Announcement

I think it's time that I formally let those who don't know that I have a new roommate. She is my MOTORCYCLE, purchased last week, and I love her. (Note to the worriers: She came with a helmet.) I am very excited!!!!

Holly and I riding horses on Sunday!

Horses and Mangos and Report cards, OH MY!

Oi ve! It has been quite a busy week, for many reasons! Most importantly, here are pictures from Parents' Night last Tuesday:

Me in my classroom!!!

(Natalia, Brooke, Jenny, Alicia, Brewer, Holly, Karyn. Heads poking through in the back: Ms. Rojo and Karen)

We moved our girl dinner and Bible study to Thursday night, and it was pretty fantastic! Ceci made a wonderful chicken rice dish which we then ate for lunch on Friday also. Friday was a half day to help us get our report cards done. I still didn't have all mine finished so I had alot of work to do Saturday and Monday evening.

Sunday Holly, Ceci, and I went to a farm owned by one of the school board members. It was pretty much a WONDERFUL day; with good food, alot of Spanish, and riding HORSES!!!! We met some other youngish Dominicans, so that was really nice. I did get a TON of bites by various species of bugs, and even today I am still ready to tear off my legs.

A concern: Large, large frogs have started appearing....two smashed dead on the road by our house (hurrah!), and one in the Stanley's house (AGH!). I very worried about this situation...I actually had a small one on the OUTSIDE of my screen the other night....it was not ok. Anyone who was with me at the Sauters' pool this summer knows how I feel about frogs.

Quarter 1 ends

I know I have been abysmal about posting lately, but it's been a busy week! Parents night was Tuesday, and we had the end of the quarter yesterday, which means we have to get report cards together. But, here is a picture of Jenny and I in the JCS polos:

BACK!

I am happily back in warm weather teaching my kids and drinking bottled water. The 40 degree weather was a little much for me, but it was bearable knowing that I got to come back here today. I'm all about shorts and flipflops.

We had a great wedding (and by we I mean Trish and Jim) and it was FANTASTIC to see so many Messiah alums!!! It was also wonderful spending time with my family (props to my church for sending me back with so much stuff, and to my mom for making me lasagna AND green bean cassarole!!).

Anyway, a last section of people that I live/work/spend time with:

Up the road in the ground floor of another house:

Karyn: 32, HS librarian/grammar, of Tennessee. This her year 4 and her students love her. She also cooks ridiculously well. She does not swim in natural water due to her fear of creatures.

Natalie (Brewer): 23, of Indianapolis. '08 grad of Taylor U, degree in El Ed. Sadly a Colts fan. She teaches 4th grade and enjoys sports of any kind and riding her motorcycle. Possibly one of the funniest people I know.

Jenny: 26, '05 graduate of the Art Institute in Chicago. Born in Miss, she has ALOT of relatives in Texas but spent the last few years in Chicago. Obviously studied art things. Has a fantastic southern accent.

Living around the corner in a rented room:

Ashley, 28 (?), originally from Ohio, lived recently in NYC. He was a chemist that now teaches HS science. He is half Dominican apparently, but wasn't raised speaking spanish, so now he studies with Cecilia.

Brewer and Jenny at 27 Waterfalls:

T minus 10 hours

At approximately 6 am tomorrow I'm all set to depart for Miami and then to Bmore and then to NJ for the wedding!!! I am highly looking forward to family, my car, Messiah friends, FOOD, and fall weather. I'm a little sad to be leaving everyone, however let's get real and remember that it's only 5 days.

Continuing my description of everyone...

Next door there is a large structure. The Dominican people who own said structure live upstairs, and rent out two side rooms and the downstairs apartment. One of the side rooms is rented by:

Susan: 50s, teaches PK3. Has been teaching for a long time, but also has some great stories about playing in marching bands in Poland. She is from North Carolina.

Mike: Rents the other room, 40s or 50s. Orginally from Florida, his family is in Minnesota where his wife is working on her doctorate and his two sons go to college. He was in the army for a long time, then chose to come down here for a bit.

Stanleys: Main ground level apartment. '05 grads of Houghton College (Yea!), Tim is from NY and Laura is from Minnesota. He teaches HS Bible and she teaches 5th grade. They are fantastic and often have us over for evening work and movie parties.

The other house of girls may have to wait until I get back. (Don't be angry, Brew.) But they're some of the best, of course.

Here's a picture of Tim and Laura, with a visiting friend on the right. This is after our trek up the 27 waterfalls!

3-2

I've accepted the fact that I am, or at least was, sick. I am not overly concerned since I am armed with Pepto B, Aleve, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, and Cipro if it comes to that. Also because nothing can ever be as bad as that one time in Shanghai.

I think i speak for everyone when I express my disappointment with yesterday's game.

Anyway, inspired by my best friend I thought I might attempt a quick summation of the people that I live and work with:

I will start with my house, first floor:

Cecilia: 33, from Colombia originally, lived in Houston for 15 years prior to this. Fluent Spanish speaker, obviously. Makes awesome rice and loves chocolate. She is our school psychologist.

Natalia: 34, Missouri. Or one of those other M states somewhere in the middle. Middle of 5 girls. Graduated from Pensacola back in the day with a degree in El Ed. Teaches one of our 2nd grade classes. She likes cherry juice and Sprite, as well as some Canadian TV show called Corner gas. She also plays Farmville on Facebook more than I think is prudent.

Upstairs!

Alicia: 19, of Indiana, PK 3 teacher. She is to and fro all the time; she went

to high school down here so she has alot of friends that she goes to see all the time.

Brooke: 23, '08 grad of Taylor U. Born in Nebraska, moved to Illinois. This is her second year here; last year she taught 3rd grade, and this year she teaches the other 2nd grade. She also makes fantastic no-bake cookies that I like to eat in mass quantities.

Holly: 25, '06 Texas Tech graduate, obviously from Texas her whole life. She knows Friends' episodes as well as I do, loves college football, fishing, sarcasm, and making fun of my lack of hearing.

There are obviously a lot more, but I will do it in bits and pieces so as not

to overwhelm you.

Here is my roommate Natalie and I, late at night with ridiculous hairstyles:

Dia de la raza

For the record, I've been trying to load this since yesterday afternoon with a video, but the video refuses to load.

Today is Day of the Races, which actually has nothing to do with the Marx Brothers (B-fry I hope you are proud right now) and more to do with the founding of the new world. What matters most is that there was a fantastic presentation at 10:30, and school ended at noon. I'm trying to think of other things we can celebrate so that there are more fridays like this.

We also had a super bonfire last night (friday) complete with hot dogs and smores. Holly decided it would be a good idea to have a human smore, so here you go:

Brewer and I are graham crackers, Holly the marshmellow, and fantastically Cecilia is the chocolate.

Good news: no fever! I went to bed at 9:30, which was glorious, and woke up at 3 am with a headache. 2 aleves alleviated that (pun intended) and I am still kicking. It's still hot.

I am aware that pictures make this much more interesting, so I'm going to make a conscious effort to consistently add a few.

Today:

This is the girls only before picture from Saturday. Chelsea, on the left is a friend of Laura's from home. As a refresher, Jenny, me, Laura, Brewer, Holly.

my life is average

Currently I feel like I may have a fever, but I'm hoping that if I complain about it enough, then I won't actually have one. Reverse psychology on the germs.

Good week thus far...hotter than in previous weeks. We got our staff shirts, so we look pretty legit, and I don't have to think about what to wear in the mornings. I am about 1 week til departure to the states for the WINGATE wedding, which I'm pretty excited about. (PS mom, I need you to fix my shorts that I tore climbing a fence.)
Recently we have discussed our favorite and common phrases to use at school. The list:
1) WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? [emphasis on the 'doing']
2) Is this a good idea, or a bad idea?
3) my personal favorite: Is this a little problem or a big problem? [i.e. do I need to hear about it.]

I also have to tell my class not to eat pencils more than I think is necessary, and certainly more than I prefer.

Here is a group picture from 27 Waterfalls on Saturday:

I know Mom likes to see me smiling :) FYI the girl to my right is Jenny, our new 3rd grade teacher. I enjoy her greatly.

My plan is to be in bed by 9 pm. So this is out.

27 Waterfalls

It's like 27 dresses, only minus James Marsden and plus alot of helmets.

Today those daring enough ventured out to DR specialty known as 27 waterfalls, which was the best combination of swimming, hiking, and jumping that i have ever done. Unfortunately everything you take gets wet, so we couldn't really take our cameras anywhere. I have some pictures stolen off the internet to give you an idea of what it looked like. Basically we hiked up a mountain, through some streams, up some waterfalls, and then came down all of them in a mixture of jumping and sliding. Very fantastic. Best 500 pesos I've spent yet. I would do it again. Tomorrow.

Note: feel free to pray for my external hard drive, which is giving me excessive amounts of grief for dropping it on the floor, though I've apologized to her several times. The words 'data error' and 'cyclic redundancy check' send a chill down my spine since i lost several good pictures to that last spring on my internal hd. I also apologize for the innate nerdiness of this comment; I am my father's daughter, after all :)

The One with the Adventure

Observers may note that some of us have gotten our hands on some Friends episodes (Read: new 3rd grade teacher Jenny has been holding out on us and has TWO of the seasons), resulting in my utter bliss. I think when Paul wrote that he had learned to be content in whatever the circumstances, he may have been watching friends at the time. Consequently I am a tad low on the sleep side of things.

Observers may also notice that it is 7 am. No, I am not that diligent on my own; we are off to hike and jump down waterfalls for the ENTIRE DAY! I will update on the trip, assuming I survive.

Safari Day!

Here are our pictures from yesterday! They had their choice of 1 of 2 hat styles, plus binoculars.

They had to draw the flowers. Safari isn't all fun and games. It is hard work.

They had to observe. I told them that we had to be quiet because wild animals can hear you and then eat you. This did not keep them quiet as successfully as I had hoped.

That's it! PS I changed the blog settings so you can now leave comments even if you don't have a gmail/blogger account. Enjoy!

Getting to know you...

Ok so for future reference, I have this picture of some of us from my first week here that may be helpful in matching names to faces.

back row, sort of, left to right: Cecilia, school psychologist, my roommate; Mike (orange shirt), HS math; Ashley (I love NY shirt), HS Science; Holly, lives upstairs, HS Lit; Karyn (striped shirt), HS grammar; Susan, PK-5.

Front row: Abel (striped shirt, dominican, a friend of some of the others); Tim Stanley (glasses), HS Bible; Natalie Brewer (green shirt), 4th grade; me; Alicia (teal shirt), PK 3; and front: Brooke, lives upstairs, 2nd grade teacher.

We don't have Laura, Tim's wife, 5th grade teacher, Natalia, my other roommate, who teaches the other 2nd grade class, or Jenny Fisk, the new 3rd grade teacher in this picture. I'll see what I can do about getting some of those.

Thank you!

I have to make a special note to thank the McFalls, kaylie, mama wingate, Kim, and the Brilharts for their cards. I LOVE getting cards; it makes our once every two weeks mail even better! I hang them immediately after reading on my room wall.