ESL Carnival Academy Extreme Update:

• Daughter and Family at Hong Kong, Disneyland Resort & Teaching in Beijing, China
• A Summer Packed-Full of the Extreme Wet 'n  Wild Water Park in Las Vegas, NV 
• Headed to NewFoundLand, Canada & The East Coast Trail
• Qu'est-ce que c'est Living Abroad in Paris?  Oui,    je suis parlez Paris!  Headed to Paris, France in early 2016
• Qui, Culinary Appetizers & Desserts.  Yes, still  Experiencing Culinary Writing, (more updates to come)

Sometimes you can be in a extremely creative stage in your life, you may not be exactly where you want be, but somehow you realize that you're everywhere and your summer meets an international world.  Whether you find yourself in the USA, Hong Kong, Paris, or at a whirlwind of an outdoor theme park, the zesty fruits of summer - lemons, watermelons, peaches, are all ripe for the tasting.   An Hawaiian tropic lifestyle has christened you, and you realize that another culture has a grip on your soul.  This is a sparkly life, and it is my very own little corner of the universe that I have deemed to be a little hypnotic paradise, even onto myself.

The Summer of 2015 is turning out to be an oceany blue, splashy, exotic summer.  My 2nd daughter Kryse and family are in Hong Kong! (see the fab photo above).  Both Kryse & her husband Joseph are experiencing a wonderful adventure of teaching abroad in China.  Teaching in a foreign country adds a love of diversity and culture to one's life that isn't easy to find at a typical 9 to 5, so I applaud my kids for stacking up their adventures in foreign lands, one country at a time.   The exotic mixture of  cultures reminds me of that old furniture commercial where it was divulged that diversity might be, "that fusion of the French and the soul of the Caribbean, blending to form an erotic culture."

Additionally, while I'm blogging this, I have to take a break!  "Fam"  is waiting for me to attend the water park madness at the Wet 'n Wild Water Park.  So, my 2015 summer is being spent at a classic water park with friends and family. Supreme. Time to float down the Lazy River, just me, myself & Ilene, and parachute my dreams of a summer filled with BBQ, waterfalls, fresh lemons, & sweet summer peaches, swimming pools, slides, and lazy rivers.  

Not to mention a dreamscape after jumping into all of the watering holes, into a new life that's waiting for me on the East Coast Trail in NewFoundland, Canada.   See: East Coast Trail here. 

But what about Paris?   At current, I'm speaking French everyday this summer while basking in the multi-cultural abyss of learning a foreign language.  I chose French, and I'm learning a lot before I venture off to Paris for three months in 2016.  I'm so excited!  From Newfie to Parisian!  

I couldn't be more exasperated about my 2nd daughter and her family, traveling the orient express in what is 

In NewFoundland, I hope to bridge the gap between my past life and the next, (my current one), with the all-women pilgrimage on the East Coast Trail.  

I'm closing completing French I, after taking both French I & II in high school with Mr. Avery.  I'm revisiting this phonetic stage of my life so that I can be semi-fluent in French this time next year, as I make the break for Paris and all of the culinary stops along the Saint Germain neighborhood in Paris, where some of the world's finest chocolate shoppes are located.   Conde Nast Traveler has a great article out about some of the best chocolatiers of Paris.  

(More Updates to Come)

On Instant Guruism:   If you are responsible for helping me achieve my Guruism Status, please contact me at staff.eslcarnival@gmail.com, so that I can add your Twitter account to my supreme Carnival Autobot.  

Technology.  Automation.  Twitterbots.  Have you ever awakened one morning, only to find out that you have made that all important milestone in your life, linking yourself to Guru status?   Well, this is how this very thing happened to me. It was that moment that my sister, a Northwestern University graduate, never had time to explore how to make her presence successful on social media.  I built her very cumbersome and highly invigoratingly successful website for her candy store back in 2012, only to realize that we both wanted to see her candy store grow even further. Then comes forth Chase Bank and its attempts in re-establishing its universal likability while contributing to small businesses in re-stating its claim for not just a Big Bank.  I awakened to the early morning challenge.  It was a Sunday morning just like this one.  (Btw, her first international order came from a Japanese business traveler who had already been to the states and was online surfing for great belgian chocolates in Chicago, since the receiving party already resided in the Windy City. My sister's site was beautiful, but since replaced when my sister launched her belgian KC Chocolates Candy Store in the Lakeview area of Chicago in 2012. (she sells strictly in-house, and the current generic site isn't my design).

Let me say right off, (look at the impressions on the right).  Many of my friends did not even respond to my post, however, their friends-of-friend whom reside in the ethervilles of the unknown cyberspace, made the connection for me.  (I'll never know who voted for my sister's little candy store.  But I imagine it was a bunch of really cool people placed under the Twitter spell of reaching out in the spirit of crowd funding.  To all of the unknown voters: my sincere Thank-you! It was a resoundingly successful kickstarter campaign!

It's was a beautiful summer Sunday morning in southern Nevada, a place that is currently my sultan paradise with it's green palm trees, brown mammoth mountains, and indigenous blue skies. I should be out hiking right now, but it's hitting me, (right now), that I'm a maven, a true Twitter Guru.  This is my kind of usual weekend morning, with fresh buttery croissants and hot Italian coffee, (but I thought), why not share about this potential Twitter empire that I'm building?  Hey, why not?  I mean, I just got through reading a fabulous Twitter article on blogging for Twitter, by the Traveling Circus, here.   It's a really fab article, and I certainly recommend it for making that turn from a run of the mill Twitter account, to operating and celebrating your new Twitter universe!   At the very least you should be building your little bit of island paradise.  By the weigh, I just finished my June 1st blog post about Tin Lizzie's adventure 300 miles up the straights of Mackinac.  Catch it here.

I opened my first Twitter account in September 2011, as it is so proudly displayed on my Twitter site, and then I subsequently opened another Twitter account like just one month later.  Why? I suddenly realized the Power of Twitter, of which I always heard to be the case, and boy, was it astoundingly true!  Firstly, I discovered the power of Twitter when I'd simply Google my blog name, and discovered that not only was my blog name high in the SEO rankings, but it was the gosh darn Twitter that was actually helping the rankings of my blog!  Site name:  ESL Carnival Academy.  By the weigh, this was all free!  I didn't have to pay some SEO giant in India to help me, I did it by myself.  Now, this article is about Twitter, but I'm purposely telling you how I did it, so that you can get it done too.  But aside from even that, at current I'm blogging for my sister using Twitter right at this very moment.  You've heard of Kickstarter and the other online campaigns that one can run to Help Fund Me, towards a way of exploiting a great enterpreheur idea that pays for the idea through the support of people who believe in you?  There are a few really great campaign sites out there, but of all suspects, my sister found Chase Bank to be sponsoring a campaign to help small business owners with business grants.  Ironically, Chase Bank is working with Facebook with this one though, I mean you have to physically log into your facebook account in order to cast you vote for your favorite small business shoppe in Chicago.  Facebook it is, but it's Twitter that is allowing for my sister's votes to climax the great social media vote tally. 

As far as accumulating followers, no need.  I strictly enjoy the nomadic life, which extends taking many unconventional routes.  So, I decided to go with Round Team almost a year ago.  Round Team is, by far the best in retweet automation.  All I had to do was to take ten minutes on their site, open an account, link both my Twitter accounts, and insert my favorite Twitter lists.  The impeccible social media giant blast out retweets from my favorite #travel and #ttot lists using their renouned twitbot.  Ahh, life cannot be simpler, laying back by the pool on this Sunday, and allowing for the power of Round Team and Twitter to create my little piece of paradise in the sky.  Now, you can befriend all of those buy instant followers if you like, and I respect the Traveling Circus for going this route. But, at current , I'm very close in reaching the number that my sister needs to help expand her business via the Chase grant, but even more developing, I'm establishing myself into the dynamic world of Twitter Guruism.

As you aspire to reach your very own Guru Status, follow these articles:

http://www.techcovered.org/358/how-to-create-your-own-twitter-auto-retweet-bot

http://thenextweb.com/2009/08/11/12-weird-and-wonderful-twitter-retweet-bots/

http://meta-guide.com/bots-agents-assistants/100-best-twitter-bots/

If you would like to be added to the delightful circus, to the ESL Carnival Academy Twitterbot, email me at staff.eslcarnival@gmail.com.   

ESL Carnival Academy.  Sharing a little bit of everyone, one tweet at a time.

I'm not sure what kind of papers you'd need to just rip it with your cruiser, to sail up the straights of Mackinac into Newfoundland, Labrador, or to any other North American island. But Tin Lizzie would most certainly know about steering her own vessel in almost any kind of weather. Got water for your terrain? Well just "Sail on" is her motto for summer 2015. Does this sound like you?  Is your world a nautical one?  Well, if so, consider this.

I was supposed to spend the summer of 2014 on The Nyad Cruiser in Cali, but of course got sidetracked. Beth's Boat is inhabited by EL Captaina Tin Lizzie, hundreds of great admirers who frequent the parked vessel for summer habitual socializing, and a big black nameless hunting hound.  Tin Lizzie is a nomad, a pilgrimage and risk taker, and a trailblazer who just so happens to be my friend and confidant for the past five years. She's an exceptional 100 mile marathon runner, health & fitness enthusiast, a human rights activist, and a previous content writer for ESL Carnival Academy. 

Tin Lizzie is a fun and courageous Amazonian at Sea and definitely a leader of the Women-Can-Do-Anything pact, and she is a part of a tribunal of herculean voyagers.  Her role model is the other ocean cruiser, Diana Nyad. In 2012-13, Lizzie ended up running 5 marathons, 4 50Ks, a 44 mile Rim to Rim to Rim in the Grand Canyon, a 161K, and a 28 mile Quad Dipsea.  In her latest blog, she describes her take on running in Cuba.  I love and admire her so much, and the Academy is adding another feature of Tin Lizzie for the month of June, 2015. By the way, Lizzie lives full-time on her boat, and all I can say to this is, "What the life!" Even more, I want to be like Tin Lizzie.   How to accomplish this?

Well, one can start the trip while supplying the fantastic ice chest down below the hull in the bilge, of your own majestic boat.  (see nautical photo below). In preparation for your voyage, don't forget to read, "You Never Know Until You Try."  This piece will inspire you to do anything.

Hello ESL Carnival Academy:

You've heard the expression, "Watch what you do in life, as your children will more than likely, follow in your footsteps," right? Parents know this is true in so many cases. Well, a few weeks ago my daughter's family relocated abroad to Beijing to teach at an international school. My grandson in the photo above, (just turned 2yrs.), is also in Beijing & will master 3 languages, as the international school is very structured.

ENGLISH, MANDARIN CHINESE, & FRENCH (!!!)

I'm so proud. (I included a pic of my daughter's Beijing classroom!)

My daughter and my historical traveling buddy from 10 years ago, Kryse, has uprooted her family from San Tan Valley, AZ to Beijing China. (Cupcake, the Pomeranian pooch, is also in tow on dog's 2nd trip to Asia). FYI, this is my daughter's 3rd trip to Asia. (So, those traveling are Kryse, her husband & my grandson, and as mentioned, the pampered travel pooch). (My sister, Kryse's aunt, taught at a school in Nagoya, Japan for 8 years & I taught in Shanghai for 3).

I'm so proud, yes. Simply delighted. Their futures are beaming they're so bright. My daughter and her husband teach at a beautiful International school in central Beijing, and will be residents of Beijing for more than a year. (They may in fact stay for several years!). They do plan on traveling back home for Christmases and I plan on traveling to China just to say hello and to shop for silks. Additionally, I will be promoting my company there.

So, some parents have careers in marketing or real estate, and their children go on to become doctors, attorneys, priests, But in my case, 10 years ago, I sent a single airline ticket for Kryse to join me as my assistant in the classroom in 2006 in Hubei, China. Here's the difference in what 10 years can make. I love my international travelers & I like their decisions. (but I miss my grandson!)

Gia Benigni Di Borgo
"A Family That Travels Together - Stays Together"
ESL Carnival Academy