Wow... So many things have happened since the last time I wrote in my Blogger... I had a tough time getting back and remembering the name of my blog "Autour du Monde."
I should explain two things:
1. Why I chose this name "Autour du Monde", and
2. Why it took almost 9 months for me to get back into the groove.
The name "Autour du Monde" (Around the World) comes from the fact that in November of 1999, after 23 years on the corporate side with the French Ministry of Foreign Trade, Burke Marketing Research, General Foods, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, four foreign postings in Canada, Japan, Italy, and France, my wife and I were back in the US, in New Hampshire where she was born and educated, teaching at her Alma Mater, Rivier College. The circle was complete, and we were back to square one after having traveled literally several times around the world.
Since my early childhood in France, either on pleasure or on business, I traveled to 56 countries on this planet, including new countries that were created after the Fall of the Iron Curtain.
Therefore, "Autour du Monde" seemed the perfect title of this blog where I wanted to share my experience and also comment about international events, lectures, conferences, articles and any other experiences that would trigger my need to reflect and to share my comments via this blog.
2. The second half of 2007 and the first few months of 2008 have been extremely busy with family and work considerations. In June and August of last year, our two children were each blessed with the birth of a baby boy. Albert and Julia chose Eric as the first name of their first son, and you can imagine my pride in hearing the news that they had decided to name him with my first name. Alexandra and Guillaume chose Thibault for their son, born in Brazil, where Guillaume works for PSA, the holding car company for the Peugeot and Citroen makes.
Everybody was with us for Thanksgiving 2007 and we had several family pictures to celebrate the presence of four generations in one sitting. Antoinette's parents, ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren... A day to remember!
In early December, Antoinette's mother, Grandmaman, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and put under a lot of tests, and chemotherapy administrations.
In parallel, I was busy assembling my tenure application after 7 years of teaching, a complete file documenting my teaching evaluations, scholarship and faculty development activities, and service to both the College and the community at large. The application was completed in early November and I am currently waiting for the results of the peer evaluation of my record of the last 7 years.
Now, from this point on, since I was able to re-trace my steps to this Blog, I hope to be more faithfully contributing thoughts and reactions that I have experienced since the beginning of 2008.
To be continued...
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