On a slow boat...

In exactly 10 days I'll be in China! On Mom's birthday, I'll fly from Chicago to Beijing, then on to Xi'an for some tourist action, and I'll finally end up outside of Shenyang to visit some schools. I'm really excited to experience China firsthand. I never thought I would make it to Asia, but there are many things I am excited to see and experience - the Great Wall, the Terracotta Soldiers, Tianamen Square, and the Forbidden City in addition to experiencing the northern Chinese culture in Shenyang and Anshan. I've been working on Mandarin phrases and am able to speak a couple of phrases (at least I think I'm saying them right!) so hopefully I'll be able to try them out in a market and I won't end up saying something I shouldn't! We've had a couple of visitors from Anshan visit our school and the few phrases I feel pretty confident about were understood (or more likely our visitors were very polite!).

While I'm in China, the main focus of my visit is to see a couple of schools in Anshan. We'll be interacting with teachers and administrators at a high school and conversing about teaching and assessment practices in our respective schools. This trip is part of a broader goal in our school corporation of creating a cross-cultural exchange between our two schools. We're hoping to send students and receive students within the next school year. During the visit, I'll also be "teaching" a couple of English classes about American history - mainly an overview followed by a question and answer session. I'm looking forward to this experience, but at the same time I'm a little nervous about this aspect of the trip as it requires making a connection within the first couple of minutes with students from a different educational culture. I'm hoping the students will open up with questions during the Q&A portion and we can talk about the similarities and differences between our cultures. I think this part of the trip will be a wonderful learning experience for me.

Kitchen Floor

Its been awhile since we've finished the floor (October), but I thought I'd post a couple of pictures.

Before (so gross!):


The process:
Step #1 - Demolition on Friday evening until about 2 a.m.

Step #2 - Cement board installation on Saturday morning

Step #3 - Installation of ceramic tile the next weekend

Step #4 - Cleaning with saw dust

After (clean enough to walk barefoot on!):

We'll finish up the trim work this summer, but even without it the floor is 100% better than before! Of course, I still had to wash all out the open cupboards and dishes that we neglected to cover during the construction...but I didn't even mind it as I stood on my new floor...barefoot!

Christmas Break!

Relief! Joy! And all other good feelings have been felt this past week and will be enjoyed for the next one also.

Its amazing how much you need a break sometimes. I have a tendency (like other unnamed family members) to "go, go, go" until I can't go any more. I'm even of the rare bread that hates taking a day off to relax or recuperate from an illness because "its just easier to be there." However, I've found that long breaks are needed at strategic times throughout the year. It can be a long weekend, a spring break, a winter holiday, or even two months during the summer, but without them I' m toast. This year I've even learned that just taking a "break" during the week and doing something out of the ordinary is one of the best things I can do for myself, my family, and friends. Its like a mini-break in the middle of life's chaos and each is a precious gift of restored sanity.

As excited as I am about breaks I've noticed that they tend to fill up quickly with lists of things to do: fix the bathroom ceiling and install a vent, sew window treatments for the house, clean the ENTIRE house, make baguettes and gingerbread, visit with every person I've ever met, mass mailings, etc. However, I don't mind these things because they are so out of the ordinary that even completing these holiday/break tasks seems like a break in-and-of itself. Variety is the spice of life and our current break has been full of spice!

We hope that your break (however long and needed) is relaxing, but also full of the spice of life. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Its time for one

So I was thinking that I hadn't posted in while and you were most likely thinking "Man, she must be crazy busy!" But that's just not the case. In truth, things have been relatively slow and the school year is continuing without too many surprises. So I thought it was finally time to post about my (mostly mundane) life.

House updates:

- We've purchased the tile for our bathroom/kitchen/back porch floors and are installing it next weekend.

- The final wallpaper in the stairwell is about to come down and we'll be selecting a color for the upstairs hallway soon.

- A compost bin has been constructed in the back and is now full of decomposing vegetation.

- The chimney mortar will hopefully be fixed within the next two weeks before a true cold snap occurs.

- Next year's garden will be staked out and tilled before the end of October.

School updates:

- Things are heating up with the union and I'm keeping busy with my secretarial position.

- The first cycle will be over in two weeks and most of my students are attempting to raise their dismal grades...but for some (most!) its too little to late.

- I've started developing my lesson plans for my trip to China and organizing for my long-term sub. in April.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot that's new. Hopefully we'll have more to post in the rest of October.

-

First Week Back and some good news!

So its back to 5:30 a.m. wake up calls, grading papers into the night, dodging cars as pubescent drivers fly past, enforcing rules, and catching cheaters...oh the joys of school! My school corporation headed back into the swing of things this week, and while I feel unprepared I am once again implementing lessons to teach teenagers about the United States - their home. You'd think they'd be more interested to learn about our history - our triumphs and our mistakes, wins and loses, etc. But I was once again doused with a cold bit of reality: they don't care! Oh for shame! These are the leaders of tomorrow, but who cares about tomorrow when you can be texting your boyfriend in the class next door? Right?

Despite my apparent sarcasm, I am quite happy to be back at work. There's something about having a schedule and purpose that makes the days go by that much faster. While my students leave something to be desired thus far, I did get some good news. I was selected from a group of volunteers to go to China! Our corporation has partnered with a school in China and is starting an exchange program for educators. Last year we hosted a group of Chinese educators, and I will be part of the first delegation sent from our corporation in return during April 2010. I'm not quite sure of most of the particulars, but we have our first informative meeting next Thursday. I'll have to let you know more as the time approaches!

You'll have to wait

So instead of putting up a large amount of photos, I thought I would wait until many of you show up for a visit to reveal the current state of the house. But I do have a couple of stories to tell. During the past couple of weeks we have been focusing on making the house "livable" and "visitable." We have a large portion of the rooms painted (though the touch-ups remain) and the vast majority of items have been put away. I have been side-tracked lately with getting free mulch from the city and fixing up the outside of the house in preparation for the visit - I'm hoping that the first impression is a good one. However, we are finally done with fixing up the outside of the house and you won't believe the large amount of stones we found under the previous layer of mulch. I think I could put the local quarry out of business! Our other large project has been the full bath, which has given us many surprises! Just last night we had a bit of excitement when the cold water valve sprung a leak and water gushed forth soaking the ceiling, walls, and the subflooring. Of course this had to happen around 11:30 p.m., so it was a late night for us! The bathroom still needs new flooring and we need to put some things away, but other than that we should be in pretty good shape!

First time

Perhaps you remember the line from Forrest Gump when he explains how he met Jenny and he's talking about not remembering some things he did for the first time like his first outdoor picnic, etc., but does remember the first time he heard Jenny's voice. Well James and I will certainly the last month as it was our first time buying a house! We bought an old (1915) house in our hometown and have spent the past 2+ weeks fixing it up (to make it liveable) and will be spending the next couple of years continuing that process. We still have quite a few things to work on this summer, but at least there is new paint on the walls, the kitchen cabinets are almost finished, the carpets have been cleaned, and the overgrown bushes have been pulled out and the trees have been "tamed." However, we have MUCH to do yet this summer including the following...
- Finish putting away our belongings (this may take the remainder of the summer)
- Fix a couple of minor electrical issues/install ceiling fans upstairs (no central air)
- Finish removing wallpaper from the upstairs hall and extra bedroom
- Finish the bathroom renovation and have a cabinet/linen closet built for it
- Install new flooring in the kitchen/pantry/bathroom
- Clean up the flower garden areas, plant some perennials, prep next year's garden/compost areas
- Find/make and install window coverings for the main floor and part of the upstairs
- And the list goes on!

We're having fun and so far we haven't had too many major issues pop up. We can't wait to show off what we've accomplished thus far! We'll have pictures for the next post - perhaps some before and after!