KGIC Keepsakes and Memories part 2

Christmas was a stressful time at King George International College, but ultimately a fun one for the students. There was a potluck, a gingerbread house building contest, and every class had to put on some kind of skit. The higher the level of English, the more ambitious the production: One class had a full-blown play involving X-Files character Mulder and Scully, and stolen Christmas toys. Another had a skit about Santa's elves and reindeer going on strike because they were overworked.

And then there was what to do with the students during the holidays. School was officially closed, so there wouldn't be any official events. If I remember correctly, some of the staff organized a few drop-in get-togethers at pubs, just so the far-away-from-home students had somewhere to go, somewhere to belong to.

Somewhere to belong.

I recall having a brief conversation with one of the teachers about that and Christmas. For North America, it tends to be one of those family-get-together times, and without family close by, it can feel awfully lonely with nowhere to go, no family to belong to.

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Well, it's Christmas today. I hope you belong somewhere today, with friends or family.

Merry Christmas, and God Bless.

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Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin

Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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