Be careful for what you ask for

So I asked my kids to write me a composition. I told them to write about 1)their names 2) their goals and dreams 3)their families. Little did I know that I would get stories about their literal dreams, different levels of English writing, and extremely small handwriting. I was going on and on about how great it is to be an English teacher (not that it isn't!) because you get personal work from you students. The only drawback is that everything is so personalized. I got a preview of my teacher life spending all Saturday afternoon grading these. Nontheless, it was really fun.

Considering that I'll be teaching official science lessons in just a couple weeks in Aurora, IL, this is kind of like a test run. I have already done plenty of things in my classrooms here that will never fly. Like coming to school in t-shirt and shorts, like not coming to school because I'm sick with an unspreadable illness, like not following through with some rules.

I've come upon my last 10 days in Kenya. The whole experience has been surreal. When I go back, it'll still be a while before I beleive I was in Africa for almost 5 weeks. Crazy! The hardest part right now is finding people to hang out with. All the people I met earlier have gone back home. They were the people who had been here for at least 3 months or so, the "Lifers" as they were called. I can get around my immediate surroundings fine, but it's still scary for me to go into town alone. Part of me just wants to hang out with Sharon and forget about meeting new people. But part of me wonders what the weekend would have been like if I had gone to Uganda. Oh well.

Yesterday Sharon and I just hung out, and I got to wake up really late this morning. For a whole semester, I lived in a dark nearly windowless basement. I slept in almost every weekend morning during that time, and never once did I feel refreshed from sleeping in. But this morning, before I woke up, I saw beams of sunlight hitting my face. It just felt so right. I am so thankful that I am living on the fourth floor right now. Well time to go now.

Becky