Kaulbach's Modern World

For the last two years I have been living, working and running in Saudi Arabia. I first learned to quiet my voice and then I gained my confidence back. Now it is time to share. 

What a great summer! We left Switzerland, headed to our home in Vermont to get organized, get fit, soak in the family and friend time. And already its time to head back to living in Saudi. I will be ready to head back after a few more walks through Vermont meadows and a few more adventures. As I plan to hit the races and miles again, I thought I would write about my running. here's my link to my latest post using Adobe Sparks. https://spark.adobe.com/page/o8L3c3dj8Q2pU/

Spring of 2019 I published this post. I only recently migrated to Blogger. I feel that it is not to late to add this back into my collection of stories:

Long ago, my husband and I found each other because we love stories that celebrate the individual, who has lost something of value. Striving against the odds, against the enemy the hero discovers powers along the way, creates alliances and return from an unordinary place, reflective and changed. What was lost is found with so much more. Why can't education be this sort of revelation? For anyone who loves some or all of this story frame, we presented an open invitation to our game construct at the Tri-Association in Costa Rica. We whittled it down from a passion project into a presentation for any educator of any content in any subject area.  A Hero's Journey, Promoting Global Game Collaboration  involves a simple notion; students gain contextual knowledge within the construct of a story. The game becomes an incentive or reward for classroom learning. Unlocking levels of classroom content through a series of puzzles and locks.   The backstory is the hero's ...

Here's a link to my post using Sparks as a new format. I like the composition style more than what I already have. link -

I usually start my blog with a connection to literature. My recent subscription to the New York Times finally helped me see a connection. An article posted on March 5 outlined our country's administrative ideology towards to immigration The Breitbart site often describes an all-encompassing clash between “nationalists” and “globalists.” In this worldview, American interests are assumed to be at odds with those of the rest of the world, and immigration is seen as undercutting the national identity — with “globalists” being the enemy within..." Huh... Being a migrant here in the DR has made me more of an American than I ever cared to be. And travelling to the northern side of this island brought us an opportunity to meet some celebrity migrants that seem to handle their lives as globalists with sophistication. Meet the north Atlantic humpback whales.  We are here in a small boat where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean. And this one whale named Jigger has qui...

I “Sometimes,' she said, 'it takes a woman to bring out the best in a man.”  ―  Christopher McDougall ,  Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen  (goodreads.com) Lately, I have been feeling the need to run away. I needed to discover a voice to assure me that running away was not a metaphor for fear but a testament to strength when faced with adversity. From the first page- I was hooked; this idea of being lost in pursuit of a mystic, an aberration and legend drew me in. At different points in my life, I too became lost in big beautiful spaces. Caballo Blanco's character,  an ultrarunner of Copper Canyon drew me in and reminded me of that yearning to let go of time, place, and politics to focus on one pure thing.  When the opportunity arose to join a yoga retreat on a mountain top in el Limon, the Dominican Republic, in a Shiva cave, how could I resist the signs? Every day here is sort of...

Santo Domingo in October.  The mangos are gone but the bananas and lechosa still overflow the bicycle vendor's cart. From watching the custodians at school meticulously carve lechosa into crushed ice and evaporated milk blended into a mid morning treat, I too have something to look forward to in my own morning ritual. My morning has changed slightly. No longer does the drive to awake at 4:30 for a run in the park beckon me.  Instead in a Proust moment, the smell of hay gathered from mowed grasses in the Mirador Sur draw me in for the late afternoon. Kata has soccer now so I have an hour alone. The hay is reminiscent of Vermont but new to me is the sound of baseball. the mowed meadows are swarmed by parents and coaches and young men in uniform, cracking their bats and calling plays. It has a rthym? or maybe not but I need to keep listening, watching because I have this need to put that acoustic in my memory.  I have yet to go to a game but it will happen. October w...

No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main...                                   (John Donne) Celebrating our third month abroad today and it feels as if a lifetime has passed. We have a new appreciation for the geography of Santo Domingo, protected by its cliffs, its bay and its height above water since the visit with  Hurricane Matthew (September 28).   Living abroad reminds me daily of how insignificant I am, and a  hurricane speeds up that feeling like the double fast foward button on a remote. Days before it struck, we were partying on the Malacon and planning Marc's trip for a conference in Guadalajara, Mexico.  At the time, I embraced the independence but that week brought me closer to my reliance on the communities of Santo Domingo.  I reacted like everyone else and  stocked up on groceries. Here in Sa...

Punta Cana area is the most visited tourist destination in the Dominican Republic, and is heavily dependent on pristine white sand beaches and healthy reefs to bring in tourism-based revenue. While most of the reef is unprotected and exposed to disturbances like overfishing, there is one protected site called the Aquarium, which also serves as a popular dive site and the focal site for our coral gardening program.                   Punta Cana Ecological Foundation, www.puntacana.org, Fundacion Ecologica PUNTACANA (facebook) Protections from fishing benefits coral reef communities. Surveys have shown clearly that protected sites in Punta Cana have higher coral cover and lower macroalgal cover, compared to similar unprotected reef sites.... Everyone I know has a mentor- a person who impacted them when they were very young. A few people grow up with their mentors, sharing opportunities and adventure and an equal level of friendship. This wa...