Ambassador Crochet: Etimo Crochet Hook Giveaway

One of my favorite yarn craft blog is doing a giveaway.  I love her patterns and she inspires me creatively so check it out.

Ambassador Crochet: Etimo Crochet Hook Giveaway: "Here's a great chance to win a couple of extra entries into my giveaway. For those that haven't heard, I'm giving away an Etimo croche..."

Back in the USA

So I am back in the US for an extended stay. My family and friends are lobbying hard for where I will spend this time. My one brother wants me to stay west coast with him, while the remaineder are lobbying for east coast... preferrably somewhere in the northeast. I love feeling so loved. :) As for me, I am not 100% sure what I want to do with this time yet so while I am still recovering from being ill, I will contemplate the worlds of secondary education, teaching yoga and maybe even being creative for a while and doing some design work with yarn.

In the meantime, Happy Holidays to all my friends wherever in the world they may be. xoxo

Leaving the first city

Being one of the last ones to leave means saying goodbye many times. Though for this group it is not really goodbye, but see you in a few weeks... just in another place. I woke up early this morning see off one group leaving and just helped the second big group pack all their bags in a taxi. Now there are just a few of us left wrapping up the life we led here in Stockholm. Goodbye to a wonderful city. See you later to all the wonderful people!


(I will go back and write about our wonderful trip to Åre in the more north of Sweden soon.)

Thanksgiving

I have been giving thanks all week through my status updates in Facebook. Here they are:

Monday - is thankful for the wonderful experiences, staff and students I am working with this year.

Tuesday - I am thankful for my cousins. Cousins are the 1st friends of your life. When you grow up, they are still your friends. Cousins are there as childhood friends, and they are there when get older as forever friends... No one will ever understand your CRAZY FAMILY like your cousins. Repost this if you have cousins that are awesome!

Wednesday - is thankful for her brothers and father and surrogate moms and sisters. :) Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving day tomorrow. Eat some turkey for me!

So as you can see from Wed, there was no plan to have any turkey dinner at all. At lunch yesterday (I wrote this originally on Friday), I was very sad that for the first time in 38 years I would not be celebrating Thanksgiving with a special meal... after lunch when Marta came back from her appt, she was also feeling sad about this lack of special dinner so we decided to search up a place to go here in Stockholm. After a bit of internet searching, I decided that an American restaurant here might be the best way to find a spot having a special menu for the night. I had success as we found a place called the Mississippi Inn which was serving a special Thanksgiving Day menu.

We invited along one of our YBC friends, Kari, to share our traditions with him. The meal began with Tuna Cerviche as an appetizer and then continued with typical fare of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (not quite like home), sweet potatoes and green beans followed by a really yummy dessert. No pumpkin pie, but the meal overall made me very happy!

We then took a snowy walk home from the restaurant to walk off our meal. I came home a bit cold, but happy!

Berlin Weekend

I had the most amazing weekend in Berlin with some friends I met in Curacao, Judith and Stuart. We had wonderful weather (for Berlin in Nov - it was 5°C and sunny on Sat) and a wonderful time catching up and seeing the city transform for the start of the holiday season. We sat down for some coffee and got a show of the raising of a Christmas tree. Good company and good food was of course a part of the fun. It is nice to catch up with friends in places around the world sometimes very far from where you met and began to know each other. Berlin in Nov is quite far away from Curacao, but added to the adventures of my life. Thanks!

Here are a few photos from the weekend - the ones with me in them are courtesy of my wonderful friend Judith!

One of the Christmas Markets being set-up

The tree in the square

Stuart and I courtesy of Judith

Waiting for my Starbucks fix - Chai Tea Latte

Being silly on Stuart's balcony

Judith and I on the foggier Sunday morning via iPhone 4 self photo :)

Love wooden toys :P

Reflecting

So last Thursday the faculty was invited to a social dinner with the staff at YBC. After a wonderful evening talking to many different groups of teachers, it really hit home, that we would be leaving here in just about a month. It is exciting to know we will be headed to Sydney for the next trimester, but sad to leave all these people whom we have connected with during our stay. It made me realize that the exciting part of this job is also the hard part... moving on every 3 months.

The time in Stockholm has been pretty wonderful and this week was no different. This past weekend, we took the kids to see The Social Network. They all seemed to like the movie and enjoyed learning more about a tool they use every day. For them, Facebook has existed pretty much as long as they can remember. For the adults along with them, this was not always the case... for me it did not come about till college was long gone, but I can't imagine not having it to stay in touch with all my friends and family as I live away from home.

We have also had some visitors this week... Liz, Mike, Sally and Brad's wife Julie have all been around. It is nice to have some others around and see them at work as well. It is nice to be able to have face to face conversations. :)

Today, we had the most amazing guest lecturer, Tobias Rawet. He is 76 and a holocaust survivor. Even though I have heard a number of others speak in the past, each's story is so different. Tobias decided after he heard those talking about it never happening that after he retired at 60, he would dedicate time to sharing his story. He has been on the Swedish radio and tv as well.

Well it's off to bedtime now. Another week is on it's way.

My Does Time Fly

So life around here moves at exponential speeds sometimes. When we have our community meetings at the end of each week, it is often hard to recall all the wonderful experiences from the week. Of course you would think that would give me a lot to blog about... yes it should... but time becomes a factor as well as internet access. We have not had good luck recently where we live with a consistent signal. So tonight I am staying up late to at least give you the last week... there were many cool things the week before including a visit to the Swedish TV Studios, but alas I don't want to bore you too much.

Last week we visited Gotland, Sweden. We took a large ferry across the Baltic and we stayed in a former prison which is now a hostel. The rooms were ok, but walking outside to get to a bathroom was not the most fun. :P

The countryside was beautiful and you can see why people flock here in the summertime. Of course since the clocks were turned back the day before we left - yes Europe changed Oct 31st - it started getting dark pretty early.

It is only 16:28

Now it is 17:12

We started with a great early evening tour of Visby the old walled medieval city. Over the days there we checked out the local history museum where we saw old picture rune stones that showed that Vikings did not wear horned helmets. We raced “gotlandsruss” the special Gotlandic horse around a court with sulkies. Andrew came in 1st with Brad in 2nd.

We also saw many, many, many churches from the road and went into one and Janne our guide treated us to some beautiful songs. The acoustics were wonderful.

We even got to see the beautiful site where Ingmar Bergman is buried in Faro.

Then, the rain stopped to allow us to spend some time at the beautiful sea stacks.

Loving Pano on my iPhone

We had late lunch at a beautiful little hotel in Furillen and then made our way back to town seeing a few more sights along the way.

The last day was spent on a bike tour followed by lunch at the local university and Gotlandic games before taking the ferry back to Stockholm.  A good time was had by all and it was nice to see another part of the country.

The Week in Museums

This past week we had a couple of great museum visits. The first was to the Modern Art Museum. On the way, some of the kids were pretty negative about modern art, but after being asked to have an open mind to our speaker they listened. They still may not Iike art of the Modernism period (think Picasso till the 70's) but have a better understanding of why the works were done that way... showing feeling instead of realism and painting in a way that anyone could do and could make for themselves at home. Our guide was able to put the time period into perspective and of course the art as well.

Our second visit was to see the special exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors from China. One of the highlights of this visit was watching the students look at one of the signs and begin to recognize Mandarin characters on it. The sculptures were awe inspiring to me and the kids (and me) took many photos. The sheer size of the first set and then the miniature qualities of the second. The details we could still see and the ones we can no longer like the paint that wore away once exposed to the air and the clothes on the miniatures since the cloth had disintegrated.

Miniature Warriors

I had hoped to add a personal visit to see a chocolate exhibit this weekend at the Nordiska but that did not happen. Instead I relaxed and had a leisurely day today between brunch, yoga and the gym, I walked around the city and just kind of wandered.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Stockholm

A Successful Saturday

Today was a really nice day. After a good late afternoon and evening and night filled with lots and lots of sleep and a bit of tv watching, I woke up feeling well rested this morning. Who knew I was so tired... not me!

I had some breakfast and such with some of the kids and then went upstairs to look into some restaurants for dinner. I found a cool website called Book a Table which lets you book restaurant reservations for many cities in Europe including Stockholm. After a bit of research, I picked a place called Bauer in the trendy island of Södermalm.

Then it was time to go out and explore the city a bit... after I went and joined the gym. I decided to look into some cafes, all on the same street, I had read about in this cool little book Stockholm - inside out: A snapshot guide beyond the obvious which I found in a bookstore here. First on my list was the Classic Tea Room but when I arrived, I found that you need a reservation for lunch on a Saturday afternoon. It is a cute place so I was quite sad. Then I decided to go back to a place called Xoko where they had beautiful chocolate desserts though I was good and just had lunch this time. A wonderful pumpkin soup with fresh bread on the side and a beautiful latte macchiato which was served with a small jar of sugar... see how cute!

After a filling lunch, I decided to head on a nice walk (about 2 km) to find a knitting shop I am interested in, Garnverket. Along the way, I meandered into different shops and such. I found the place quite easily, but... it was already closed. There was a workshop going on inside just to tease me. I will go back as it looked like a great place and on some Thursday nights they have a knitting cafe.  Then it was time to head back to my room so I could relax for a bit and get ready for dinner.

Dinner was really wonderful... I had a beautiful dish of tuna with mango chutney and potato wedges and Marta had a beautiful dish of sushi. Marta and I had interesting conversation about the topic that keeps coming up.  Making connections with people when you are in a place for a short time. The same topic came up when I chatted with another friend on Skype later in the evening. Everyone has slightly different views, but we decided that it does require us to be more forward and maybe to live a bit outside of our typical comfort zone.  After dinner, we decided to walk up and down a bit of the main street of Södermalm and then walk back "home". It was a crisp night and we did stop for some dessert and hot chocolate along the way. Next time I will take a photo of the funky looking marshmallows they put on top. :) The walk was lovely and was a nice way to end the evening out. 

Back in my room, I decided to keep working on this great hat I am crocheting. I am testing out a pattern and will share it soon. Only a few more lines till it is done.

Hans Rosling and Statistics

Wednesday night Think Global School hosted an evening with Hans Rosling at Cirkus in Stockholm. It was an amazing event which you can see here if you missed it.

I enjoyed being present for the live event and also tweeting some great comments and a few photos along the way. It was interesting to read others Twitter posts during the event... some of the people were present, including some of our students, and others far away watching the live stream.

Hans Rosling has a way of making statistics relevant and fun. My favorite mathematical quote of the night was about those in poverty around the world. He said, "The percent of people in poverty were reduced, but the number of people in poverty is still the same." This idea has stayed with me even days later. His Gapminder software is a way to make statistics relevant and I want to use it in my math classroom. It is free software that makes use of the World Bank data bank. He is working to get the OECD to also give free access to their stats as well. He also reminded us to all look at the data and think for ourselves. It is very inspirational to hear him and for me put a new perspective on world questions and problems.

Musings on September

So it has been a couple of weeks... ok almost 3 since I have written. Life has been busy, but finally feels like it is settling in to some kind of rhythm... post scavenger hunts and special classes about photography and creativity.  We go regularly to our partner school YBC and they welcomed our students with a beautiful ceremony.

Their students have been buddied up and together they completed a video mashup this week exploring the similarities and differences between Sweden and where our students come from. It was a very cool thing to watch. 

I have found that we have many adventures over food. Everything from me cooking for 25... a well received wok dish courtesy of Kami Lewis Levin from one of her Girl Talk posts. One of mine was with chicken and one shrimp and tofu. 

To advisory dinners, to kids helping to prep to use getting use of a fabulous kitchen once a week to cook beautiful healthy meals. I mean look at the ingredients we picked from the fields for last weeks dinner.

We have also done some great other activities over the last few weeks... swimming, fencing, some early morning yoga taught by yours truly and so much more. We had some guest speakers as well as classes in museums and even one outside in a beautiful churchyard. TGS means the "classroom" is everywhere and can be at any time.  The days can be long, but they are rewarding. Stockholm is a beautiful place even with the cold and variable weather though we have had a beautiful stretch of sunny days in the past week.

I will try and be better to share my journey and adventures more often. I know by waiting so long, I miss many details and fun bits so I will try to post more often.

The First Days

The first day has come and gone and what an amazing day it was. All the staff spent the morning getting everything in place and ready for the students to arrive.

Everything was ready as the students and their parents/families began to arrive... even early :) The students are a really wonderful and diverse bunch. They got settled in and unpacked... and then played some innebandy (well an outdoor version of it anyway).

For the first dinner the parents joined the staff and students for a meal out. After our founders spoke and our head of school. One of the students brought a special treat to celebrate the start of something new. As we left the parents to walk back to the hostel, the students were talking and chatting.

Today, we had a wonderful Swedish style breakfast and then the iPhones were rolled out. Other schools give out textbooks, we give out iPhones which must be on the students at all times. :)  I love it!!

Listening to Mike help them set-up their iPhones

Lunch was out at an all you can eat Asian buffet. I sat with some of the boys and it was great to see them talk to each other and joke around. Some have been in touch via Skype before they arrived, but everyone is open to each other. They were exchanging info and texting and sharing their favorite apps all through the meal.  We also each received a wonderful little gift from Joann of a handmade bracelet made from these wonderful globe-like beads.

This afternoon the girls had meetings to determine their personal learning preferences to help them help themselves as we begin this wonderful journey together. Dinner was a fun and yummy meal prepared by Brad with help from the students... minestrone soup over bread with rosemary margarine. YUM!!! I decided to head out with some other TGS staffers while they had dinner to hang out. I came back and jumped into a webinar introducing Wolfram Alpha which is an awesome tool that we will use here at TGS along with other very cool tools.

Every moment I am with this group, I feel blessed to be a part of this magical journey. :)

Wilderness First Aid Training

What do you think of when you hear these words? I thought of us off way away from the city out in the woods learning first aid. So I was happy to find out that the "wilds" of Stockholm were only a short walk, a short bus ride and another short walk from downtown. So our [all 5 teachers and 2 interns from Think Global School] early morning journey began. As we left the bus, we came across another classmate Paula who together with Brad negotiated our way through the paths to bring us here:

to this lovely unheated cabin where we met Lena and Howie who would be our instructors for the 2 days. We also met our 2 other classmates Pär and Helene. I won't talk about how cold I was for the two days... just know I wore at least 3 layers and also a hat, scarf and gloves or mittens the whole time unless I was expertly (or not) caring for a "patient". As we began the course, it became clear to us that our instructors were not only well versed in this material, but also had first-hand knowledge of its use as they led long trips and expeditions.

We started by learning how to keep ourselves safe by checking out a scene for danger and how the person(s) may have been hurt, putting on gloves, and making sure we were safe first. Next up introducing ourselves to our patient and asking if they wanted help as well as finding the responsiveness of victims Then we could start using our ABCDE to make a quick assessment. [A = airway - checking if anything in the mouth, B = breathing, C = circulation or do they have a pulse & are they bleeding?, D = disability - especially if spine may be involved, and E = environment]

Throughout the process of learning the rest of the pyramid from above, we did lots of scenarios such as this one where Sherry had fallen and hurt her back. We learned how to hold her head in case of spinal cord injury.

As we learned each new skill we practiced it and discussed the outcomes and how it went. After our ABCDEs, we talked about the full head to toe exam - looking, asking and feeling... thankfully in our class we could just ask about the groin area and no actual exam was needed for this area. :) Also important were taking vital signs and getting medical history by asking lots of questions to be clear about the patients situation and background. This is all important when calling the professionals for help. Howie was great at making the victims realistic and it was a bit stressful to take care of someone when you did not know what happened.

Over the rest of day 1, we learned what to do for possible head injuries,

Marta puts my neck in a "collar" made from my extra sweatshirt.

how to move someone with a possible spinal cord injury, how to treat cuts, abrasions and even loss of something like a finger.  Howie was very "accident prone" and was "treated"many times.

Howie "lost" a finger so Lena helped treat him and the little patient.

The evening consisted of CPR with the latest regulations of 1:5 for breaths and 30:2 for chest compressions with breath.  Did you know that "Stayin Alive" was the perfect tempo for chest compressions? Neither did I till then. Check us out:



This fun brought us pretty much to the end of day 1. Day 2 brought more "fun" scenarios including burns and shock as well as splinting fracture and taping. Didn't I do a good job taping Sherry's ankle?

Then poor Andrew "fell" in the water and got a nail through his hand while trying to save Howie. We had to save them both from hypothermia by getting them dry and wrapping them like a human burrito to get them warm.

The last few scenarios included anaphylaxis and the need to use an Epi pen as well as seizures and a need for glucose with unresponsive patients and snakes around as distractions.

All in all, it was a lot of really useful information and tools that make us all feel safer about being out and about with kids. We laughed a lot and even had fun while learning.

First days in Stockholm

Now that the jet leg is mostly behind me and the real work has begun, I wanted to reflect. Overall it has been an amazing first few days. Thankfully after living camp style with 6 in the room, we are down to doubles which in another 10 days or so will be singles.

This place is easy to get to know and to get around. Food is good with lots of yummy choices. We all went out as a staff one night together for some yummy Italian food. I had a great pizza. Tonight some of the girls went for more Italian which turned out to be a bit pricier than we expected though very tasty!

We have been meeting to discuss more details and oh yeah; Monday morning we received our iPhones. It has been fun to use it to get around town. Google maps with gps is awesome for finding your way. It helped us with the scavenger hunt and to find the department store for buying a much needed hairdryer. Did I mention that it is COLD here?!? Ok well maybe not so much yet, but to this girl who was living in the Caribbean and then in NYC during the summer of heat, it is already UGGs weather to me.

Tomorrow we being the adventure of Wilderness First Aid training. Look back this weekend for all the fun and exciting details of first aid outdoors in the rain.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Luntmakargatan,Stockholm,Sweden

THINK Global School adventure begins

So yesterday afternoon I met Marta at Newark airport for our flight to Stockholm. All went well checking in and the like though we were sitting at opposite ends of the plane. The plane was filled with cardiologists and others in the field coming to town for a huge European Cardiology conference. I was sitting next to 2 women cardiologist from New Orleans.

So we land on time and get through passport control and then go to get our bags. So we come out to the carousel and... there are no more bags going around. We along with about a dozen others have to get on line to the missing baggage woman... yes there was only 1 at 08.00! she starts logging in the information and after us waiting almost an hour another woman comes. As we stand in line and lament what will do till tomorrow, a guy from the back of the line says he thinks he saw his bag outside. The new woman turns the conveyer belt back on and in come all the missing bags. Why he did not say something an hour earlier who knows, but thankfully all of our bags were there.

Aron met us outside and got us in a taxi to the hostel since he needed to stay and wait for Laura to arrive. So as I mentioned the town is packed with conference people and stuff has been booked for months so for the weekend at least all the girls are bunking together in one cozy hostel room. It should definitely be a bonding experience.

Took a bit of a walk around the posh area of town with Brad and then around the more regular area with Sherry. I am desperately trying to stay awake since I know this is the best way for me to combat jet lag. Monday I will get my last fun tool iPhone 4. Can't wait to start taking photos to share.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Stockholm, Sweden

Life in transition

My last week in Curacao was a wonderful time.  Yes I had to work, but also found time to hang with friends, have final meals together, listen to music, watch the World Cup and the like.. and suddenly it was time to leave.  I was sent off by 3 friends who came for a coffee at the airport and was met by 2 friends at the airport in the US.  What a great way to transition.


Since I have been back, there have been many events:

• Father's day with my dad for the first time in many years (In my defense, I do live overseas and have not been in the country.)
• Yoga in Central Park which was unfortunately thunderstormed out
• Yoga class in the City with the woman who will be my instructor for my 200 hour intensive training in July
• Lunch with one of my new colleagues in the City
• Some subway and express bus rides which always lets me know I am back in NYC

It has all been wonderful and I am looking forward to an exciting month ahead with my trip to Canada, yoga training and a sublet in Manhattan. :)

A week of Lasts...

Well my time here in Curacao is rapidly approaching its end.  Today was my last Sunday on the island. My last Sunday morning yoga class with Kirti (there will be a few more yoga classes during the week).  It has been a crazy couple of weeks giving exams, grading exams, finishing semester grades, collecting book and the myriad things that are part of the end of the school year.

Yesterday was a beautiful morning where a bunch of us leaving or moving had a group yard sale.  A bit was sold, but fun was had hanging out and relaxing in the shade. It is time to use up the foods in the kitchen and do a last purge so all my life will fit into a few suitcases which will come on the plane with me next Saturday afternoon.  This week definitely will be a time to hang out with the friends I have made and will not see often anymore.

It is a mixture of feelings wrapping things up. To help keep sane, I did Shred today before yoga. This was the first time in a week or so and it felt great!

30 Day Shred - Day 9 through 21

Sorry I haven't written, but life has been busy.  I have been fitting in Shred and yoga some days both and some days one or the other.  I even began doing Level 2 of the Shred.  Jillian is a bit nuts and it is serious hard work, but it was cool to go up and the one day I went back and did Level 1 instead it felt simple in comparison.  I still do not like jumping jacks... AT ALL, but they are easier to do.  Things were going along pretty well... one day of real sickness in the middle of this stretch, but good around.

But yesterday I hit a big fat wall!  I am trying to reach some big personal goals in yoga in order to take a teacher training course this summer and have hit the level of over load on my muscles. It was great on Wednesday when I was able to do a yoga handstand for the first time.  Imagine the huge smile on my face... my yoga teacher assures me it was there. Yesterday was not the same story... I somehow made it through my Vinyasa class, but am not sure quite how. 


Today, I woke up and decided to listen to my body. I took a slow alignment yoga class today to stretch out my sore body and am taking the next 2 days totally off! I will give myself time to repair and try NOT to beat myself up over it.  I will not let it derail me and will get back up on Sunday to Shred again.  I do miss Jillian telling me not to stop for 20 minutes each day. :)  See you on the mat on Sunday!

Math & Art together: Impossible motion: magnet-like slopes

I do not remember who sent this link, but I love the combination of math & art in this video.  It is very cool and worth a blog post.  I would love to have my students work on this kind of project next year!

30 Day Shred - Day 1 through 8

Well despite being sick this week I have pushed through and today will be Day 9 of my 30 Day Shred Challenge.  For those that think I am speaking some foreign tongue, I mean Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD.

A couple of days after I decided to add this to my yoga training to build strength I found through my wonderful PLN on Twitter that Shredheads way having a Challenge during the month of May and I joined in.  Even though I am a few days ahead, it is great to have people cheering you on.  I also have friends here in Curacao supporting my efforts and Judith even joins in some evenings.

Days 1 & 2 were the toughest and I still find the first circuit (3 min strength, 2 min cardio, 1 min abs) to be the hardest since my body is not warmed up yet. By days 4 & 5 I did find that I had more stamina and last night I was able to do the full version of butt kicks!

I have already noticed a difference in my level of strength and was able to do a headstand for the first time in yoga on Thursday evening.  I am on my way to hoping to be accepted in Om Yoga's Summer Intensive Yoga Teacher Training.  This is a great motivator to keep me going even while feeling a bit under the weather.  Last night Jillian got my sore back from being in bed all day off the couch/bed and moving a bit and also sweating out the nastiness inside.

Climbing Mt. Christoffel

This is the highest point on all of Curacao at 1239 feet (377 meters) at the very top.  In order to do this and not die of heat or sweat to death (at least for me), it means getting up before the sun - 5:00 am and meeting your friends at 5:30 am to drive to the mountain.  The Christoffel Park open at 6:00 am on Sundays.

We (Judith, Liz and I) arrived around and drove up into the park to the start of the trail. We started off around 7:00 am. I thought it was more hiking, but it turned out to be a bunch of climbing as well. Well Judith was right, the view was worth it at the top.  :)

Climbing down took a lot of concentration and work to place your feet without sliding down.  In the end, I am glad I did it, but once is enough for me. :)  Still I can't let it keep me from Jillian's 30 Day Shred: Day 3 which I will get to after the heat of the afternoon dies down.

Click here to check out all my photos.

Ants In My Pants! YIKES!

Ok well everywhere but them.  This week found me with an ant invasion in my closet... and my drawers.  They got into everything except my pants... maybe they don't like denim.  On the first day, I only noticed them in the closet... my tops and dresses, but they had spread to my drawers on the shelf next to the closet.  My not noticing allowed one of them got me in a very unpleasant place and I was not expecting it. Not only did I have to spray my closet to kill them all, they ate holes in some of my clothes. 

It took 2 days to deal with that part and then another morning to take all my clothes (Thankfully I have a much smaller wardrobe down here.) to the laundromat and wash, dry and fold them.  The folding took an hour in itself.

On an upside, I took it as a chance to do a first thinning of the clothes I will take with me from the island.  So one of the island community centers will begin its good fortune.  More will definitely be going there way over the next 7 weeks. :)

I have had enough of biting spiders and ants this week.  Yes spiders got me too.  It has been a bad week for allergies and bites.

THINK

So I got back last Monday evening and have been running ever since.  We have the NHS / NJHS inductions this Friday and all the background work for that.  The IB Art Exhibit was this past Saturday as well as MUN at school.  I also hosted a wonderful couple who will be teachers at ISC next year this weekend.  Now that I have a moment to breath, I wanted to go back and write and reflect on my time in New York City.... I love going to visit there!

I had an awesome time in NYC both with family and friends and meeting my new colleagues for next year!  I even got to check out Om Yoga which I loved and have now decided to apply for the intensive teacher training class this summer.  I also ate at Daisy Mae's BBQ for some really awesome food.

During my time with THINK Global School, I got to meet everyone from the teaching team and the administration as well as the founder.  We got to know each other a bit and hear some amazing guest speakers. There is a lot of work to do before next school year begins, but it is an energizing and exciting kind of work.  I am so excited to be working with this dynamic group of people who I am sure are also amazing educators.  From some of the initial ideas, I could see where we can go with each other and the students.

I am so happy that we were able to meet now and get a sense of who we each are and put names to faces.  It will make it much easier to collaborate from afar while in the planning stages.  From photos to dinner to meetings and discussion it was all great!  I am so looking forward to this adventure.

Lots of Travels - Miami & Bogota with lots of Art Deco

So a little over a week ago, I went to Miami to get away and help celebrate my friend John's big birthday!  We had a great time eating at places like Joe's Crab House and checking out the people watching in South Beach during both spring break and during a big music DJ festival.  I also managed a yoga class and a few Starbucks to feed my cravings.  It was even cool (down to 68 F at night) and I needed to use a comforter. :)  Check out some photos from Miami.

It was then back to work for a 3 days stretch which was a bit hectic due to a very late delayed plane returning on Sunday as well as the start of Passover (having a nice seder Monday night at my house with Judith and Barbara) and NHS invitations to students to apply all squished into 3 days.

Then Wednesday, a mere 1.5 hours after the school day ended, it was off to the airport to catch a flight to Bogota, Colombia.  I traveled with my friend Judith and we had a great 5 days.  Our first hostel Platypus did not meet our expectations at all.  Our room had smoke coming in from the courtyard as well as noise all the time and not really a double room. During our walk to dinner we noticed this cute Art Deco house.

Which turned out to be a really wonderful hotel Casa Deco where we stayed for the remaining 3 nights. 

We spent Thursday wandering around the downtown area to Plaza Bolivar and into Museo Botero as well as having some traditional food for a late breakfast showed by Liliana, the aunt of a nurse my father works with in NJ.  She and her husband also picked us up from the airport the night before.  Friday, after seeing a procession for the holiday downtown, I became an honorary Catholic as we waited in line to take the Funicular up Monserrate with all the pilgrims. Besides the tiring wait in line to go up and back down, it was a really neat experience.  There were even services at the church up top and a great view of even an overcast Bogota.

Saturday we decided to try and get to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum) but were instead lured by the shopping: found a great place for custom made shoes (Yes of course I bought a pair for my really big feet), a really nice bookstore and looking at the artisan work as well.  We met up with Liliana and her daughter who took us to one of the big malls north of downtown on our way to Chia to Andres Carnes de Res an amazing restaurant and experience that is not to be missed.  (All our friends and colleagues were right.)

Sunday was a bit quieter with us finally making it to Museo del Oro and being blown away by the gold.  We also checked out another great bookstore as well as some street art.  We came back to the hotel for a lesson on Emeralds (& a small bit of buying).  One of the owners, Gianpaolo,  of the great hotel who is there all the time as well was for 20 years and still is an emerald broker and can be found in "Emeralds, A Passionate Guide".  He gave us a great introduction to the stones and I found a cute small pair to make some earrings from. If only I had some more money, I would have bought a few stones. I have a new love and appreciation for emeralds.  We then went to dinner at Club Colombia one of the Harry Sasson restaurants.  This place was rccommended and I agree.  The food was really good and the staff as well. They even called us a taxi to the door to take us home.

Sadly we had to check out and come home today.  The city was alive and very different from its sleepy self over Semana Santa.  We brought back a few enveultos and enjoyed one for dinner back here in Curacao.  I would highly recommend traveling to Colombia and can't wait to go back and see more of this beautiful country.

My week in Curacao (no gas, rolling blackout & the Talent Show)

So this week has been an interesting one for living here.  The refinery went on strike so the island had no gas for a few days... thankfully I had just filled my tank last Sunday.

Then the power plant started having trouble and we had rolling blackouts.  Wed night I came home and at 7pm had no power.  After freaking out I remembered that I had a few candles around.  I had not gotten to eat dinner yet. I am still finishing catching up on my online class grading and will finish this evening. 

This week (yesterday in fact) was the ISC Talent Show. The NHS (I am advisor) & NJHS students did such a great job and I am so thankful for my wonderful co-worker and NJHS advisor Kim. We had walk throughs Tue and Wed afterschool and dress rehearsal Fri from 12:30 - 5:30pm.  The show went very well last night.  I will add some pictures later when I get them. Yoga thankfully helped to keep me relatively sane.

Meat and the Harbor

It sounds like the title of a bad novel, but really just 2 parts of my last weekend of Karnaval vacation. 

Friday night I went with a group of people from work as well as their respective visitors (since I had none of my own) to a place called Equis.  It is only open on Friday nights and serves beef, chicken and booze (with a side of bread).  There is no silverware, but lots of napkins.  You run in to grab a table and order your skewers of meat: all beef, all chicken or half & half.  For the nine of us we got 3 beef, 2 half and half and 1 chicken.

 

The food was great and the company too.  I would definitely like a return visit before I leave here.

The harbor tour was a bonus for me since Judith invited me to join her and her parents.  The Curacao Maritime Museum does these tours when there are enough people.  They take the group out on one of the ferries around the harbor from the water side.  Even the refinery (Isla) looks neat from this view.  We saw the shipping and docks up close as well as ships and where they pump the oil.  A fun tour (even though it was mostly in Dutch) and a definite must see in Curacao.

Karnaval Korsou 2010

So despite being a bit under the weather, I woke at 8 am on a Sunday to pick up my friend Judith and meet my friend Jonathan and his parents (who are visiting) to head down to see the Grand Marche of Karnaval.  It happened to coincide with Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year this year.  This meant lots of people wearing red and a really cool Chinese dragon to end the parade.

We met up at 9:30 am to head down the Insel Air tent we arranged (paid for) to be at for the day.  We strategically decided to park along the shoulder of the ring road (major highway here) for easy get-away later in a spot that turned out to be a short walk downhill to our stand. This included seats, shade, food (breakfast, snack, lunch, another snack) and real toilets. It also included the lovely tshirt you see Jonathan and his parents (and all the others in the stands) sporting.

Being that this is Curacao we should have known we could arrive hours later than it opened and even hours later than we were told it would take to get the parade to us.  The parade did not arrive in front of us till around 4 pm, but the people watching was really good and the company too!  The parade had a lot of live music with the groups which was very cool (though still very loud).  The hats and costumes were all interesting and wonderful, but I am glad I was not the one having to wear them all day long. 

There turned out to be 34 different groups in the parade.  Some were smaller than others and by the end we needed some lights to see them.  The finale was a group celebrating Chinese New Year and started with a great dragon.  

I did not get pictures of the rest due to the fading light. We made a quick get-away at the end with a short walk back uphill and great parking and I dropped Judith off in short order.  It was nice to come home to silence, but it was a great day and an experience I am glad I had! If you want to see more photos: http://gallery.me.com/digeller#100110