Culture!

Living in a new culture or even just a different culture always presents its challenges. The one that has struck me lately is the whole how a guy shows interest in a girl and how he treats a girl. If a guy sees a pretty girl in the states, he might stare, but rarely will he say anything. Here, the guy might whistle, yell words in English and Spanish--pretty, I love you, marry me... you name it. You will also get stared at up and down. Sometimes I can convince myself it's a compliment. Other days it just drives me crazy! For example, there's a guy at school who sometimes picks up one of the boys I had last year. He's an uncle or friend or something. The other day he started talking to me and asked for my phone number and said there was nothing wrong with going to a movie, having ice cream, etc. Of course, I think there is a lot wrong with that if the guy is at least 10 years older than you and you know nothing about him! I did NOT give him my phone number, but now I am afraid every time I see him. He seems to pick up the kids a lot more now too! Thankfully he has not talked to me, but he did stare at me pretty bad today. You would think at a Christian school I would be a little more safe from that... I guess not. Oh well.

Well, things that make me smile? That's much better...

One of my little boys called me last night just to tell me he practiced running for the mile run they did in PE today. He also reminded me to bring my tennis shoes to run with them. I love that he called me just to tell me that!

I was out talking to Amanda when she was on recess duty with the first and second graders yesterday. One of the little first graders was eating cookies and gave her a piece of one. He didn't give me one, but I still told him he was nice to share. A little while later, I felt something slide into my back pocket and saw him run away. He had stuck a small piece of cookie in my pocket! Kids are so funny!

I went back to the throat doctor today. He said the nodules are gone and it looks really good! Praise the Lord! Now the hope is to keep them away. Please pray that the Lord would show me the best way to prevent them from coming back.

Well, may you see those little things in life that make you smile today. God is good!

Smiles!

Woah, three days in a row! This is a record! Happy first day of December. I was just talking to a friend today about how when your students have a great day, it's easy to have a great day. The challenge is having a great day when they are not behaving! Thankfully today they did pretty good. The things that brought smiles to my face today?

We were working on changing singular nouns to plural nouns--pretty easy stuff for them. So I had them read the rules and the new words in their best "bossy" voices. It was hilarious! One of them sounded like Kermit the Frog. Not quite sure how that is bossy, but it was sure cute!

One of my little boys is a crazy athlete! He did 53 push ups (AMAZINGLY good ones) in two minutes! He was so proud of himself! It made me smile to see how excited he became. And these were not just silly kid push-ups--he was doing the real thing!

The gym. I love the music they play and how everyone starts to dance to it. Can you say YMCA anyone? Yes, it's hilarious. I was DEFINITELY NOT in a YMCA gym.

Well, it's off to lesson planning. Let's hope those smiles stay on. May you take joy in the little things today :).