Special thanks

I want to extend a special thanks to the book donors:

• Christopher LaRoche
• Elisa Kaplan Miller
• Elsevier Publishing
• Morgan & Claypool
• Morgan Kaufman
• Rosenfeld Media

Their generosity has created a small library of extremely relevant and timely books for future UTP faculty and students.  On their behalf as well as on mine, THANK YOU!

Also, thanks to the Fulbright Program, sponsored by the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and particularly, Jennifer Fox for her support and encouragement as I prepared to come to Panama.

Thanks to the faculty, staff and students of the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá, and to the staff at the US Embassy in Panama City.

Most of all, thanks to my wonderful family who supported me throughout the process of applying, preparing for, and living this adventure.  

One box, two box, what is new, box?

Once again, my many thanks to the US Embassy of Panama!  As always, they were so gracious and helpful!

Some of you have heard of My Box Saga.  Basically, I shipped 4 boxes to the State Department in Washington, DC, before I left.  The boxes were to be put in the Diplomatic Pouch and carried to Panama.  They included books donated from personal professional libraries (thank you, Elisa Miller and Christopher LaRoche!) and by Rosenfeld Media (thank you, Lou!) as well as books I bought for UTP's burgeoning  HCI program.  They were lovingly packed and shipped from the Post Office using media rate.

Perhaps that was the mistake.

Although the boxes were trackable, and despite being well wrapped, one of them self-destructed (or so we are lead to believe by the PO).  David got the top back - seemingly cut off of a box - with a note saying the box was not trackable.  It's so frustrating!

But the word came last week that 2 of the remaining 3 boxes had arrived!

Yippee!  Hooray!  Huzzah!

It took me until today to go get them - and only then thanks (once again) to the woman-who-moves-mountains-and-has-a-heart-of-gold.  You guessed right - Elba!

Elba picked me up and drove over to Clayton where the Embassy is located.  We were a bit concerned because I hadn't been able to reach either Sarah Ferguson or Dalys Degracia by phone during the trip.  Turns out, we arrived at the Embassy during the Cultural Affairs section's staff meeting, but thankfully, wonderful Dalys ducked out, and came down to the guardhouse with the books.  She's such a great person - and this kindness was so appreciated!

So we happily made our way back to UTP.

The elevator in Building 3 which houses our department is now broken as of last Friday, which means that we'll get into shape I guess, but which made it mighty inconvenient today trying to get the boxes up to the Panamanian 2nd/American 3rd floor.  Luckily, Elba snagged one of her students who bounded up the 2 flights of stairs effortlessly.  And another colleague took my briefcase up for me.  Me, I huffed and puffed, but made it upstairs without stopping.

And so now, thanks to Elba, Dalys, and our "bearers", we now have a set of books, including all of the Rosenfeld Media books plus books from each of the private collections.  The labels haven't come yet, and I still have to buy a bookcase, but soon, we will actually have an HCI/UX library!

Elisa, Christopher, and Lou:  Thank you so much for these generous contributions.  I can guarantee they will be used well by our students.

In which Tigger comes to UTP

This morning started with the Security Briefing at the US Embassy in Clayton.  What great people!  Apparently the main briefing was cancelled so Sarah Ferguson read me the security policy so I could sign it.  We did a bit of tag-teaming where she read and then I filled in the next bit.  We both found words that we didn't know - whoever wrote the policy was clearly a frustrated fiction writer who embellished the document with a number of archaic words.  But it was great fun also to talk about the security issues and how to avoid problems.  Yes, fun - because Sarah is such a lovely person!

I also had brief meetings with Public Affairs Officer Kristin Stewart de Rodriguez and Andrea Corey, the Cultural Affairs Officer.  Lovely people (women!) for sure!

After the briefing, I had the opportunity and privilege to have lunch with the Dean, Prof. Nicholas Samaniego, as well as Euclides Saminiego, Aris Castillo, and Elba (there was one other woman - help me remember!)  Quite a lovely meal with terrific food and even better conversation.  We discussed at a very high level the kinds of things that would be useful for me to do.  I'm getting a clearer picture with each meeting.

Aris then took me on a tour of the Computer Engineering offices, introducing me to a number of professors.  I must admit that, between my natural issues with names and my "brain-is-full" fatigue, I doubt I'll be remembering them for a while, but I'm hopeful.  There seems to be a lot of interest in (1) practicing English comprehension and speech and (2) a variety of projects.  However, after putting it all together, Aris and I plotted a bit and struck on the idea of doing a usability evaluation of the UTP website.  Should be very interesting.  We'll definitely have to nail tasks and recruiting.

But the title says that Tigger should be in this post and so he should be because I felt very very much like him all day today.  I keep getting more and more excited as plans firm up and I get to meet these most amazing people in a terrific department.  I'm very honored to get to work with them, but honestly, I feel rather like my feet are 3 feet off the ground and that I'm bouncing - bouncy, bouncy, bouncy - rather like the aforementioned Pooh friend.  I suppose that I will calm down a bit once things start in earnest - or not.  It's hard to tell with Tiggers after all.

Tomorrow, I will meet the faculty at a meeting.  Elba is picking me up earlier so we can accomplish great things together.  Stay tuned!

And thank you again for being on this journey with me.