Exciting Things

1. Sarah and Weston are coming to Guatemala in 12 days! We will go to school, play at the beach, explore the lake, and see a bit of Antigua before we fly home to Seattle together. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

2. I have about a month and a half left until I need to tell my school if I am coming back next year or if I'm moving on to another country or state... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

3. I will be in Seattle in 23 days and I will be there for about 25 days. Its the longest consecutive days I've spent at home in almost 4 years. YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!

4. My students have performed surprisingly well on their MAP (Measure of Academic Progress) tests this year and though they have taken 3 of the 4 tests and still have math left, they are currently the leaders of third grade in all subjects. HOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAY!

5. Inter currently has made 1,500 bottle bricks and we are hoping to double that number in the upcoming weeks as students turn in bottles as assignments, make them at "Family Day," and turn in the ones they have made at home. The pride I have for this school right now as they step up and reach this goal is overwhelming. The fact that in a few months this large pile of garbage that is strewn across my classroom will be part of the walls of a learning environment doesn't actually feel real yet but I know my kids are ready. SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGH!

6. I have officially purchased tickets to Boston, MA in April to watch my mom and sister run in the Boston Marathon. Conveniently enough, my best friend from high school, an old teammate from KU, maybe my best friend from college, perhaps my cousin in West Virginia, and possibly my whole immediate family will be there also. Pretty darn perfect, I must say. YYAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOO!

7. Guatemala got a new president elected with little to no violent protests. Its hard to say if this president has any potential to bring anything positive to the country or even to the city as many Guatemalans spoke of choosing the "better of two evils" when voting this year, but I guess the reason number 7 falls under "exciting things" is because the violent protests we were expecting did not come. Yeah, that's about it. MMMMEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHH?

8. I got to see an old friend from my KU athletics life, Alyssa, two weeks ago as we met at volcanic heated pools to catch up while she circles the glode with an organization called The World Race. She will be visiting 11 countries in 11 months through a Christian Ministry-- how cool is that? It was absolutely a dream to catch up with her and made my heart smile when I thought about all the places in the world you can reunite with someone. GGGOOOOOOOOOO ALYSSA!

9. The Interamericano Drama Club is well on its way with the production of our play, "The Smurfs." We hope to have the script that we are writing from scratch (OY!) finished within the next few weeks so kids can practice their lines over the long winter break. LALALALAAAAALALAAAAAAA!

10. My students' new favorite song in 3B is "I Want a Hippopotomus for Christmas," their favorite book is Roald Dahl's "The Witches," their favorite subject is science, and basically everything we do in class gets them all getty with excitement. Basically, we're having a lot of fun at school which is really what its all about :) HEHEHEHEEHEHE!

Alright, there's your update. Sorry I'm so lame this year. I'm about to go somewhere brand new next weekend and I'm probably going by myself so maybe a riveting blog entry is in store for next week.