... and what a great victory it is.
So yesterday we prowled around the new house on campus which is still under construction. I had to jump onto the wall since they had locked the compound, so that was fun. It's going to be a nice place. I won't live there, but it will be nice for whoever moves in.
Two more days here. I'm not going to get my new computer lab all fixed, which is a little disappointing but I just can't get it all wired. Oh well.
We're coming up on the last week of summer school, and my last week before heading out of the country for my summer vacation in the U.S. It's been a pretty good couple of weeks, I haven't gotten as much done as I should have, but that's OK. I've had a good time, but I'm ready to go.
Today, I played volleyball twice, once in the morning with a fun group, and once in the evening with a different, also fun group. I hung out with D (kneading bread!) and got some work done in my office.
I'm getting close to knowing that I know less than I thought I ever wanted to.
Ah, the interesting things that happen in life - the sometimes seemingly random connections. D and I went over to eat with a family tonight, D works with the mom at her job, and we were discussing life histories. It turns out that I know some people that she went to college with! Halfway 'round the world, and you run into people that you have mutual friends with. It's strange.
Summer school is going pretty well, although I still struggle with how to work with the Planets, the youngest kids. At least the Stars (1st-3rd grade) and I get along great!
It's time to visit the planetarium.
More of life. Summer school is going well, although I never quite know how I'm going to get through half an hour with the Planets (the pre-k through K group). Kind of been on a cleaning/moving spree everywhere - I'm a third moved into my new office, and now have to wait for the maintenance guys to move into my old office so I can move the rest of the way into my new office. D and I cleaned out her kitchen and got rid of a bunch of old food and spices. And I rearranged and cleaned up my room. We're just a clean happy group here!
Well.
One week of summer school is done. Two more! And no more math for Mr. Newcomer!
D and I rearranged her house's living room, and it looks really nice. So we had people over for supper and ordered delivery. It was nice.
I am tired. So I'm going to bed.
Russ
Day 4 of summer school is done. Today was also my last day having to teach math to 4th-6th graders. Yay! Now it's just PE for Russ. So I'll have to plan PE better now. Oh well. It's summer school PE. Tomorrow is easy because it's Dodgeball day! Actually, I take it back - it's easy for the 1st-6th graders. It's pretty hard for the pre-K and Kindergarten students.
I'm working more on getting the computer lab moved. It's exciting. They're working on the power and we'll get network cable ran soon. There is more room in the lab than we had drawn up, so the lab will be nice and spacious.
I played volleyball for two hours tonight with our national staff against our guard force. It was pretty fun. I can count lots better in the local language now, I think. I had some pretty nice blocks, and a couple of decent spikes. Some of our guards were really good.
D and I went out to eat with some of our friends to a local restaurant. It was fun. It was nice to have enough people to go out with - D and I can't really go out by ourselves to local restaurants, so this was the first time we had gone and sat down at this particular one. It was good.
Tomorrow is movie night! And I'll probably start moving more of my office tomorrow.
Ah, summer.
The kids are gone for another few days, school is out, and I have been busy. I've been wrapping up the end of the school year tasks (computer returns, clearing out old accounts, some very minor infrastructure things) and then I've been working on the old/new computer lab. I wrote up a proposal that my bosses accepted to move our computer lab from 17 to 24 computers, and from our current small lab to a larger room downstairs. So I cleared out the old lab, and then over the next few weeks as painting and infrastructure work gets finished, I'll move the lab downstairs. I'm pretty excited about that.
After I get the lab moved out of my office, I get to start moving into my new office! Our key network infrastructure, server, battery-backup system, backbone switch, firewall, and satellite connection, is spread across two adjacent rooms, a server/storage room and the maintenance office. We're going to consolidate the equipment into one room, and then move my office into the other room, and move the maintenance guys to my office (which is next door to the existing rooms). So after the lab is moved, and a couple cabinets are moved to the new lab, I'll start moving my stuff to the server/storage room, then after I leave the maintenance guys can move their stuff to their new office. Then when I come back, I'll move the server and set up my new office.
I'm helping with summer school, serving as PE teacher and helping with other classes also. It's up to Grade 6, so we should have a good crew and a good time. D is still working, and we'll leave together the first part of July.
Yesterday was a sad day - the first of my closer friends here left, not to return next year. Other friends left as well, and that's sad. D and my closest friend here is leaving on Sunday, and that will probably be the saddest day. That's one of the hardest things about the way my life is currently - people keep leaving. Even though there are ways in our modern world to stay connected, it's still sad when they leave.
I need to get back to work now, but I hadn't posted a substantial update for a while, and I figured it was time.
So, there is only one half day left in the school year. It definitely feels different than last year. Since I'm staying to help with summer school until July 1st (and spend time with D, who doesn't finish her contract until then either), I'm not part of the imminent countdown everyone else has. That makes their countdown a little annoying, but I deal.
Tonight, D and I babysat for my neighbors, our science teacher and his wife, since we won't get to see their kids for a couple months with the summer and their staying in the states a little longer for their new addition to join the family. We had a great time. Two great moments - once when the three year old girl just started telling me part of the Story, and another when I tried to explain to the seven year old why staring at bright lights was bad for you, and why staring at the distant sun was worse than the nearby ceiling light.
I'm a little stressed, but I know I'll make it through these next few days until the majority of people leave. Then it'll be time for summer school. I haven't really even planned anything for that. I'm doing PE. Our summer program is half day, and has a space theme, so probably instead of Trees we'll play Asteroid Fields, and instead of freeze-tag, we'll play gravity-tag.
I am more and more reminded that I need to GROW. Not just to be who I was, but to change to what I need to be. I'm really not all that spectacular of a person right now, but I should be. All glories to the King on the Throne.
