Winter

This Jacob growling like a lamb.

Hello there. So it has been over two months since I updated my blog and I feel that my only loyal reader (Mom) is getting hostile.

So as to keep things organized and accessible for my other loyal reader (Dad) I will write in a list.

1) I went to Utah for Thanksgiving and absolutely loved seeing the family. I was also able to hang out with a friend that I met in China, who convinced me to go skydiving in Ogden. For those of you who did not know, I am deathly afraid of heights and continue my life long quest to conquer that fear. So we drove up and they dressed me up like a road cone and then we got into this tiny plane with about 15 other divers who were all kind of nutty. When we got to 13,000 feet they all started jumping and the guy I was strapped to started pushing me toward the open door. I was SO scared but once I got to the door and the guy threw us both out of the plane it was a lot of fun. I had a blast and I can cross one more thing off of my list of 100 things I have to do before I die. Since I crossed that one off I have been looking into how to get to Antarctica and where the Dalai Lama is touring this year. New Years resolutions can be pricey.
2) I have seen many shows since I have been here in NYC but I had never seen Les Miserables. I went and saw it at the beginning of December and it was fabulous! It is definitely one of my favorite shows. I just find the story and the characters so compelling.
3) I went to Germany for Christmas and spent some great time with Teresa and her five guys. We had a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner of KFC and then a fun live nativity made more fun by Steven, Nathan and Jacob and their boundless energy. I was fortunate enough to play the part of the star again, only this time the star was merely perched on my finger instead of around my face.
As you can see in this picture the "wise men" were told to follow the star to baby Jesus. Jacob jumps right in and gets cozy with the baby, Stephen is merely enduring the play, and Nathan can't get his eyes off the star.
4) I got to play santa on Christmas Eve, and these are the fruits of my labors.

5) One of my students guessed that I am 50 years old. (WRONG!!!)
6) Another of my students used the F word as an adjective in his essay response to the standardized test they took today. The answer looked at little like this, “cuz he was F#@%ing pissed off” the correct answer (the one they will get from the students in the suburbs) is “He was upset”
7) After the test today my kids asked me what a calf was. They have no idea what most of the things in this test are talking about. A huge problem for them is vocabulary acquisition. I read through the test today and thought “could I have passed this as a sixth grader?” The answer, of course, but I had two educated parents who spoke in and educated English my whole life. I was surrounded by educated and articulate English speakers, everywhere that I went. From the time I was born I was constantly acquiring vocabulary. Only about 3% of the whole school population has parents who speak English and far less than that have parents with more than 7 years of formal education. In short, I am voting for Obama.
8) My roommate Cristi got the five hour version of Pride and Prejudice from Amazon and I have determined that there is no better escape from the drudgery of inner-city middle school stress than a nightly visit to Jane Austen's little dream word where people are polite even when they are cross.
9) I bought a space heater and my Mom got me an electric blanket and some very warm pajamas. These have revolutionized my life and have made me a bit of a recluse.
10) I will write about my visit to Berlin within the week. Just FYI I find the place charming and would love to live there, I think I have a strange pull towards all things, people and places with traces of communism.