Day 90 (recap)-95: Wait, I'm Where, again...?

Recap: 

Saturday with Melissa and Kyle, I went to Waterloo.   As in Napoleon.  As in “Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war.”  As in, it’s pouring down rain, but we’re going to go and brave the Brussels weather (Melissa and I decided on the weather reports, instead of making up something about how it might or might not rain, they should just say, “It’s Brussels. Get over yourself.”).  We went and learned a lot about the battle that happened there in various movies, starring Captain von Trapp, who strangely enough survived this war apparently well enough to turn over to the Austrians in WWII and fight for them.  Weird.  Anyway, it was very fun, and we quite enjoyed ourselves, despite the rainy conditions. 

We went home and dried off, and then finally got back up and out and over to the base where Kyle works, called SHAPE, and went to the Christmas market, which was a ton of fun to just be around.  Many of the things were a bit kitschy, but there were a lot of things that were cool too, and it was fun to be in a place decorated and ready for Christmas, with Christmas music playing and the whole holiday spirit ready to go.  It was great fun.  We went to the Commissary as well, and bought some Belgian beers to sample, as well as different kinds of chocolate… the Belgian basics: beer and chocolate. 

Before sampling beers though, we had TACO NIGHT.  WHAT A DELIGHT, TACO NIGHT.  See what I did there?  But seriously, so good, and really appreciated… Melissa came up with things that I might not have been able to have in the last few months, and tacos were DEFINITELY on the list… I loved it.  We had tacos and chips and salsa and it was fantastic.  And to top off an already good evening, I got to Skype in for 80’s Trivia night in Estonia at Erin and Eric’s place.  It was so great to see lots of friends… Tim and Michelle, Matt and Megan, Eric and Erin, Don and Maureen, and Veiko and Kadri…  it was fun. 

We then had beer tasting… I had wanted to try one that I’d seen in Estonia actually, since Drink Baar was having Belgian beers month in November, and I’d seen the Delirium Tremens there.  It. Was. AWFUL.  GOD it was so terrible.  BLAAAAA.  Not recommended.  The Timmerman’s Pěche was the favorite for Melissa and I, while Kyle preferred the Leffe, a true Belgian beer.  An interesting sampling, but nevertheless lots of fun. 

Sunday I was off to Bordeaux to meet up with Laura.  I had paid previously for two bags, a very smart idea, so baggage weight was not a problem, which is always nice to hear and preferable to deal with.  Got to Bordeaux with little issue, and my bags were some of the first off the carousel so I was a happy lady.  Laura found me, and we headed into Bordeaux, rainy, but lovely.  We got my stuff to her apartment, and then headed out to an Irish pub called Sweeney Todd’s (hilarious) for their Sunday brunch.  They serve a full English breakfast, including 2 sausages, 2 pieces of Canadian bacon, 2 eggs, Heinz baked beans, chips, toast, and mushrooms.  It was fantastic.  I was really hungry, as was Laura, so we were quite happy to have such a great meal.  We walked around Bordeaux and saw some of the fantastic sights… Laura’s town is much bigger than mine, and has a plethora of really old/cool places.  The churches are very interesting actually, because their bell towers are really massive, but reach from the ground up because they are separated from the churches, and actually are a separate structure next to the churches themselves.  Bordeaux also has a few different castle like structures, Cinderella style, and many arcs and statues.  I even found a turtle statue!  (Clearly I took pictures)  We walked around a long time, saw many of the interesting animal sculptures around the city (cows like the Cow Parade that happens in America), turtles (clearly important), and even an ALLIGATOR.  WHAT!?  Haha…but it was there!  I saw it with my own eyes. 

That evening, we made an Arrabiata type sauce with eggplants, zucchini, onions, herbs de Provence, and tomatoes that was quite delectable.  We hung out and watched “How I Met Your Mother,” a COMPLETE necessity, and then just chilled out a bit.  What a great day!

Monday, Laura had school in the afternoon, which was okay, because I had been hoping to go on one of the half day wine tour excursions through the Office of Tourism (Highly recommended, if you find yourself in Bordeaux).  She and I walked around a bit in the morning, when it was sunny (A GIFT FROM THE GODS) and saw some shops and such.  She went off to school, and I continued looking around in central Bordeaux until it was time for my tour.  We got on a bus, and went about an hour outside of the city, through beautiful countrysides filled with vineyards… everywhere  had grape vines and plants and all the interesting buildings of a place that is incredibly old.  There were fantastic churches and buildings that looked like mini castles, and while I didn’t get to snap a picture of it, there was even an old walled city, similar to Tallinn that was about 30 minutes outside of Bordeaux.  It was very interesting.  When I was with Melissa, I kept saying, “These buildings are older than Christopher Columbus’ great-grandparents…”  We think our country is so cool and old, and yet there are places that were built and have now been preserved from even before our country was even heard of or thought of.  It’s fantastic to see this architecture that is from 1100 AD, you know?  It’s just stunning.

Anyway, winery touring.  We went to the first one, and they taught us about the process of growing grapes, and how each wine is blended, there’s not actually only one kind of grape in each kind of wine, and how they put them in barrels and then put them to age and all these interesting things.  It was very cool.  I preferred the first tour over the second… they gave us more information, were more pleasant and easy to talk to, and they seemed to do more of the process organically, whereas the second chateaux did a lot of the fermenting and aging in the big metal tankards.  It was very interesting, and we had a nice, small group, so it wasn’t too much to handle either.  It made me really crave seafood, so… Laura and I made Seafood Piccata (think Chicken Piccata that I make with my dad, but only with scallops :D)  It was SO yummy, and we had a great time making it.  We stayed up chatting, and ate yummy desserts that we had gotten at a local patisserie, and then went to bed.

Today, I was quite the sight to be seen lugging two bags through the sidewalks of Bordeaux on streets made just barely for one person.  It was, I’m sure, humorous to the people watching, but I was unamused, in fact.  I finally did make it to the airport, and after having pre-purchased a bit of extra weight on one bag, instead of dealing with multiple other hassles, I had NO problem with checking my bags, which was great, and flew right through security and such.  I got into London, and got the Gatwick Express train to central London, where I got a taxi to take me to Gill’s theatre.  During my ride, I saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, the London Eye, and many other cool things.  It was astonishing… each place I saw, I thought, “Yep, I’m in London.”  Very cool.  Found Gill and got situated at the theater, and finally went to get something to eat.  I got my fish and chips!!!  Yummer.   Saw Gill’s show, with a PRODUCER BADGE :D, and the show was great, and very intriguing.  It’s about the sort of less glamorous side of the Kennedy/Onassis clan and how they actually all had affairs, sort of inter twined and such.  Very interesting look at that whole family and situation.  I got to chat with the girls Gill works with for a bit, and drink champagne since it was someone’s birthday, and we’ve just gotten home and settled in for the night… as it’s 12:40 am here, and I’m used to this being between 1:40 and 2:40 am, I’m quite sleepy, so I’m off, but I’ve only got TWO MORE DAYS TOTAL in my European adventure.  Ridiculous.  

Day 85-92: Sadness and Waffles

Well, I'm no longer in Estonia.  It's very sad and devastating but it's true, and not changing anytime soon.  


My last few days in Eesti were great, but really sad too... everyone was asking how I felt about leaving and the answer was always the same... "Bittersweet... sad to leave this fantastic place, but glad to be done with school and be able to be home for the holidays too."  I didn't know how to react really to the fact that I was leaving... it wasn't real until I was on the plane the next morning.  Leaving Karolina was the hardest, and we didn't bother saying goodbye until it was the absolute last minute of the last day we were going to see each other.  It was so sad, and there were a few tears on each side, but I couldn't really cry and get it out, because I had so much packing to do.   So, I packed, and couldn't sleep so I kept packing and then tried to sleep and ended up watching tv on the computer for a while.  In the morning, I finally got the last few things in my bag, and got to the airport, about 10 minutes later than we'd wanted to.  It was the same basic scene as coming to the country, except this time, only half in my language, and all of the stuff had to come on 5 flights again, instead of 1.  So we took enough stuff out that I didn't have to pay as much for it (it would have been close to $500 if I hadn't taken anything out) and finally rushed through paying, security, and getting onto the plane.  As soon as I got into my seat, I lost it.  I just silently cried and cried and cried until I got so many sideways glances from my seat partner that I couldn't keep going, and I was done anyway.  The flight attendant thought I was afraid of flying, I think.  


Anyway, I had a six or seven hour layover in Riga, but got food, knitted, read, and napped.  I got to Brussels in good time, and after an amusing series of trips up and down halls and stairs, I finally found my train platform and made it to the Dunlap's house.  It's been fantastic being here, but weird to be in a country that speaks French again and reverting back to French only, instead of Estonian.  I keep mixing them together.  But anyway, Melissa and I went to downtown Brussels the first day I was here, and saw the Grand Place which was GORGEOUS, the Manneken Pis which was TINY, a few other cool sites, and had a REAL Belgian waffle with chocolate sauce.  YUM.  But the BEST thing we did was go to the MIM (Musical Instruments Museum), which has really amazing displays of all different kinds of musical instruments.  The coolest part is they give you headphones and then in front of each case, there's a sound clip that accompanies the instruments you're looking at.  VERY COOL.  It was a lot of fun.  


Today we went to Waterloo and learned about the battle that happened there.  It was a really cool place, but was really really rainy, so we were drenched.  Afterwards, we came back and got some food and then went to the SHAPE base where Kyle works and looked at a Christmas market that was there.  It was a lot of fun, and they had Christmas music playing and lots of cool things.  I got a cute little thing that cannot be disclosed as someone shall receive it soon, but it was an overall very fun thing to go to.  We went shopping on base, and then came home and had TACOS.  GLORIOUS TACOS.  YUMMMMM.  It was great.


I got to Skype in and give the quiz for 80's quiz night at Erin & Eric's tonight, which was great, and I got to see some of my teacher friends.  We're now tasting different Belgian beers and hanging out!  Tomorrow, I'm off to Bordeaux to see Laura again!


Talk to you soon.
Maintain,
Virginia

Day 71-84: Reader's Digest Version

So, I know I have been away from blogging for a bit, but after Laura was here, I got really busy with this final push to get everything done and see everyone etc. before I leave.  So here's a quick recap to catch up to where we are now.

We went to Riga, obviously.  It was not my favorite place I've ever been, and it was cold and rainy and therefore sort of unwelcoming and dreary.  We didn't love it, although we did have great food and fun with some of the people at the hostel.  The hostel itself was phenomenal... it was clean, and well kept, and there was a lot of room to hang out in the hostel, and they had everything you could need to cook if you wanted to, and it was just really great.  In Riga, most everything closes on Mondays, though, so we spent part of Monday going on a tour the hostel offers where you can go shoot AK-47 assault rifles :)  We went on this tour, and part of the way there, the guy from the hostel said, "I'm really hoping we can all get into shoot today... they had a police raid last week, and they took most of their bullets, but they said they had a secret stash of them, so we should be okay, I think."  Laura and I were questioning the legality of this particular operation, and he said, "It's as legal as possible..."  Nice.  We got into this underground Russian bunker, and there were NO women except for us, and there were quite a few massively large Russian men.  But, we did it and we were brave!  We shot a Glock, an AK-47, and a Pump Action rifle.  I was so nervous by the end of the rounds of the Pump Action that the Russian teacher guy standing next to me who was helping us said gruffly, "Only one more."  Anyway, it was really cool, and I got to keep some bullets and my target!

Proud.  So that was the highlight of our time in Riga.  We came back to Tallinn, and did the tourist-y Tallinn things again, which was fun, and then we had a typical Estonian Christmas dinner with Karolina and Toomas.  It was so much fun to just have a great meal and company, but we also were having the typical foods, like the blood sausage and meat in a jelly.  Neither of these particular things are ones I'd probably try again, but I did try them once, and that's all the mantra says.  It was a great night, and I had so much fun.

After Laura left, I've been in the final throws of trying to get all these papers done for ONU classes, as well as my final lesson plans and getting things slowly packed, and it's just been a crazy time.  I'm really busy, and don't have enough time for all the things I'm doing anymore!!!  It's good though bittersweet... I'm not ready to leave, and I'm sadder every day that I go to bed because another day is over. 

Last night, I had a great surprise... the teachers from my school threw a surprise party for me.  I thought it was just going to be me and Tiiu, and then we went with Kadri to this place in town, and we sat at a really small table and weren't really in a rush or anything, and then Karolina showed up.  She said she had to meet someone, but it was funny running into us, and I was just amused that we ended up in the same place.  But then she told me it was actually ME she was meeting, and it was really funny.  Slowly, other teachers that I've gotten really close with showed up also, and all my closest teacher friends were there, and it was just a fantastic evening.  They got me lots of different presents and I was so flattered and moved, and it was wonderful.  MOST ESPECIALLY, though, they all chipped in and bought me the rain boots I've been wanting all this time with the Muhu Estonian National Pattern... Muhu saar is one of the islands, and this pattern is yellow with horizontal striped patterns, and I love it... it's my favorite one.  I'll post pictures soon.

Anyway, I'm off to pack a bit, and then meet one of my other teacher friends in town to see Due Date... hahah.  I could use a good mindless laugh, and that looks to be promising.  So, that's my brief update for now.  My last day of school is this Wednesday, and I leave Thursday to go to Brussels. 

Maintain,
Virginia

Day 70: Riga

So I am in Latvia currently, in Riga, waiting for Laura to come join me here and it's a very cool place that we're staying... www.thenaughtysquirrel.com baha.  Having to tell the taxi driver I was staying at The Naughty Squirrel was quite amusing, especially since he didn't understand that I wasn't staying at the "Steak and Fish Hostel" ... I had written the information above an ad for a steak and fish restaurant so he thought I was staying there, and I'm thinking... you drive here... you work here... have you EVER heard of a place like that EVER BEFORE EVER?! 

But anyway, being on the bus yesterday was pretty nice... the seats were comfy and there was a decent amount of room, and I met a nice Latvian couple that had been to America and saw a shirt I was wearing that said "Cape Cod" so he decided he liked me :)  We saw some awful wrecks and nasty things on the road while we drove, but thankfully it was dark so I couldn't really tell how snowy it was outside. 

Getting from the bus stop to the hostel was a bit of a nightmare, and I mastered getting TO the Old Town, but then trying to navigate the streets with: a foreign language, a suitcase, drunk screaming men everywhere, and poor lighting was a bit out of my league.  I ended up caving and getting a taxi, hence the aforementioned steak and fish hostel story, but I found it and got settled in here... it's great, very modern and fun, and they have lots of cool things to do here, and the people are all very nice.  I met one of my roommates this morning (Weird to wake up in a room of people you don't know, but amusing to wake up to a room of people you don't know and already have one thing in common: you all loathe the dude snoring SO LOUDLY).

Anyway, LAURA IS HERE.  So I'm out.

Maintain,
Virginia

Days 53-69: Sorry I suck at blogging

So, since we last spoke, my parents have come and gone, and we did lots of amazing things.  I’m now 3 days away from Fall Break, and it could NOT come faster/slower… it’s come up so fast until now, and now it’s like it’s never actually going to arrive.

So, last week I was sick, and then exactly 48 hours later, I was magically cured.  I don’t know how/why but… anyway.  We had some major issues with students… I had a student have a legitimate temper tantrum in my class, and felt so completely defeated… the kid flung himself on the floor, screaming and kicking and punching the ground, and it was so aggravating.  Neither Karolina nor I could really get him to get himself together, and it was annoying.  But anyway, enough about that.

My parents came to visit!!!  Friday, I picked them up from the ferry, and brought them home, and after a race to get stuff taken out at home and eat (required in my Estonian household at any/every given moment of the day) we got back to school, and they got to see my school a bit.  Later, after school, Karolina walked with us around the city, and we ended up having dinner at a cool place called Olde Hansa where they pretend to be from the 1500’s and talk to you like olde tymie people J  It was quite humorous.  The dishes are all with old names too, and they have a little ensemble where people play recorder and the drum and stuff… It was very good.  I’m taking Laura there when she comes, because I think she’ll love it too. 

Friday night, we had to get home early because I had an interview on the phone with the Vera Bradley store at Tysons to work for them when I get home over the holidays.  It went really well, and since I’m writing this so much later, I’ll tell you I did end up getting the job!  Yay.  So, I’m not OFFICIALLY unemployed, but I’m also not officially teaching anywhere yet either.  Hah.

Then Saturday, we went to town and got Tallinn cards, a TOTALLY useful thing that apparently they have in many European cities, so that M&D could get on/off transportation and we could all get into museums free and stuff like that.  I called and made a reservation for us to go to the tours of the tunnels underneath the city too, and so that afternoon we were off to Kiek in de kök, a hilariously named place in English that in Estonian means “Peek in the kitchen” not grievously injure your fellow man.  The tours of the tunnels were fascinating, and we really enjoyed them.  They show you what these tunnels were used for starting from today in 2010 and going back to the 1400’s.  Then, they take you forward and project what civilizations might be like in the future.  The most interesting part of these tunnels though was looking at what they were used for recently, like in the last 50 years.  People lived in these tunnels until 2005, when the last homeless man was kicked out so they could restore them.  They also were used for shelter from the Russians, and teenagers hid there when they were running away from troops during Soviet times.  It was very interesting.  The other half of Kiek in de kök is a large tower that was used as part of the wall that used to protect the city.  You can still go up into the tower and see the different exhibits they have, but also see out and get a gorgeous view of the city from up high.  We really enjoyed it, especially since after climbing up six tiny, cramped, cold stone sets of stairs, there’s a lovely coffee bar to rejuvenate you before you begin your descent.

After that, we went into the Aleksander Nevsky Cathedral, which is right near the tower, and were looking around in this gorgeous Russian Orthodox church when they started to actually have a service.  The priest and his minions (not clear on what they’re called, sorry) came out with the smells and bells, blessing the old little Russian ladies and the icons on the walls.  There was a choir singing behind us, in a high loft that had sun beams streaming down over it, and it was such a sacred moment… it was quite cool.  We walked around a bit after that, and went to some of the scenic look out places that I had been when we came here before.  As we were walking away from that area of town, wandering a bit as I so love to do here, I FOUND MY SHOP.  MY LONG LOST SHOP THAT I HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR SINCE DAY ONE, LOOKING IN EVERY DARK ALLEY AND CORNER OF THIS CITY, I FOUND ITTTTTTTTT.  To my dismay, they were closing 10 minutes later (Side note: this was not to the dismay of my “shopped-out” father) but I found it anyway and the lady marked it on my map so I can find it again and ohhhhh my shop, I have found you.  I bought a little mouse to put on my piano when I get home, and it made me really miss Rosie a lot… I’ve been thinking about her often here, for different reasons, and what a great lady she was.  Sigh.

Anyway, we went to Vapiano’s for dinner that night, a TOTAL yummer of a place to eat, and went home, since we were pooped.  A great day, all in all, though.

Sunday, we got up pretty early and went to Viru Keskus to the handicraft shop there, to look at things for M&D to get that are hand made things from Eesti.  We found lots of cool stuff, and it was very neat… I love love LOVE knitted things, and I want to find a pretty handmade sweater before I leave in red and green…duh.  After that, we headed to Kadriorg, a nearby town, to go to the KUMU Art museum and to see the President’s Palace that is there also.  It was chilly and grey, but also was okay to be outside, and we enjoyed walking through the gardens and seeing all the pretty flowers that are still up at this time of year.  It was gorgeous.  Inside the museum, we saw a John Constabile exhibit and I got yelled at for taking pictures…go figure.  We ALSO saw an exhibit of photographs that a family friend of ours, Linda Halstead, was in, since she is Estonian and was part of a gymnastics group from Estonia that performed in the States.  It was really cool. 

Sunday night we went to a dance workshop with Tiina and Asko, and I had so much fun… we were learning the different folk dances, and to just be whirled around and dance for 2 straight hours was a blast… I wish we had a rich heritage like Estonia that we could be so proud of… they have all these amazing national patterns and different costumes and stuff and these dances, and it’s all so intriguing and amazing to look at.  They also have a much more violent, unhappy history, so they’re much more proud of the things they have now like these patterns and dances, and I just wish I could stay here forever.  Anyway, dancing was a lot of fun, and I was exhausted by the time it was over, but it was a good exhaustion.

Monday, Monday.  Back to the grind for me, but M&D went to the Rocca al mare (Estonian Open Air Museum) and saw some great things and then went to a Russian market with Irina (dear God… to the market, not to Irina.  THANK God Irina was there, but Mom said it was crazy and totally a scene, and I don’t doubt it for a single second).  We met up and went to the Kalev Marzipan Museum and Shop, and then went and got super delectable pancakes for dinner… they were delicious.  I was so exhausted from school that day, so we went home fairly early, and I did work while M&D chatted with Irina and Karl… Dad and Karl broke open the large bottle of Jack Daniels that he brought for Karl, so they were instantly besties.

Tuesday, I went to school again, but a bit begrudgingly because I really wanted to spend time with my parents their last day here.  It went so fast!  They went to the Occupation Museum while I was at school, and then they came to have lunch with me at the school.  After school, we walked around town a bit and then went home to have dinner with Karl and Irina.  Heather Scholl was in town to visit for a few days on her European adventure, so she met up with us also and we all went to the Alfredi Pub for dinner, where we all had very yummy food.  It was a great last night with them in town.  We went home and they packed while I finished stuff for school the next day (and while they packed up all my junk that they were taking home tee hee), I had appx. 235 panic attacks about getting home, and finally we all turned in for the night. 

Wednesday, they were off… sadly, I had to go to school that morning, and I really wished they could stay longer… it was so nice to have them here, and to have someone here who all the time I could speak English to at home, who understood me and knew what I was thinking as often only parents do, and to just have the comforts of home here for a little bit.  But anyway, I went to school and roamed a bit that afternoon, since that’s what we would’ve done if they were here.  I met up with Heather later for dinner and we went to the Peppersack, similar to the Olde Hansa in that they pretend to be old also and they have occasional sword fighting etc., but then after we got served dessert (it was 50% off everything on the menu night) the waitress legitimately took an HOUR to come back to us, which was annoying.  Whatever.  We had a good time chatting and such, so that’s what matters.

Thursday happened.

Friday… Haha just kidding.  Thursday was pretty awful because there are like twelve different shitstorms (pardon my French) a-brewin’ here at the school in various forms, and so there was that, and then I sat down to read and grade papers with Karolina and we discovered that in fact many of them were just copied and pasted from the internet (STRIKE ONE) and from Wikipedia, a site specifically not allowed for the assignment (STRIKE TWO) and had just spent ten minutes earlier in the day telling me, “I should just get a 7 [our top score] in music because it should just be easy, like PE.”  Strike THREE LADY FRIEND.  I was so annoyed.  So I left livid that day and sat down with the class the next day and had a major chat about the problem, and how frustrated I was.  UGH.

Friday night was good though.  A bunch of the teachers went out after school and just ate and drank and it was really fun… Quite amusing to see people outside of a school setting.  But, instead of going bar-hopping like we’d originally planned, we all were really tired and by 9:30 or 10 we were going home.  I guess that showed us.  Hahah.  Anyway, it was fun.

Saturday I woke up with a headache (not from drinking, but from stress) and proceeded to spend a decent amount of my morning either sleeping or watching tv and sleeping.  It was really great, actually, and really what I needed.  I wanted to go to the market in Nõmme but by the time I got there it was too late, so I just went to Selver, and ran into Karolina, who was shopping for the upcoming week.  I told her and her husband Toomas that I was alone for the evening, since both my host-parents were away at work, so she invited me over for dinner.  We had really yummy chicken and rice and a PHENOMENAL salad that was so so so great.  We started watching Eesti Talent (Estonia’s Got Talent, basically) and then ended up watching a movie and drinking wine, and since it was so late and we’d been drinking and there were no more buses, I ended up just staying there with them.  It was really fun, and totally spontaneous and just really a fantastic time. 

In the morning on Sunday, we had breakfast and then took a walk to the central part of Nõmme where they have the big market, but we took a very extended long way, so we walked for an hour on a crisp, fall day, and got to see lots of beautiful leaves and a gorgeous panorama of the Old Town straight over the horizon and saw lots of Tallinn and it’s outer lying cities.  Gorgeous.  Then, I went home and got ready to go see Karl in a concert at the Estonian concert hall, where he and many other groups from Nõmme were performing to celebrate the 65th birthday of the Nõmme Kulturekeskus (The Nõmme Culture Center).  It was so cool, and I really enjoyed it a lot… besides which, Karl loved that I came and we had a great time celebrating afterwards also. 

This week has been spirit week, so we’ve dressed wacky almost every day, and had lots of good classes.  School just finished for today, which means it’s Fall Break for us, but it has snowed ALL DAY LONG so it really feels like we’re actually leaving for Christmas haha.  I’m hopping on a bus in two hours to go to Riga in Latvia with Laura for a few days, and then we’ll come back and see Tallinn before she jets off to Copenhagen and I prepare to start school again.  I’m excited, but nervous too since it’s my first real trip since I’ve gotten here and I’ve only just gotten comfortable here with getting places.  But anyway, that’s my massively long update… we had grades due today and such for the end of the quarter, so I’ve been swamped with trying to get that stuff taken care of.  Thanks for reading this far (if you did) and if you didn’t, I understand anyway.

More soon.

Maintain,

Virginia

Days 49-52: The 48 Hour Flu Bug is just that.

Soooo... I did get verrrry sick this weekend, which was really unfortunate and uncomfortable, but thankfully happened over a weekend, so I didn't waste much school time mending.

Saturday, I went to see Eat, Pray, Love (I guess that's not underlined if it's the movie, not the book, hm?  Whatever, I'm leaving it.) with one of the other teachers, and I started feeling about halfway through like I was really chilly, and kind of like I was getting a fever.  In my infinite wisdom after the show, I went to look for a book, and then I was looking for another shop I wanted to look into, when I stumbled into TJ Maxx of Estonia, and bought a winter coat!!  It's a nice walker length wool coat, that I bought for half price, which was nice also.

Anyway, after the coat was purchased, I wanted to stay out longer, but knew the signs of impending illness well enough to go home, so I did... and I ended up being essentially in bed until yesterday in the afternoon. My temperature went up and down, between 99.5 and 101, for two days, and I was so uncomfortable, because I had this terrible aching in my body, especially my sides.  But, literally the same time 2 days later, I felt my last fever break and I felt so much better.  It was unbelievable.

School today was pretty good too... we had a teacher appreciation breakfast, and I had a pretty good day of teaching overall.  Feeling better made today good overall too.  It also feels really good to have most of my travel plans nailed down too... Laura and I got lots of travel plans made, and it was quite therapeutic :)

My parents are coming soon!  I'm so excited.

More soon.

Maintain,

Virginia

Day 46: I am an IDIOT. Day 48: Blech

So in my last post, I said I couldn't remember Tuesday and that it was unremarkable or something...

WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ME?!  TUESDAY WAS MY FAVORITE DAY OF THE WEEK.

Tuesday afternoon, after school, Karolina and I went to see a fantastic concert.  We saw the Ellerhein choir, a girl's choir from Estonia.  They were doing a tribute concert to Veljo Tormis, an Estonian composer whose 80th birthday was this year, so there have been many concerts for him.  They. Were. FABULOUS.  I loved it... although, their director was CRAZY.  She seemed to have no idea that there was a concert going on behind her, which drove me absolutely insane, but the girls sounded so good that it was okay... It reminded me a lot of SWE in high school, and singing in a huge women's choir... so amazing.

That evening after the concert, I ran home and changed into all the warm clothes I have, and met Erin (3rd grade teacher at the school) and her husband Eric in town for a yummy dinner and then we went to Kadriorg, where they had an evening of lights in the park.  Kadriorg is where the president's house (palace) is and there's a huge park there and such, and they had candles and lights everywhere, and it was so so SO gorgeous.  It was a perfect crisp evening, and we walked around the park, and it was just so beautiful.  We saw Tiina and even got to see fireworks at the end of the night which was very cool too.  It was so fantastic.

Sorry I forgot about all that... I guess I had a MASSIVE brain fart.

In other news,  today has pretty much sucked and to top it off, I don't feel very good, so I'm having a quiet night in.  Classes sucked, feeling bad sucked, suck suck suck.  So.  No more on today.

Maintain,
Virginia

Days 40-47: There's Something In My Closet

For those of you following along at home, doing math and +7 hour conversions, yes!  You're right!  It IS 4:37 am, and I AM awake...

(Side note: I didn't get this posted until much later, but it was started in the wee hours of this morning)

The other night, I couldn't get to sleep because I heard something in this little closet-type thing in my room that doesn't have any of my stuff in it and I've never actually opened, but I discovered was now housing some sort of rodentia.  It was scratching and dragging something along the wall, and sounded like it was about to be on my bed (not really...but sort of close).  Tim told me to go get Karl but Irina was away and I didn't want to wake him up (it was midnight that night... much more socially conscious than THIS morning.)  So anyway, I forgot to tell Karl the next day, and didn't know how to tell him anyway, and then I forgot to tell Irina when she came home, and now, here we are.  I heard it first this morning at 3:30, and thought it was Irina outside my room messing with my chimney or something, until I realized what time it was and that for as great and as caring as she is, she ALSO SLEEPS, so it probably wasn't her.  Now it was back a few minutes ago and I'm now wide awake.  Awesome.

Anyway.  Updates on better/worse days commence now.

Wednesday, September 22
This was the first day out of 5 days that it wasn't raining enough for me to boat to school.  On the contrary, I walked outside and just wanted to stay there forever.  It was a gorgeous day, and the air was crisp like Fall ought to be.  It was a great day.  School seemed to go pretty well, minus the classes that are the most difficult, like choir... it's strange to think about the fact that I've commanded classes of 90-100 kids before very well, but when I get this particular mix of 32 students together it's a difficult blend of personalities.  Anyway, after school we had adult handbells, which is always fun, and then Karolina and I walked into town.  I decided to stay in town, and go look to see if my earrings were ready.  I walked around the square for a while, ambling more than anything, and kept trying to find this shop, but I couldn't find the right street to go down.  I kept ending up turned around, or back where I had been, or something strange, and I felt silly because I was so confident that I knew where I was going...  Anyway, I finally found the little hidden alley where the shop was, and I went in and picked up my PacMan earrings, as well as another pair of cute earrings and two pairs of Estonian socks which I love.  I was so happy... the lady remembered me, and it was really great.  I miss being in a place where people remember you and know your name and that sort of thing... I went into another shop where the lady remembered me, actually... I had talked to her one day when Lloyd and I were out poking around, and she asked why I was here and then remembered when I came in her shop Wednesday.  It was very nice.

After all the excitement of getting my earrings, I decided I wanted to go to the "Texas Honky Tonk Cantina" restaurant for dinner.  For those of you unfamiliar, Texas is the stereotypical American restaurant that serves TexMex American-ish food...  They also USED TO have a phone where you could call America for free if you ordered something, but when I asked my waitress for it, she said, "...you want the what?"  And I said, "The phone... it used to be where you could use the phone to call America if you came here...?"  And she just stared at me and said, "Well... I'm new here, but I've never heard of anything like that..."  I was bummed.  Anyway, I got my food and a delicious strawberry margarita and sat and read my book.  I finished it actually, which was happy and sad all at the same time because there are no more in the series and they were just SO good... I'm open to/looking for new books to read, so feel free to give suggestions.

Overall, a fantastic day... I got to just wander and poke in shops as I saw fit and do exactly what I wanted to.

Additionally, I love Fall.

Thursday, September 23
Thursdays are supposed to be the bad days, but I'd gotten my bad day out of the way early this week, so I was okay this particular Thursday.  It was another gorgeous day outside, so I was glad to be able to walk around some in the fresh air.  It's interesting to me how much walking I do when I'm here, and how much walking I didn't do in Ada.  I love being outside though, because the air is very fresh and on crisp air days like this day, I felt like I couldn't breathe ENOUGH of it in... it was very nice.

I was going to go into town but I decided I was really tired and exhausted from the day, so I didn't... Sometimes, I just cannot muster the energy to rally myself enough to go back out and do things after school, and this was one of those days.  I came home and took a nap with the windows open, though, and it was gorgeous... the air was still so fresh and great.

Friday, September 24
Well... every day can't be a great day.  I had been nervous to teach the kids this day, because I had two double periods in a row: 8th grade, and then 10th grade.  In 8th grade, I was teaching them about North American music, specifically Indian and Eskimo music, and we got through most of it okay, and got songs learned and so that was okay.  But in 10th grade, they started out by just talking incessantly, and I'm of the Michael-Ehrlich-"I'm-Not-Going-To-Yell-Over-You" school of thought, but it was just so frustrating... they probably wasted a solid 15 minutes total talking, and I finally had to just say, "I've got all the time in the world today, but you're wasting your own time here."  We are learning about jazz, and we were making maps of all the things that go into jazz, but because of a MAJOR gap in knowledge (ie: Some students don't know anything about music, and some can play an instrument very well) it took a lot longer than it should have to get this assignment done.  We ended up not even making it to the second thing I had wanted to get to, and they got the privilege instead of doing it for homework, lucky fools.  Anyway, after the lesson I was pretty run down and beat... I was just so frustrated with the fact that they hadn't done almost anything I'd asked and it was just overall annoying.  Thankfully, our last class surprisingly was part of a bigger lower school activity for the afternoon, and they wouldn't be coming to us, so we got an afternoon off.

Karolina and I were talking, and she told me it was Youth Night in Tallinn, which intrigued me.  I texted Tiina to see if she was interested in going, and we ended up heading into town that night with her boyfriend and checking out some different exhibits.  We had a really good time, and we ended up on TV too!!  Haha.  We got to play some fun little games, and watch one of those machines where the first thing triggers the second thing triggers the third thing etc...  It was fun.  It was a nice night to be outside too, which was good.  We got yummy Mexican food and had very ...interesting cultural experiences.  We went to a bar, and almost got in the middle of a MASSIVE domestic dispute between some crazy Russians, and we ended up leaving before we got shot... We felt that was a responsible choice :)

Saturday, September 25
Saturday was, as it always was in Ohio too, a rugby day.  I got to go meet one of the teachers, Michelle, and her son Lawrence to go see her husband, Tim (another teacher) go play rugby in Piriita.  It was so fun to be outside on another gorgeous day, and watch rugby, and just be there.  It was an afternoon long tournament, and it was just really fun.  I loved it.  That night, I just hung out and worked on stuff for school.  Karolina and I are giving the kids an assignment to write a jazz piece on GarageBand, but I wanted to have one first for them to see, so I needed to do that.

Sunday, September 26
Irina left Sunday to go to the country for a few days, because Leitirin wanted her to come visit, and she wanted to spend time with them before they had to go to school the next day.  So, Karl and I were left to charades again.  We went to Selver, and he dropped me and said he'd come back because he had to go fix someone's power over on Liivalaia, which isn't too far from the Selver, and I thought he said he was coming back and going inside and doing the shopping etc.  I realized part of the way through while I was there that it would go quicker when he came if I got all the stuff that we needed before he got there. So he called me, and I thought he was coming in, so I told him where I was, and waited... and waited... and waited... Haha.  I finally called Irina, and asked her to call Karl and ask where he was... turns out, he was waiting outside for me at the gas station where he'd dropped me off, because that's what he told me he was going to do.  Hooray for misunderstanding each other!!  But anyway.  We came home and put all the groceries away together, and then made some food and ate together too... it was very nice.

Around 12:30 am, I heard something in my room like a rodent or some other small rodent... I freaked out, and asked Tim what he thought I should do... against his better judgement, and mine, I didn't go get Karl, because a. he'd been asleep a while, and b. I didn't have ANY clue how I would charade to him that there was something in my room.  I finally got to sleep, and forgot that it had happened...

Monday, September 27
So Monday we didn't have school technically, which was nice.  We had an in service day, though, so we spent 4 hours in the morning in a workshop learning about gifted learners and creativity and it was pretty good overall.  Karolina and Tim and Michelle and I went out to lunch with one other teacher, Megan, who teaches Science.  We went to a really yummy place called Vapiano's where you can make your own pasta dishes or pizzas.  It was SO great.  We went back and had a 2 hour session on fire safety, during which time I almost fell asleep approximately 208368 times... and to top that off, some people were being really extreme and almost too involved, and we had to do part of it outside, where it was FRIGID.  Anyway, I came home and made some food and Karl didn't get home till really late, so I didn't really see him either.

Tuesday, September 28
Here's the thing... I can't remember right now what happened on Tuesday... I guess it wasn't particularly remarkable... if anything comes up, I'll let you know :)

Wednesday, September 29
Wednesday was my awful day this week... I had just the most terrible series of events.  I overslept my alarm, I almost missed my bus, it was crowded and annoying, and then we had an annoying start of the day, because Karolina had a frustrating conversation which led to more frustrations overall...  Then, we had the 1st grade class, and they were performing two pieces at the PYP assembly later that day.  I had one student who was completely defiant the entire class, to the extent that 3 teachers all had to speak to him, and he finally got pulled out of class.  Afterwards, he and I "had a chat" and I asked him if he thought he had been respectful of me today, and he wouldn't talk to me, so I asked him how he could change his behavior, and instead of actually answering me he screamed, "I HATE CHATTING WITH YOU."  Nice.  Five years old.  Cute.  And then I said, "Well, I am the teacher, and you were very disrespectful of me today."  His response?  "You're NOT a teacher."  I was furious.  So I said, "We are only having this chat ONCE and it is NOW.  The next time, you will be sent out of my class and sent to Mr. Randy (Dean of Elem. Students) to discuss with him for the class time why you have lost your music privileges."  He wasn't particularly keen on that, so we came up with some things that might be better for next time.

Later on, right before the assembly, his parents had showed up, and were babying him like none other, and he was throwing a little fit, and I was 12 shades of over it.  So he finally got his act together, and did what he was supposed to, and then started acting up again, and I said, "You need to get back over here and sit with your class."  Instead, he ran over to his mommy, I repeated what I had said, and then his mom just looked at me, and they walked away.  UGH.  It is so SO difficult to assert yourself when the parents are completely undermining you that way.  It was seriously SO frustrating.

We had more annoying things happen, but I don't care to further discuss anything else of this day, because it was just stupid from start to finish.

Thursday, September 30
Today, for me, started at 3:30 am when I woke up and thought Irina was outside of my room like putting something in my stove or something like that, but when I realized it was 3:30, I figured even though she's always doing something, she DOES also sleep, so it couldn't be that.  I rolled over, and went back to sleep until 4:10 am, which is when I woke up for good, because I heard my little rodent friend from earlier in the week, scratching around...  I thought I heard it next to my bed, so I turned on my lights, and then I thought maybe it was outside of my room and turned all those lights on and it just woke me up enough that I couldn't really go back to bed.  Awesome.  I went to school, and had an okay day but ended up kicking my problematic 8th graders out of handbells because I'd given them way too many warnings as it was, and I was livid with them.  I ended up also kicking two 1st graders (1 was the same as the kid from Wednesday) out of my class, and one of them ended up staying out most of the time, which turned out to be for the best.  We got a lot of good work done, but it was still kind of frustrating... I came home and have been doing work for school basically since I got here.  We have a lot of stuff that needs to get done for tomorrow, so I had to skip out on the choir that I was going to go to with Tiina's mom.

Anyway, a long time since I've posted, but I've been really busy and I keep forgetting :)

Talk to you all soon!  My parents come a week from tomorrow! Yay!!

Maintain,
Virginia

Days 32-39: If you pass your teaching tests, does that mean you get to stay?

Okay.  So.  I’ve been really busy so I’m sorry I’ve been remiss in posting.  Since we last met…

Wednesday we went to the ballet, and it was absolutely fantastic.  Romeo and Juliet was so great and to top it off, the seats I’d gotten in the very front row turned out to be the best choice EVER.  We were in a perfect place, because the pit is very long, and so it was a perfect length between us and the stage.  Grace and Shelby loved it, and it turned out really well.  A great night for all J

Thursday was unremarkable, because I don’t really remember it… it wasn’t too awful, I assume, because I don’t remember it.  I do remember not feeling well, and feeling like I needed to sleep a lot more.  That’s all I got, though.  Haha.  Sorry.

Friday was good… We had a pretty good day at school.  The best thing a teacher could ask for happened to me Friday… I had the 5^th grade class, and I told them that I was going to be evaluated on Monday when they were there by the Director, and that I was hoping they’d be on their best behavior for my teaching “test.”  Zac, one of the students, said to me, “Miss Virginia, if you pass your teaching tests… does that mean you get to stay?”  So great.  I really appreciated that comment.  Haha.

Anyway, came home, and went to Hannes’ house (Irina’s son) because it was his birthday, and his wife’s birthday had been Monday, so we had a little double birthday party for them.  It was really fun.  The food was great, and I got to snuggle with their poodle who loves to sit in my lap and just be petted forever.  Martin (Hannes’ son) and I played for a long, long time also, which was really fun… I know most of the things that he says now, and things I don’t know, someone translates for me.  It was great.  We probably played together for a couple hours.  The most hilarious part was when he pulled out a little laser pen and was pointing it around, and we pretended to catch it and he would just laugh and laugh and laugh.  We do that with my cat at home, but with Martin, we were just as content as my kitten is.  Quite amusing. 

Saturday I slept in until about 9, and made plans with Irina to go to Nõmme to pick up a package from a mysterious sender.  We went to the shop called “EXTRA LARGE” for fat people, which let me just say… shopping in a store named Extra Large does not help one bit.  Amusing things in XL included a fully sequined sweatshirt that the lady told me was high fashion, a few weird excuses for clothes, and finding clothes that would fit three of me in them.  We went to the huge, massive, EXTRA LARGE (size, not the store) outdoor farmer’s market that happens every day, apparently, and browsed around, and then went to the post office. 

I WAS SO THRILLED WHEN I GOT TO THE POST OFFICE AND HAD A PACKAGE FROM LINDSEY MICHELLE CATHOLIC NEWLOVE.  WHAT AN AMAZING PACKAGE.  I GOT GARLIC!  Lindsey sent me Minced Garlic, Garlic Powder, Chocolate Cake Mix, and the crème de la crème… a Real Simple magazine!!!  SO SO SO FANTASTIC.  I have proceeded to put garlic powder on most of my food as of late… at least, the things on which it would be appropriate… my Special K is not a qualifier, but my pasta sure is J  First thing I did when I got home was put garlic powder on my pasta for lunch. 

I worked on some of the stuff I needed to do for school on Monday, since I had a lot of things to get done, and then headed over to meet Maarja and Kaspar, because Maarja wanted real American cheesecake.  I looked up the Cheesecake Factory recipe and we made it, which turned out to be amusing, since we forgot to turn the oven on and it sat in there for an hour cold…whoops.  But we watched the movie where her brother is in it, and it was very interesting and fun, and I got to play with kitties, so it was overall a great night :)

Sunday I went to a fellow teacher’s house to record some songs for him.  His wife is writing a book currently for preschoolers, and it has music to go with it, so they wanted someone to record the songs to send to the publisher, so maybe one day I’ll be famous in Estonia :) Anyway, did that for a while, and then came home to finish my work for school.

Monday, I woke up and my first thought was, “Did the weekend even happen…?”  So that’s always a great start for the week.  But overall, it was a good day.  I took over teaching full time this week, and Don came to observe one of my lessons.  Overall, I think it went well… I love teaching, and I really enjoy the kids.  Grace is improving so much in her voice lessons too (they happen on Mondays) and doing very well overall… she’s singing Plaisir d’Amour right now… everyone’s favorite French piece :)  We had auditions for the school musical, Fanny, the Frivelous Flapper after school, which went very well, and then I came home and just absolutely crashed… I’m so exhausted by the end of the school days that it’s just absolutely impossible for me not to fall asleep for a little bit. 

Tuesday was awful to start… I joked that all the awful things to happen to me today happened before 8:30 am.  I overslept my alarm, spilled oatmeal on my pants, got into an argument with Irina over cereal this morning (she read an article in the Estonian paper about how cereal is awful for people, and how Special K is one of the worst because of the amount of sugar in it.  Um.  What!?  I eat it BECAUSE IT IS HEALTHY.  WHATEVER.), got out of the house super late, had to sprint for the bus… um, I think that was mostly it… oh, and it was raining, for the 3 ½ day in a row… so that was good.  But, I got in and got settled, and ended up having a really good double lesson with Grace and had a good rest of my day.  We ended up staying super late at school trying to get all the stuff done we needed to, but the rest of the week should be good.

I’m very sleepy now, so I’m going to hit the hay.   I’ll catch up more soon :)  Hoping to buy my PacMan earrings this week!!  (Didn’t get to go today because it was so rainy…boo.)

Maintain,

Virginia

Day 31: Long Lost "Ema"

Quick post before bed:

Today was a great day in school... the classes went well, from beginning to end, and it was overall a really good day.  One of my non-speakers in 3rd grade even WON the game that we played!!  Awesome awesome.  Got home in reasonable time... got a little bit of work done, and got time to hang out.

Irina was making pancakes with me for dinner tonight when she remembered that it was Tracey's birthday.  Tracey was an old host daughter that she and Karl had in '96, and she got very upset talking about it, because she hadn't been able to get in touch with Tracey for years, and began crying, which just upset me even further.  I called the alumni office and got Tracey's cell phone number, but also did some online creeping and found her also on Facebook, thanks to Nils' suggestion, and ended up being able to Skype with Tracey and have Irina and Tracey chat on the Skype video chatting.  It was a wonderful reunion, and it was so sentimental and sweet.  

Going to bed now... taking Grace and her sister, Shelby to the ballet tomorrow evening :)  We're going to see Romeo and Juliet in the FRONT ROW!!  Very exciting!!  

More later.

Maintain,

Virginia

Days 27-30: I Wonder As I Wander...

Hello all,

Since we last spoke:

Friday night, Maarja and Kaspar came over and had dinner here at my house… in keeping with my crappy day that had already occurred, on the bus ride home, I ended up ripping the bag Irina had given me to carry my school stuff in.  The strap ripped off from the bag, and it was very frustrating, and hard to get off the bus/walk home.  Thankfully, I got home with all my stuff more or less, since a nice lady on the bus helped me get the stuff that dropped.   Karolina told me that was the Soviet woman mindset, because in Soviet times, the ladies who did the grocery shopping, like herself, would have multiple kids and multiple bags that they had to carry for the groceries and had to balance all of these things. 

Anyway, I made chicken piccata (a personal favorite and a crowd pleaser :)) and it was delicious.  We got to chat for a while, and worked on finding schools for Maarja to go to in America!  She’s hoping to get back to the States again for a year for school somewhere.  If you have any suggestions, let us know!  She’s looking for Technical Theatre and Design type majors.

Saturday, I woke up earlier than I wanted to, and got up and did some work, and ended up going back to sleep for a little while.  I woke up again and decided that even though I didn’t know where I was going, I was going to go somewhere.  I left the house, and there are two bus stops near our house, and as I was walking, I decided to first go on the 36 to Nõmme, the larger town that I live in, to their centrum and to look around, since I haven’t been there except to go to the post office the other day.  I walked around, checked out some other secondhand shops, and browsed around a rain boot store, and ended up buying ankle high rain boots in leopard print!  Big shocker, I know.  Anyway, it was really good to get boots…it rains a LOT here, so they were necessary.

I hopped onto the 23 bus and decided I was going to go into Old Tallinn (Vana Tallinn) and go look at this cute little shop that had had these PacMan earrings I really liked and find somewhere to eat.  As I got closer to town, I realized I was actually quite hungry, so I went back to the pancake restaurant that Maarja and I had gone to before, and had cheese and garlic pancakes that were to die for.  Absolutely fantastic.  I went to the earring shop, and looked all over, but didn’t find them, so I asked the lady about them, and she said she didn’t have any, but she could email the artist and have her make me some new ones!  So I’m stopping back in a week for handmade Estonian PACMAN EARRINGS!  I’m rather excited.

I ended my fabulous, self-indulgent Saturday by going to see The Switch, the new movie with Jennifer Aniston.  It was hilarious, but even more hilarious because a lot of the jokes are colloquial jokes so even with the translations underneath it, they weren’t necessarily translated also.  So I’d laugh at a lot of parts that were in fact not funny to other people, and it was amusing to be the only one laughing at certain parts.  I ended up hopping a ride home on the bus again, and it was just a really good day.  I got to do exactly what I wanted at my own pace, and it was very nice.  It was like going to TJ Maxx with Eric instead of BoyfriendTim ;)

Sunday I again woke up early, and read my book (I’m now in The Girl Who Played With Fire and almost done with it… I did find the third book at the Viru Keskus book shop, and ended up buying it, and after we’re all done reading it, I’m going to donate it to the library at the school so they have a complete set :) )  Irina and I were going to go to the KUMU Museum (for those of you who went to Estonia with me the last time, think: awful, weird crayon and cardboard art exhibit) to see an exhibit on photographs from Estonians during Soviet times.  But, as there was a 10K happening in Tallinn, Irina’s nephew and his family came over, because his wife was running in the race.  So instead, I did work for school, napped, and hung out with the kids.  It was nice to again just chill. 

Later, Irina and I went to Selver and got some things for the week, and also got cake mix and some flowers because Karolina’s birthday was Monday, and I wanted to get her pretty orange flowers, since that’s her favorite color.  We ended up finding beautiful, bright gerbera daisies that were a very vibrant orange, and they were completely perfect.  I made a cake, with pudding in it to combat dryness, and a chocolate sauce over top.  I was quite pleased.

Today, Monday, was a good day.  I had lots of good lessons, including a GREAT time with the previously problematic 3^rd graders.  They all seemed to understand, and ALL my non-speakers were answering and participating.  It was great.  I’m feeling kind of bla though, not quite under the weather, but almost, so I took a nap today and I’m going to bed soon too… Hoping to keep on top of that, since lots of the kids are getting germy, and I’m trying to continue to not be getting germy. 

Thanks for reading!  Sorry I’ve been slow with the responses… I’ll try to improve my consistency!

That’s all for now though.

Maintain,

Virginia