Brazil Canada Cooperation

Our last Brazilian exchange teacher (the one on the left) arrived yesterday, so the team is complete now. As you can see on the photo, they put up the Brazilian flag next to the Canadian to symbolize the purpose of their stay in Niagara: international cooperation...

We completed today two weeks of good orientation and introductions. They can start their own research now on what best practices and lessosn learned they can bring back to Brazil, and during the process maybe show the Canadians a trick or two as well.

Mary and I will be off to Cancun on Sunday..... yeah!

Discussing applied research

Today our Brazilian visitors met with a number of Niagara College teachers who are actively involved in applied research and course based research projects. The key to succesful projects is a combination of a teacher who is willing to "go the extra mile" for such projects, students who understand the modern learning contract, and industry partners (employers) who can see the value of using student teams to take a look at some of their company's or organizations operational research issues. In today's world this can offers very dynamic learning environments for our students. The Brazilians see some of the lessons learned and best practices during their stay with us, and will aim to take some of that home for implementation at their institutions.

Getting to know Niagara College facilities

Today one of my colleagues at Niagara College gave a tour of the Applied Health building simulation laboratories where practical nurses and personal support workers receive hands-on training programs. Our Brazilian visitors enjoy getting to know our college facilities and we are starting to get them hooked up with colleague professors with whom they will job shadow and exchange experiences during the coming three months. Thanks Martha!

Niagara Falls in the winter

Today I took three of the visiting Brazilians to the winter wonderland of the Niagara Falls. Cold but nice sunny day and a fun visit together. Almost March....the end of this winter is in sight. Next weekend Mary and I fly to Cancun, Mexico with 30 other crazy Canucks. A week of sun and sea.....

Brazilians at Niagara College Canada

This week we welcomed 5 Brazilian educators who will spend 3 -  12 months with us at Niagara College. I know two of them already since 2010 from work we have done together in Brazil, so it is very nice to host them in Niagara now. Their objective is to see how Canadian colleges integrate aspects of applied research in the classroom. One of the first places we hosted them was our Teaching Winery!

The Brazilians were hosted by an international student from the north of China, who has recently graduated from the wine management post graduate certificate program at NC. Fun world!

Family in Holland

My father escorted by my two sisters Han and Ger (forgot to place this one in previous post)...

Few more photos from Holland

I visited my old university faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at tthe Delft University of Technology. When I graduated in 1982 we had about 500 students in total and we were housed in a tiny old  building in the city center. Now it is one of the largest faculties of the university with 2,000 students and housed in a beautiful and inspiring new building in the university campus area.

It is located next to the mechanical and electrical engineering faculty buidlings (Mark, the tall building is the electrical engineering one). I met with Cathrien, an active designer and friend, Ruddy, a current IDE student with Ecuadorian-Dutch parents, and Juan, a Colombian IDE student on exchange. Juan is the son of a colleague from a mining company in Colombia.

The main reason to visit Holland this time was to see my 94 year old father. He seemed in pretty good shape for his age even though his memory is  fading rapidly now. On the photo next to my Dad is my sister Hanneke and her husband Lex. Below a photo also including my other sister Gerrie.

The husband of Gerrie is Bert, who at age 72 started a new hobby by becoming a furniture maker...

In Amsterdam I stayed with my university friend Age, his wife Lea and ttheir daugther Louisa:

The house with the white ground floor front was the place where I lived from 1984 to 1988 while working for Fokker Aircraft Ltd. Sweet memories, It is located on what is called the "Bloemenmarkt" or the "flower market". I always had fresh floweers right in front of our house...

The winter in Holland is not nearly as cold as in Cannada, but it was cold enough for a natural ice skating area in downtown Amsterdam in front of the renovated "Rijksmuseum".

And this morning I was already again shoveling snow at our driveway in Fonthill, Canada.....

Another Dutch Colombia connection

Old friends from our university days, Rob and Marijke, adopted two children from Colombia. In 2007 they visited Colombia again with the kids and made a very nice photo album as memory. Their kids are now 21 and 19. One on her way to become a medical doctor, the other one a communications specialist. I visited Rob and his son during my short visit to Holland last week, and we concluded that it was already some 10 years ago since we had last met.....

Back to Canada

My last day in Holland during this visit. Yesterday one of my old university friends invited me to join him for a game of field hockey. Back in the late seventies we played a few years together in a team while being at university. I played untill 1988, so it has been 26 years since I ran on the grass field wth a hockey stick in hand. The first half hour looked like I had never left the field, but during the second half hour my body clearly told me that it had been a while. Today I could  barely move,  but hey... it was worth it! I should start a hockey competetion on Niagara College's new astro-turf field....

After a week of family visits and catching up with friends it is good to go home in Canada again. Back to Mary, the kids, friends and..... more snow! It was very nice to see my 94 year old father and my two dear sisters again, and we had some quality time together. There is never enough times to catch up with all  the old friends with whom I share so many memoris of my 35 years in Holland before moving to Canada in 1990. But hopefully Mary and I can go back sometime soon.

I stay in touch with my colleagues in Colombia. The next two weeks will be busy for them because they get a arge group of colleagues from Canada, Peru and Bolivia for a series of project meetings.

More later....