Visitors

The weather is getting warmer and the days are beautiful. Last week we had a couple visit us from Melbourne. We all enjoyed their visit, with much discussion about Education for Sustainable development. Its was a very interesting topic and more so because he is an outstanding teacher, a winner of the Australian Eureka prize. In fact I had taken Physics lessons from him when I was at high school in Melbourne.

He also introduced me to the Reggio Emilia method of teaching for young children. Now I am reading up on this approach as the kids are growing up and its time to think about their education, particularly for my older son. He has had to deal with quite a lot of changes in the 4 years he has been around. He was 20 months old when we moved from Australia to Chile – which was a big change for all of us in terms of culture, language etc.. Then he had to deal with me regularly going away to Paranal – he survived it but it was stressful. He used to hide my shoes so I can’t leave the house!!

And now we are settled (more or less) in Germany and the lifestyle is completely different again. We arrived in Munich on a Sunday after a months vacation in Sri Lanka – where the days were filled at the beach with music and laughter and just general chaos. It was a stark contrast to arrive in Munich on a Sunday morning wondering where are all the people?

All this traveling is part of life of being in this field of research. One day we hope to settle down once I have gained enough experience at different institutes. Not sure how much longer we need to continue this globetrotting, given the current job market for permanent positions. I will post more on this topic for sure.

Next week we are expecting another visitor – hope the weather continues for her visit too.