Christmas Activities

This week has been busy with lots of Christmas activities-- Monday, my Bible Study group went caroling to some people from school. It was a bit strange to be going caroling when it was 81 degrees, but it made it a bit more enjoyable with the warmer weather! Tuesday was the elementary music program, and I stayed at school until the performance. The kids did a great job, as well as my roommate Kyla who had the 1st-3rd graders. Last night my aide Everg invited me over to her house for a meal-- it was an egg dish, served with yuca and avocado. It was so good!

Her mom, who was visiting from New York, and a friend of her mom's were also there. Neither of them spoke English, so I was able to practice my "broken" Spanish! --Though I get a bit flustered when I try to remember the words to say. It was fun to be able to hear them talk in Spanish-- I was able to understand maybe 25-50%ish of what they were talking about-- Surprisingly I don't get to hear people talk in Spanish a lot here. I hear English all day at school, and then go home to my English speaking roommates/friends. If I go out to the stores, sometimes I use Spanish, but it's not an every day occurrence. 

A random Nebraska connection-- one of the teacher's here, her parent's are visiting and they grew up in Nebraska! (Western, NE I think) They also have some family I think that are still in Omaha. They moved to New York 50 years ago, but it was fun to be able to talk about towns that I know about!

Tonight we are celebrating a friend's birthday, and then tomorrow is our last day of school before Christmas break-- we have a half day tomorrow. :-) 

                                         

Two weeks of school left before Christmas Vacation! Saturday evening, we decided to make sugar cookies and watch my favorite Christmas movie-- White Christmas-- and Sunday we decorated them.

I'm not going home for Christmas break, because with my brother getting married in April, I decided to go home then-- with it being more of a priority. :-) I've been away from home for the holidays before-- and I guess with being as self-sufficient/independent as I am, I'm ok with being away from my family during Christmas (or even Thanksgiving). (And because I know that my parent's read my blog, this does not mean that I don't like to come home for the holidays.... LOL) It seems a bit different year however, with being in a totally different country than my family-- or my friends in Kansas. I'm not usually one who gets home-sick, with always having lived several hours away from them, but I've always been within driving distance (4-7 hrs) of them. Lately, I have gotten a bit "home-sick" with everyone talking about seeing their families and friends over the break-- But I know that's just what comes with living here, away from everything familiar that I'm used to.
I am looking forward to though, being able to do some exploring here, having time by myself-- and of course having the warm weather right now (while I'm sure it's probably going to be freezing in Nebraska!!) isn't the worst thing in the world to have! LOL

This week is still a relatively normal week at school. Next week there will be music concerts and Christmas parties-- and then I think we have a half day next Friday. It is hard to believe that the school year is almost half over!!

                     

My Christmas decoration for my classroom--made by my aide's daughter... 

 

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