P2P: Oh Man - She's Leaving for Europe in Just Over a Week!

Math class, SnapChat, Desperation

But first she has to get through finals!

Katie's first year in high school was a real challenge. She loved the social part, she hated the academic part. Her school is on an excel schedule (which means one semester for a year-long class - fewer classes per semester but it goes fast and there's a lot to do!). But it's finally coming to an end and I looking at just for our days of having a freshman.

This year's journey with People to People will take her to England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. These are the lands of her people. Lush with green meadows, fantastic accents and good beer, er um, wait, that's for my blog - amazing sites, she'll be touring with a group from Santa Barbara, Ventura and Wyoming.

Katie will fly by herself to Chicago where she'll me up with the gang and then off they go on June 19th. Her tour is called Celtic Cultures. Here's what the website says about it:

Escape to a magical land famous for its medieval castles, alluring cultures, breathtaking landscapes … and leprechauns! It’s the UK as you’ve only imagined. Become an honorary knight during an exclusive tour of the spellbinding Warwick Castle. Shear sheep on a family-owned farm. Meet a legendary Scottish Highlander during a demonstration involving weapons, kilts, and clans! Experience these magnificent countries in ways that will inspire your imagination, feed your curiosity, and give you a new perspective on this amazing part of the world.

I can't wait to see photos of her shearing sheep! She'll come home alone too but at least she'll get all the way to LA with the gang before they send her packing back to San Jose. She'll be back on July 7th just in time to get ready for her 15th birthday.

I'll start blogging her itinerary on the 19th! Look for photos from the airport, links to the highlights and so much more. Thank you People to People!

Day 16: Planes, Planes and More Planes - The Long Journey Home

Froggy has been waiting for Katie
to come home for weeks now.

If I have done my calculations correctly, as I publish this blog at 9am Pacific Time, they will be dragging their bodies out of bed (if they even went to bed) to get packed and make their way to the airport in Cairns. It will be 2am in Australia. 

Their flight from Cairns to Brisbane (Qantas 799) is scheduled to depart at 5:30am, but People to People always likes their delegates to be there three hours before a flight. They fly one hour and forty-five minutes to Brisbane and then have a three hour layover before their next flight to Los Angeles (Qantas 015). Flight 0150 is a nearly 13 hour flight. 

They arrive in LA at 6:30 am (now your brain has to do some work - they arrive here before they left in the international dateline time/space continuum). They proceed through their Groundhog Day experience catching a plane in LA at 12:05pm (that's a horrible five hour layover) to arrive in SF at 1:20pm on the very same day (or tomorrow for us). 

I expect texting (if she's conscious) while at the airports. Could start really early tomorrow morning. In the meantime, I need to go buy some groceries - especially fresh fruit - that's always what's she's craving after these trips.

Here's to a safe trip home for the kidlets and a weekend full of wonderful stories.

UPDATE: Here they come!

From the People to People Itinerary:

• Say farewell to beautiful Australia and board the motorcoach to the airport for your return flight to the United States.
• Be prepared to declare! You will need to declare your farm stay on your arrival card. This is an important precautionary measure to prevent the spread of disease and pests.
• On your flight home, reflect on your journey, your new understanding of New Zealand and Australian culture, and expanded horizons as a Student Ambassador. Welcome home!

It's Almost Time to Hit the Great South Pacific

Can't say I'm not a little jealous about this trip - well, I have been jealous of all of them - but one place I still want to go is New Zealand and Australia. It's like America light: more fun, better attitudes and no guns. What more could a California native want?!

So Katie leaves on her "South Pacific Adventure" on July 3rd to spend a great deal of time on an airplane to get to the other side of the world (side being north/south for a change) and we'll only be five hours apart (us ahead of her by roughly five) but that's really a day and five hours in some bizarre time/space continuum.

There was a lot of preparing involved.

Before any trip, the kids have to go to a bunch of People toPeople meetings (with their parents) and do a lot of pre-work learning about the geography, culture, history and more of each of the countries they will visit. They also do a little community service here (and more on the trip) because People to People really wants these delegates to be connected to the places they are going. Our group did a food and book drive locally and we got a little picture of the kiddos at Santa Clara Middle School at our last meeting.

Now we have the countdown to departure which is thankfully in the afternoon this year - the last two years have been at the crack of dawn as P2P wants everyone there three hours ahead of the flight (oh yeah, good times).

Katie, whose brain clearly turned to mush now that school is out, has to figure out what to take. The weather will be similar to summer in San Francisco, which is to say damp and cool. I don't think packing will be that hard given we know that weather pretty well.

This is going to be a big trip.

There will be lots of ground to cover and flights moving these kids around. I'll be doing my usual daily posts while she's gone with itineraries and any photos and news she sends. The new app this year is Viber - apparently a great phone and texting app that only works on wi-fi so maybe it will keep expenses down a bit on the telecommunications front.

Next post - pics from the airport! Stay tuned!

PTPI Global Youth Forum 2012 What Did You Do With My Kid?

Flightaware.com. Excellent.

Katie left here early Wednesday morning, still exhausted and exhilarated from watching her candidate win the presidential election. She came back five days later a changed person. Smiling like an idiot. Goofy over the amazing time she had in Chicago and telling me she was going back next year - to Washington DC - so start planning on it.

I couldn't find Katie in any photos, so Liz made sure I did!

In less than a week, my introvert who has "friend" (that's the joke, Katie has just the one friend at school) came home thrilled she had finally found her people. She LOVED everybody there - the girls, the boys, the young ones (she was one) and the old ones (Juniors and Seniors in high school). Together they had looked at the big problems facing the world and together they struggled to come up with ideas for action, for change.

The theme was Serve the World, Save the World and while I have always been an altruist, Katie's had a much more pragmatic approach to giving. She doesn't really want to help unless she could do something that was directly impactful. I've had a much lower threshold for jumping in and saving something. Katie can actually say "no." (This is a desirable trait and coveted by women so I have nurtured her ability to do just that. I figure life will eventually wear her down over time.)

At the conference, there were two missions: work on a problem - her team had Romania - and come up with a solution for solving the problem. The task was broken down into steps and was peppered with inspirational speakers who offered proof that young people really can create change.

Here's the project on Romania.

The Bean has been sited!

Mission two: do a service project with Chicago Cares.

Katie worked in a food kitchen and a clothes pantry helping organize, serve and sort. According to her, it was outstanding. She learned about who they served (many old people who are now on Social Security and don't have enough money for food after paying for medication, then electricity and heat - apparently food is number four on the list), and children. That data touched her heart and brain.

After volunteering they had a scavenger hunt in Chicago (The BEAN!) and ran around like idiots taking in the sites and learning about the city. Of course she wants to go back there too - this trip didn't involve shopping; one of the few crimes Al Capone did not commit in that town.

[Sidebar: I swear the best shopping I have EVER done I did in Chicago. The buyers there are amazing and on the West Coast, we only get stupid clothes that don't cater to the seasons or women with curves. But I digress.] The conference ended with a smashing good time: a dinner and dance with plenty of silliness and photo-taking.

Since the kids have been home, they have been connecting on Facebook like wildfire. They have a private page just for the group so they can talk with one another. They are missing each other like crazy. Katie's still waking up every morning saying, "I just want to go back. I found my people, mom, I found my people." She keeps drifting back through the photos from the event (they are public).

Katie and The Bean.

People to People already hooked me on the international travel; but I have to say, this leadership conference was outstanding. Within a day, Katie was looking for opportunities to volunteer here at home and since she liked serving the hungry, she chose an opportunity at Loaves and Fishes in Watsonville. She started just three days after getting home. GYF made quite an impression.

So, I better keep working. I figured she has four more years of GYF before she graduates. I can only imagine how she'll grow in the years to come!

At the dance.

After the dance.

Katie and Chelsea at Loaves and Fishes.

Destination: Chicago 2012 Global Youth Forum

She's off again. This time a much shorter trip and she's staying kind of local. Katie's hitting Chicago the day after our President was re-elected. She's hoping she will see him at the airport!

Katie is participating in the People to People 2012 Global Youth Forum aimed at teaching the kids about the leadership skills needed to create change in the world. Katie was a political junkie in the last few weeks, devouring information about the candidates, having a friend over for every debate, and watching the Daily Show and The Colbert Report to help her understand how the machine really worked.

Now I'm hoping she'll learn how to collaborate with people that don't necessarily share her point of view. GYF says there will be 125 students attending the conference, representing 11 different countries including Russia, South Africa, Palestine and all over the United States.

She tends to approach the world like a scientist with an overdose of logic and absolution. But as we did the homework this weekend - go learn about Romania and their social issues and come up with solutions - we were quickly met with the reality of problem solving. The answers aren't black and white.They are context-driven. I thought her head would explode.

Here's an example of a Romanian challenge:

In Romania, when Ceausescu took over, unwanted children have been given to orphanages. This was the result of extreme poverty and abortions being deemed illegal. But when Ceausescu was removed in late 1989, the culture had accepted this behavior and it continues today. Unwanted children are still - to this day - given to orphanages or live on the street. This blew Katie's mind. Her simple solution: birth control. Immediately for everyone. Except looking a little closer, you learn the church is extremely powerful in Romania and health care is also not that accessible. It turns out they also have a great divide between those who are educated and those who are not. So solving the problem needs to work within those parameters. (Interested in learning more about Romania? Read this great blog by a guy who taught there for a year.)

Katie let out a heavy sigh and decided there was no way to solve the problem. But I assured her there was, it was just harder than a simple answer. That's why she was going to the GYF to learn how to approach problem solving in context. My fingers are crossed that she will get great ideas and inspiration that she can bring back and share with her friends and classmates.

I got a pleasant surprise at the airport.

We were completely prepared for me to say goodbye at the security line and I had rehearsed Katie in how to get through security and get to her gate since she is making this trip alone. But when we checked in her bag ($25 please - ug), the agent gave me a pass to get through security too! Since Katie's 13, I guess they do that sort so the kid isn't un-escorted. So I got to have an early breakfast with Katie and watch her do everything we talked about with me as backup.

She could have totally handled it. But I am glad I was there because she was in a bit of a coma from being up so late to watch Obama's speech last night and then up so early to catch the flight (we were up at 5am). She texted me from the plane; apparently she was the last person to sit down because she walked past row 10 to row 30 and had to back all the way up against the stream of one-way people!

Been a long time since I could see the plane with my loved one ON it.

I said I bet she'll never make that mistake again. She assured me, "No way."

Cool Find: did you know you can track flights real-time using FlightAware.com? I am loving it this morning as I watch her plane buzz over Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska and Iowa.