Rocking that *International* Paradise

One week?!   One week!   Next Wednesday—seven days from now—I will be in my new home, “getting settled” for four days until my housemate arrives.   That’s such a short time.   That’s 3 days in La Crosse, a wedding, and 2 ½ days in Holmen.   That’s crazy.   I should get packing. I should…but there’s a heat index of 105 in La Crosse right now, and my upstairs bedroom has no air conditioning.   For some strange reason, packing up my bedroom just doesn’t sound appealing at the moment.   So I’m sitting in front of a fan and writing this instead. You know, 10 years ago, I never would have told you I’d be a teacher someday.   In fact, I told multiple people that teaching was the very last profession I’d consider.   6 years ago, I told my teacher I would never have the courage or the knowledge of a foreign language to study abroad for a semester.   Then 4 years ago while I was studying abroad in Mexico, I told a friend there that I would...

Working my last shift at Wettstein's (the appliance/electronics/furniture store where I've worked for the past six years) was harder than I thought it would be. I think the reason was because unlike most of my friends and family, who I know I'll see again the next time I'm home, there are people at Wettstein's that I never see outside of work. So the possibilty that I won't see them again is very real. Add to that the stream of people who kept coming up to my desk to look at me with puppy-dog eyes and wish me well, and I was fighting tears (or, to use the dock manager's words, trying not to "get misty"), for most of the night.   Thankfully, the next night when we went out for pizza to celebrate my going away, everyone was in much brighter spirits and no tears threatened anyone. The get-together was a great send-off from my Wettstein's gang. What's better than pizza, good friends, and ice cream on a Saturday evening?   So, I...