My 33rd Birthday

I am continuing the tradition that I started on my 30^th birthday. I am celebrating each birthday in my 30’s someplace new. My 30^th was Malaysia, 31^st-Singapore, 32^nd-Indonesia and now my 33^rd-Arizona.

Cards from students 

It turned out to be a much better birthday than I thought. I have only lived in Arizona for a month and don’t really know many people. Since it was weekday I knew there probably wouldn’t be much to do, and I ended up with a horrible cold that Monday.

Never dying flowers

It started off with the staff meeting. At the end of the staff meeting the whole staff surprised me and sang Happy Birthday to me. I brought treats for everyone that worked at the school. My students were very excited and said Happy Birthday to me about every other minute throughout the day. Made me wonder if this is what it will be like to have my own children, where they are super excited about my birthday. Each class sang Happy Birthday to me. Some of the students made cards for me. One girl brought me a never dying bouquet of flowers. I also got two deliveries from my parents. One was a bouquet of purple and pink flowers. The other was a box of gifts. I brought cookies for all of my students.

From Mom and Dad

I was going to eat at a restaurant for dinner but by the time I left school at 5p.m. the restaurants that I wanted to go to were already packed. I don’t have a problem eating alone in a restaurant but since I still had a cold, I decided just to spend a quiet evening at my place, so I ended up getting Quiznos. I read Sophie’s Heart, which I got for my 17^th birthday from my maternal grandma, and I read every year on my birthday. Then, I was going to watch the Princess Bride, but my brother called and we ended up talking for hours.  We hadn’t talked since Christmas and still haven’t seen each other since I have come back from overseas. So, it has been almost four years since we last saw each other. Other people called while I was on the phone with my brother and left message. Needless to say, I felt very loved even though I was not around my family and friends for my birthday. Celebrating three birthdays overseas by myself made it easy though to celebrate another birthday by myself.

Camping Trip with year 10

On October 15th we left a little after 8am to go to Karanggongso beach. On the way there it started pouring rain. We stopped not far from the camp site and had lunch at a restaurant where the seating was on the floor. When we got to the mountain it was still pouring rain. It was hard to go over the mountain on the narrow roads in our big bus. When we got to the beach it was not raining. They had already brought our bags down and so it was easy to get them to our tents. I have a tent to myself as all of the teachers had their own tent. The tents are very close together. Well my mattress was one I had to blow up. It is not very wide or very thick. About the time it was time for bed I got a horrible stomach ache. I got sick several times. We only have 3 toilets at the site so I had to wait my turn. One of the teachers gave me 3 different medicines but each time I vomited. Finally finished and decided to lay down. I think it was from the tempeh. It was the second time I have gotten sick from it, so I think I am no longer going to eat it. My tent sloped so I kept sliding down because the sleeping bag and mattress were out of slick materials. The mosquito stuff I bought did not work well so I got 2 bites on my ankle. It started pouring rain about midnight. My tent didn't close all the way so I had a puddle in the bottom and it dripped a in the middle on me. My pillow got wet. The students started running around since their tents were also leaking. About 3a.m. they were finally allowed to sleep in the main tents so that we could get some sleep. We had to get up at 5:30a.m. the next morning.

Since I was sick the first night then the next morning I opted out of the trekking. They had to go through water to climb some steep rocks to get to the trail. I just hung out and wrote. I bought a notebook as I did not think I would have time to read and did not bring a book. After lunch I was with the group building sandcastles first and then going to learn about fish netting. Then I came back and watched the other group build castles and swim. After that I supervised dinner. After dinner they had fun and games. They were supposed to have a night walk, but the ocean rose so the waves came all the way up and flooded some tents. We had to postpone the night walk so that they could move those tents.



Then in the middle of the night it started pouring and my tent leaked even worse. So I woke up. I wanted to shower and put on dry clothes but the shower was not open. The cooking tent had huge puddles and water on everything. So we had to do all the cooking on the teacher's cook stove. The water rose again and got close to the two big tents. I was cold, wet, had a headache and my eyes hurt. They made tempeh again so I just had rice. The morning activity was sailing & first aid so I stayed behind. The afternoon was paintball & sea tubbing. I did sea tubbing & had lots of fun.  That night we did the rescheduled night walk. The teachers were spread out along the path so that we could make sure the students kept to the path and for those students that were scared it was a comfort to them. I have gotten so many mozzie bites even with repellent I hope I do not get dengue.

I finally slept well last night. This morning the students got up and did aerobics. They were supposed to take turns leading but most just stood there. Today is community & service. We left late. They should have skipped aerobics and started cooking since we are limited on toilets and showers. We only have 4 toilets. The number of showers is ok. The students used too much water so they shut it off for awhile to teach them a lesson. The rest of the time the toilets were locked and only one could be open at night. In order to use it the keys have to be tracked down and sometimes there is a long wait if there is someone using it. We had to make several trips in the two trucks that were available to us.  When we arrived at the school some students screamed when they saw me while others giggled. I went with my group and sat at the back of the room. They presented in Indonesian since it was a local school. After we got done we went back for lunch. After lunch they taught the students to smoke fish and then did team building activities. In the evening the students got ready for their team dance performances for the camp fire. When it was time for the camp fire it started sprinkling, so we went into the main tent and the students got more time to practice. They shut all the flaps so it got really hot in there with everyone inside. Eventually it quit so we were able to go back out and do the camp fire dance and ceremony. The students were, of course, all excited, so it took them a long time to settle down after we finished up. The next morning we got up early and got ready and finished packing. The students had to go around and pick up all the trash. After that was a closing ceremony and then we left. On the way back we just stopped and picked up lunch boxes and kept going. It took us longer to get back than to get there. We were all ready to be back and ready for our own houses and everything that comes with them.

Forensics Trip AKA Speech & Debate

The week before last February 8-12 I traveled with a group of 6 students to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to participate in the S.E.A. (South East Asia) Forensics tournament. Now in the US we call Forensics Speech & Debate. Forensics is what the police use to figure out the who committed a crime.
I was stepping in for the Coach as she had a baby 2 months ago and since only one teacher could go with such a small group it didn't really work for her to go. It was an interesting trip.

International School of Kuala Lumpur

We left on Wednesday about 9:30. Two of the girls with with their Mom's on a different bus. One of the girls went with her Mom on the same bus as me and 3 students I was chaperoning. We stopped for our break about halfway and then after we got started back up the air con wasn't working well. When we got a little ways down the road we stopped at another rest stop and some of the people got off the bus to change buses. We weren't sure what was going on since none of us speak Malay. We got off the bus and went to grab our luggage and the driver was yelling at us in Malay and motioning us to leave our bags there, but we didn't know how we would get them back. Finally we got on a different bus and made it to the correct bus stop. We arrived in KL and checked in at the Flamingo. One of the female students shared a room with me as she didn't want to stay with a host family and the other girls were staying with their Moms. First, they couldn't find the reservation of the coach and I didn't have her passport. When we finally got a room it was a double bed. So, I had to go back down and request two single beds. We got put in another room that wasn't that great. The toilet looked gross and had issues flushing. The sheets weren't that great either & the air con didn't work well. The shower leaked all over the toilet and floor. Anyway after we got checked in then we walked to ISKL to get the boys dropped off to meet their host family. I was told it would be easy to cross at the lights but it was not. I think I lost a year off my life every time I had to cross that street as it was so stressful. We got the boys dropped off and then the one student I was watching out for and I went to dinner at KLCC. We had subway. I had a meeting that I was supposed to attend at 7p.m. and I figured leaving at 6:45 would give us enough time. It took us over an hour to get back to the hotel. I couldn't go straight to the school because I realized I had left the scripts in the room, so as not to lose them. The taxi driver didn't get over 20kmh even when there was plenty of space to do so. He had a horrible hacking cold and his eyes where all bloodshot. It cost us about RM50.00 to get to the hotel. I ran inside and left the student in our room, grabbed the scripts and went to the meeting. It was over by the time I got there. I went to submit the scripts and the cover sheet hadn't been completely filled out so then I was trying to call the coach and the students but didn't have their numbers yet and she wasn't answering. I got them in with 30 seconds to spare. After that I went to the judges' meeting and learned about how to do the judging as I had to do that since I was the only teacher from our school. After that I walked back to the hotel in the dark.

The next day, Thursday, I got up and we went to the opening ceremony. We were going to get a cab and the guy was late. When he did show up then he would not let the 5 of us females all take one cab, so I got out and walked again, almost getting run over. I made it to school just before the opening ceremony started. After the opening ceremony the students went to the gym and I went to the part of the cafeteria I was told the coaches would hang out at. No one was around. Finally, I went into the Multipurpose Room 1 where there was supposed to be food, but it was almost gone. I hung out in there all day and read. Every once in awhile another coach or judge would come in for more coffee. I was a standby judge for 1:45 but was not needed. After we got done for the day the one student and I went to KLCC again, as I had bought two DVDs from this shop and they were the wrong zone.  I had bought some DVDs from that shop in July when I was there and they were zone 1 which works on my laptop. I didn't check the zones as I thought they would be zone 1 again in the section I got them from. Well, the manager wasn't nice to me (I talked to her on the phone) and called me a liar saying I didn't get the zone 1 DVDs from that store. I still have the DVDs and receipts but they weren't with me because I didn't know it was going to be a problem. I told her I didn't know why I would them come back and give her more business if I had not been happy in the first place. That would make no sense. I told her it wouldn't make sense to spend my money with the store and then not have DVDs that I could play. Anyway I got tired of her being nasty to me and thanked her and hung up. Her solution was I could exchange them for other DVDs from the store (that obviously wouldn't work). After that fiasco we walked to Pavilion Mall. I stopped at Ms. Read and bought some new tops that fit me. Then we went to TGIFriday's for dinner.

On Friday, I woke up and I had a nasty cold from the stress. Luckily one of the Dad's had come and so he drove us to school. We only had to walk back to the hotel. Since I was with the students I couldn't leave and go get myself throat lozenges or anything.  I had two sessions I had to judge in the morning and then I hoped that I would be done, but I ended up judging two semifinal sessions in the afternoon. It was ok though. My nose ran like crazy, but not much I could do about that. Two of our students made it to the semifinals. After we got done for the day we went back to KLCC and went to Chili's for a Forensic's dinner. One of the students had already gone back with her Mom since she didn't make it to semifinals but the rest were there. I thought it would be nice if I treated them to a team dinner. After that I wanted to call it an early night since I had to be up and to the school early to judge finals.

Speaker at Awards ceremony

On Saturday I judged the finals. They were all in the theater and the theater and tons of students there. Some of the lines were hard to hear if the students were clapping or laughing but we did our best. After the finals then there was a small break and then the closing ceremony with awards.  The student who was staying with me left with her parents after that. They decided to come get her early instead of her coming back with us on the bus on Sunday. So, they drove all the way there and picked her up and then turned around and drove all the way back. It didn't matter much to me as long as she fulfilled all her obligations, which she did.  The other two female students left with their parents too, but they didn't stay for the awards ceremony. Their parents didn't see any point since they hadn't won. I feel differently about that. So then one of our former students had come to judge that day but they didn't need him. He wanted to hang out with the guys. I had to tag along as chaperone. So we went to KLCC again and we went to a movie. They wanted to go to a gaming place but none were close and they didn't know what I would do while they were doing that. We all like going to the movies though. After that we went back to our respective places.

The next morning, Sunday, the host Dad picked me up at the hotel and then dropped us off at ISKL, but there was no one there. So, he ended up taking us to the bus station. The plan was to leave ISKL an hour early  in case of trafffic (I didn't want to miss the bus) and he had picked me up half an hour before that. So, we ended up being to the bus station about an hour and forty minutes early. We just hung out there until it was time to go. We made it back with no problems. It took longer than normal as we were at the stop much longer than the 20 minutes and then we stopped for gas. They resold the seat of the student who went back early with her parents, and the bus was completely full. Her brother or relative sat in the spare seat on the stairs. After one of student's Mom gave me a ride back to where I stay I took a nap and just rested so that I would be ready for school the next day.

Career Day 2011

We had career day again today. I like career day, so that students can listen and talk to people from various careers that they might be interested in. This year when had someone from Nursing, Chemical Engineering, Monash Universtiy, Taylor's University, Social Media, Architecture, and Design Media. I was super excited this year because my brother spoke to my students. Not only did he speak, he did his presentation via Skype. This was a huge step for our school. There is resistance to technology being used. I think that it can be a good thing and ever since I went to the Learning 2.011 Teacher's Conference I have been trying to incoporate it more. Last week my 8th grade students skyped with a couple students from a school in Melbourne, Australia. Anyway, getting back to career day, this year has been very crazy, busy, stressful. We didn't get as early of a start on getting people for today. Many of the people we asked were busy today. I kept thinking that I would like to ask my Mom, who is a Graduate Gemologist, or my brother who is a Design Media person to speak. Of course, they are in America and that is not an easy thing to do. Finally I brought it up to the Director of Studies that I thought my brother would be great, and I thought maybe we could do it via Skype. At first, he was worried about technology not working. I assured him that I would have a back up plan if it didn't work. He finally decided that yes, we should give it a try. After that I had to call my brother to ask him if he was available, and to work out a few of the details with the time difference. We then, e-mailed this week about what he wanted on his biodata sheet for his introduction, some websites he wanted to share, and a couple brochures. We did a practice Skype session earlier in the week to make sure that we could project him up on the wall and that we could hear him. It worked pretty well. Today came and I was super excited but also nervous about the technology working. I wanted it to work, so that it was successful and we could do this again, and do other things in the future with technology and skype. I was also picture taker for the yearbook, as the school camera doesn't really work and no one else remembers to bring theirs. The speaker before my brother ran late, since the bus driver had been late so we didn't get things set up as early as I had hoped. We set up two laptops with two projectors. We had one for projecting my brother onto the wall. The other we set up to show the brochures and websites. Luckily we were able to rent another projector as we had only two and that wasn't enough. Also, two of the other speakers at the same time as my brother brought their own laptop and projectors, so that helped. It would not have worked as well with one laptop and projector.  I also brought my laptop and Ipad as the screen for projecting things is kind of in the corner and I wasn't sure how well students could see it and my brother. I placed the laptop and Ipad in front of two different groups so they also had it close in front of them.

The first group was the high school. It worked pretty well. There were a few times he cut out on the audio, so I had to ask him to repeat himself. They had a couple questions for him. We also ran over since we started late, so he had to cut his presentation short. The second group was the middle school. That presentation was great. There were no glitches or cut outs at all. We could hear him really well. They were really excited. My brother also did better on his presentation since he had run through it once already. It was smoother in transitions, but both were excellent. One student couldn't believe that my brother was actually live and talking to them. They wanted to know what time it was there. One of my students want to ask him about some of the things I had told them about from when we were younger to see if they were true. My brother told them that yes, those things were true. At the end one of the students presented my brother with his Thank you gift/token of appreciation. That is my favorite picture that I took of my student holding the gift up to the computer screen and my brother reaching his hands out like he is grabbing it. The students were like how is he going to get it. I told them that when I saw our Dad over Christmas since our Mom and my brother can't come that I will send it back with our Dad. Some of the younger boys were jealous at some of the perks that my brother told them about for his job. Most of the students were excited that he likes their football (soccer) teams. I can tell this is something they are going to talk about for a long time. They were talking about how exciting it was and that the students who didn't go had missed out. This is probably something that will end up in the yearbook too. I am going to have the students blog about it next week, hopefully.

At the end of the day the Director of Studies thought that it went really well and he is glad that we tried it. He would like to know why it cut out a few times the first session but maybe it was because of the rush of setting up and trying to open the websites on the other computer. The second time they were already open so there was no need for them to load. We don't have a super great connection if more than one person is on the internet at the same time. He thinks that this is something that can be done next year and perhaps we can do skype for other things. I told him that I would like to see if I could set up skype sessions with authors to help get our students more excited about reading. He thought that would be a good idea. I am very glad that most of our people were in person, but I think that if there is a career where there isn't really a representation in our town that doing Skype can be a good thing. I hope that we do continue to incorporate things like this into what we do, as it is a great world out there with lots of resources and people. In today's society we have the ability to connect with people from all over that can help expand our knowledge, so we should take advantage of it.

Skype

I am so excited. I have been connecting with other teachers through twitter and trying to connect to other schools through blogs. We are add skype to that. Last week on Friday, November 25th my 8th grade English class skyped with a couple students from a Jewish school in Melbourne, Australia. We did it with my Ipad as I ended up not bringing my laptop to school that day and it was kind of a mix up trying to get it coordinated, but it worked. We weren't quite prepared because I had thought that my 6/7th grade English class was going to skype, but they had to change the time. Anyway my 8th graders were excited. We talked about football (soccer), what it was like to live in Malaysia for those who are not from Malaysia since we are an International School and many of our students come from other countries. We talked about the weather. They asked us about our major religions and cultures and some celebrations that we participate in. We asked them some questions about Australia. We talked for about 20 minutes. Skype glitched a few times and sometimes they were hard to hear even though I had the volume all the way up. I would like to do it again and think I would bring my laptop next time.

This coming week on Friday (December 2nd) we are doing a career day. One of our guest speakers this year actually lives in the United States. He lives in Oklahoma City and works for the company Funnel Designs group. He works in advertising, marketing, and social media. I am very excited to have him speak to our students. Tomorrow we are going to do a run through to make sure things work. We are going to use the Director of Studies computer and we are going to see if we need to rig up a camera facing the audience. We will do a run through and see if there is anything else that we need to do before Friday. I am so excited to be doing skype. I hope that in the future maybe we can skype with authors to help students continue to get interested in reading.

My Commute

So, there are some people that I met with at the Learning 2.011 Conference that are sharing their commutes to work. I have decided that I would share mine as well. This year my commute is much better than last year. I live in the same spot but I have different transportation. Last year I had to get up at 5:15a.m. to get ready and be waiting for the school bus. Yes, that is right, I rode the school bus. I live about a 20 minute fast walk from school, but since it is so hot and humid here I don't like to walk because then I get to school all sweaty with all the stuff that I carry.

 

Cold water shower at school

 There is a shower at school but I don't want to shower there since I bought a hot water heater and pay extra, for my room I rent, to have it. Plus, there are no sidewalks or cross walks, so walking is a risky business. Even just waiting to cross the street when I go to the grocery store people almost hit me. I will be standing almost in the gutter in the grass, not on the side of the road and people in their crazy driving trying to get around others will come very close to running my toes over or hitting me. Another problem is when it rains it creates huge puddles and some streets flood and I don't want to walk through that (not always possible to walk around) and get dirty and muddy before I get to school. I don't dare ride a bike since my back would be to traffic and again I don't want to get run over.

The School bus

So, anyway last year I rode the bus to school. The people at school liked that I rode because I kept everyone in line and helped out. Towards the end of the school year though the bus driver started coming super late or not at all and sometimes I had to walk to school if I could not find other transportation. I did not enjoy that so this year I found a lady who has a car service that picks me and takes me to and from work. I can also sleep in because since it is only me I don't have to go very far and don't have to get up early like last year when I was first one on the bus. I am not a morning person so it is nice to be able to sleep in some. I leave my room about 7:35ish if I have eaten breakfast after coming back up to grab my bag. I have always been a breakfast person but here it depends. If it is the owner's Mom, who is a very old lady then I eat in the dining room while she eats in the kitchen. She gives me crackers because I don't think she thinks cereal is enough. I am not allowed to cook though, so cereal it is. We can't communicated well because I don't speak Chinese or Malay and she doesn't speak English. If the owner or company is around I grab an apple to take with me since I am supposed to wait until they are gone to eat and I would be late.

First, out the door of my room

Through the front door & gate

My spot where I stand outside gate

Out the door of my room I go and down the steps and through the front sliding door and gate over it. Where I put on my shoes and walk to the end of the driveway and through the other gate. They have gates over every entrance here and bars over all the windows in this town.

New House being built

Back of building where I get my hair cut

Once I am through the second gate I wait until my ride comes to get me. Across the street they are building a new house. To the right is a strip mall (they call them shop lots) where I walk to get my hair done. While it is hard for me to just rent a room with all its limitations and rules, it is convenient since I don't have a car and they don't have public transportation other than cabs which are almost impossible to get a hold of. I am also in walking distance of a restaurant, grocery store, ATM machine, and place to get massages.

Waiting to get out in traffic. In walking distance is grocery store & restaurant I eat at sometimes.

Can either be crazy, busy or only 5 second wait. Gas station has ATM.

Where I stay is not far from the main street. It is a tricky street sometimes I only have to wait 5 seconds to cross and other times 20 minutes. Same with my ride when she pulls out into traffic.

Out in traffic now.

More Shoplots

We always hit it just right so we never have to wait.

Going across the river. Pipes go across here. 

 We cross a river and there are several pipes that go across in metal braces. They break often. Usually it is only for a few hours, but once last year it was for a whole day. I was able to shower because there was still water in the tank where I stay. I also have a large plastic garbage can filled with water just in case. We ran out at school though early in the day and the toilets were gross. We normally walk across to the MPK stalls to eat but we had to bring in food from a place that was not affected.

Going towards down town.

We are turning off to industrial section. This is a local school.

Past another local school.

My school is behind trees. Next to welding shop. Across from a car repair shop & MPK stalls where we get our lunches.

Once we get out into traffic it is just a five minute trip to school. Once at school if the bus driver or Director of Studies has gotten there first then they open the big gate and I don't have to do that.

This is the building where the school I work at is located. We don't have the whole building.

These front three rooms on the bottom left side are three of our classrooms. The upper floor is dorm rooms for a local college.

These 3 rooms are our classrooms.

I go past the three classrooms and around the corner to the back of the school.

Down the walkway past the new portable building that our library is now in. Last year I shared a desk with 3 others teachers and rotated rooms every class. This year I have my own desk now that the library/prayer room is in the portable building and only rotate rooms for some classes.

Library/Prayer Room

Coming around the corner to the back of the school.

The first entrance  on right is the room where my desk is located. There are two more rooms pass my stop- another classroom and the office.

Another classroom- this is where I shared a desk with 3 teachers last year & another teacher had a desk

 This class is also the boys changing room since it is right next to the boy's bathroom. So, I always had to move when it was time for them to change ( not that I wanted to be in there while they were changing.)
 

The office

After signing in at the office I backtrack to my stop.

This is my stop. 

Looking up at the boy's dorm.

My room is passed the girls bathroom, so it used as the girl's changing room for PE. The room at the end of the hall is our computer room.

Can be convenient or noisy since it shares a wall with my room.

This is the room I have this year. I have a curtain over the door for when the room is used as a changing room.

This is the desk I use. I got a new one because I was using student desks but with the increase of students I had to give them up. I also got a new book case so I no longer have to pile all the books, etc on the desk. I like a clean desk. I also got a new to me, old computer for use. We all have our own computers now, so we don't have to try coordinate things like filling out the Report Cards on the server. My one poster from "The Lion King" in Singapore.

That concludes my morning commute. Going home my ride uses a different route.

First Week of School my Second Year in Malaysia

This year I was here before school started so I was able to be present and participate in teacher meetings. We met the last three days of the first week of August. We talked about field trips and our visit this year for our Accreditation. It is a mid-quarter (?) visit. We talked about the activities we were going to have this year. The thing that took up the most time was figuring out our schedule. We are continuing to grow and the new school building has not been started yet. So we still have too many students, and not enough teachers or rooms for all of the classes and big enough to fit all of the students. This year they got a portable building that they put on the side of the school and we moved the library into that, so the old library could be turned into a classroom. We are only licensed for the current rooms as far as teaching and so that is why we didn't make the portable building a classroom. Since I spent many hours organizing the library and putting all our collection on Library Thing the Director of Studies wanted for them to wait until I was around before moving the library. He knew I probably wouldn't be very happy if it got all messed up and I had to start all over again. We did finally settle on a schedule that worked so that everyone had at least one break/planning period a day, so that we all had manageable classes and taught as many classes as possible for all that the students wanted and fit them into the classrooms that we have. On Friday we felt good to go for Monday and felt we accomplished many things.

For me, I felt, the first week went pretty good. This year I found different transportation to school, so that I can sleep in, because I no longer have to wait a long time for the bus or ride the whole route. I get to school early though because with just taking me to school it is a short trip. I like being to school early and having some time to prepare before the students arrive. On Monday I spent the whole day moving the library. I had help from students. I thought it was also a great way to get them to see how the library was organized and why it was organized the way it is, and why they should put books back in the correct spot. It was a very hot and humid day and the portable building did not have air conditioning yet. So, I was dripping sweat almost the whole day. I also did most of the work, not only because I wanted to keep the library organized but it was also fasting month and since I do not participate in Ramadan I was able to drink water and eat while those who are fasting could not. So I mostly had them do light work. We got all but two book cases moved that first day. On Tuesday morning the first two classes of the day we finished moving the library. I also had some books that had been found over the summer that I had some students enter into our Library Thing account. Once we got the books all moved I went through all the books one more time and did some minor adjusting. The rest of the day I taught my normal classes. I had to teach some of my classes in the new library since the old one needed to be cleaned out and had no desks or chairs. On Wednesday I taught my classes again and really had my students get to work. They thought we were going to take it easy for the whole first week and were disappointed that we were actually going to work. The old library got a fresh coat of paint to help it spruce up a bit. On Thursday and Friday it was more getting settled into the new schedule. I taught two classes on Friday in the old library and I thought it was nice. It is a small room, so it is pretty cozy. I still rotate rooms this year, but I am hoping to be able to switch some rooms so that I can rotate less. We have talked that maybe I would move my work area into the old library and then not so many teachers would be in room 5, the room I currently share with two other full time teachers and one part time teacher. I still have to look at the schedule all the time so I know where to go and what class I am teaching. My classes are bigger this year. My 6/7 class is 9 students, 8th-10 students, World History 11 students and 9/10th 20 students. We have some more students on the way. They are working on getting their visas so the classes are going to continue to grow in the next few weeks. I will also have 3 extra English classes but they have not started yet, so those numbers are still to be determined.

Last year when I started it was also Ramadan. It was the very ended of it, so I did not experience much of it. This year I am here for the whole thing. This week on Monday and Wednesday we did food from a Duck Rice place. I had duck rice. On Tuesday we did McDonald's and Thursday, KFC. I knew that they fasted during the day and could not eat or drink, but I did not know that they are not supposed to swallow their saliva. I think that is something that would be very hard to do. It is such an automatic reflex that I would have a hard time remembering not to do that.  Two of my co-workers are pregnant and both are fasting. They don't have to fast now but they have to make it up later, so both of them are opting to fast now. I also think that would be very hard to do. One of them earlier in her pregnancy was hungry all the time, so I cannot imagine how hard it would be for her now.  It is interesting sometimes to see similarities and difference between cultures and religions. In Christianity we are not supposed to talk about our fasting. It is just something between us and God. Here they are very open about it. They ask each other all the time if they are fasting (girls also do not have to fast at their time of the month, but must make it up later). Some of the younger students announce many times a day that they are fasting. I do try not to drink water in front of them but it is hard if I am very thirsty and develop a cough to not take a drink in front of them. I also try not to eat in front of them. We do have a designated room for eating and that is where I stay to eat. Sometimes those who are fasting come in to hang out and talk. I don't leave when they do that because they are choosing to come in and I am eating in our designated area. I am not going to hide in the bushes behind our school and eat. I learned many things this last year and I am sure that I will learn many more this year. I feel that this is something where if I had visited here for just a few weeks there are some different things I would see but within a short time of being home those things would be forgotten. By living here for a decent length of time (almost 2 years at least) I am learning and experiencing many things that I would not had I stayed in my hometown or a town similar to my home town for the rest of my life. I think it is a good thing. I like to be open minded and knowledgeable and this helps me to do that.

Graduation

Graduation was on Tuesday evening June 14th. We went that morning to the hotel MS Garden and rehearsed almost all day. We had to rehearse the International Parade where each student got up said good evening or hello in their native language, introduced their name, age, what grade, what country they were from and what cultural costume they were wearing. Then we had to practice the musical selections. We had a Mandarin Chinese, Malay, ESL, and Music class. They had to stand on a tiny stage so we had to rearrange them so that all the parents could see them. We had to make sure the microphones worked and we could hear the students, etc. Then we ran through each student coming up on stage to get an award. We don't give all the awards out then because the school has gotten so large it would take a long time. Plus, that night we do it in order of awards and not names so it takes longer since students go back and forth multiple times. After that the own of the school came and we ran it through for him so that he could give us approval for how we were going to do it that night. Then we had to wait for the diver to get the food from McDonald's and take it to school, come and get the owner and take him to school, and then come back with the bus and that takes two trips because we are too many now to fit everyone on the the bus. We got back to school after 2p.m. and had lunch. We met briefly with our house groups for the house games the following two days to figure out who was going to do what. Then we got done at 3:00. I was going to go home and take a nap, but I didn’t. I had bought some silk batik material at Christmas time to make the Malay cultural dress baju kurung. For various reasons it did not get done. My Mom sent me one of my dresses from back home, but I decided that day once I saw the set up in the hotel’s ballroom that was not going to work. The teachers had to sit up on a stage in front of everyone with our legs at their eye level and since the Muslims have to be very covered I did not want anyone to be offended by my bare legs from the knees down. One of my co-workers took me to this shop and we found one that fit me and looked very nice, so I went ahead and bought that. Then I went back to get ready for graduation. Graduation wasn’t until after 8p.m. because we had to wait until after the last Muslim prayers of the day. The first thing was a slide show of the 6 seniors that were graduating and some of the highlights for the year. One of our seniors put it together. He had pictures of each of the 6 graduates and then had them give a message to the school. I thought it was very well done. During the rehearsal it had been very fast, but he had done some editing to slow it down, make it so it wasn't so dark, and added some more pictures. Then the teachers and honored guests went up on stage. ( I hate being in front of people and I didn't like that I had to sit on stage. I also felt it took away from the students which is who we are really there for, but I survived. I did not embarrass myself on stage, but I did suffer for it later.) After that the students did their International Parade where they introduced themselves, where they were from and what cultural costume they were wearing. We had four musical selections from the Chinese class, ESL class, Malay class, and high school music class. Then, PTA president as the guest speaker did her speech and the Owner of the School did his speech. After that we gave out just the Excellence Awards for academics and activities, and diplomas.  They used to do all awards at graduation but with the growth of the school it would have taken too long. After that we had a photo session and then dinner. The food was pretty good. I had been one of the people invited to the taste test, so I knew what the food was going to be. 

Our first course: BBQ Chicken salad with iceberg lettuce and spinach and cocktail sauce.

Our second course: Creamy Cappucino mushroom soup with garlic bread ( sounds gross but it was delicious)

Our Main course choices: Alabama sirloin steak served with crunchy asparagus with baked potato; grilled chicken roulade with crunchy asparagus  with baked potato; Garoupa steak (fish) placed on crabmeat hollandaise, green broccoli, cauliflower, capers butter sauce.  I got to taste test all of them and thought they were all excellent. At the dinner I had the steak which I thought was bland and chewy, but that may have been since they had to cook for some many people. 

Our dessert: chocolate cream cake with fresh kiwi and strawberry served with coffee or tea.  At the taste test they had some weird thing that was not a cake and was slimy and I actually didn't care for it but everyone else liked it. At graduation they had a cake and I think it was what it was actually supposed to be. It was very, very good. 

During that time I went around and took more pictures of everyone.  So, I didn’t get back to my room until almost midnight (it would have been like 2 or 3 a.m. if we had done all the awards).