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Atlanta
View from our hotel balconyToday was a very long day. In fact from just after 0400hrs when our friend Mark picked us up to take us to the airport to the time we reached our hotel in Atlanta, we had been travelling for 27 hours and it was still just after 1900hrs on the same day!
The three flights we had were uneventful, Perth – Sydney, Sydney – Dallas, Dallas – Atlanta. We were lucky in that we were given seats with plenty of legroom on the second leg, almost as good as an upgrade.
After we checked in at the Hotel Twelve we showered and went downstairs to eat. Although we were both really tired we thought we should have some food in our stomachs before trying to sleep. Judy had a lovely salmon dish and Rags had chicken. We struck up a conversation with a lady sitting nearby and found she was also attending the conference; her name was Karen. We enjoyed each other's company but we never saw her again!
Friday, 27th June 2014 Neither of us slept very well even though we were exhausted by the
Atlanta
Looking the other way time we went to bed, the jetlag affected us both. The hotel room at Twelve Hotel is huge, with its own kitchen and living area and then a large bedroom with two queen size beds and bathroom running off it. The views from this 14th floor aren't as great as we expected as we overlook a freeway system and look up the main street to the cafe and hotel precinct.
After breakfast at the nearby “Apple Cafe", a pleasant and cheap little place, we caught one of the shuttle buses which run back and forth to the Congress Centre from near the hotel. There, Judy registered for the conference and afterwards we spent some time just walking around the huge building to get some idea of where things would be. The centre is on 3 levels, and Rags estimated that the total floor space would be close to 350 000 sq metres!
We decided to walk back to our hotel, as it wasn't very far away. On the way we visited the The World of Coke, a Coco-Cola museum. Coke originated in Atlanta in 1886, invented by John Pemberton a resident there, and the secret recipe is still
ISTE conference
The elevators were like this for the whole 30 minutes Rags watched. Over 16000 people at this conference. apparently kept by Coke here in Atlanta. Even though we were still tired we did enjoy this visit, both of us getting a caffeine boost at the end where we were allowed to try the various flavours and types of Coke from all over the world. Dispensers were set in a large area, each with about 6 different types of Coke, and visitors were able to sample as many, with as much drink as they wanted. One could imagine a few sick kids after a visit here.
After a short rest, we were joined by Ili and Allen, Ili being a Mafia Wars “friend” that Judy made over the years. A delightful couple, younger than us (as most seem to be these days), they brought with them some drinks and a local delicacy, pimento cheese sandwiches, in a cooler (esky) we are to keep for our travels after the conference. Later we were joined by our Perth friends, Brett and Jan, for a drink or two, Brett then came with the four of us for a late Mexican dinner at a cafe nearby while Jan went to do some preparation for the session she is presenting at this conference
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Judy leaving her mark (ISTE). Ili's husband is a coach at a local high school so we had plenty in common and spent the evening discussing education, housing etc. The evening flew past so that by the time we returned to our room it was almost midnight!
Saturday, 28th June 2014 Breakfast was in our room this morning, we picked up the makings yesterday to make use of our kitchen. This works much better for us in that we can stumble around at our own pace before facing the world. Judy uses this time to get in touch with her students and to answer any queries. As there is a 12 hour time difference between Perth and here she doesn't have to worry about immediate responses, as it's late in the evening for students.
The ISTE conference starts officially today, even though the industry displays or expo don't start until tomorrow. Judy was left at the centre, Rags wandered off and looked at a few things in the area near the hotel. We got together at lunchtime, enjoying the pimento cheese sandwiches Ili gave us at a park near the centre. Here we also talked to one
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Jan giving her presentation of the local delegates who was flying a quadcopter there. This machine, fitted with a GoPro camera, is used by his class for various activities, he used them to motivate the pupils. He felt it could be used in nearly all aspects of the curriculum, provided the teacher used a little imagination. We left him, quite impressed, discussing how it could be incorporated in W.A.
Rags left Judy, who returned to the convention, after agreeing to meet at 1900hrs. This was a huge mistake as we hadn't considered the number of people there, our connectivity via Viber not always working, and not setting a definite meeting place.
8000 people were in the hall for a keynote speaker and it took Judy over 30 mins to finally get out of the hall to come looking for him. Both of us were a bit frazzled by this time, to say the least, this was not helped by us not finding our W.A. friends again at the reception and welcome event, nor being prepared to spend ages in a line waiting for some food. So when a band started playing, so loudly it was almost painful we left, very disgruntled.
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Some of the Australian contingent Both of us were very hungry by now having only had a sandwich since breakfast. We walked to the cafe area in town and settled on Hooters, so-called for the well-endowed ladies working there. Here, after a drink, some food and a few laughs we cooled down and feeling more content returned to our hotel.
Sunday 29th June 2014 After another restless night we did eventually sleep in a little, not getting to the conference centre until about1100. This time, we agreed to meet at an event in the evening, both of us interested in different activities at the expo. This time Judy wrote down the meeting place so Rags would know where to go and this note was poked into the back of his Guest Pass. Rags wandered around looking at all kinds of technology available for education, especially fascinated by the 3D printers now available at a reasonable price.
On his way back to the hotel he bought a few groceries for the next day or so at the only shop he has been able to find in the area. Luckily we eat when and where we are at the time,
Centennial Olympic Park
The kids were moved off when the music/fountain display started at 2100hrs this not being a real problem.
Judy came back to the hotel shortly before Rags left to meet her which made meeting easier and gave her a chance to change her clothes. We met up with Brett, Jan off doing a work thing, and attended a reception for Canadian and Australian delegates. There was food there which was most welcome, unusually there was no alcohol. Well, we have to be good some of the time!
We met some interesting people at the reception but it was a little on the quiet side, even though they had a little ice breaker where we had to find someone from the other country to give a gift. We left soon before 2100 hrs.
On the way back to the hotel we walked past the fountains we saw yesterday in the park. These the “Fountain of Rings” a legacy of the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games, were synchronised to pop music, lights and sound effects to make an interesting display. This must occur regularly at 2100hrs as before that there were children running through the fountains having a great time, a policeman ordering them off just before it began.
Monday, 30th June 2014 Rags joined Judy at the Congress Centre for a while this morning, mainly to get the free coffee and pastries, as well as collecting the free give-aways from the exhibitors for the grandchildren. They should get an interesting collection of pens, pencils, balls etc when we get back.
Rags returned to the hotel at about 1130hrs and spent the rest of the afternoon doing his washing, having a nap and just relaxing, until Judy returned at about 1600hrs quite exhausted. Even so, after some water and a change of shoes, we were off to the Atlantic Station, a shopping complex in Midtown about 6kms away. We intended to catch the train but as we felt we needed some exercise we started walking. Judy passed the time by repeating to Rags, the life story of the keynote presenter she had heard earlier, Kevin Carroll. He had a rough start to life, being deserted by his parents and being raised by his grandparents but he had done very well for himself and now travels the world discussing the benefits of "play".
We arrived at the centre, hot and footsore, we decided then and
Atlanta
These dolphins were all over the city advertising the Aquarium there we would catch the train back.
The centre or station, consisted of a lot of new buildings with different types of shops, the set-up nothing like ours but quite attractive and catering for pedestrians. We didn't find much to buy even though there are summer sales on, we walking away eventually with a top for the youngest grandson and some groceries from the Target store there.
The trip back was quicker although we had to walk about 2kms to the railway station as we couldn't work out where the shuttle bus stopped at the centre. Two hot and tired people returned to the hotel, had a shower before going out for dinner as it was now after 1900hrs.
We ate at the same Mexican restaurant we ate the first night, enjoying our different meals. A short walk back followed, the rest of the evening being work and a catch-up on the blog.
Tuesday 1st July 2014 The day was similar to previous days with Judy attending the conference. Rags spent a lot of the morning finding an agency for Virgin Mobile so that we can reactivate the wifi modem we
Atlanta
Woodruff Park in Downtown used 2 years ago. He eventually found a place where English was very much a second language and hoped he walked away with the purchase of some data.This turned out to be very unsuccessful with him becoming very frustrated in that the unit would not reconnect for him.
We lunched together at the CNN food hall, a huge area near the conference centre. Prices here were very reasonable compared to the conference centre and it was obvious that many delegates knew this, as the place was packed. After a good Chinese meal we went our own way, Judy back to the conference and Rags to sort out the modem.
The conference and final keynote finished at 4pm so Judy returned to the hotel by shuttle with Jan and Brett after this and then we all went down to the pool for a drink, only to find the pool bar wasn't open, except on Friday and Saturday. So we returned to our room where we had a few coldies in the fridge before they went to a function. By this time we both felt like crashing so we went to the local pizza place where we bought pizza and
Atlanta
CNN building salad to take away and returned to our room for the evening.
Wednesday 2nd July 2014 Took it easy in the early part of the day as Judy had to catch up with her students and to do some work. She tried but spent most of the time trying to help Rags get the modem to work. Even though we'd forgotten the charger and Brett had loaned us one that fit, it still didn't charge - perhaps the battery is stuffed! Rags went back to the place he bought the data from and purchased a new modem. Even then he had a few problems getting it to work, finally going back again after trying to authenticate the connection in a nearby park. The service at the shop was great and in no time the credit we bought was transferred to the new modem and everything worked smoothly.
By now it was lunchtime and Judy was on a roll with her work, so Rags went out to pick up some sandwiches to have in the room. A few hours later Judy felt she had to get out of the aircon and face the elements
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Inside the food hall outside.
The Centre for Civil and Human Rights was our chosen destination. Here we firstly saw the battle the Negroes had to obtain equality, followed by a display of man's inhumanity to man, with the likes of lither, Idi Amin, Polpot, etc all being mentioned. The former display featured Martin Luther King Jnr as well as other advocates for their cause. The attitudes shown by many of the governors and heads of police depts in the southern USA states were deplorable and we found it hard to imagine people could behave like that. It was most emotional and both of us had to hide a tear or two as we went through the displays. It is a brand new centre as it only opened on the 23rd of June and the exhibitions were very interactive and well presented, using technology to good effect. In one exhibition that commemorated the people who took part in the diner sit ins, a non-violent way to shut down a business that won't serve both Afro-American and white Americans, they had a model of a diner and we could sit in the chair and hear the sounds of what it would have been like
for those who took part in it.
CNN was our next stop, we were half interested in a tour but our minds were made up for us when we saw that all tours for today were now fully booked out for the day, so with clear consciences we were able to sit down to enjoy a couple of Mexican dinners, Rags washing his down with a 32 ounce (about a litre) glass of beer for the princely sum of $6.80. As Judy was drinking water the whole meal cost less than $20 including the beer!
Our last evening here was spent with Judy working and Rags getting the blog up to date before we retired at a reasonable hour. Our summation of Atlanta was that it was a big city with friendly people. It has several attractions including the largest Aquarium in the world so definitely worth a visit if in the region.
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Home and Away
Bob Carlsen
International Society for Technology in Education...
had to look ISTE up with Google. That's great that Judy was a speaker! Join joins the ranks of other TB speakers such as Travel Camel.