Week after a Holiday

Hey everyone! A quick recap from last week. Monday was a holiday which means no school.  Yes I did enjoy it!  It was a very relaxing day, complete with pizza and movie night at Pastor and Jens. 

Tuesday I went into school not really knowing how much time I was going to have to teach.  I know this seems odd, but I really had no clue if we were going to have assembly or swimming and tennis.  Assembly normally happens on Mondays and since we didn’t have school on Monday, I wasn’t sure if we would still have it.  As for swimming and tennis, there were 2 different calendars out and we didn’t know the official start date.  I got to school and found out that both assembly and extracurricular were both happening.  Here is where I remember to be really flexible and just go with it.  I think that this is something I am definitely getting better at.  In the end I only made it through one of my two lessons I was supposed to teach for the day, but it’s okay.  It’ll all get done eventually!

Tuesday after school Jen took us to the beach to swim again.  I love going for an hour or so.  I swam for a bit and then enjoyed floating in the cool water with a bottle of Ting in hand.  Ting is basically grapefruit pop that is similar to Sprite.  It was a nice relaxing afternoon and later on that night Abby and I headed over to Pastor’s for sticky group.  While at sticky group, Abby and I tried the Crix challenge.  What’s the Crix challenge?  Well let me tell you! Crix is a cracker (almost like a Saltine).  The Crix challenge is when you have 1 minute to eat 5 Crix crackers.  Let me tell you, it is not an easy task and both Abby and I failed.  The video is at the bottom of my blog. 

Wednesday was a long day.  After school I had a staff workshop that I attended about Sequence of Reading in the Montessori method of teaching. While some of the information was interesting to hear about, the meeting just felt long after a full day of school.  The meeting ended around 5.  I was hoping to get back home and eat, but the house was locked as Abby and Tanya had run to the store.  Again my day was long and everything put together just made me crabby.  After eating and showering I spent the rest of the night in my room.  Thursday was going to be a better day and it was!

Thursday morning and woke up revived and ready to concur the day, the only downside was the rain.  It rained all day long which means all the students are stuck inside the classrooms.  A nice storm rolled through, but even the rain couldn’t put me down.  Thursday we had a fruit taste test day and all my students brought in a lot of fruit.  I spent a good hour cutting it up, but it was so worth it!  I got to taste fruits like apples, pears, and grapes which I have not had since being home.  Apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, etc. are all pretty expensive here which means Abby, Tanya, and I avoid them at the store.  I will be looking forward to eating these fruits when I get back to the states!

Friday was also a good day at school.  This week was teacher’s appreciation week so some of my students brought me in gifts.  While this was definitely not necessary, it definitely made me feel appreciated.  A picture of all the things I got is below. 

Saturday was a lazy day.  I spent most of the day relaxing with the exception of the walk to the Supermarket and the bus stop.  Abby, Tanya and I ventured to the movie theater to watch The Martian.  When we arrived 4 minutes before the show was supposed to start, the lady taking tickets told us that our theater wasn’t ready yet.  Only in St. Lucia! Surprisingly I really enjoyed the movie, although part of that may have been the air conditioning we were able to sit in.  Well worth the $7 we paid for!  I think we have mastered the bus system here.  It is really simple and we no longer stress about telling the bust drivers to stop.  Having simple and cheap public transportation makes it easy not to have a car here. 

Yesterday Abby and I taught our first day of Sunday School.  I had a good group of 8 that stayed for the story of the Wise Men.  While I normally will be having Laurie help me, Jen was able to step in and help out with the craft project.  I am teaching preschool to grade 1 which is quite the age span when teaching a group of children.  Abby and I also had our first people sign up for piano!  We are very excited to begin lessons in November.  Even though we have both never taught before, I think it will be a great way to help the church out while we are here. 

When we got home we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving.  As some of you know my roommate Tanya is from Canada.  While not quite the normal Thanksgiving meal, we made burgers and had guacamole, it was quite good and we all enjoyed it!  Later on we went over to Jen and Tom’s.  Ian, their 13 year old son, requested no pizza so they grilled for us!  It was a delicious meal and a great way to end our weekend!

Fruit Taste Test Day!

So much fruit.

Teacher Appreciation week

Not many people will see a cow next to their movie theater.

Our Thanksgiving meal. 

Thanksgiving number 2! Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! :) 

Crix Challenge

My students preparing for Jounen Kweyol 

This week I am looking forward to La Maurgarite on Friday.  It is a flower festival and celebrates Creole heritage.  It will be fun to see all my students dressed up in their special costumes as well as hear them sing and watch the “parade” that they will be involved in.  More to come on that in my next blog. 

Enjoy your week!