Simon's Fulbright USA 2016: Back Home

Flying from SF was a breeze. We had a fine day, a full speed airport shuttle (if your head was out the window you would have parted your hair permanently) and an uneventful flight to LA and Dunedin through Auckland. Thank you to Dee at SF airport check-in!

Touchdown DUD 2.35 pm Sunday the 18th of December. Immediately you are confronted with the reality of being home and not in that special space 1000's of miles away in a small part of the middle of America: a place where friendships were made and education and life explored. The landscapes of NZL are familiar and varied. People wear shorts - alot. The lawns have to be mowed and a tui calls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucvO-gphZng), then a koramiko (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA7JlTJtJ2U). We were visited by a Kererū (or Kūkupa ) - stripping leaves off a Kōwhai tree for brunch.

Reflective and onward questions to ponder from the Fulbright experience: What does New Zealand look like? Who is a New Zealander? What are they like? How are they seen as different to other people of the world? How should New Zealanders be involved with the world? How might the Fulbright experience become the answer to those questions?

And what of America itself? I have learnt about meta-cognition during my stay. It helped me think. I uncovered the generosity of the USA, its institutions and its people. I discovered how diverse Americans are: a mix of different races, of the rich and the poor and everyone between, and a mix of many different personal and collective views, lifestyles and religions. I confirmed my imagination from maps of its wonderful landscapes and BIG scale. I was reminded of the importance of universities in creating opportunity for all and open discussion of all by all. I re-affirmed the importance of an existing gap between tertiary institutions and research and best teaching practice in schools. I reaffirmed the need to understand and respect others and not to judge; to be active, but patient, and wait for the outcome that must come from personal realisations alone.

Thank you to the Fulbright Organisation, Fulbright New Zealand, The Fulbright Teachers Network, The US State Department, the International Institute of Education, the University of Indiana at Bloomington and its Faculty staff (Thanks, Curt), the Center for International Education Research and Development (CIEDR). Thank you, Jacob, and staff! Thanks to Margaret and Frank (Bloomington World Wide Friends). Angie and students at BHSN. And thanks to Lisa of Evermann Apartments. A thanks to all of the Americans we met and who shared with us a moment in time: the Caribbean migrant taxi driver (he understood cricket) in DC, the Amish Farmer and POGIL staff in Lancaster PA, the airport security officer at Philadelphia Airport (he knew the All Blacks), my IU students, IU Campus bus drivers (Go Sandra!) and many many more.... A thanks too to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, and Kaikorai Valley College staff and management for supporting my stay. A final thanks to my spouse, Sylvia, for her contribution to me and the lives of all the Fulbrighters.

We look forward to the visit of the USA Fulbrighters in late January 2017. On we go...................