Day Five: Karen

Bob and I woke up and looked at our schedule for today.  We noticed that for the first time since we began our study abroad trip, there is nothing formally scheduled until the noon hour.    Our cultural norm for the trip thus far is  to travel with our fun group of ten from sun up until sun down.  We’re thinking about sending out a  “breakfast anyone?” request to all of the extroverts and ambiverts on the trip.  But what if we catch the  ambiverts on an introvert morning?  Will they feel obligated to join us? We decided just to head to breakfast alone.  When we arrived at the ample breakfast buffet, we noticed that there was bacon on the  menu, but for the life of us, we couldn’t find it. Can you find the bacon on the plates in this photo (left)?  As it turns out, Newcastle’s “bacon” is Kentucky’s ham.  Woe to the American  crispy bacon strip lovers.  It isn’t happening here.  

Cultural awareness.   In my quest for determining cultural differences, after breakfast  I asked the concierge  what the purpose of the two flush buttons on the chrome Kleenex-sized rectangle on the top of the toilet are for (right).  The understanding (albeit slightly embarrassed) concierge responded that one is for a heavier flush and the other for a lighter flush.  Oy vey! 

Disability awareness. Speaking of bathrooms, kudos to the designers of the shower facilities at our hotel for creating a fully accessible walk-in or perhaps roll-in shower without  the necessity of having to step over a shower door track or deal with a door that some folks may have difficulty with closing while showering!

Today was the first day of the University Forum for Human Resource Development Annual Conference 2018 held from June 6^th– 8^th at the Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University.  The theme of the conference is “Power and Possibility: Unleashing the Potential of HRD”.  The keynote speaker was Professor Laura Bierema from the University of Georgia whose topic was “Ladies and Gentlemen, Your Implicit Bias is Showing: Gender Hegemony and its Impact on HRD Research and Practice.” The professor  discussed how the landscape of gender-based research is changing from a binary focused (female vs. male) endeavor to one that includes femininities, masculinities, gender fluidity and intersectionality and the implications for HRD professionals.  Below is a group picture of our class – eager, fresh faces seeking fresh ideas. 

We attended individually chosen breakout sessions  throughout the day. At the day’s end, circus performers regaled us with their antics, but they didn’t hold a candle compared to our own entertaining troupe of tired but inspired learners.  The day ended with a wonderful dinner at Belim House, a local gin joint, that boasts the only working gin still in Newcastle.  We ordered the small plate variety dinners, and they were so small that we couldn’t finish them.  However, we had no problem finishing the “two for ten” cocktails.  There was a quick stop at the “Tesla” dealership (inside joke) aka Tesco for some midnight snacks.  Then it was off to our rooms to burn the midnight homework oil.  Toodaloo everyone!