Teaching - A Success!

Dear Family,

I have gotten my ten hours of sleep and am now ready to thrill you will all the exciting details of the school! But first, let me just say- WOW, DAD! You’re a High Councilor? Congratulations! (my condolences for the resumed meetings) And I’m glad you could ‘talk shop’ with the Chicago people- and get some info for me as well. Green Dam? I understand the dam part, but what about the green? @_@’

Anywho, yesterday was absolutely fantastic. I taught a group of six second graders for forty minutes, and helped them make Easter Bunny Baskets out of paper bags and construction paper, which was made more fun by my BMC, self defense (“What can we do with this bag? Can we make a puppet?!” “Yes, Teacha!” “My puppet is hungry! It’s going to EAT YOU! Say, ‘Don’t eat me, puppet!’” “Don’t eata me, puppet!” laughter). We finished the craft, and so they will all be able to participate in the ILP Easter Egg Hunt next week. I can hardly wait! Laura is excited, too. She told us that when she thinks about the Easter Egg Hunt, she is happier than she has ever been and cries with joy. Since this pronouncement was delivered in an even, conversational tone, I don’t know whether or not she’s joking…

In other news, squatters are dangerous to the unwary. Someone got locked in theirs for a grand total of three hours! Imagine that, being locked in a closet with only a toilet, showerhead, and wet floor for three hours. And the fragrance of a squatter in the middle of the day…well, let’s just call it ‘pungent’. At least she wasn’t showering, or she could have caught pneumonia. Later, her washing machine sprung a leak and sprayed the walls and floor with dirty water. And after that, the shower started leaking! She has the worst luck with water-related dorm things. I’m glad that hasn’t happened to Johanna and I (knock on wood). Things with our laundry aren’t all sunshine and roses, however. I used our washer for the first time last week, and found that it is a Very Bad Thing to leave anything paper in a pocket while using it. Unfortunately, this realization only made its appearance after I had pulled the first pair of black pants out, and discovered them covered in a film of gray with liberal multicolored sprinkles of paper. I was confused as to what I had done for a moment, but upon closer inspection of some of the larger fragments, I found Chinese characters and a piece of a roller coaster. I had left the Dinosaur Park brochure in the pocket of my jeans! With a heavy heart, I lifted the rest of my sodden garments to the light. Yep, all sported the same fuzzy coating. There was no time to re-wash them, so I spent an entire evening picking paper off pants. Fun stuff.

I really love Andy’s weekend cooking! He is a real chef, and his best work happens when there aren’t 700 people to cook for at a time- plus, he pays attention to what we like, and since we’re the only people here on the weekends besides the guards and construction people (who he doesn’t have to cook for), we get fantastic meals! Like last night, for instance. We had the standard bowls of rice, cooked broccoli (squee!), chicken legs (yay!), and last but not least, boiled-then-chilled lettuce with Caesar salad seasoning. Everything was a bit salty, but after a week with very little salt, you learn to appreciate it. I especially liked the broccoli and chicken legs- every weekday meal has either eggs or parts of chicken involved, but the legs alone are never served, and Andy made the skin crispy and the meat fall off the bone. I’m sure he was a bit surprised by the ferocity with which we fell on his food, but at least we left him clean dishes and allegations that he was the best chef in the world before leaving the cafeteria.

And while we’re talking about food, I have decided that when I get back, I’m having pizza. Cheese pizza. With extra cheese, because dairy is a rarely seen animal here.

There’s a girl here who brought a million Disney movies on an external hard drive, so we are able to watch a bunch of fun stuff- last night, I watched the 2004 Fantasia and The Three Caballieros (sp?), and today I’m going to watch Iron Man and Confessions of a Shopaholic. On the last, I read the book and was impressed by the foolishness of the main character- it’ll be interesting to see how it translates to the silver screen (laptop screen, lol).

Hm. Well, that was yesterday. Today promised to be sunny and not cold, so we’re making plans to go shopping after lunch. I hope William doesn’t come, we drew names for the ‘Secret Penyou (friend)’ thing, and I picked him! He is constantly hungry, so I guess I’ll leave meat buns at his door or something. Maybe a chicken? My secret penyou left me a lemon-flavored drink, which was delicious. <3

Well, it’s time for me to buckle down and do my homework before lunch- loved the letters, Mom and Dad! I love you all! Calissa