much different in many ways from the Real World, but the end is very similar. It's hard saying goodbye to everyone, knowing that you may not see them again. We had teachers from the states of Washington, Oregon, California, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, North Dakota, Montana, Illinois, Virginia, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Missouri, New Jersey, and New York. I may even be forgetting a few. I was really lucky with the roommate I had. We were so much alike in many ways.
We spent a good portion of the day at the New Mexico History Museum again. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but it was basically our home for the week in many ways. We had a lecture in the morning by the archivist/librarian from their archives/library. He was very good. We then had a large break in order to work on our projects and lunch (with whatever time we had left). I was able to finish the majority of my project, and then finished the rest right before I began typing this. After break, we had a lecture on the Pecos Pueblo and then boarded a bus to go and visit the site. The site was awesome, ruins of the old Pueblo all over the place. They were excavated kivas and the site of the old church. It was an incredible site, however there were horrible red ants to deal with. A few folks in our group suffered bites, etc. We ended the day with a picnic dinner under the rich blue skies and the mountains in the background. When we all arrived back at the hotel, I don't think anyone wanted the experience to end. So at least half of us ended up at the hotel pool just reminiscing over the week and all of the experiences we had. It was an adventure this week. I'm so glad that the NEH has opportunities like this. It's so great to experience something like this, it's so rejuvenating. It gets all of the juices flowing to start the school year off with a bang! ART DAY! We had our art experience today. We had the choice of Retablo painting or Tinwork wth Cleo Romero. I had the tinwork and it was so much fun. After the art experience we had another walk through the city and discussed digital storytelling. Since we had a longer break, I was able to take in the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. It was smaller than I thought, but it there was still some beautiful work on display. I After another great lunch at the Burrito Co. we had a tour of the New Mexico Museum of Art. Specifically, we were given a tour of one of the current exhibitions by the curator. We then had time to look around the museum ourselves. The only problem we had was that the curator was a tad boring. That is one of my pet peeves in the art world. He was very monotone and just not animated. When you are passionate about something, it should resonate when you are presenting, or talking about it. No matter what, I was able to talk about a few of the pieces in the exhibit with a few of my classmates, and express what I knew of the artists and the work.
Another great day in Santa Fe. We started off with a lecture on the Camino Real. The lecture was given by Dr. Thomas Chavez, who was perhaps one of the best lecturers I have ever heard. Afterward we had a walking tour of Santa Fe, visiting a few historic landmarks and some art along the way. We were at the Santa Fe Capitol Building for quite some time as well. We had an awesome lunch with two of the lead professors at a great place called the Burrito Co. After lunch we were able to watch a wonderful dancing demonstration and then had a lecture by Joe Baca, who is an incredible potter. I wish I could've afforded some of his pottery, it was so beautiful. On to day 5 tomorrow. I can't believe it's all ending soon...
We had a morning lecture this morning about Blue Lake, outside of the Taos Pueblo. A lot of the lecture had to do with indigenous rights to sacred lands and how most of the time, treaties, etc. were not adhered to at all. It makes me feel kind of ashamed a lot of the time, that my country did this so openly.
After the lecture, we had a short break, and then boarded a bus for the Taos Pueblo. It was awesome. We had photographic rights for the day and had a tour as well. Over two thirds of the Pueblo live below the poverty line, which is just mind boggling. But you couldn't come into contact with more happy folks. And it was an emotionally charged experience being able to talk to some of the folks on the Pueblo. My roommate and I purchased some homemade Tewa Tacos for lunch. And walked around talking with some of the artists on the Pueblo. We hit the jackpot at one place and I purchased a seed pot, a storyteller, a drum, and some jewelry, all of which were made right there at the Pueblo. It was a tiring, but wonderful day! Wow. Lot's of information today. We had a morning lecture and afternoon tours at the New Mexico History Museum. It seems like this will be our home base for the week. It was all about having a sense of place and the fact that New Mexico is a crucible of culture. Being so, it is very important to the indigenous people of the area. We also started breaking up into groups based on the level everyone teaches. This will aide the process of coming up with teaching products by the end of the week. I have an awesome roommate and things are
I'm here and already finished the first day. I arrived around 12:30 NM time. It was a long day of traveling. My flight left BWI at 6:15, and it was made worse by the fact that I did not sleep at all the night before. I just kept packing and packing, and making sure I had everything I needed.
Things are going great thus far. The only problem was that the hotel room wasn't ready until 3pm, so taking a nap was out of the question. Later, we had our little meet and greet in the courtyard of the Palace of the Governors in central Santa Fe. There's about 40 teachers from all over the country and even one from Germany. Imagine that! It's going to be a busy week, but seems to be all well worth it... It's been a while since my last post. Lots of things have happened. We capped off another school year. The end was busy as always, cleaning up to do, goodbyes to take care of, etc. This was perhaps the worst end of a year though, simply for one student. I say worst, but technically in a good way. On the last day of school, I received a wonderful note from a 5th grader. It brought tears to my eyes (yeah no fooling). Then, the same student went to give me a hug as all of the teachers were outside waving goodbye to the students. This kid didn't want to let go and it was gut-wrenching. I did the best I could to contain my emotions so that I wouldn't make them feel worse. I know they'll do great in middle school. They're talented, smart, and work really hard.
Since then, I've been busy. I rested a bit, ran a bunch of errands, etc. Last Wednesday I took the family to Fort Armistead Park near where I grew up in Anne Arundel County. This week is the Sailabration in Baltimore. Well on Wed. the ships were just sailing in. We were there for about 4 hours and were able to see plenty of ships coming in. We all had a great time. Today I took the kids to Baltimore. We saw a few of the ships docked in the harbor, but the main mission was to scope out places to go and see the air show scheduled for tomorrow. I was also able to take the kids to Vacarro's to get a few treats to take home. It was a great day out with the kids, and I can't wait to take them to the air show tomorrow. Pretty soon, I'll be basking in my studies in New Mexico and then on to Los Angeles afterward to see one of my best friends, Brandy. |
B.D.SchmittHusband, Father, Archives
November 2015
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