OMG!

So I am officially obsessed. Seriously, I am so happy that I came here! Mama, Daddy, Alice, I know I cried to the three of you through texting or phone calls the first few days but now I am wondering why I was being such a baby!! The kids came to school today and I absolutely fell in love! We have 24 students and they are precious! Not to toot my own horn or anything but I think they like me, too!

The school is a wonderful atmosphere and I hope to work in a school with this type of environment one day. All of the teachers have been teaching together for years and they are like family. The principal (they call him boss) and the assistant principal (they call him deputy) are wonderful leaders and two of the 4 male teachers at the school. All of the teachers are so kind to one another and very generous to help each other throughout the day. It really feels like a family there and that is just what I like!

Since today was the first day they had lots of house keeping type stuff to do. So the children come to school with all of their supplies and then the teacher takes a look at it to see what she wants to do with it. Its kind of interesting because they come with a whole packet of stuff and Connie told me that some stuff she won't even need them to use. I can't really remember how we did it in elementary school but I think the teachers pass out the list that they will need rather than have a set list for everyone in the city to use? Anyway, that took up a good bit of the morning just figuring out the notebooks and folders and what we will use them for.

After we got settled with all of that, it was my turn to take over and introduce myself and talk about Groundhog Day! They thought it was very interesting and then they started telling me about holidays that they have. Last week they celebrated Australia Day, much like 4th of July. Unfortunately, that was last Wednesday which was the day that I lost while traveling over here! But I knew about it one, because Marissa told me it was in her planner :) and two, because Monique gave me some Australian flag tattoos that she said everyone had on Australia Day! Ill be bringing those back and I have about 20 so if anyone wants one just let me know!

Also, in my introduction Connie wanted me to talk about my family and explain to the kids that this year we were going to be a family within our classroom. She wanted me to talk about team work and ask them if they are involved with anything else that they feel is like a family, ie sports teams, neighborhoods, church groups, etc. So as I am talking about all of that and explaining what it is I decided to let them tell me a little about their family so I can get to them know and all that good stuff. This is the best response by far:

Me: Danny, tell us a little about your family
Danny: Well, we are a typical Italian family who loves drag racing. I have a sister and two brothers and we all love my dad's cars. They are part of the family, too.

(as he was drawing the picture of his family I had to constantly remind him to draw people because he kept drawing cars)

It took just about everything I had to hold back my laughter!! I can already tell he is going to be providing lots of funny comments that I will for sure share with all of you!

As I was leaving the school today I was just smiling non stop because I am so happy with everything here! Thank you all for your prayers because I know that is what is helping everything to fall into place here!

Oh yea, Daddy asked me about the food here so I guess I should speak a little about that. It is pretty good! I do miss our food but most of it is the same. I had lamb for dinner which made me think of Kafta and I wish I could have that right now! But most of it is pretty good. My appetite has changed since I've been here so I have only cleaned my plate like two times and usually I eat every bite! But overall its not much different than home. I haven't tried vegimite yet but I plan to do that soon! Ill let you know what that is like! They have a subway and KFC so Ill prob hit those up pretty soon when I start to really miss American food! Right now I am watching shrek 3 with Monique and we are sharing a bag of M&Ms. For those of you who know me well, you know that M&Ms are my absolute favorite! And the cool thing about these M&Ms are that they are "mix ups" which means the bag contains peanut, crispy, and plain! Hopefully we will get this at home soon! They come in a green bag so be on the lookout!

Hope all is well at home! Tell me if the groundhog saw his shadow!!

Romans 12:2