Motivation

December has made a graceful entrance into my life. I've known for the past month and a half or so that my job at Birch Grove would be finished once Christmas rolled around, and that left a very unsettling feeling in my stomach, especially in a time and area where jobs are so scarce, and when we already keep the house somewhere are half a degree above freezing (Ok, I may be exaggerating slightly there. But I'm still trying to get used to the 66ish range when the wind is howling outside and my nose looks like Rudolph is a cousin of mine. You'd think I'd be lining myself with some extra body fat right now, but in fact, my body has decided to do the exact opposite and shed virtually all extra padding it ever had. I don't complain too loudly about that though. :o) Well,  December rolled around and the preschool teacher put her notice in--she got a job that's more in her field of environmental education. That meant that one afternoon, just after I had gone home for the day, I got a phone call offering me the position. It's nearly full-time work, with Friday's off, and between one and seven children on a given day. The pay won't exactly leave me snacking on bon-bons while I lounge around in my roasty-toasty house, but it certainly leaves Neal and I in a much better spot than we would otherwise be in.

So now I have a direction to head in and a place in which to invest myself. And until January rolls around and I officially start, I have and get to continue pouring myself into our upcoming Music Program--December in Our Town. Panic time initially set in with the coming of the month, but the last week and a half my kids have really been putting some energy in, and we're getting excited to see this undertaking pulling itself together, hemming those ragged edges and turning out to be something quite lovely indeed. I certainly bit off more than I intended to--a fashion that is not uncommon for me--making this production probably larger than any in the past, but I don't usually like to do things half-way, and this is no exception. I'm really excited to see the final product, though.  I'll try and take some pictures and get them posted at some point. Check back in February??? March???   : )

Besides school, my grandpa and I just had a birthday on the 7th. It was a really good birthday. Neal worked hard to get the annual Bluefin employee Christmas party to be hosted on that particular Tuesday, so we had an excuse to get a little dressed up and go out to a Fiesta! Free Mexican food, free drinks, karaoke, a free, beautiful three-bedroom unit, plus presents, champagne and cheesecake for me. I got to take Wednesday off work, so we took full advantage of sleeping in and not leaving the unit until 1:00 the next afternoon. Add in the many email, voicemail, text message, and facebook messages and it equals a really nice day.

Sunday school has also been good this month. We're doing a short, three week series on the book The Five Love Languages, which Neal and I both really like and have benefited from in our marriage. I'm really glad Neal and I invested the time in reading some good books before we got married, and it's nice to be able to teach on a topic we're both familiar with and that we both like so well. If you've never read it, I highly recommend it--it's an easy read and well worth it.

Lastly, we got our first Christmas tree up this week and have started decorating it. I love our blue and white snowflake lights, and the blue lights Neal put out on the deck. It's so nice to be back where I can have a white Christmas again, and to be able to look forward to it and spend it with people I love. I'm also excited to be able to put some really great presents under the tree. Hurray for an awesome, and first-ever, Black Friday shopping experience (go to Rhinlander!!! We spent Thanksgiving at Neal's parent's house, and after seeing his brother glancing through the adds, I got interested. Neal then offered to get up and chauffeur me around for the day. What a husband! We had such a good day that we were back in Eagle River for a 1:00 movie, and we didn't even leave his parent's house until 7:45 ish!)   (In all fairness, Neal did get about $80 of Wisconsin cheese out of the deal, as well as some really good tea, which isn't a bad deal at all... in my opinion)

Well, I'm going to finally leave the school and go home to my sick husband. Hope everyone is enjoying or at least making the best of the snow they got. In anticipation and enjoyment of the next few weeks, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Brushing Off The Dust

In case you hadn't figured it out, I haven't posted for a while. My internet time is very limited. Blah. Mostly, I've lost a lot of motivation lately, for more things than just posting.

Being a one-car family is hard, especially in Tofte. In some ways, it's a great place to have only one vehicle--Neal's main place of employment and my secondary one is a few blocks down the hill, a five minute walk if you're slow. And my job at the school is only a mile away--easily bikeable or walkable if absolutely necessary. The market in and gas station are both half a mile away at most. However, that pretty much covers everything within 30 miles worth going to. Yep. Tofte is about a mile long, and I think that's pushing it. I'm starting to get a little stir crazy. I'm thankful for the half an hour drive to church every week. If it weren't for that, we'd be real boxed in right now.

My job at the school just got downsized as well. They had to cut my position due to the budget, but two of the other part time teachers are giving up some of their hours to me so I can still have a job. I'll certainly stick around through the Christmas Program (I refuse to call it a "Holiday Program" on my blog) for Music, but it looks as though another position--which I am currently sharing--will also get downsized or cut by Christmas. So, I need to get back into the market for a new or other job. It's the slow season at Bluefin, too, which means 1-2 shifts a week and getting sent home early or told not to come in at all. Blah.

On that note, I'm going to sign off for now, but hopefully update again before too long. I'm going to go try and get to the post office/accomplish a few more things before maybe having to work tonight at 6:00.

Bye.

Saying Goodbye to September

Well, I'm about to head out the door to go take the last series of tests to get my Minnesota Teaching License. Unfortunately for me, the state changed their standards and testing company at the beginning of the month, which means that the tests I'd previously taken for my PA license that used to overlap... they're no good now. So, this afternoon--8-9 hours of tests and a few hundred dollars later--I'll be done with the last set. I'm praying I pass. I definitely felt less good about taking these tests than when I took my PA tests before. I just didn't have any time to study, and I wasn't as prepared as I thought I would be. Bummer.

On to better things though. Neal and I have the house to ourselves now!!! It's fantastic! He just scheduled us off for five nights at the Grille (which mean about 10 for me with my schedule) so we could re-open all of our wedding presents and actually move into our house. The kitchen is finally functional (and beautiful, in my opinion), and the living room and dining room are doing pretty well also. The guest bedroom on the otherhand... well... Guess where all of Nikki's things went when they came down from her parent's house? Yep. You guessed it. Thankfully I have at least gone through every box now, and all that's left is figuring out where everything that's left goes. That and organizing the activity room (which requires the guest bedroom being a little more ship-shape) are the two big things left for us. It's really starting to feel like home, and that's great.


In other news, school is going pretty well. I think I'm mostly getting Music figured out, and teaching Math and Reading has been going pretty well. I feel like there's never enough time, but I suppose that's always been my problem. And we had our first frost last Sunday morning, which meant Neal and I spent the afternoon picking apples from a tree we've been checking every week for a month or so. It also meant that rosehips were ready to be picked as well, so we've gathered a few of those also.

Lastly, our adult Sunday School class has been going for a few weeks now. I like the group of people a lot, and I think it will be really fun to see how things progress over the winter. Neal and I invited everyone over this coming Sunday, so we'll see how many make the trek down here to Tofte.

Well, time to go.

Settling In and Starting Up

It feels good to be getting settled into a home and a lifestyle. Complete moving in and unpacking won't be done for a few more weeks yet, when the house guests leave, but it's nice to go home every night and know where I'm sleeping and who I'm sleeping next to. :o)

I've been serving at the Bluefin for a few weeks now, and so far so good. A few expected bumps along the way, but the people I work with are a pretty fun group, and I enjoy my job so far. I also started my new job at Birch Grove last week. I'll be working as the grades 2/3 paraprofessional, which basically means I'm a part time teacher in the morning to help with Math and Reading. I'll also be helping out with the Morning Meeting a few days a week, and recess duties, but that's about the extent of it. The other part of my job there will be teaching Music to grades K-5. Good grief, who thought I was qualified for that? Well, my hope is that they'll learning something, and have a good time. If I accomplish that, I'll be happy.

In other news, Pastor Dave from the church Neal and I attend has asked us to lead an adult Bible study through the upcoming year (meaning the school year, more or less). We'll be heading up the 20-35 ish category. Neal and I are both pretty interested to see how it goes. Any prayer for us is more than appreciated!

I think that's it for now. I'm outside, it's getting to be evening, and my hands are cold. Plus, I still have some research to do for planning my first week of Music!

~Nikki

Wedding Pics

I tried chaning my "Latest Pictures" to be the wedding album I put up last night, but blogger will have none of that right now. So, in the meantime, you can still click on "Latest Pictures" and look around my Picasa site until you find the wedding pics, or there should be a link with this post that will take you right to the wedding folder.

Cheers.



EDIT: Ha ha! Finally, success. The "Latest Pictures" have been changed. : )

A Post From the Mrs.

Somewhere between wrapping up my teaching and planning responsibilities, the last-minute packing, the rental car return expedition, saying good-bye to friends, the 24 hour trip home, the jet-lag recovery, the pile of pre-wedding phone calls and arrangements, picking up the dress, picking up the flowers, putting the flowers together, seeing people for those few precious hours, getting married, trying to move, picking up and cleaning out a camper, packing for honeymoon, the 6,000 mile/4 week honeymoon with two weddings and four visits to friends, getting home again to try and move a few more things, starting job #1 at the Bluefin Bay Grille, getting hired for job #2 as a para-professional and (of all things) the Music teacher at Birch Grove Elementary School here in Tofte, changing my name on enough documents that I've lost track, preparing to teach an adult Sunday School class, trying to wrap up wedding and honeymoon payments, finding a little time on the side to just spend with my husband, and battling a sever lack in internet........ somewhere in all of that, my blog fell by the wayside. It didn't disappear, but it did take an extended vacation. Just in case you missed that fact. : )

For now, I will probably keep this post short and suffice it to say that I have been extremely blessed in the past few months, more than words can really express. I had friends and family, and even friends of my friends and family, pitch in and help out with the wedding in ways that I didn't expect, but which left my life much easier and richer for their help. Leslie came up a week early, bringing all the goods to make the beautiful favors we had, which we would not have had save for the hours that she, Kati and Kara spent putting them all together. They all also did a great job putting together their bridesmaid bouquets, as well as all of the boutonnieres and corsages. Brother Aaron was my go-to man on a number of random but necessary things, while brother-in-law Aaron spent a large chunk of time chaperoning the adorable ring-bearers. The former roommates were real troopers as well. All of them (plus Rachel's husband, Bryn, and 9 ish month old little girl, Noemi) flew in to either the Cities or Duluth on Friday night, then flew out again Sunday morning. I'm pretty thankful that the Martins (Rachel and co) were on a trip home from their current residence in Switzerland.

Mom and Dad were never far either, of course. Nor were a host of other people. But I suppose that's just for me to be thankful for and not necessarily to post here.

In the meantime, here are just a couple of pictures from the photographer. I'll have my later that my Aunt Beth graciously took, as well as some from our honeymoon (after I get them edited and resized).

Thanks for stopping back, and I promise to post again sooner than two months from now.

~Nikki

The Final Countdown

You would think that since I've stopped tutoring that I would have a lot more time to post. Well, I do... And I've used it for other things. : )

The last few weeks have been really great. I stopped tutoring about two, two and a half weeks ago. It has been a lovely two weeks. I've stayed over at a friend's place a few times, gone out with people just to hang out on a Thursday (my Friday) night, I've done more reading, I've started packing (YAY!!!), and I've been going to the beach. Ahhh... the beach.

The beach is a funny place to go. Now, granted, I could probably save myself some hassle, but I'm too lazy. I've been trying to go about three afternoons a week for maybe an hour and a half or so. There is a beach not too far away that a lot more Westernish (or just liberalish) people frequent, but it's a beach park. Great place to go if you want to spend the day or have a nice little BBQ near the water. However, if you're only going to go for an hour and a half, it's far too much time and effort to go, park, pay, and then trek all the way in to the beach. Mind you , it's probably under a 10 minute walk. But why would I do that when I can practically park at the edge of the sand and just walk down to the water? Well, there are reasons I suppose, which I've chosen to ignore Unfortunately, those reasons don't return the favor. Apparently there is just something about a woman in a swimsuit, I think a white woman in particular, that men here find absolutely magnetic. It's like flies to a bug zapper (can anyone picture the scene I'm thinking of from A Bug's Life?). Let me give you one example. I usually try and find a spot that's a good 50 yards away from anyone else, which fortunately isn't too hard to do. Today, I note a couple of men who walked down to the shore and invaded that nice 50 yard barrier I had, but they were still a good 40 ish yards away. No big deal. I keep a cover-up handy (I seriously hate being gawked at), and I conveniently moved my big beach bag so that the view of me was blocked as soon as I laid down. Well, wouldn't you know it? The one man felt like going for a jog. Thus, he began jogging my direction. Sadly for him, he was not in good shape. In fact, he happened to start slowing down after he got about 35 yards. Another five yards past me I ceased hearing footsteps. Poor man was apparently too winded to go another step. What else could he do but stop and stare at me while he waited for his friend to slowly walk down as well? After I glared at him, he decided he could swim while he waited for his friend, who showed up less than a minute and a half later. The two exchanged a few words, then got out of the water and walked back to where they came from. Thus my first (though not last) encounter for the afternoon. [large full-body shudder and flailing of the hands as I shake off the creepy-man feeling]

Happily for me, my afternoons forays have been paying off. My skin is starting to look a little less "undead" (can you tell who watched Twilight last night?). The whole glow-in-the-dark white look just isn't so nice in pictures, unless you happen to be a geisha.

In other news, things at school have been going well. Teaching is officially finished, though we've been doing this summer-camp ish thing called Funtasia for the past week and a half. I get to do the music "destination". The kids are supposed to write a song on the day before I see them, then come to me and my cooperating teacher to perform the song. Well, it hasn't quite been working like that, but we've been having fun. I think our smallest group was our four kids today, and the largest was eight on the first day. It's only two hours in the morning while grades 4 and 5 have exams, so it's working out pretty well. Makes the days go quickly, and I get to use my (now extremely limited) piano skills again. Mary Had a Little Lamb is a piece of cake, but trying to do If You're Happy And You Know It with two hands while listening/directing the kids was a bit more of a challenge. : )

Now is when I take a moment for a bit of a backward glance. I'm down to seven working days of school, one more Friday for church, and a grand total of nine days until I head to the airport. Last week two of the teachers in Grade Two who live together, and who have been here the longest, decided to host an end of the year dinner at their place last week. Well, it took me a second, but when I finally processed the camera flashing in my face as I walked in the door and people shouting "Surprise!", I realized that it wasn't just a dinner for friends, it was a going away dinner/wedding shower for me. I was seriously awed and humbled. We really turned out to have a great team of people in Grade Two this year, and I met a few other mutual friends who turned out to be pretty nice too. In all of that, however, I never, ever expected people to take a night out of their lives to honor me. One of the other teachers even made a point of really thanking me for my hard work this year and telling me how much she wished I was coming back next year. I've heard that sentiment echoed several times since. Besides immensely humbled, I'm left with a feeling of gratitude, being enormously blessed, and a reminder that people watch even when you don't think you do. My faith is on display every moment of every day. I even just had a conversation with a teacher from another grade, whom I basically never see, and who is of a different set of beliefs. She told me that she had seen something in me and wondered what it was. She was quite shocked, as well as really encouraged, to hear that there are Americans/Chris ...ns who live a life different than the ones she has seen in movies and in the people she has met. It was a very nice conversation.

This coming Friday I know I'm going to expend more than a few tears. After church, my good friend Michelle (not flatmate Michelle) and Mrs. Cousino--who along with her family has really taken me in as one of their own, are hosting another farewell get-together for me with our good friends from church. The past two months or so I've really made a point of being around and being involved. I started going to Friday Foundations (since we can't have Sunday School), making a point of spending lunch with people, and trying to attend a few other functions. In some ways, I regret that it took me so long to do so. I realize that there were circumstances that made such things difficult or impossible for a lot of my time here, but even in the short time I've invested myself, I have also been greatly invested in. I have come to appreciate my brothers and sisters here so much--their sincere kindness and earnestness in pursuing a life of holiness; I will miss them dearly. It's been hard to say hello and goodbye in the same breath, but it's been worth it. Twenty months ago, as I prepared to embark on this journey, my mom and I had a conversation about whether or not I'd be able to find a church here. In all honesty, I wasn't too concerned. Personal devotions would get me by just fine. Only for a short period was I ever really involved in a church. I certainly wasn't expecting to plant myself in a healthy, thriving body here, of all places. I was coming here to earn money to pay off my student loans so I could go on to do the "greater works" planned for me. This was just a job--a two year waiting space. Certainly God did not have some work planned for me here...     Oh what a big God he is when we let him out of the little tiny boxes our minds confine him to. As I look back, I realize that we are always both preparing for and in the middle of those "greater works" if we would be look around to see what they are. It's not just a job. It's not just college. It's not just a summer spent somewhere. It's not just a temporary whatever.   It   is   your   life.   And you only get one to live in the service of the Him who gave it to you. Apart from the many other lessons I learned here, that is what I hope to take away with me.  Live intentionally. Always. We never know when the sand is going to run out of the hourglass.

~ Nikki

Still Here

No, my blog has not been closed down, as someone recently asked me. Life just keeps me going at full tilt. I'm going to mention here that I've quite the week of rental car company issues, but I'm really only doing so because I've temporarily stopped journaling, and someday I might be interested to remember exactly when this fiasco took place. We'll just say that one week and + or - 6 points on my license later, I hope it's sorted. We'll find out tomorrow.

Two and a half weeks of kids left. That's 13 days. The end is in sight (though I will miss some of them. It's true.)

~Nikki

Repeat.

My life doesn't slow down for more than a few hours. I'd like to say that I'm not complaining, but I'm not sure how this post could be construed as anything else.

My morning starts around 6:15 or 6:30 if the neighbors upstairs aren't too loud. Then I'm at school by 7:15. We were teaching until 2:20 all year, then we went to 2:30 for about two weeks, and now we're down to 1:15 because of the heat. You might think lucky me, but fitting seven periods and two breaks with a meeting or break duty 4/5 days leaves you feeling like you've spent the day sprinting. After that I do work in my classroom. I try and run home for about 20 minutes to get a quick bite to eat. Then I'm out the door by 4:20 to go tutor for an hour and a half on the other side of Dubai, which puts me home at about 7:45. I also just had a second tutoring job fall into my lap, which I was going to turn down, but it's on the way to my first one, and it's great pay for only two hours a week. So on Sundays and Tuesdays I leave by 3:00 to go tutor a local girl who's in Grade 1 at the Jumeriah branch of my school (there are four or five branches in the UAE).

After I get home I try and find food, and talk to Neal. Other than that, it's some combination of saying hello to my flatmate, talking to other people, maybe possibly but probably not doing laundry (that's seriously a once or twice a month event. If it's not dirty and it doesn't stink...), general apartment clean up, email, wedding stuff, reading and getting ready for bed.

Friday mornings (the first day of my weekend) I try and get out the door by 8:45, though it's usually 9:00 (which means taking the fast route with tolls instead of the longer free route) to head to church, which is, again, on the other side of Dubai. Between Friday Foundations (aka Sunday School), the service, trying to spend a little bit of time people over lunch after, and grocery shopping, I get home again anywhere between 3:00 at the earliest and 9:00 at the latest.

Saturday I sleep as late as I can (which my body hasn't been doing well lately. bummer), then I clean up the disaster than is my room, a little, do a few hours of school work, run errands that I need to, clean, and try and relax a little if there's time.  Which brings me back to Sunday. There's just no reset or redo button for another month or so. It's not the worst thing in the world by any means. The weeks are seriously flying by, and I am immensely blessed financially. It just doesn't leave much time for anything but the bare essentials.

Eat. Work.  Sleep. Praise God. Repeat... We'll see when I get around to the next post.




(Only 7 weeks until I go home!)

More Pictures, Finally

I finally took a few minutes to pick out and resize a few pictures to post. You can get a brief sampling here. I'll put the rest on Picasa. Check the slideshow link on the side to get there. Enjoy.

 The Colosseum, of course.  

A fountain outside St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City.

 

Mom and I at the Trevi Fountain in Rome.

 

El Duomo in Siena.

Siena.

 

  Siena again.

PS. Dad, if there are any really spectacular ones on my memory card that you think I should share (colosseum maybe, or Pisa?) , could you resize them and send them to me? Thanks and love you. : )

...

Wow. I'm not sure if it's sad or excused how addicted I am to the internet. But I became acutely aware of my condition when I didn't have it. Access was limited on vacation (partly due to sharing my computer, which is fine, but a factor), and then I got back to Dubai to find that I again couldn't get online.

The first thing I found out when I got back was that I had a different car when I left. Michelle was really nice and was going to get the servicing taken care of while I was gone--meaning she would call the car place to pick it up for an oil change and AC repair, then just have them drop it off again before I got back. I would have done so myself, but I couldn't get online before I left, which meant I couldn't get their number. Anyway, she called, they came, but instead of picking my car up and dropping it off again, they just gave me a different. They didn't increase my rates to the current ones, the car is a lighter color, and everything works (except that this one is far past due for an oil change, while my last one actually would have been a bit early. Ironic, no?) Anyway, that was the first thing to greet me, followed by needing to get the battery replaced on Monday because it wouldn't start in the morning for school. It's been fine since, alhamdulillah.

No internet was the second thing I encountered. Michelle's computer was still working, and the computer guy had come by again and changed settings on the network. Now, roommate Rachel's husband, Bryn, had volunteered to look at my computer while I was in Switzerland (oh gosh, I need to finish posting about my trip. Kind of like posting about while Neal was here...) to hopefully fix a few of my crashing issues, and I wasn't sure if he had accidentally altered something necessary. Instead of the old error message I'd gotten before I left, the network just kept timing out or saying that it wouldn't connect. So I fiddled, I fidgeted, and compared every internet and network detail between my computer and Michelle's computer that I could possibly figure out to compare. Finally I restarted it one time and poof! Internet again! That lasted for less than a day I think. The connection went, which meant I had to turn the router off and back on again, after which settings and reset themselves and neither Michelle nor I could get on (except for my ipod. weird.) Aaaaalllllll that is to say that it is now April 22, and I have been without regular internet access for a while. Guess whose phone card bill increased dramatically this month? :o)

Um, other things work mentioning... The rest of Italy was incredible. We saw Rome--you must go see the Colosseum and the Sistine Chapel if you ever get the chance. They're amazing. Florence and Michaelangelo's statues were really neat. David was wonderful--much bigger than most people realize, and there were a number of other unfinished statues as well that were particularly striking because they were statues of slaves, and since they were unfinished, they looked like people struggling to free themselves from marble prisons. Unfortunately lots of art places don't let you take pictures. Sad day.

We went to Siena. Good Lord, I'm glad we all survived, and mostly laughing at that. Learn what roadsigns mean before you travel in a foreign country. And don't run over money boxes on the sidewalk. That's all I have to say about that for now.

Pisa was fun. I would have gone up into the leaning tower, unfortunately the wait was just too long. Oh well. I got to see it. I'm happy.

The end of my trip was in Lausanne, Switzerland, current residence of roommate Rachel, husband Bryn and adorable 6 month old daughter Noemi Martin. My family was awesome and headed back a day early, so I actually got to stay over and the Martin B&B. It was so, so nice. I haven't seen Rachel since her wedding day more than a year and a half ago. Needless to say we had a bit of catching up to do. And her daughter was pretty special. I definitely volunteered to cart her around--got me a baby snuggling fix.

The first two weeks back have been fine. I've been sick this week--not fun. It started last Saturday with massive amounts of sneezing and the tap in my nose getting left in the ON position. I haven't had a sneezing cold since I don't know when. From there it moved into my throat, finally settling in nice and comfy into my ears. My poor kids had to deal with cranky, slightly deaf and off-balance Miss Nicole this week. I tried to be good about it though. Honest, I did.

Tutoring with Aryslan has been good as well, though another tutoring job just fell into my lap as well. I'm feeling pretty uncertain about it though. It's only two hours a week, it's with a local family (which I think is pretty interesting for a variety of reasons), it's before and on the way to my other tutoring, and it pays nearly $50 an hour, which I would like to put toward something in particular. But it's possible it could make me crazy. If the school day gets shortened by an hour like the school is considering, then I might keep it. If not, and even if so, I might pass it off to Michelle, who is really looking for some extra income. I need to pray about it, that's for sure.

There's lots more I could write, but for now, I'm going to work on getting more pictures on my computer, and posted online somewhere. Don't ask my how, because it's the last thing I did with it, but I managed to not get all of my pictures onto my computer before giving my memory card to my mother (who was taking it home to show my dad). So, those ones will have to be seen some other day.

In the mean time, thanks for stopping by again. I'll try not to go another... three weeks in between posts again.

Vacation!

So, my mother just mentioned to me that I have not said anything in recent posts about what I'm doing for vacation. Well, I imagine the reason is probably because I was just too busy to really be excited about it myself, but this post is coming to you from Florence, Italy! :oD At about 1:00 am Friday morning I flew out of Dubai, headed to Geneva, Switzerland where I met my mom, Aunt Vick and cousin Heather. My flight got in around 9:00 am local time, and from there we took off in the rental car for Venice. Venice was beautiful!  But first we had to drive through the Alps,which was an experience. Absolutely gorgeous, but there was a tunnel that you had to pay to go through, and it was poorly managed. When we saw a sign that said 2km = 60 minutes, we suddenly got less excited about the idea of driving through a looooong mountain tunnel. Anyway, the drive there was nice.

When we got to Venice, it was getting around the twilight hours, so the lighting was stunning. Our little hotel was amazing, and getting to spend a day just wandering all of the little tiny winding passages, crossing bridges and watching the boats and gondolas go by on the canals was fantastic. I loved it.

We're on our way out the door now, so I'll just post a few more pictures, but I hope you enjoy. More updates soon.

Gearing Up

The last week and a half has been pretty good. Aryslan left at the perfect time, which meant I was able to get report cards done without too much stress. First I had to put all of the numbers together, which wasn't too bad this time around. Then I had to go through and do all of the hand written stuff, which means putting tick marks in about 50 different categories, then writing the paragraph of comments for each child on the back. I got the handwritten stuff done in about three days, save for a few exceptions here and there (like the IT or gym teacher forgetting to sign one). Anyway, that was report cards, and enough about that.

There were a few small hiccups along the way, as is to be expected. One involved me waking up to a small tickling feeling running down my arm. After brushing it away, I decided it would be prudent of me to make sure it wasn't the kind that might come back. After turning on the light, my fear was confirmed. My fist was the last thing that went through that cockroach's mind. *shudder*

Then my internet quit working on Thursday night when I desperately needed it. I was trying to get checked in at the airport, figure out what what to pack etc. A computer guy came a little more than a week ago because my flatmate Michelle hasn't had internet since she moved in, so he came and fixed that, but it changed something for my internet as well. It took him about 30 seconds to get mine working again, but when I had to turn the router off and on again on Thursday, suddenly neither Michelle or I had internet again, and the computer guy never showed (after our MANY phone calls) to fix it.

While all of the internet stuff was going on, I quickly had to run to the mall to exchange money, then I had to get back to school to leave things set up for the substitutes on Sunday (I won't be back until Monday). I would have done everything after school, except someone was supposed to come fix our air conditioning (which isn't working, and temps are up in the 90's now. He never came.) I had a feeling that the school might be closed up by the time I got back, so I left my window open slightly. Sure enough, the school was dark and closed up when I returned, so through my window, onto my desk, and feeling my way across the dark room I went. I got all of my stuff finished though, which I felt really good about.

So, none of that is really too exciting for anyone else to read about, but that what what happened between my last post and now. And now, now, I am on my vacation. :oD That, however, will come in my next post.

Blessed

I am weak, I am poor. I am broken, Lord, but I'm yours. 

Little things make my life happy. The field trip I wrote about in my last post, lo those many days ago, was fantastic. It was the best thing I have ever seen for kids anywhere. It literally was a small town where kids got to go in a work, earn money, spend their money. They could be pilots is an airplane, they could go work for the police, I watched some of them stocking shelves (absolutely hilarious if you were me looking at the two boys I had last year) at a grocery store and working the cash register, some performed liver surgery, some were in the nursery at a hospital, some did a fashion show, and some were in a play. I saw resumes and fire fighters and kids in ambulances. And I sat at Dunkin Donuts chatting with teachers and doing some marking. It was amazing.

Watching some sporty little car nearly run me off the road and then immediately get pulled over by someone in a massive arrest-me-red GMC truck (I honestly don't know why the car pulled over) was also amazing. Seeing the terrible and seriously inconsiderate drivers here get a little justice also makes me happy.

Last week I had the privilege of making microwave popcorn with Aryslan--the little boy I tutor. He'd never had fresh microwave popcorn before. When I asked him if he had even had popcorn before, he said, "Yes in the cinema in the Kazakhstan. The green one." Not exactly sure what flavor it would have been, but it was really fun to make popcorn with him.

As of tonight, Aryslan and his family are off to Kazakhstan for the next few weeks, which means almost three weeks of no tutoring for me. : ) I'm very excited about that. I enjoy it, but it's a big time commitment. And, now not only do I have my normal tutoring time open, but school is ending a hour early until break. Hurray for that. Although, I do have to say, tutoring has one of my most obvious blessings lately. For various reasons, there were a few weeks when I only tutored fours days instead of five. However, come Thursday, five days worth of pay was handed over, despite me pointing out I'd only come for four days. And then there was tonight. Not only is tonight only day three of five, but I was asked if I could stay for only an hour instead of an hour and a half (since they are flying out tonight). Of course that was no problem for me, until Elmira (Aryslan's mother) handed me my pay. Guess how much she paid me? Yes, five days worth of work. Despite my protests, the brand-new-never-been-folded American dollar bills were placed very purposefully into my purse, and that was the end of that.

Did I mention that traffic has been really good lately as well? That's been a big whack in the face for me. There was a week when it was awful, right after we got all of the rain. It was never really good before that, but my normal hour drive took over three the one night. Gross. Anyway, I of course vented all of this upon my ever-patient fiance, who said he would pray about that for me. And I thought, "That's sweet and all, but I don't think God is suddenly going to clear up rush-hour traffic just for me." And then who got home nearly 20 minutes early the next day. Oh. Uh, I guess that would be me... *sigh* Oh me of little faith. I've been able to take the short route home ever since, which cuts off at least 15 minutes. I like that extra 15 minutes. A lot.

Church has been good lately too. I've been attending the "Friday Foundations" class (no Sunday School here) called "Money, Possessions and Eternity" based on a book by author Randy Alcorn. It's been insightful. Not everything I was hoping for a more, but solid. Here are two big points that I've pulled away from it.

• "Lack of vision, not greed, is probably the main reason most of us accumulate and spend in this world instead of laying up treasure in heaven." Alan Gotthardt - Eternity Portfolio 
• Why not be as generous with others as you are luxurious with yourself?

 I'm sure there is more that I could say, but I think that will about do it for now. It's report card time, which means another week of crazy-business, but such is life. I have 29 students in my class now--they've temporarily broken up the class of the grade 2 teacher who left. I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but my kids have had a transformation this week. The past two weeks were terrible, but I put them in new seating arrangements, painted little x's on the floor where the desks need to stay (it is amazing how much and how quickly they can move those things all over the place), and have been drilling into their heads that there are 29 of them and only one of me. My one mouth cannot be louder than their 29 mouths all talking at the same time. I think they're taking it to heart. That makes my heart happy. Anyway, all of that is to say that I am blessed. Blessed, and thankful for it.

And in case you were wondering, no I'm (1.5 + 1 + 9 + 2) not counting down the weeks until I'll be home. I'm trying very hard to keep my head here while I'm here, and just take everything one day at a time.

That's it from me for now. Thanks for taking a few minutes to read. : )

Saturday, Sunday, Someday

Round two of parent-teacher conferences are finished--hurray! I really wish I would have had more to give to parents, but I just don't have grades ready yet. It seems that we are always running from one thing to the next, and so few things are structed for grades. Which is to say, that if everything has to be uniform between six classes, then everything should be uniform between six classes, including how we grade things. And very few things are graded. So, it's the end of the term scramble to get things together. Blech. Seven year old kids shouldn't be getting A, B, C grades and percentages out of 100. They should be marked according to skills.

Anyway, tomorrow we're going on a trip, which I hear translates into time off for us teachers. We're taking our students to Kidzania, which is like a little town for little people, and no teachers allowed! We just have to sit outside and watch other people look after our students. Darn.

Have I mentioned lately that I'm excited to go home? Three weeks until break (which I'll be spending in Italy!), nine more weeks of kids, and then only TWO weeks until I go HOME!!!!

Well, I'm on the phone, so I'm signing off here.

A Note from Work

I know, it's been a bit since I posted. What can I say? Life keeps me busy. Except this past weekend. I went to church on Friday morning, came home, and basically took the rest of the weekend off (keep in mind that my weekend is Friday-Saturday). It was great. I read, I rested, I relaxed, and I did some research. And lots of thinking. That was about it. It was really nice. Except I think it made me realize how busy I stay for the most part. I usually don't have time for that kind of stuff. I get up somewhere around 6:00 and don't stop until I get home somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 at night. Then I need to make food, try and clean up a bit (both the apartment and myself), get things ready for school, then I talk to people at home, do a little reading, and get ready to call it a night. Somehow that longed-for bedtime of 10:00 ish just doesn't come often enough. Anyway, that's not the point of this story.

So, I took the weekend off. It was great. You'd think that I'd be all ready to start Sunday on a positive note. Quite the opposite happened instead. I was so sad and lonely that as I stood in the moring assembly, I felt like my heart was literally going to fall out of my chest. I go the time to actually stop and think about home and, well let's be honest--Neal, and it was such a contrast to the way things currently are for me. I just wanted to sit down and cry. I wanted to call it quits and go home.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy working with my kids and I really appreciate the extra money from tutoring. The little boy, Aryslan, that I tutor is a really great kid to work with, too. If I'm going to be here for the next five months, I'd rather be more busy than less. But lately Admin has been extremely frustrating at school. A teacher walked out last Sunday, so it's been lots of extra substitutions, a schedule that keeps changing, extra work and stress for all of us, plus major activities going on at school, and now we have to come in all day on Saturday for parent-teacher conferences. I don't have grades done yet! What am I going to tell parents? Any why does the school feel the need to have me here from 9:00 in the morning until 4:30 in the afternoon, plus I have to be here the next day for school, and we have a field trip. It's just exhausting. And my weary state is starting to come out on my kids, which is not fun or fair. I feel bad, but I just gave them busy work most of yesterday so I could keep my sanity and start doing some grades.

Ok, enough of me complaining. I'm feeling better today, and I am determined that I will be strong and courageous as I have been commanded.

Time to go teach.

Something Must Be Done

Item #1 - Cockroaches.
Oh yes, the vicisous little buggers have found their way into my aparment. I spotted the first one just before I left on break. It was in the main hallway, midway between the entrance, kitchen, and my bedroom/bathroom. I hoped it was just a fluke. Upon returning from break, I found one in my bathroom, which I promptly killed. The next day, I opened up one of the cupboard doors and saw something moving out of the corner of my eye. By the time "cockroack. enemy. kill." had registered in my brain and my shoe was in my hand to follow through, the culprit had scurried into the little indent that was made for the hinge to close into (the hinges are hidden on the inside of the door and use the same idea as the hinges on the top of a lot of public doors). I opened the door all the way, which forces the hinge to open into that little divit. Unfortunately, the hinge didn't actually meet with the cupboard door, so the little thing was spared. I closed the door a bit again, forcing the hinge to open back up, and the bug climbed actually into the cupboard door--there is an indent in the door for the hinge to open into, and then a hole that goes in the door where the hinge is anchored to the door. That hole is where the cockroach squeezed himself. I opened the door as wide as it would go again, and heard a small satisfying crunch. Not that I really want a little cockroach corpse trapped inside my pantry door, but I'm pretty sure he won't be crawling back out of his hole.

So, all of that to say that my floors got a thorough washing with much clean-smelling stuff. I also poured all the extra disinfected water down the drain in my bathroom, just in case any thought about coming up from there. Unfortunately, right after doing all of this, I saw two more little ones out in the building hallway. I think they might have been a different kind, but I guess it doesn't matter. A cockroach is a cockroach.

Item #2. Lenten Lentils
The Lenten season is upon us, and while I am not Catholic, I still choose to observe the season. I enjoy the extra excuse to focus on orienting my heart in the direction it needs to go. Part of this year's observance has been to eat, by and large, vegetarian again. Ramen and other pasta have gotten a bit old, and I really enjoy a lot of the ethnic foods found here. So, this past week I've been working on some Indian dishes. Tonight I made a lentil, or "dal", creation that is decent (lentils in general are dal. Each has a different name, like moong dal, masoor dal, chana dal etc. I think dal might mean bean, just like we have black beans, lima beans, navy beans etc. I'll have to check on that.). It's nothing special, but I have good bread to eat it with, so that will help. I think I need to take pictures of more of this stuff--it's just hard to describe adequately. On top of my dal I'm working on a chickpea dish. I made the "sauce" part tonight, but the beans need to soak a while, so I'll finish that tomorrow. I tried once before and it turned out pretty well. I'm thinking this time will only be an improvement. We'll see how it goes. Oh! And tonight I also make some really good mini loaves of banana-bran bread. Yum.

Item #3. Tea
I have been positively unable to find chai tea here. You can buy this ready made Lipton Chai Latte stuff that is really good, but I'm just not such a fan of all the extra junk that has to be put into those powdered drink-in-a-pouch deals. And when I was home, I made my own chai tea latte that was really good. So I wanted to do the same thing here. But I have struggled to find chai tea anywhere, which seems terribly strange to me seeing as I thought it was a pretty Indian drink. Well, two nights ago I saw a fancy looking tin that said Chai Tea on the outside. And it was like $10. But I thought, well, if I'm going to drink it for a long time and enjoy it, why not. Better than coffee. So, I got it. Then I got home, was all excited for a nice cup of tea, boiled the water, got out the mug and tea strainer, opened up my new tin of lovely tea, only to discover that it was just black tea. Nothing more or less, just black tea. GAH! So I said fine! I will look up and see what is in chai tea! And then it all dawned on me. Chai tea isn't sold here because any proper Indian person makes their own at home! Well! If they can do it, so could I! And do it I did. I made some lovely tea this evening (which must properly be made with milk, and takes a good 15-20 minutes to make), and made a bunch of extra that I put in the freezer for future occassions (that massive batch took over an hour. Good grief--I won't do it that way again). Anyway, it was really delicious.

Item #4. Most Important
Another think that I am doing for Lent, which will probably continue after, is to cut pop radio out of my life. I spend at least an hour and a half in the car every day, during which time I need something to listen to. Lately, it's been sermons by Paul Washer. Man... Think your spiritual life needs a kick in the pants? Look him up on sermonaudio.com. Think your spiritual life is doing pretty well and that you aren't due for a good kick in the pants? Oh trust me, look him up on sermonaudio.com. The man is fantastic--so grounded in scripture and speaking truths that we all desperately need to hear. Paul Washer. sermonaudio.com. Go. It is worth the hour of your life, I promise.

Anyway, over the past week and a half or so I have had it drilled into my head that God is willing to do whatever it takes to conform us to the image of his son. Or, as the good Pastor Dave put it--He is willing to sacrifice my happiness for my holiness, my Crst-likeness. Mr. Washer also talks a good deal about what it means to love our neighbor, and the danger of asking the Father to make us like the Son, which is to say that every reason--or condition that we require another to meet in order to love that person--is stripped away, and then we are required to love that person unconditionally. Washer often puts this specifically in the context of marriage, but it is of course applicable to life in general. After hearing about this for a while, seeing changes in my thinking patterns and how I react in stressful situations, how my prayers are changing, feeling ready to bring this attitude into marriage, I start to think, "Ok. I can do this. This lesson is being learned. Well done. Let's keep it up." And then God said, "Good. I'm glad you think so. Now let's see you prove it." Monday I got a message saying that I was getting a new flatmate. It will be one of two people who are currently living together, who are being separated because they have inreconcilable differences. One of these people, and I don't mean this rudely, more than likely has some mental unstabilities, exacerbated by her poor choices in lifestyle (which transfer into her cleanliness habits around the flat!). The other possibility is someone with whom I have personal issues from past events. Guess I'm going to see how well I've learned my lesson.

Let us be careful when we think we are standing firm, and perhaps even more so when we know we are not. The opposite of growth is not standing still, but going backwards. To continue forwards, something must always be done. May it be God's will.

A While

Sorry it's been so long since the last post. It seems I go on break and never have any time to get online, which I guess is ok with me. My trip home was good, and busy. I arrived around midnight Friday, had a wedding shower at my grandparents' on Saturday, dropped Leslie off in Green Bay then drove to Duluth on Sunday, met Neal and ran some errands, then made it home Monday night where my grandmother was waiting. Visited with Grandma and the Jenster, tried to run wedding errands, and got sick on Tuesday. Said goodbye to Grandma and went to the doctor on Wednesday. Stayed at home being sick all day Thusday. Friday I went down to Duluth with Mom, Jen and my friend and bridesmaid Kati to try and find bridesmaid dresses, which we thankfully did. I went to Neal's to wait for his parents to arrive on Saturday (they came in the early afternoon), after which we went up and had dinner at Sven and Ole's in Grand Marais (the "famous" local pizza place. Neal had made a cake since it was his mom's birthday, we had a few presents, and then Neal's sister had actually emailed the restaraunt with a picture of his parents so when the cashiers saw Steve and Linda, they could charge Neal's sister for part of the bill. It was pretty fun.) Sunday morning was church, then Neal's parents came up to my parents' house for the afternoon. I went back south to Tofte with them in the evening (where I was sickish, again). Monday was the day Neal decided he was keeping me, so we did some wedding stuff together and just hung out at his place. Tuesday it was back up to my family's house with more wedding errands (who would have thought it was so hard to get in touch with a florist?), meeting up with Kati, then dinner at our pastor's house in the evening. Wednesday I met with a few friends from around town, finished up the last of the weddingish stuff, then packed up. Thursday we drove down to Duluth and had lunch with Jonathon and Amanda, went to Barnes and Noble (where I got a much needed new journal), then it was time for me to fly back.

The adjustment to the timezone wasn't too terrible in either direction. My first week back has been fine as well. The kids are ready for Science Day, we had Thursday off for Feria (which is like a carnival Thursday and Friday night, so I had to go in for a few hours yesterday), and this coming week Wednesday is basically a free day for Science Day, and Thursday is Sports Day. On top of that, tutoring is going well enough, and I have another break coming up in about six weeks. The rest of my time here is definitely divided into weeks. There are too many days, and months seem too big and go by too slowly. Weeks, on the other hand, seem to pass at just about the right speed. So it's about six weeks until break, then nine more weeks of kids, then three weeks of post-school year stuff, and then it will be July 1st! I'm trying hard to still be plugged in here and doing what it is that God would have me do--I had a really great day yesterday and connected with some people from ch rich, which I'm going to try and do more often--but the countdown has definitely begun in my mind.

Sally forth and tally ho!

The Countdown

In less than 24 hours, I will be on a plane once again, heading for the good ol' north woods. Well, mostly. Grand Rapids, MI is close enough. I'll get off there around 11:30 pm where my Aunt Laurie will be kind enough to pick me up. Then Saturday morning we'll head to my grandparents' house in Wheeler/Alma where I get to be the guest of honor at a bridal shower. Hurray for that! With the quick departure after my engagement and the quick wedding after my return, I really wasn't expecting anything of the sort, so that should be fun. After that, it'll be homeward bound.

This past week has gone well enough. My class had their Morning Assembly today. We did a little skit about recycling, and it was pretty good. Better than I thought it would be. Yesterday I drove out the go tutor, and found out that Aryslan was sick. Around 8:00 pm I figured out that my phone had quit working, at which point I turned it off and back on again, only to see several missed phone calls and a text message informing me that he was sick and I shouldn't come. Great. Well, anyway, it was a decent enough day.

Other than morning assembly, we have Science Day coming up. One of those things where it is a first for our school, and the HOD wants fireworks. And I mean that almost literally. Granted, we had about 5 days to plan for it, and planning included me coming up with experiments for every Grade 2 class. But, I finally found some cool ones, and I think it should be ok.

Now I just need to go tutor tonight (and get paid!), then pack, and head out in the morning. Life is good. Hopefully I'll get to see at least a few of you before too long!

Until I'm Stateside,
~Nikki

There and Back Again

This is not a hobit's tale, just in case there was any confusion. Now that we have that out of the way, on to the rest of the story.

So I've been tutoring for a week now. That means that five days a week, I am now driving out to the Palm Jumeriah and back. It's a bit of a haul--at least 40 kilometers one way. I mean, hey, it's kind of cool to be tutoring on the palm. But between the drive time and the hour and a half of tutoring, it's a big time committment. At least Aryslan--the boy that I tutor, who is an almost-seven-year old from Kazakhstan--is really fun to work with. He is amazingly smart. For that, and for the extra income, I am thankful.

My othere there and back again story has to do with Spinney's, which is a grocery store that I frequent. I was in a few days ago, getting a new slew of vegetables and such, and there was this reeeeeeeeally good smell coming from the bakery at the back. Something fresh out of the oven and chocolaty. Salivation anyone? Well, I was good, and I resisted the temptation. I was on a mission for vegetables, and I didn't need the extra goodies lying around. So, I got my food, went to the check out and paid for everything, and then headed out to my car. And that's when I saw the bananas and thought, oh... bananas... I should have gotten some of those... They look really good... Well, between the bananas by the door and the amazing fresh-baked chocolatey goodness smell that just kept getting stronger, I was forced to put my bag in the car and navigate the isles of Spinney's once again. Possibly my favorite part of the whole thing was the woman in the bakery. The conversation went something like this.

"Could you please tell me what that amazing smell is?"
"Cookies maa'am (Philipinos tend to have this way of dragging out the "a" sound a bit, and everyone calls you ma'am)".
"Really? Please could I get some?"
"Certainly maa'am. You want one container? Dhere's ten cookies."
"Yes please. One container would be great (even though I don't necessarily need ten cookies..)"
"Oh maa'am, I'm sorry. The cookies are still warm and soft. You still want?"
Gee, let me think about th.. "YES!!!!!!!" 

It was entertaining to me anyway.

Well, I need to get some work done and the go to bed. Hope you're having a good one.
~Nikki

Reset

*SIGH* I have finally hit the reset button in my apartment. The last of Johani's things that need to go are waiting by the door. The living room is cleaned up. My old bathroom is empty, and my former bedroom has been converted into an empty "guest room" (which  means I need guests???), complete with clean bedding. My new room is completely organized and cleand up, and last but most definitely not least of all, THE FLOORS ARE CLEAN. Swept, mopped--clean. Clean clean clean. And now my shoes live by the front door to be immediately exchanged for a pair of house sandals, which I'm hoping will cut down on the dust and dirt. Shiny tile floors get dirty quickly.

I also am accumulating quite the freezer full of food, and I like it. I just picked up a tutoring job, but it's far away and long hours. Which means I don't expect to be in the mood to cook when I get home. Thus, all I need to do is pull a home-made tv dinner out of the freezer in the morning, then warm it up when I get home. Yesss. : )

On top of all of that, I just had my second evaluation at school, and it was fantastic. I did English centers, which is a brand new thing here, and my HOD loooooooved it, which is really good for me. And really good for my kids. I think they're learning a lot more and a lot better than they were before. That makes me happy.

That's all for now, but as always, more to come.
~Nikki

Stone Soup

The rock hard yams that I cut up the other night got turned into soup today. And may I say that it was quite tasty. So far, I am living up to my resolution to make/eat better food. Along with my yams (which looked and pretty much tasted like potatoes in the soup), I had carrots, potatoes, some broccoli, cauliflower, a little bit of onion, mushrooms, and then some frozen mixed veggies, which meant adding some green beans and peas. The one disappointing part of the meal was that the beef was a bit tough, which may have been because the low setting on my burner wasn't as low as I would have liked, so it boiled too high too fast (everything was frozen when I tossed it in the water), or it could be the quality of the meat. Not sure since it's the first time I've eaten it. But in the end, it was a very enjoyable meal, and will be again at least two more times, seeing as that's how many containers I put in the freezer. I'm getting a little bit excited now about making and freezing food that tates good, and might even be good for me. Coupled with my current lifestyle of single living, I'm really enjoying life right now. I've even gotten recent compliments from both my Head of Department, and my vice principal. My vice principal went so far the other day as to ask me what she could do to make me stay another year! It's nice to finally feel that my hard work is paying off.

To close, here is a picture of my soup. It tasted better than it looks in this photo, but that's ok.

Nikki - 1, Yam - 0

I'm working on being more domestic. Or perhaps just eating better--call it what you will. But I just spent a good chunk of my evening washing and cutting and bagging  up some vegetables to put in the freezer. I haven't really cooked in quite a while, and it's getting ridiculous. I'm usually just so tired when I get home that I don't put in the effort. So, hopfully having a good chunk of the work done already will motivate me to make food that is good for me. The last vegetable that I cut up,  however, was a locally grown yam. Oh - my - word. It was the most ridiculously hard vegetable that I have ever tried to cut into. I'm talking put your weight behind it kind of hard. I realize that I don't have the world's best or sharpest knives, but this was a little bit amazing. Anyway, I prevailed in the end--it is sliced and diced and in the freezer. And that's my story about a yam.

It's been an interesting week at school. The grade 2 teachers had a bit of a blow up during our weekly meeting, which was mostly patched over, but which resulted in another meeting where we all had to promise to try and be "one hand" (I'm guessing it's an Arabic saying, because she used it a lot), by which she meant work as a team and leave your personal issues outside of school. Fine by me.

Nothing else exciting going on. I'm still enjoying living by myself, which, not be be redundant but, makes me happy. I've been getting to know another teacher from school, and she seems pretty level headed and decent. I think she'll be a nice person to hang out with on occasion. She and her flatmate (who works in the KG section) are friends that came over together from Ireland. Marie (who is the grade 2 teacher) and Mairead (sounds like Marie-id); I like them.

I'm going to keep this one fairly short since Neal just called. More to come. :o)

~Nikki

Once in a Blue Moon

I will eventually finish telling you about Neal's trip here--at least the highlights, but right now I feel compelled to comment on other things.

Last night was New Year's Eve. That makes today a new year, and a new decade. 2010. How strange. Last night was also a blue moon, which my father informs me means that it was the second full moon in a month. I got to see it rising at dusk and setting near dawn, both times looking amazingly close and gorgeous. My fiance informs me it was particularly neat because a blue moon happens on New Year's Eve once every 19 years.

On top of all of that, last night was when I said goodbye to Johani as she packed her bags for the last time and flew home to South Africa. We stayed up until 5:00 when I had to take her to the airport (thus me getting to see the moon rising and setting). She checked her bag, then we went and got some food at the deserted Burger King. It was a bittersweet goodbye, as most tend to be. I'm happy for her and the fact that she's getting to go home to study and be happy again. I'm sad that I had to let go of my one friend--the only person I knew I could trust at school, and who I knew was looking out for me.

And now I'm largely curious as well. I woke up this morning (ok,  more like this afternoon. I didn't go to bed until 7:00am), for the first time in my life, in an empty apartment--in an apartment with me as its only occupant. I have to say, that excites me. I'm sure there will be plenty of moments of lonliness and me wishing there was someone next door to go talk to, or to walk to the store with me, but as I went grocery shopping tonight, knowing that I would be the only person eating the food that I bought, and that I would be the only one dirtying the dishes from now on, I was excited. I'm excited to know what it's like to live by myself for a little while.

So now load of laundry #5 is in the washer, and I'm slowly getting both my old room and my new room (the now vacant master suite, that has a countertop in the bathroom!!!!) back into livable condition. I'm getting sheets washed, duvets cleaned up, cupboards swept out, bathtubs de-soap-scummed and toilets scrubbed. Floors are getting swept, dishes have gotten done, and the fridge got cleaned out as well. The place is slowly getting transformed until it feels like home again.

I can't speak for the rest of you, but for me at least, 2010 promises to be a year of many firsts, as well as lasts. My heart has been stagnant over the past months, and I think it's starting to pump with some life again. I hope so.

A late Merry Christmas to one and all, and a very happy and blessed new year.

God's peace,
~Nikki