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.