One week ago today, I left the U.S. for Aberdeen by way of Amsterdam. I can't really capture in words what was going on in my head. It was surreal. In fact, still, as I sit here watching Coronation Street on ITV2, looking outside the window of my flat at the streams of sunlight on the various shades of green, I feel like at some point within the next week or so my vacation will be over, and I'll be boarding a plane to go home and start teaching at PCO.

This week has been kept rather busy with meeting my Principal Teacher (Head of Department) and several of my new work colleagues and friends of my exchange partner Gill. I've found my way to Aberdeen's city centre - a 30 minute walk - and to Sainbury's, my local grocery store and only a 15 minute trek in the opposite direction. On Tuesday, I went with Peadar, my PT, to my new school, Oldmachar Academy, and saw my new classroom, walked around the main building, and met two of the most important people in any educational establishment, the librarian and the principal's secretary. Wednesday I was introduced to shopping in downtown Aberdeen at the Bon Accord Centre where I found some new loves: Monsoon, Next, Top Shop, and P-Mark (a cross between Old Navy and Wal-Mart and super, super cheap). Yesterday, despite earlier challenges with Susy the Washer, I finished my last loads of laundry without having to wash each one multiple times and having a cycle last 7 hours. Victory! Albeit a small one, a victory nonetheless. This next year is going to find many such victories and learning curves, but I'm excited for the challenge and growth they'll present.

Right. Well I must be off. Emmerdale--one of my new "stories"--is just on.

On Monday, August 2, I and approximately 90 other teachers from India, Hungary, Czech Republic, Mexico, Switzerland, France, the UK, and the US gathered in Washington DC to meet one another and more importantly to realize the journey on which we were about to embark. The Fulbright Classroom Teacher Exchange was started in 1946 by Senator Fulbright of Arkansas in an attempt to promote goodwill and foster understanding between nations in an attempt to avoid those conflicts of earlier decades that had led to two world wars.

Perhaps the most important event of this week, however, was meeting my exchange partner, Ms. Gill Butler, who will live my life for the next year. She will live in my apartment. She will teach in my classroom. She will walk in my shoes, and I hers. This blog will follow all of the mishaps, all of the experiences, all of the learning, all of the fun that this year will hold.