Think like a proton and stay positive.

Today is Sri Lanka day! I am so unbelievably excited to go whale watching and see some elephants! My brain is mostly in vacation mode. I have been having a really good week school wise. I feel like some things are starting to get on track. And now I feel more like a teacher and less like a kid wearing grown up clothes.

The Royal Palms Beach Hotel is where we are staying! Right on the beach. I cannot wait to relax by the water with my kindle. 

I finally updated my bulletin board in the hallway for the first time in months. And now I have 2 months to come up with another creative idea before I have to change it again!

Big shoutout to Dav for the witty title! Otherwise it was just going to be called Shape Pizzas.

It is nice when a foreign place starts to feel more like home. It really does make a world of difference. And when you gain some confidence in areas of your work, that feels pretty awesome too. I feel like my tunnel vision has gone down a little and I remember to actually enjoy the kids and talk to them... get to know my teacup humans! They are stuck with me for 180 days after all, might as well make the most of it.

We have had some interesting weather lately here in Doha. A few days in a row we had insane amounts of fog. And it actually caused a lot of car accidents. Not surprising with the maniacs on the roads here. The best part was that we did not have to give out any tardy slips those days! The fog was so thick. It kind of reminded me of the fog from Catching Fire. Except you know it was not poisonous and people didn't die when they walked through it.

Spooky fog

For 3 mornings straight this was the view

Meanwhile the weather at home has been pretty exciting too! They got a hefty amount of snow and I eagerly shared pictures and videos friends and family sent me to my students. They absolutely loved it and were happily exclaiming how much they wanted to go play there! They especially loved the video of adorable Xian Xian the panda rolling around in the snow. I got a care package from home this week! Harry Potter souvenirs from HP World- I drink from my butterbeer mug every morning. And also lots of junk food because I make fantastic life choices. Animal crackers ginger snaps, Kraft macaroni and cheese (Spongebob and TMNT shaped!) Life is good.

Like I said school has been good. Parts of it were sad because I had 2 students leave my class because they went back to their home countries. One family was so incredibly kind they even took me out to dinner one night. I will miss them so much. However they did say I am more than welcome to visit them over the summer so I may have to take them up on that!

It is exciting to see how much growth some of the kids have made. One child in my class went from recognizing only 10 capital letters and 4 lowercase letters to knowing all but 3 letters. And it is just so exciting to see them read. I think about when I first put a book in front of them and they stood there reading each individual sound of the words and now they are reading books with multiple sentences on them. Some of them of course are still on books like "I can see the cat. I can see the dog." But everyone moves at different speeds and I am confident that by June they will be where they need to be for first grade. We have also begun writing sentences. We talked about how each sentence has to have 4 parts: begin with a capital letter, finger spaces, a period at the end, and written neatly.

Sentence number 2 put a little smile on my face. 

People keep telling me that this is not only an incredible work experience but also life experience. And it really is starting to hit me now how true this is. When I work with so many different types of people and see and meet new people all the time, I realize how special and rare this opportunity is. If I had stayed in New Jersey and took on another year of subbing (maybe I would have finally gotten a long term sub position) and interviewing and submitting hundreds of resumes and not taken this huge leap- my life would be so different. I am giving myself a big pat on the back for taking this huge risk. Because there have definitely been moments where I questioned myself and wondered if I made a huge mistake. Teaching itself is hard but teaching in a foreign country in the desert? Definitely challenging. But I am happy to be here and so grateful for all the people I have met here.

There is a Facebook group called When, Where, and How in Doha. Sometimes people post pictures on there.
 This was one of my favorites.

Awesome shot of the skyline. 

Tonight at 10:40 my flight leaves for Colombo in Sri Lanka! I promise to update with many pictures and stories about my adventures!

Kalutara, Kandy, and Mirissa here I come!