It is a bit odd for me to end up in Florida for a vacation--I have been more likely to travel abroad more than domestically, so this is different. I had to travel here for a conference and figured, since I was here, I would wander around for a bit.
The main reason that brought me here was well worth it. It was an assessment conference and my assessment of it was pretty good. As I measured its outcomes using the rubric I developed, I would say that the conference met the outcomes, which were of course clear and measurable. Actually, it was just OK. By far the best part was the keynote speaker by the president of Valencia College, a tiny community college in Orlando with 70,000 students. Yes, that is right--this community college is bigger than the U of M. It has grown because it has focused on student learning and it truly has a culture of doing this.
I am careful how to say how good this guy really is. Let's say this. Here is a college president, talking to a group of about 300 faculty and other assessment professionals, and as I looked around as he ended his session, I realized that there were people in tears. And one of those people was me. I think that I could (and I did!) learn from him. It was impressive, perhaps more so because I am not sure we have such conversations in St Cloud which so focus on the students and big ideas.
Florida is an interesting place. One highlight of the conference was a connection with someone who teaches at Santa Fe College in Gainesville. Well, as a source, she was awful. One error of my friend was to not mention this little thing called the Daytona 500. It explains the high price for rental cars, the cars and especially the trucks with Confederate flags, and the endless hordes of idiots who wear ball caps inside for no real reasons and wear t-shirts and sweat shirts with logos which are probably the only text of any kind that they read. Hey, no page turning! Really, more than 400,000 swarm into Florida for Speed Week, and it does affect the life of a tourist. I am not on a single NASCAR tweet or email list, so I missed this. But the fun part is the cars. I was passed on I-75 by three Ferrari's, a Lamborghini, and so many Porches that I lost count. Really. A Testarossa. Who had to wait for traffic just like me and my Volkswagon!
My friend was also was from Northern Florida, so she did not fully fill me in on the phenomena of the Northern Snowbird which if course is far more common in Southwest Florida than "up north" or, as one person described any area north of Orlando, Georgia. They are an interesting species. Natives say the word as a curse word. Honestly the vehemence of their feelings is shocking. They are frustrated by the traffic and slow people driving, slow pedestrians talking, people swamping the restaurants at 4:30 for small meals with special prices for which the waiters will not receive much of a tip.
The impact of the zillions of these birds can be seen everywhere. There are more pharmacies here than I could ever imagine. When I went to a Publix, the large grocery chain store in Florida, the end caps as I entered the store/pharmacy promoted these things, besides bananas and stuff, for sale: Ensure, Fiber One cereal, and lastly, a pyramid of Depends. More sad was my visit to a thrift store. I always stop for camera bargains, but the visits to a few stores here very hard. A difference was the was the frequency of whole sets of dishes, and complete, matching sets or suites of furniture, often with labels from Midwestern retailers. People move or come here, but often don't return to wherever home was.
What is the hardest part of this or what makes be most thoughtful about this is the preview of old age that is harsh and unforgiving. And pretty sad. I have wondered around lots of parts of towns and I have seen almost countless references to Ponce de Leon. There are drives, boulevards. streets, lanes, ways, acres, and more all named after the guy who was looking for and perhaps found the fountain of youth. But no one has found it, though everyone seems to be looking for it. No matter what they call their street or sub-division.
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