Back in the Kumamoto Saddle Again

Well, the packing got done, the Sunforest apartment cleaned, all the addresses changed (I hope), accounts stopped, goodbyes said, and we got on the three planes back to Japan. We got home a week ago, hopped into our new Honda Civic Hybrid and made the journey back to our apartment.

People were very nice to us during our one-year stay in Davie, Florida. The people at my daughter’s school, Tropical Elementary in Plantation, were just great (thank you Principal Anderson). They welcomed my daughter and helped her to learn to read and write (thank you Ms. Davis, Mr. Garcimonde, Ms. Shapiro, and Ms. Goldman). They held many kinds of events to bring interested parents and children together. They had lots of fund-raising activities that could be used here in Japan as well. The art and music programs added cultural touches as well (thanks Ms. Hodges and Ms. Evans).

The people at Nova Southeastern University were very kind to help me get set up with a place to work (thank you Ms. Fish and Dean Lieblein). Drs. Ellis and Cohen were very kind to spend time with me during their busy days. A special thank you goes to Dr. Abramson for reading through my drafts of proposals and guiding me through the process. My wife couldn’t work on her tourist visa, but the new multi-million dollar sports facility had a bunch of exercise courses that helped keep her in shape.

I’ll write some more on the year, etc. Film at eleven.

So begins the sabbatical…

Well, I locked up my office and said most of my goodbyes for the next year. Here starts the adventure of going on sabbatical for a full year. After living in Japan for 90% of the past 20 years, I am looking forward to jumping back in to American life.

Of course, the main event is writing the dissertation, and I will strive to share what I can when I can. The Graduate School of Computer and Information Sciences at Nova Southeastern University has a great program that has been flexible enough for me to survive the courses from as far away as Japan. Now, I’m looking forward to digging into the box of books I just sent as well as those in the The Sherman Library.

That box also has some of the books I plan to read to retool my English language courses. I teach English to science students, so the focus will be on that population. Look for book reviews and ideas for teaching and learning.

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