I’m writing this post from Alexandria, VA, where I arrived on Sunday, July 29, for the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Orientation. After landing at Reagan airport, I happened to run into Cece Daniels, whom I’d met at the spring Fulbright regional meeting in Denver in May. Cece is from Castle Rock, CO, and will be teaching in Mexico City.

On Sunday and Monday, the teachers from Mexico and from the U.S. who will be heading to each other’s countries met for a pre-Orientation meeting to better prepare us for the experience. The meeting was organized by Comexus, an acronym that signifies the cooperation between Mexico and the U.S. required to make our exchanges possible.

So, 0n Sunday evening, I met Isabel Gonzalez and her husband Cesar for the first time. A rather tall woman approached me smiling as I walked toward the meeting room, and I thought, “That can’t be Isabel—she’s too tall.” But she was Isabel! I don’t know why I’d thought she was short like me, but maybe (Cesar’s hypothesis) I inferred small stature from her soft voice on the phone. At any rate, Isabel and I hugged and introduced ourselves, and then she took me to meet Cesar. It was good to finally put faces to names and to get to know them a little over dinner.