Dale Young:  

Life Aloha from Honolulu! I've put this off long enough. It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since graduation on the football field, but when I think of all that I've packed into my life, the time period seems somewhat short. I'd like to believe people when they say I haven't changed much over the years, but I have many photos to prove them wrong. You may remember me as the shortest person in our class or the clown in French class. I must tell you from the beginning that the person who influenced my life the most was our French teacher, Ms Patricia Thompson. I was always a B student (I think she always cut off the A- level just above my scores because I tormented her so much), but my interest in the language and culture instilled in me a desire to explore the world. For a semester during my junior year at Purdue, I followed an independent study project in Besancon, France. Thanks to the nature of the program and my Eurailpass, I was able to visit a lot of Europe during that time. The leader of my project had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Tunisia, and he constantly talked about the rewarding assignment he had experienced there. Adventure was already in my blood. So, when I returned to Purdue, I immediately applied to the Peace Corps and requested a teaching assignment in Tunisia. About a year later, I found myself teaching English as a Foreign Language in a technical high school in Sfax, Tunisia. Those were probably the two most rewarding years of my life. While in Sfax, I heard about a job offer--a teaching position at a language school in Tokyo. At that point in my life, I had experienced life in Europe and Africa and was curious about Asia. My application was approved, and I went directly to Tokyo from Tunisia--planning to spend two years there. One week I was riding a camel in the Sahara desert, and the following week I was standing in front of the SONY building in Ginza. Talk about a change in lifestyle. . . Teachi...Expand for more