Mr. B. - Introduction for Students

My Experiences

I was a Los Gatos Wildcat in high school and still coach the diving team there, as well as help out with the swimming programs.

I went to University of California - Santa Barbara and am a proud Gaucho (Argentinian cowboy).

Places:

I have lived in; Los Gatos, Santa Barbara (Isla Vista actually), Santa Cruz, Oakland, Sydney Australia, Placerville, Campbell, and now San Jose.

I have been a HUGE Oakland A's fan since I was a kid. When I lived in Oakland, I had a chance to go to lots of games.

Here I am at the A's/Giants game with my friend from elementary, middle, and high school (he is a Giants fan). Obviously, the A's won the game, hence my thumbs-up and his displeasured look!!!

My sister and me!!! She has lived in Italy, Denmark, Germany, Charleston SC, and now Clayton, North Carolina. This is us in Germany at a restaurant around Christmas time, we were watching some AMERICAN football.

This is my mom and me in Nepal. While I was living in Australia, I traveled throughout South-East Asia and the Oceania region and got to see lots of really cool stuff. This is a mural painting on the outside of a Stupa, a Buddhist "church".

Here is the backyard of the beautiful house I stayed at for my first time visiting Hawaii (only a couple years ago) on Kauai. If it looks familiar, it is the house where George Clooney filmed the movie "The Descendants".

I spent time snorkeling in Hawaii but this picture is from some snorkeling I did in Costa Rica, love the warm water in both places!!!

The Websites Cover-art; a crystal clear pool in a cave system in Thailand, near Phuket.

Here is a picture of my Australian coworkers and me on TOP of a caldera in the Philippines. We went there for another coworker's wedding in Manila and got to meet Imelda Marcos, the famed Filipino first lady with over 2,700 pairs of shoes!!!

Here is a Manila sunset from our hotel, it was an amazing city and I loved the Filipino people (so friendly) and the food (sooooo SPICY!!!)

Here are the Aussie coworkers who made it out for the wedding. This is the five of us on the beach on the Phi Phi Islands in the Philippines.

Here is a picture of me learning to ride a motorcycle. My Aussie buddy, Steve Tan, thought it would be fun to rent bikes, ride out to the beaches of the other side of the island, and go snorkeling. Unfortunately, we didn't speak any Thai, the guy who rented us our motorcycles spoke no English and probably wouldn't have been giving us any instructions anyways. We managed to get the basics from a charades exchange with a few Thai kids.

The beautiful Sydney skyline, I lived in the middle of the city in a section called Darlinghurst and worked on the North side of the harbor. I got to commute everyday going over the Harbour Bridge (this is the Olde English and Australian spelling) and passing the Sydney Opera House on my way in to work every day.

I spent my 2015/16 summer in Belize with teachers and students, here are some pictures from that...

The summer of 2016/17, Mrs Goldman (the former Cooking teacher) and I traveled to Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands (where Charles Darwin postulated his theory of natural selection).... here are some pictures from the trip....

A couple summers ago, I went with my roommate to hike the Grand Canyon. We got down to the bottom quickly but then started to suffer from heat exhaustion and dehydration (probably from the 116 degree heat). We took significantly longer to make it back up to the top :)

This last summer, I went with my friend Rachel (my student-teacher mentor and coaching coworker for 11 years) and her two teenagers to Spain and Gibraltar, which is actually part of the U.K. (United Kingdom)

Jobs

I have worked as; a lifeguard, a swim teacher, a swim, dive, and water-polo coach, in a pizza parlor, as a camp counselor, a driller on a mobile drill rig, an environmental consultant, and now a teacher (7 years running).

I spent a bit of time as a Wildland Firefighter based out of Placerville. Of all the physical work I have ever done, this is by far the hardest!!! Such hard work, long hours, but I had a great experience doing it and have a huge appreciation for what these men and women do out there keeping people and communities safe.

I spent over 10 years as a environmental geologist and hydrologist, getting to work throughout the Bay Area (from Oakland and Los Gatos offices) and most of the state of New South Wales in Australia (while living in Sydney). Here I am sampling groundwater in the middle-of-nowhere Australia (Coona, NSW)

The most rewarding work I have done has always been in teaching and coaching. I am so proud of my athletes, especially the ones that, even though they might not have been the fastest swimmers, remain on the team for all four years of high school. Here are some of my graduated swim kids!

This is Koki who has been attending UC-Davis, now finishing Medical School

Since I began teaching swim lessons when I was in high school, now those little kids have grown up into young adults. I taught Koji and Kelly to swim over 20 years ago but now they are all grown up and were on my high school team!!! Kelly has since graduated from San Jose State (and gotten married!) and Koji from UCLA.

I look forward to meeting a whole new group of students this year here at Bret Harte

Mr. Berwald

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