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