June 14

Well, 2 days until the Summer Extravaganza of 2012!!  I’ve made some pretty darn good decisions over the course of my life…

On Saturday I leave for 6 ½ weeks in Greece, followed by 1 week in Turkey, ½ a week in Romania, some days in Hungary and the Czech Republic and 5 – 6 days in Munich.

Thank you to those of you reading my blog.  I should let you know that small children and my high school students will be following along, so all of your comments will have to go through me before they are posted.

I’m looking forward to turning into even more of a social studies nerd during this trip and I am hoping to turn some of you into partial nerds.

Greece is currently a bit chaotic.  People are pulling their money out of banks, which has led me to consider bringing Monopoly money (yes, small children and my students do not mean sarcasm will not exist!) on my travels.  I am also going to some countries where freedom of the press isn’t really a right, so I’ll have to e-mail my thoughts on a few issues a bit later.

I’ll be covering a lot about Greek Mythology (lots and lots).  I love the stories of the ancient Greeks.  I told my nephew about how Cronus ate his children and then swallowed a rock and threw them up.  My dad did not think this was an appropriate story to tell a 5 year old… my 5 year nephew thought it was cool.  However, his opinion of me changed dramatically the next time I saw him.   I told him that I was going to see the palace that was believed to have housed the Minotaur (body of a man, head of a bull).  I explained that the Minotaur was in the center of a maze and that Theseus went in to fight him.   My nephew then asked (with a hint of amazement and awe in his voice) “Are you going to go in and fight the Minotaur?!”    I realized I had to be a responsible adult and I did not want to be responsible for causing nightmares, so I said, “Oh, it’s only a story.  I don’t have to fight a Minotaur.”   My response elicited a look of disappointment from my nephew, as if “Aunt Jennie was so cool, until I found out that she can’t even slay a Minotaur.”  So I may have to slay a half man half bull to regain my credibility.

I have a lot of work/research to do while in Greece, but I hope to blog every night or so (and students, please forgive me if I fail to run spell check every now and then, or if I forget the whole grammar thing.).

And this is how the adventure begins…