The first day of school was Wednesday, but I only had 1 class that day, so it really did not feel like the first day of school. Today I taught all 4 of my classes, so it finally felt like I was back in teaching mode. The kids seem terrific, and by that, I mean that they laughed at my jokes. All my AP Psychology kids are seniors and Geography is a 10th grade class. I am feeling very at home and looking forward to the teaching year. I have 25 students in each Psych class and about 15-18 in each Geo class, so it's like teaching half of what I had in McKinney. Tim and I also share an advisory group of 9 sophomores, several ofwhom are in my Geography classes, so I will get to know those kids quite well. I think the school tries to move the advisors up with the grades, so we will develop really good relationships with those students by the time they are seniors. Tomorrow, I have an HOD meeting in the morning and only teach 2 classes in the afternoon.
Before you go hating on me, would it help to know I already have an upper school dance duty tomorrow night? Okay, it's from 7PM to 9PM, so I'm not sure it really counts as a "Homecoming" duty, but we are so interested to see how it goes.
We were going to go to 'Happy Valley' on Saturday with our friend Kaycie on Saturday. Kaycie brought Cassidy over and has been staying with us for a few days. She has decided to be very brave and go off to visit Delhi and Agra before she returns to the US, so we will have to put off the trip to Happy Valley until maybe mid-term break in October. Happy Valley is also known as Dharamsala, the home of the exiled Tibetan community in India. Apparently we are only about a half hour's taxi ride away and it is beautiful and clean. I want to go after monsoon ends. We are not planning any kind of big trip over the mid-term break, but might take a couple of day trips or head over to Srinigar, the "Venice of India". We've been told that we can travel so cheaply in India, that we should plan at least a 3 week trip over the Winter Break. We will still have several weeks at home, given that our break is about 8 weeks long. Most staff head south because it will be freezing here.
Who knows where we will end up. Right now, I am fascinated by Rajastan. Agra, Jaipur and Jodpur are all pretty high on my list of places to go, but Goa is apparantly amazing. Tim just told me he wants to go to Cambodia, so we really do not have a clue right now.
We are doing really well. Our little apartment is sweet and we are all here now and getting used to hiking/walking everywhere. Monkeys have stopped us in our tracks. We have favorite places to go and eat. We are making new friends and missing our friends at home. School will keep us busy and happy, we think. We have clean water, laundry facilities, and groceries delivered to our kitchen. Things are good, even as our emotions can vary greatly throughout any given day. There are so many good people here who seem to care so much about the students and about each other. Cassidy is taking Hindi and making new friends. My heart breaks when I read the news, and I am so grateful to be so protected and so lucky. Our hearts are full. So, all of you at home, take good care of each other!