Happier Returns

I arrived at Hercules High this morning around 8:50, somewhat stressed that I was late by ILC standards (15 minutes early at least!).  I attributed my arrival time to the utter inability of California residents to drive in anything more than three drops of rain, let alone a full-on thunderstorm.  I suppose I should also shoulder some of the blame, as I managed to get lost no more than 14 hours after having left the same campus after coaching the Richmond High JV baseball team to an ignominious 11-1 defeat at the hands of the Titans.  Thankfully, there were no gaudy banners there upon my arrival to taunt me about the previous night's defeat. (On a side note, to justify my relative failings as a baseball coach, I also must add that the Hercules baseball field is populated with a family of gophers.  These creatures had a habit of popping their heads up directly in front of the coach's box, distracting a certain coach, a la "Caddyshack").

Having survived the shameful entrance, I was excited to see some familiar faces from various ILC functions.  Everyone seemed quite cheerful, convincingly acting as though they would not rather be sleeping on a Saturday morning.  The tutorial in general was very helpful for me in setting my expectations for students, as well as in aiding me with this blogging adventure.  I am completely new to blogging, but since I grew up before blogging existed, I can play the "old-timer's" card and not feel completely guilty for having never blogged.  So far, so good though.  At the end of the tutorial, we got the chance to see some blogs from previous years, which emphasized to me what a formative experience this has been for students.  It also reminded me how important photos are to the blogging experience.  With that in mind, I googled "Penn campus" with ambitions of impressing Don and was greeted with this picture:

 A new statue at Penn?

Here's hoping this does not reflect the actual Penn experience, or at worst that students will be getting some robotics training during their Physics course.  To finish this first post, I'll add what I think is a better representation of where we will be spending most of the summer:

I couldn't be more excited for what I anticipate will be a great summer!