If you were to add a 13th month to the year, where would you put it, and what would you call it?
 I would add a month between July and August and I would call it the summer bonus month!

Where do you call home and what do you miss about it?
Home has been many places however the one I keep returning to is Minnesota.  When I am away I of course miss my family and friends, but also I miss the nature, and the seasons that I associate with Minnesota .  We are the land of 10,000 lakes after all.

What’s the best advice you have ever received?
My mother always says don’t worry about the things you can’t change.

What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced?
Driving to work in a blizzard not being able to see 10 feet in front of the vehicle. 

You have been given the week off (not really). What will you do?
Find a beach!

What do you love about your job?
The children of course. 

Have you ever met a really famous person?
Tell us about it in 20 words or less.

Ever had any broken bones? How did that happen?
I broke my jaw in a car accident.

Has your life gone according to plan? Explain? 
No!  I’m from a small town in Minnesota, but I married a guy from New York and have lived and traveled all over the world.

Most embarrassing language moment. 
Asking an older gentleman on an elevator “How old are you,” when I meant to say, “What time is it?”  (These questions are only one word different in Japanese)

If you could have one superpower what would it be? 
To make my kids get along at all times.

What person influenced you most in your life? 
My mom.

What’s the best advice you have ever received? 
Everything changes.

What were you doing on your 16th birthday? 
I was visiting the Sound of Music gazebo in Salzburg, Germany.  Almost died of the romaticism of it all . . .  (maybe getting a little kiss too!!)

What do you do in your spare time? 
Spare time?  I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with this concept.

What’s the worst job you ever had and why? 
Dishwasher in college for the kitchen in my dorm.

What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced? 

Typhoon while living on the small island of Yap.  Took the roof off our house while we were cowering under the table.

What ring tone did you set for your cell phone and why? 
Cheap phone, can not choose ring tones!

Lafayette, Louisiana, Family, Friends, Dancing, Music, Food

If you could have one superpower what would it be?
The ability to fly.

What person influenced you most in your life?

My father.

What do you do in your spare time?

Read, Run/Bike, Sleep.

What ring tone did you set for your cell phone and why?
Brown-Eyed Girl. I like it.

If you could go anywhere, money is no object, where would it be?

Heaven.

What is your all-time favorite movie, and why?

The Dark Crystal. I love how Jim Henson portrayed the characters, and I love old fashion stories of good vs. evil. Good always wins.

Whats the worst weather-event youve ever experienced?

Not really a weather event, but I did experience an 8.2 earthquake while living on Guam.

You have been given the week off (not really). What will you do?

Scuba dive.

What do you love about your job?
The ability to interact with people.

Are you a morning or evening person? Why do you think that is?

Morning.

Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Why do you think that is?

Beach. Definitely.

What ring tone did you set for your cell phone and why?
Ringtone: The very masculine Bullfrog: the “ribit” recreation is uncannily natural, and it doesn’t make a Broadway musical out of receiving a simple phone call.

What’s the hardest life lesson you’ve had to learn?
Hardest Life Lesson: The hard way is hard, the easy way harder.

What is your all-time favorite movie, and why?
Fave Movie: Husbands, by John Cassavetes. A seeringly cleared-eyed vision of the male ego: his appetites, his vanities, and his vulnerabilities.

Are you a MAC or a PC person?

PC person. Try looking for a backspace button on a Mac.

If you could have one superpower what would it be?

To read minds.

What is your home country and what do you miss most about it?
Trinidad and Tobago aka sweet TnT (Mom’s cooking)

What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced?
Hurrican Fabian in Bermuda 2003.

Are you a morning or evening person? Why do you think that is?
Definitely morning. Maybe because I was born at 5:30am.

Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Why do you think that is?
Mountain: Simple, I lived in Trinidad for 35 years and Bermuda for three years. You know what they say about too much of a good thing.

What are you reading right now?

Would you attend a party with many fascinating people you’ve never met if you had to attend alone?
Isn’t that what I’m doing now?

Are you a MAC or a PC person?
Mac.
 
If you could have one superpower what would it be?
I’d want to be called the Phantom Teacher and have a power that would somehow unbruise bananas, transform any decaf coffee to regular, and be able to move the car ahead of me to the right by will alone.
 
What is your all-time favorite movie, and why?
It would either be The Shawshank Redemption or The Rookie. The main characters in both films could have given up on life and no one would have faulted them, but instead they decide to something other than the expected.
 
What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced?
I’ve ridden out several hurricanes in South Florida. Worst one shut school down for a week.
 
When you get chicken nuggets, do you ask for the ranch, honey mustard, barbecue, or ketchup?
Hot mustard!

If you could have one superpower what would it be?

What do you love about your job? Speaking French.

When you get chicken nuggets, do you ask for the ranch, honey mustard, barbecue, or ketchup? Honey mustard.

Are you a morning or evening person? I’m a morning person, and I think that’s because I’ve always enjoyed playing outside and because sunny days make me happy.

Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Why do you think that is? I think mountains are beautiful and I love hiking, but I’m most definitely a beach person and I think that’s because the beach/river was part of my upbringing in Brazil. 

What are you reading right now? Orientation Handbook, Professional Development Handbook, Now That’s Shanghai.

Has your life gone according to plan? Explain? No, it has gone better. I have done far more things than I thought I would.

Where do you call home and what do you miss about it?
Macapá is where I call home, and what I miss the most is the confort of my parents presence.

Are you a MAC or a PC person? I guess since my personal computer is a Mac, I am a Mac person, but PCs work just fine too.

What person influenced you most in your life? My father and my mother.

What do you do in your spare time? I like to go dancing and watch movies.

What are you reading right now?

If you were to add a 13th month to the year, where would you put it, and what would you call it?
I would put it right after August and I would call it Splendid.

If you could have one superpower what would it be?
I would like to have the power to heal with a touch.

What is your all-time favorite movie, and why?
Chocolat with Johnny Depp.

What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced?
Typhoons in Taiwan.

What do you love about your job?
That‘s easy — I love the students!

When you get chicken nuggets, do you ask for the ranch, honey mustard, barbecue, or ketchup?
Honey mustard.

Are you a morning or evening person?
I have to be a morning person simply because I am too exhausted at the end of the day to be an evening person.

Are you a beach person or a mountain person? Why do you think that is?
I am a mountain person because I absolutely love getting out in the fresh air, with the sky just above!

Where do you call home and what do you miss about it?

What person influenced you most in your life?
My son, Daniel, is the most influential person in my life.  I NEVER had to discipline him for poor behavior, and I never heard him say a bad thing to anyone in his eighteen Mr. Positive years.

What’s the best advice you have ever received?
“Get over it.” And,  “Smile and the world smiles back.”

Most embarrassing language moment.
Most embarrassing moment:  After just receiving my undergrad degree in English Education, I was asked the trivia question:  “Who wrote the diary of Anne Frank?” I was so perplexed.

What do you love about your job?
What do I love most about my job as a counselor? Filling the compassion deficits of those children most in need; and having three months vacation each year to spend with family and friends.

Has your life gone according to plan? Explain?
I would never have imagined I’d be living in Shanghai, China and married to a Japanese wife when I grew up.  Many of my childhood friends can’t believe I’ve become a school counselor either.  All I can say is that I grown up!

Where do you call home and what do you miss about it?
I call Detroit, “Motor City” my hometown now.  I’m trying to start a trend where people leave CA for life in Detroit … it’s not catching on though. A big greasy bacon cheeseburger from Honest John’s in mid-town is what I miss the most.

If you could have one superpower what would it be?
Superpower hearing.  If I had superpower hearing I’d be a super counselor!

What’s the most exciting thing about what you’re doing right now?
Aside from working with Kristi Cooper and Cynthia Nordmeyer, it’s getting to know the wonderful students of SAS-Pudong.

What’s the worst weather-event you’ve ever experienced?
I survived a microburst, with wind shear, hail and lightning on a mountain pass in Yellowstone on horseback.  Later we discovered the storm dropped most trees in a 7mile long and 2 mile wide swath of wilderness.