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Re: Calibrating your risk-reward meter

Eva Gill — Sun, 01 May 2011 09:04:20 -0000

There are people who believe it best to keep their children safe at home on the couch. There are also people whose sense of how things "should" be is so strong they have no idea that there are other perspectives. Sad really, on both accounts, and both run really, really high risks I would not take, to my way of thinking.

Re: Itinerary: Schengen Agreement

Eva Gill — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 03:06:13 -0000

We're from the US, but I think the visa for Aussies is the same. Picture it this way: When you arrive the clock starts on your 180 days and you are given a "bucket" of 90 days you can use. During the next six months, any day you spend inside Schengen takes one out of your "bucket." Any day you are not in Schengen doesn't.

Like for us - we arrived in France at the end of February and spent 48 days in the zone before we went to Croatia for a couple of months. We came back through Schengen for the second half of June to meet friends in Northern Italy and used another 17 days. We're back out of Schengen in Andorra for a couple of weeks. We've used 65 of our 90 days. We'll be allowed a bit over 3 weeks (25 days) when we head back in later this month, then we'll ditch back out at the end to the UK. When we come back in at the end of August or early September, we'll be into another new 180 day visa period, and have a new "bucket" of 90 days.

Kind of confusing. Just be sure to get that exit stamp. When we came into Andorra we arrived late and the booths at the border crossing were closed. We went back the next day and asked for the stamps in our passports.

Re: Itinerary: Schengen Agreement

Eva Gill — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 02:03:36 -0000

We're in Andorra right now to get out of the Schengen area. We also spent a couple of months in Croatia for the same reasons. Any time you spend outside the zone will not count, as long as you get your exit stamp when you leave. We had some specific timing issues, though, as people wanted to come join us for bits and parts of our trip when they could, mostly inside the Schengen zone.

Good luck with the planning! Keep going and it will happen...

Re: Reddit, TED and Sir. Ken Robinson

Eva Gill — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:47:32 -0000

True- the connections we find on the road may or may not support the media, even if it were available.

That last part makes me sad, even though it's probably so. I really like their friends. Both girls are strong independent thinkers even now, and pretty selective about who they hang out with. I hope those friendships find common ground when we get back.

Re: Reddit, TED and Sir. Ken Robinson

Eva Gill — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:23:35 -0000

Thanks, Alex.

I am finding some home school options that seem like they will work, but they're mostly "static," the interactivity element would be much better. I know that the girls seem to learn better from a closer connection to the teacher. I'm sure it will work out fine, but I'm glad to see some of this stuff coming out in the relatively close future.

I know what you mean about the social side of things for the kids. That is a big concern, and certainly the biggest one either of the girls have themselves. I'm hoping with Facebook and e-mail they can at least keep in touch with friends from home. Hoping, too, that some of our friends make it where we are to explore a bit with us.

I'd not thought about the big Google books project for textbooks. (Sort of a "Duh!" moment for me, I have to admit. Don't know why I did not make that connection.) I've been looking at the e-reader - Kindle type option as well.

Thanks, too, for the contact info. As we go down this path toward our adventures, I may have other questions you might have answers to.

Re: Reddit, TED and Sir. Ken Robinson

Eva Gill — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:48:49 -0000

Interesting. Do you think this will percolate down into high/middle schools? The focus for distance learning seems to be on college level.

We are in the process of planning a RTW walkabout with the kids, and have been looking into options for online programs on a middle school and high school level. It would need to be highly portable; we don't want to lug 70 pounds of textbooks and materials around the globe. Soultravelers3 have done it on their own, but their daughter is younger (8, I think.) Educational needs are greater once the kids are older, working on the curriculum to graduate and prepare for college. The kind of interactive programs you are talking about would be a huge step.

Let me know if there are programs out there you know of which I should look at, and I'll be watching for your FusionVirtual info.

Re: Traditional Library Books Belong to Museums; Thanks to E-Readers

Eva Gill — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:16:44 -0000

Yeah, I have a website up: www.gilladventures.com. Thanks for asking. Right now it's mostly about the places we've gone in the past. I wanted to get it up and going before leaving, though. The progress on our trip will be mostly on the blog pages. The main site will house the photo galleries, video, and stories.

The books are a big deal. The kids are still in public school for the next few months. My older daughter is in middle school, and her backpack is insane. She has to carry home at least a couple of textbooks every night, as well as her subject binders. It can't be good for her shoulders, I know mine hurt after carrying a heavy bag for very long. It seems to me that a shift to e-readers, maybe personal ones for each student, would be ideal. The heavy bag is true for all the kids. I can't see lugging multiple textbooks through Croatia.

Re: Traditional Library Books Belong to Museums; Thanks to E-Readers

Eva Gill — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:13:31 -0000

Wow- I wondered when this might start to happen. I didn't expect institutions to make this leap just yet, it will be interesting to see how it works out. I'm sure a lot of other schools will be watching. The savings in floor space for the school has to be a big factor, too.

We're looking at e-readers for our kids when we go on a RTW walkabout next year. We'll home school or private e-school on the road, and will need electronic text books. I'm guessing the kindle text book inventory must be much better than it was a year ago when we last looked. Thanks for sharing this!

Re: 10 Twitter Tools to Organize Your Tweeps

Eva Gill — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:32:27 -0000

Thanks for the list. I've used both Karma and Twitterless to track what is happening with follows, and they are helpful. I don't know if what I am looking for exists and I've just missed it, but have a thought for the techie/ developer crowd.

I'd love to have a way to tag those people I follow, so I call sort and pull up their information. For example, I tweet mostly with the travel crowd, and some photographers. I just posted a photo gallery of Tumacacori Mission in Arizona, near Tucson. I know there are a couple of people I follow/ in my followers who are Tucson based. I can only remember one off hand. I'd like to send them a note about the post which they will get even if they are not watching their timeline right now. It would be too time consuming to sort through hundreds of people and try to find the others in Tucson. I'd also rather not set up a database of my own, and enter them all in as contacts. If there were a program which could bring up my tweeps, and I could attach a few key words, sort of like a photo management tool does, it would be super helpful.