Little Victories

Last weekend was filled with little successes for me.  Nothing major.  Nothing life-changing.  But there have been multiple moments that made me smile to myself and think, “You did it!”  or “That worked out well!” 

Saturday morning I went for a run around the school grounds.  For the first time since I’ve been here, I made it way all the way up the hill and into the school without stopping to walk.  It’s a minor success, but I was happy as I realized I was passing the school guards and hadn’t yet walked. 
Then, on my run, I successfully found the “perimeter path” that circles all of the ball fields and buildings within the school walls—approximately ¾ of a mile.  It’s not a nice 6 mile loop, but it’s at least more of a change of scenery than running around the track over and over and over again. 

When I got home, I finally figured out how to lock my phone, so people here should be receiving many less pocket-dials from me now. 

Later Saturday afternoon, I successfully called not one, but several taxis.  After calling so many times that day, I now feel pretty comfortable with it, and I would be fine calling a taxi for just myself the next time I want to go grocery shopping. 

On Sunday, I played Ultimate Frisbee in the morning.  It wasn’t really a success in the typical sense of the word—actually if we’re talking about my Frisbee skills, it was a pretty big fail.  But I still had a lot of fun and got a nice workout in for the day. 

At home that afternoon, I successfully hung 4 pictures on my living room wall.  The process only involved 3 or 4 bent nails.  Thankfully, I had extras. 

And then on Sunday evening, a few of us finally managed to make it to the VIP movie theater in Oakland Mall.  The VIP is definitely an experience worth having.  Rather than the conventional movie theater seating, the theater is filled with reclining leather love seats.  Next to each is a side table and a lamp, and waiters will bring you food and beverages (for an additional charge, of course) at the beginning of the movie.  Sitting there with my feet up and my head against the head rest felt like I was cuddled up in my parents’ living room—except with all the awesome of being in a movie theater.  It’s like the best combination of both worlds possible. 


So needless to say, I went to bed Sunday night happy and ready for the first full week of classes.  …And you can guess how that’s gone based solely on the fact that I’m posting about the weekend on Thursday night!  Busy—but good.  More on school later.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cambodia: Reflections and Highlights

Image
I was really excited to visit Cambodia for a few days and hit up Angkor Wat and the other temples in the area.  Cambodia felt like my kind of adventure--and I can’t even really say why.  But I was excited.  I was excited for our hotel there--a full-out boutique hotel (not a hostel), with AC, a swimming pool, breakfast included, and airport pick-up for free--which cost us a scant $20 per night.  And we’d read about a lot of great tours we could take with local guides.  Flying in and flying out, this leg of the trip would be a breeze, and hopefully everything would be as cheap as the hotel.   The Mango Rain Boutique Hotel Our flight to Cambodia was unlike any other I’ve ever been on.  There were only about 20 of us on the flight--which would not have been strange, except it was, because we were on a full-size plane that could have seated 200.  The 20 of us were mostly grouped together towards the back of the plane.  Second impressive t...
Read more

DI Globals 2016: A Tale of Two Teams

Image
For the past 3 years, I have acted as a team manager for Destination Imagination at my school in Guatemala, and each year, my team has earned a trip to Global Finals in Knoxville, Tennessee.  This school year, I was blessed to manage the exact same team I had last year—the Aguaguates, the most wonderful group of kids any DI team manager could wish for.  This group, all 7 th graders this year, has everything needed to not only excel at DI, but also make a team manager’s job almost unnecessary.  They have amazing team chemistry, and they understand the importance of teamwork.  They’re crazy creative and hilarious and amazing actors when they get on stage.  They push themselves to improve their performances.  They know what they need to get done for DI, and they create their own practice schedules.  In short, they are a DI dream team, not to mention really, really great people .  This year though, I took one look at the school calendar and deci...
Read more

Yearly Update: The Journey to 30

Image
Over a year has passed since my last “update.”  And the year I was 29, despite the fact that I lived close to home rather than abroad, was anything but boring, so there’s no real reason for the lack of blog posts.   The year I was 29, I survived what may have been my most difficult year of teaching yet.  Many overseas teachers say, “Teaching in the States is so much different than teaching abroad.  You’ll see.  That’s why I went overseas; I’d never go back to teaching in the States.  It’s just...too much.”  Well, they’re not wrong.  I admit, I thought that with five years teaching experience under my belt, my first year in the US, my first year at the high school level, would go rather smoothly.  While in a sense it did (no concerns about the quality of my work from administration or complaints from parents), it was mentally and emotionally very taxing.  Even this year, my 2nd back in the States, I’m still adjusting to and coming t...
Read more