So, spurred on by Nell actually asking what had happened to my blog and me realising that I was certifiably hopeless at keeping it..what can I say - I am a numpty!...and me knowing from hasrsh experience that i will truly regret not having a good record from this time in my life, I would like to take a pledge of allegiance(been in the US too long!) to my blog but know that would be highly suspect and interfere with my integrity and, oo-er missus, I don't want to do that..so I think, to myself, I will do better in the future - I even bought a write in journal in Nashville but only because it had quotes from Alice in Wonderland in it! and it has very little in it so far!
I am doing fine - I have been so lucky - no, blessed with the setup I have found myself in - I did tell Heavenly Father that if I had to do this,(and it seemed I did have to..... I needed to be a bit looked after - and I have been - the school is really lovely, very community minded and a few families from my ward attend there, as well as some other LDS families from the other stake ...I also have an LDS colleague which is a novelty and we go to the temple together after school every Wednesday - how spoiled is that? I can see the temple from my back garden - it takes me about half hour or so to walk. I love being so close and feel that it is a blessing. The people i work with have been friendly and helpful and so have the parents - one family had me over for dinner last sat night to go trick or treating with them, which was fab as they ahd little kids and that's one of the things i miss is those little kids in my life in Cardiff - It's a very different school culture from the one I am used in school in the UK and at first I was rather intimidated by it but now I find it's rather nice to be part of a community - I haven't encountered any of the 'power parenting' I thought may happen if the parents were too friendly - it's all been really positive!!! I am teaching grade 4 so the kids are about 9 turning 10 - they don't have such clear date cut offs for grades here so it is a fairly wide age range - a good thing for some kids who would have been the very youngest in their 'real' grade and have benefitted from being in the next grade - I can think of loads of kids I've taught who would have benefitted from being held back for a year .... the school is in a nice area - not too posh but nice and many of the children are in graduate student families so are very academic - lots of Korean and Chinese families.... my kids and their families come from all over the globe - Bosnia, Russia, Israel, Brazil, Phillipines, Nicaragua, Korea, China, Mexico as well as americans! They are like kids every where really! I sometimes wonder of they have any clue what i am saying and I occasionally hear a little echo as someone tries out their british accent or british words
I live about 20 mins walk from school and walk or cycle most days - I do now have a car but it takes longer to drive than to cycle because I cut through a park to cycle and it's along way round! I am one of the few cyclists/walkers it seems to me - the whole city is in love with their cars! Reliable weather helps too!
The neighbourhood is very friendly too and a few of the neighbours have been really welcoming and had me over for dinner - my direct across the street one invited me to their Yom Kippur dinner which was really lovely - she and I have been to the pictures or I go over there and watch a film (she has this film dowload thing on her telly!...whereas i don't have a telly!)
The ward is great too - it is really big but very friendly and because I didn't have a car when I first got here I got to know lots of people who felt I had to have a lift rather than walk places! One of my new friends and I are going to a concert at walt disney concert hall soon... another family live close by and we have done some craft things together, someone else takes me to farmers markets on sat mornings when I am in town and not otherwise engaged and i have done some babysiting - the young couples love me because I don't charge!
It was fab to see Deb and Lynne Barry at conference - I also caught up with julia and Dennis and Carly's twin sisters! Mini Welsh reunion - I know Luc was there too - just missed him tho - it was wonderful to go to general Conference and BE THERE! I wasn;t quite prepared for how mcuh that would mean to me....hope to get there again in April
I am meeting up with Deb next weekend in Washington DC(long way to go for a weekend, i know!!!) and we are also meeting up with Sarah Elliott as her husband is now at the LDS university in Virginia - Deb has work in DC so I am staying at her hotel and we are going to Amish country on the saturday...she is bringing much needed suppiles - like blu tac! funny the things you can't get hold of!
I have done loads of travelling - of course there was my epic train journey across America which I am glad to have done but will be a long time before I get on a train again !
My mentor teacher from my school, Gary,- who, I should say, has been an absolute star - nothing is too much trouble for him and as many of you know I am a heap of trouble! - and I went to Nashville for a conference a couple of weeks ago and had a brilliant time - we were at the university there which was very stately looking - old , well, you know American old! For some reason in Nashville there is an exact replica of the Greek parthenon - which the bloke on the plane was earnestly telling us was better than the original - yeah, right - we also got to go to a real country music dive place and we went line dancing - well, it had to be done!!!! It was great to meet up with the other UK teachers and hear of their adventures and touch base with them - the people who organise this programme work really hard top make sure we are all as successful as possible.(unpaid plug for our friends at AED!)..not necessarily an easy task when we are all at such different schools and communities and having such different experiences. I think having the ready made church community has definitely helped me to settle in but I have been really lucky with the other people I have met - I just say yes to everything! I have joined Nancy's(my exchange partner) book club and met a lovely group of bright intelligent women (just like our book club!) I feel bad that our book club has collapsed a bit because I know Nancy would have liked to have joined it.
On the Nashville trip I also met up with the Chadwicks and stayed with them and that was so good to see them again and met up with one of the girls who used to live with me in manchester when she was on a mission - long time ago now!
I am going to Northern california to stay with Julia and Dennis for Thanksgiving and we are going to go to .....I think it's Yosemite park but it could be Lake Tahoe - I can't recall what we decided on!
I am off to New Zealand to stay with the Wilkies and especially to see the KiddlyWilkies as Tom leaves after Christmas - he arrives Dec 18 and leaves 28th(I leave an hour later)...we are off to Vegas, baby, for a few days when he is here...I am looking forward to showing him around and having him meet some of the great people here...maybe spend part of Christmas day on the beach....
Spent yesterday doing a bit of Guy Fawkes stuff - we made guys - my classroom was funny this morning as many of the children hadn't finished so there were lots of headless corpses! great fun!
So, so far, so good! I miss home from time to time,...the endless sunshine makes up for it somewhat and the knowledge that this isn't forever(it isn't, is it??????), altho I hadn't realised how much I enjoy just being able to rely on the weather being pleasant. I take the kids out every morning under a shade structure for a 20 minute morning meeting, knowing that we will always be able to do it, just about! couldn't do that at home!
We had a top time at the school hallowe'en hurrah which was like a Christmas Fayre but for hallowe'en - dressed up as an ostrich...see the photos on Facebook!
Every day there are lots of little things that amuse me, enrich me and make me think...sometimes about what I have and soemtimes about what i don;t have....getting a bit philosophical now - I missed the smell of gunpowder this morning, the day after Guy Fawkes night, you know that smell that lingers in the air??? I'll miss the atmosphere in Cardiff tomorrow for the rugby
- I feel really blessed to be here and have this experience - if I HAVE to be somewhere then this a great place to be -
Well, that's it, hope it hasn't bored the pants off you!
Maybe if I can just discipline myself a bit to wrrite each few days I will have it licked! Look on FB for photos!
Friday 6 November 2009
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