Pirates in Peru

Well here we are again at the start of another week! This weekend has been full of craziness and God's blessings! Since you most likely don't know about my friends over seas, let me fill you in. The college system I graduated from has a great deal of student missionaries sent overseas every year. Currently, my brother's girlfriend is in Peru working in a medical clinic. She is a certified dentist in Peru after about a day of practice at pulling pig's teeth and deadening other missionaries gums!

Here is her page in case you're interested: http://laurensmission2010.blogspot.com/. Unfortunately the good pictures are all on Facebook, I don't think she wanted to gross anyone out on her blog!

ANYWAY, there are also some other girls I know serving as missionaries, although I didn't know they were missionaries until I heard about what happened to them this weekend. If you want to read the full article it is here: http://www.ucollege.edu/news/2010/10/08/student-missionaries-unharmed-after-pirate-incident.

Essentially, they were coming back from a trip upriver and were 'attacked' by river pirates. Thankfully, they were completely unharmed, only being stripped of passports and the like. While this is still a bad situation, it is better than their being killed or raped.

SO TO THE MEAT! Today at school I brought the incident up at prayer time, especially since my bro's girlfriend's parents are talking about not letting her go back to Peru after what happened to these other girls. Later, the kids were wanting to know about pirates. Of course, they had all the usual questions. "Is it like Pirates of the Carribean?" "What do they do to you when they catch you?" "Why do they want to catch you in the first place?"

After spending a great deal of time attempting to explain the pirate situation, some of my Karen students said the following "There is no way they are as bad as Burma pirates! They will hang you!" PRICELESS! It was so funny that they would say that, but so characteristic of the life they left. They know 100% the situation in Myanmar (which they taught me how to pronounce by the way, it is mee-uhn-MAH, whereas I always thought it was My an mar just as it is written. The kids say "English don't know how to say anything right!") and they know why they are here instead of there.

It is so refreshing to have immigrants who WANT to be here, even though it isn't there home. They are appreciative of what they have here, safety being #1!

Awww...another day in the life!

The day I hit two different kids in the head!

So today I was apparently on rampage against my students (unbeknown-st to me!).

During PE we were learning how to play a version of softball. The ball we were using is similar to a softball, only much larger and even softer. These balls are designed to be playable without gloves, enabling the players to catch with bare hands without injury. I was teaching the students the rudiments of passing from base to base. The students were all in the outfield and covering bases. I was pitching to myself and batting the ball to them. On the last bat, the ball made a beeline for the first base. It bounced on the ground right in front of the first grader who was on first and hit her square in the nose! Of course her eyes watered immediately and the sting was as sharp as could be. That was number one.

Later, we were doing some work in the classroom and I was patrolling to make sure things were going well. I walked past one student who was tipping his chair. I had been warning the students not to do this for the past several weeks. Attempting to do something my teachers used to do, I quickly slipped my foot under his chair and tipped him over. True to my skills, he of course hit a neighboring desk on the way down! And that was number two...

SIDE NOTE:

This is totally out of context, but I want to record it somewhere! I got a haircut the other day. My hair went from being down to my behind to between my shoulders with cheekbone-length bangs. The first day, my students told me I looked scary with my new hair because when I bent over my bangs fell in front of my face! Ha ha! Kids are so crazy honest!

To catch you up on my life...

NOTE TO READERS: "MISS INES" is not the true name of the teacher who I replaced.

This year I took my first job as a teacher. I am fresh out of college with my bachelor's degree, and super excited to learn everything I missed in college (which I would NEVER say, but it is somewhat true as the only extremely productive semester was my student teaching being that I am an extremely Kinesthetic learner).

On my first day of school I had a student tell me in no uncertain terms that I was boring! I teach grades 1 through 4 (yes, all of the grades together all day long)! He did it rather diplomatically, telling me that another teacher "always tries to do something interesting". After crying my eyes out I laughed my head off, as it was truly hilarious!

My first couple of weeks were rather stressful, as I had to hear from the students how the other teacher used to do this or that. It is exceptionally hard at a school like this because there are only three teachers for grades PreK to 8th, and if they stay as long as my predecessor (about 5 years or more) then the students become both attached and unused to change. This has its benefits, but when change does happen (especially with a brand new teacher like me) it is all but catastrophic!

Those first few weeks my students and I butted heads on everything. I stood my ground, though rather more dishearteningly than I should have. They attempted to correct me in almost every facet of the school day. I was told "Miss Ines did this..." during worship songs. I heard "Miss Ines did this..." during reading time. I was informed "Miss Ines let us play games." during math. I was directed "Miss Ines let us have free time." during PE. And on and on and on!

I was so sick of hearing "Miss Ines" by the first two weeks I wanted to scream!!!

Thankfully that has passed, and other than the occasional desire to goof off (i.e. play board games all day) my students and I are beginning to get along.

I have to say, the only thing that managed to get me through those awful weeks was the fact that I was 700% sure that God has sent me to this place, and this is where He has a mission for me. I prayed often (and still do) that God would hold me steady and make me be the teacher He crafted with His own hands!

Officially Titled

I am the WORST blogger ever! I really want to keep this thing going, but it appears I'm going to have to kick this in gear! Thankfully I can write some things about my new job...TEACHING! I have plenty of stories...so they will be coming soon...most likely along with more posts like my first!

Times of Old

Isn't it funny how everyone has their own idea for the perfect life? I am such a sucker for romantic ideals that I am always daydreaming about times past; times that seem perfect. Perfectly exciting, perfectly romantic, perfectly adventurous and perfectly perfect!

My favorite books contain adventure, true love (which I can't help saying like "twoo wuv" after watching The Princess Bride), happily ever afters and most importantly, antiquity. My favorites are as follows:

1.) The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

If I ever had to choose a hero to fall in love with or a heroine to meet it would be the ones from this book! Sir Percy Blakeney is such a dashing hero, carrying on his work for God, country and the "poor French wretches" even as it costs him the passion of his true love and very near costs him his life! Marguerite is a brilliant woman who loves her husband and desires only to reach him as the lover of old. The dedication each character presents for the other is almost enough to make me swoon!

2.) Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe makes my list second only because I read this book after The Scarlet Pimpernel and because Ivanhoe does not love Rowena as deeply or singly as Percy loves Marguerite! Even so, Ivanhoe is a decadent story that portrays the values of ancient days and demonstrates the vast chivalry of an outcast knight. One of the elements that adds greatly to this story is the "hidden" characters which accompany you through most of the story, only revealing their true identity near the end of the book. Throughout the tale you ride along with Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, King Richard and Ivanhoe himself, seeing a different take on their personalities that causes you to wonder their significance to the story!

3.) Persuasion by Jane Austen

The main reason this book is listed before my other favorite Austen work is that I hate how "commonly favorite" Pride and Prejudice has become since the onset of the modern movie! I hate sharing an awesome book with so many people who have no idea what it is really like!

Anyway, this book makes my heart jump at the prospect of marrying a sea captain! Captain Wentworth is an intense man who loved one woman very deeply. Unfortunately they have been separated by the pride of her family, a pride that has PERSUADED her to turn down Wentworth's proposal of marriage! Several years later (7 or 8 I think), Wentworth is back, and the tension is high! The love that these two characters feel for each other can be felt throughout most of the book, whether you are aware of it or not! The letter that Captain Wentworth writes to Anne is the most beautiful thing ever! I read it sometimes just to make myself tear up at its sweetness and desperation!

"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in

F. W.

"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."

Even now it is almost enough to make me cry!

4.) Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Ahhhh...On to my absolute favorite Jane Austen work! To be honest, one of the reasons that it is my favorite has nothing to do with the work itself! When I was a teen, my best friend and I always talked about meeting handsome young men and one day marrying them! We each took on our Austen persona, based on the man from Pride and Prejudice we wanted to marry (for had we our choice we could have easily married most if not all the male characters from Jane Austen's work!). As it were, she has the more lighthearted personality and thought that she would much prefer Mr. Bingley (who I considered a pathetic scrap of a map with a goofy sounding face) to the more intense and deeply touching Mr. Darcy (who would, I might add, fit me perfectly should he ever choose to materialize...).

To this day (she is married...to one I often consider more of a Mr. Collins) we still label cards and e-mails to each other to Mrs. Darcy or Mrs. Bingley. Some days I think she has her Bingley, and others I don't. I have gone through periods of viewing the relationship as Jane and Bingley and times when I feel more strongly that they are like Charlotte and Collins, together because they could find no other...which makes me long all the more for a true Mr. Darcy!!!

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All in all I'm a hopeless romantic, and I long to meet someone who can love and appreciate me to at least some of the credit the great classic authors gave men...