New Blogger Joins TransnationalEd

The day has come for my first post, and I don't know why I've been dragging my feet. I guess I've just enjoyed reading Tom's posts so much and wondered what I could bring to the table that would measure up. I'm new at this. I'll say it upfront. The words 'transnational education' were completely foreign (no pun intended) less than a few months ago. But I take courage at something Tom told me a little while back: "We're all new to this."

So here I am. Tom invited me to join in on this blog to take a closer look at what's going on in TNE on the European front. I'm a bit backwards in some regards, one of which is the way I approach Europe. My personal experience living and working abroad to this point has been with Eastern Europe, Central and East Asia. So my inclination is to look from East to West.

I suppose a little personal background would be useful. I've always enjoyed exploring and attempting to understand different cultures. Some of my best friends growing up have been those of different ethnic groups and nationalities. They were the ones that presented the world in ways I had never imagined.

After high school, I had the opportunity to live in South Korea for two years, and not long after, I took a one-year stint in Uzbekistan working at an international school (K-12). In 2001, I finished my bachelor's degree in technical writing at USU with minors in Korean and Russian and started a master's in instructional technology.

Instructional technology was the crossroads of many things I really loved: technology, education, information design, simulation. What I didn't know when I started was that TNE would add to the mix one more of my favorite ingredients: international relations and culture. It riveted me. Tom jokes about how I've heard all his lectures a dozen times, but to me they never get old. The sign that you are really interested in something is when you can hear it again and again, and not grow tired of it.

The past few months I've been trying to get my mind around this new and exciting field. I'm not there yet, I have a lot more questions than answers. But I'm ready to start and I'm glad to be on board (at last).