Fulbright Memorial Fund
Master Teacher Program

 

 

BUGS and SOIL

PAIR

STUDY_TRIP

 

 

 

 

Pam Jones,
our traveling participant,

met our Japanese partners,

Hizuru Hirai

and

Norio Konishi
 in Washington, DC

 

 

 

 

The American traveling participants and their Japanese  partners toured DC,

area schools,  and attended workshop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A friend,
Mark Brody,
 took us on a tour of  Greenville,
South Carolina and  invited us into his home, and treated us
to dinner with his family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hirai and Nori
checked into their accommodations in Easley, South Carolina.

 

 

 

 

Early Monday morning
Hirai and Nori rode from Easley to the mountains of SC and
Holly Springs Elementary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They met principal,
David Owen who took
them on a tour of the school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They visited in the classes,
ate school lunch, and
played on the playground.

 

 

 

 

 

 


American partner, Betty McDaniel, reads to her students.

 

 

 

 

 

After school a reception was held to honor our Japanese partners.  Staff and faculty, State Senator Larry Martin, a city councilman,
school superintendent, school board members, District Office staff, and
District administration
were in attendance.
(L-R  David Owen, Betty McDaniel, Norio Konishi, Hizuru Hirai, Pam P. Jones)

 

 

 

 

 

After having lunch with an Easley teacher, the five partners went to
 the School Board meeting where
Hirai and Nori were
introduced to the Board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday morning began with a tour
of the school district offices
 led by Dr. Henry Hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we met the principal of B.J. Skelton Career Center, Leonard Williams.

 

 

 

 

 

He showed us the different divisions of the Career Center including construction, robotics, agriculture, graphic design, nursing, and cosmetology.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ate lunch at Aunt Sue’s Restaurant and headed for the Blue Ridge Mountains and Asheville, NC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were there, we went to Biltmore House and Gardens.  It is the largest private home in the US and was built in 1895 by George Vanderbilt.

 

 

 

 

 


Afterwards we toured the winery and had a delicious dinner at the Bistro Restaurant on the Biltmore Estate.

 

 

 

 

 



Wednesday morning we toured
Pickens Middle School
led by Dr. Donna Stone.

 

 

We particularly enjoyed watching the students taping their daily TV show.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met two local naturalists, Dennis Chastain and Wes Cooler, and the SC Educational Television crew at Holly Springs Grocery/Grill for lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we went to some
beautiful natural sites including
Table Rock isitors Center
 and Twin Falls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We returned to Holly Springs
where the student body presented a Japanese/American song and dance program to our Japanese guests.

 

 

 

 

 

After school we went to Clemson, SC
to a Clemson University baseball game.  Two Clemson students (Americans), who are studying Japanese, attended the game with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We toured the SC Botanical Gardens in Clemson, led by naturalist
 David Bradshaw.

 

 

 

 


We met two Japanese professors at Clemson, Yuji and Toshiko Kishimoto, at the Madren Center where
we ate a superb dinner.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday morning began with a tour of Pickens High School led by an administrator, a teacher, and the student body president.

 

 

 

 

 

We visited many classrooms, but we particularly enjoyed telling the
students and answering questions about Japanese schools.

 

 

 

 

 

 



We met Martha Moore from technology services for
lunch in Pickens.

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards, we worked in the Holly Springs computer lab to establish connections for videoconferencing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After school we went to the Pickens County Art and Historical Museum where we viewed pieces created by students for Youth Art Month as well as historical exhibits.

 

 

 

 

 


Then, the museum curator,
Ed Bolt, gave us a tour of
Hagood Mill, built in 1838.

 

 

 

He was joined by J.C. Owen, fiddler,
 and they played
several bluegrass songs

Dennis and Amanda Bauknight sang and played bluegrass as well.   The evening ended with a “SouthernE meal in the home of Ed and Betty McDaniel, in a farmhouse built in 1871.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We spent our final school day in Pickens back at Holly Springs Elementary. 
Nori and Hirai
 observed in many classrooms and
 told the students a little about
Japanese life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left school, heading for Atlanta, but we stopped first in Commerce, GA to do some outlet and Wal-Mart shopping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We met Consul Orihara (head of the Japan Information Center at the Consulate in Atlanta) for dinner at a Japanese restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

Early Saturday morning we began touring Atlanta with Amanda Bauknight as our guide. 
We started out at CNN

 

 

 

 

 

 




And Olympic Park.

 

 

 

 

 

We discovered how Coca-Cola was bottled and tasted Coke products
from all over the world.

 

 

 

 

 

We had an All-American lunch at the Varsity—hotdogs, chili cheeseburgers, and fried onion rings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went through the house and museum of Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We indulged ourselves with hot,
 Krispy Kreme donuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finished up the evening with a little souvenir shopping and a wonderful meal at Mary Mac’s Tea Room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will miss seeing in person our Japanese friends, but look forward so much to video conferencing with them through out the next year.