Friday, January 6th, 2012
This morning, I skyped with Meg. We discussed our trip to Thailand coming up at the end of March. We're going to stay at the Shangri-la in Bangkok for 5 days and then head to the Movenpick resort in Phuket for 5 days -- woohoo!!
I had 1st block off, so I spent most of it chatting with friends over coffee in the cafeteria. We discussed my newest obsession: Budapest. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the worst trap of all for overseas teachers: a desire to work not only in a specific region of the world, but at a specific school within a specific country. I'm doomed. But as you know, when I finally decide I want something -- go to college in New Orleans, move to Charleston, get a certain unnamed ex-boyfriend back (who is now a 2 time ex-boyfriend...lesson learned), move overseas, or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro -- well, there's just no stopping me. So American International School of Budapest, watch out!!
After my 1st block group therapy session, I taught Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" and "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun." I've never been a huge Dickinson fan, but it seems whenever I have to teach something, I end up falling in love with it. The woman was brilliant! Anyways, I gave them 5 minutes to discuss the poem they had read and annotated for homework with a neighbor before I started my questioning. I then quickly ran to the restroom, and when I walked back in, they were all in animated conversations about "Because I could not stop for Death." Some were frustrated with furrowed brows, others confidently helping their partners, and still others were in respectful disagreement with their partners. I actually got a little teary eyed. What English teacher doesn't love to see her students in such focused conversations about great poetry? I love my hard working students!!
Every other Friday, Sarah and I go out to lunch together. Over a bowl of my favorite "Beef and Tomato Shaved Noodle Soup with No Beef" at a place we call "Shavey" (short for shaved noodles - no idea what it's really called), we began to plan our Africa trip. We've decided to book Round the World tickets through Sky Team, which means we will have to add one more stop to our trip. Since we have to fly through Amsterdam anyway, we've made that our 3rd stopover. Here's the itinerary:
I had 1st block off, so I spent most of it chatting with friends over coffee in the cafeteria. We discussed my newest obsession: Budapest. Unfortunately, I have fallen into the worst trap of all for overseas teachers: a desire to work not only in a specific region of the world, but at a specific school within a specific country. I'm doomed. But as you know, when I finally decide I want something -- go to college in New Orleans, move to Charleston, get a certain unnamed ex-boyfriend back (who is now a 2 time ex-boyfriend...lesson learned), move overseas, or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro -- well, there's just no stopping me. So American International School of Budapest, watch out!!
After my 1st block group therapy session, I taught Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" and "My Life had stood -- a Loaded Gun." I've never been a huge Dickinson fan, but it seems whenever I have to teach something, I end up falling in love with it. The woman was brilliant! Anyways, I gave them 5 minutes to discuss the poem they had read and annotated for homework with a neighbor before I started my questioning. I then quickly ran to the restroom, and when I walked back in, they were all in animated conversations about "Because I could not stop for Death." Some were frustrated with furrowed brows, others confidently helping their partners, and still others were in respectful disagreement with their partners. I actually got a little teary eyed. What English teacher doesn't love to see her students in such focused conversations about great poetry? I love my hard working students!!
Every other Friday, Sarah and I go out to lunch together. Over a bowl of my favorite "Beef and Tomato Shaved Noodle Soup with No Beef" at a place we call "Shavey" (short for shaved noodles - no idea what it's really called), we began to plan our Africa trip. We've decided to book Round the World tickets through Sky Team, which means we will have to add one more stop to our trip. Since we have to fly through Amsterdam anyway, we've made that our 3rd stopover. Here's the itinerary:
- Taipei to Bangkok to Amsterdam to Kilimanjaro on KLM (30 hours of flight time, 1.5 hours in Bangkok, and 4 hours in Amsterdam...aaahhhhhhhh!)
- Stay in Tanzania for 3 weeks (2 days to acclimate, 6 days to climb Kili, 1 day to recover, 5 days for safari, 1 day to regroup, 5 days on Zanzibar).
- Kilimanjaro to Amsterdam with a quick layover in Dar es Salaam on KLM.
- 3 days in Amsterdam
- Amsterdam to Atlanta on Delta
- Stay in Atlanta for about 5 weeks, spend as much time with family as possible, and take a side trip to Milwaukee/Chicago to visit Tanya.
- Atlanta to Tokyo to Taipei on Delta
- Total number of miles: 28, 986
- Total number of hours in a plane: 69 (not counting the flight out of the Serengeti, the flight to Zanzibar, or the flight to Milwaukee)
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