I drew a Viking helmet for my class

Classes are off and running....as long as you aren't a freshman. Freshman are apparently still registering and that's why I no one has shown up to my freshmen classes.

My British Studies class met for the fourth time today and is going just swimmingly. We are studying the Anglo Saxons and their role in British history. Our piece of literature for the period is Beowulf. We are reading a modern translation since the language is quite difficult in the normal translations.

My student's seem to be enjoying it and have asked several good questions prompting me to draw swords, helmets with bull horns on them, and maps of europe on the blackboard. Although my artistry is poor, it seems they are really learning the material.

I love teaching :)

As for Obama's inauguration, we watched in style at the American Club and toasted the president with pizza and soft drinks (and some had beer).

I don't know if I believe in Obama's Messianic qualities espoused by the devout left, but i do know that "Hope is a good thing, perhaps the best of things" and America has some serious collective hope right now. That kind of hope can create change all by itself. I hope.

Gypsy On!

SCHOOLS IN! Woot!

It's been a ROUGH couple months. I was feeling really really useless over here. But school has finally started, and I'm so excited.

Classes began on Monday, but my first class met Wednesday. Usually I will have about 135 students per class (I have 5 classes). I was a little depressed when half my classes didn't show up and the other half only had about 15 people in them each. BUT...apparently this is fairly normal for the first week and I expect attendance to be up next week.

I have 3 American Studies classes, 1 British Studies class, and 1 Conversation class.

My American Studies classes will begin with exploration and end around Western Expansion. We will look at history through the lense of literature...or so is my plan.

British Studies is still kind of in the air. We were originally told to begin with the middle ages-renaissance....but that may have been a mistake, still waiting to hear. In the meantime my class has not read Beowulf, so we'll begin there.

Conversation is a wide open class. I can talk about anything at all. I may use this venue to get students talking about civil rights, women's rights, religion and government, and development.

I really hope we don't strike anytime soon......but I've already heard there are some problems on the horizon........we'll wait and see :)

In the meantime, i'm lesson planning!

Gypsy On!

I've got the most serious craving ever for Marrakesh in Portland.

When I get home I'm making a beeline for this.

ya ya i'm teaching, i'll tell you about it tomorrow when my first week is "officially" over ;)

gypsy on

6 months on the nose

Can you stinking believe it? I start teaching this week. Classes start tomorrow and my first class is wednesday. I teach wed-sat, American Studies, British Lit, and Conversation.

Holy smokes i better write a lesson plan!!!!!!!!!!!

;) wish me luck.

ps if you have 2500 lying around looking for something to do....thomas needs a ticket to africa. it's not a noble cause, but it would make me very happy...wait in princess bride true love is the most noble cause of all. ;) hehe...for real though 2500 dollars to come to this hole? lame. we're working on it...

True...very very true

Holiday Weight?

Thomas is training on the web now. It's pretty cool...he has me on a program too. It's super affordable and he's an amazing trainer....not just cause i love him, he helped me lose 10% of my body fat BEFORE we even dated. Check it out here

Happy New Years

The cats are getting huge! So cute. New Years Pics here

New Years was fun...for New Years. It's one of my least favorite holidays of the year. It ends the holiday "season" and it's so anti-climactic. But it was as good as I could ask for. I went with my pilot friends to their boss' house for good south african sausage (to die for) and champagne. We lit some fireworks and just had a nice relaxing evening.

In other news, Thomas sent me the BEST PACKAGE EVER! Okay sorry to everyone else that sent me one, I'm fairly biased being I'm in love with him, but still it was great. I got whipped honey, my favorite cookies, jelly beans, gummy bears, and the BEST CD EVER. It's a movie cd of his trip to portland and a few of my favorite people starred. I got to see Andrew running around the pumpkin patch, my mom laughing with thomas, and my dad wondering about with goats. Not to mention my Nathan and Kristi's beautiful shining happy faces :)

It really made my day. My month, actually...possibly even more than that. Thanks sweetheart, love you.

In other news, school might actually start. They've started registering students and I was told that perhaps in 2 weeks we'd actually begin. I'm translating that to within the month. I'm really hoping. I love climbing, playing sports, cooking and hanging out with my friends....but life seems to lack much meaning lately. Could really use a purpose.

Gypsy on!