Re: Stories from the Front Lines

I walked into work the day after my distressing teaching experience to find a new star posted on our Teacher Bio wall. Thanks to the Hinsdale team for adding me to their ranks, even though my bio is slightly less kosher than all the rest. We keep it in the office so as not to worry our clientele.

Holland Adventure

Last weekend Mike and I went to Holland to see Jen, Kevin and Elinore. It was quite an adventure. We got there around 6 pm Friday night and then went out to eat at 84 E. It was scrumtulescent and really nice to get a chance to sit down and talk. When we got back we played some team sequence and then decided to turn in. Unfortunately, Mike wasn't feeling too well and ended up spending the night sick with food poisoning...and by sick I mean like SICK he spent the majority of the night in the bathroom, it was bad news bears. Saturday, he was feeling a little better and kept food down and we even took a walk to the beach. It was nice, when we got back we had some dinner and then Kevin and Jen went to something that was being put on the Holland High, so Mike and I were babysitting Elinore. He's just too cute with her, whenever he'd hold her he was soo afraid he was going to break her but of course he didn't. This picture was from when we were putting her to bed, he read her The Giving Tree and then we proceeded to both fall asleep on the couch for about a half hour, and then he went to bed because he had had so little sleep the night before. We all woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and he felt 100% better, too bad we left that afternoon. And when we got back we discovered that about 12 other guys from Mike's fraternity had gotten food poisoning also. So, even though he got sick and what not, it was fantabulous to see Jen and Kevin and Ella, we'll definitely have to make the trip again and hopefully next time there won't be any illness.

Stories from the Front Lines

March, March, yet another month of learning and bloopers on the job. Here's a rundown:

1. I recently left this message for a woman who called to inquire about our programs:
".... give us a call back at ***.***.**** (pause) Oh God. That's my home number. Please don't call that."

2. Just today I spoke with a VERY inquisitive mother who was asking very complex and specific tuition calculations as well as detailed logistics questions about summer programs. She must have called 3 times with more questions. The last time she called, my coworker answered and when she mentioned who was calling, I had my back to her. As I reached for the phone I said "greeeeaaaaaaat. I hope she's calling to ENROLL this time!" And when I turned around, Kelly had a horrified look on her face as she frantically indicated that the receiver was live and the woman had probably heard my response. Note to the public: Help your coworkers save a little face, and put a person on HOLD when you pass them off. PS-Her tuition for 10 weeks of summer programming came to $1182. She called back to ask if that was the per week rate. I nearly choked.. this is not boarding school!

3. One Thursday morning when I was the only director covering the center, our substitute Spanish teacher got his signals crossed and went to the wrong location. We were 5 minutes into the class when we realized he would be arriving VERY late, and with no other alternative, I grabbed the session plans and the Spanish teacher whose program didn't start until 9:15 and said, "Quick! You have 3 minutes to train me in teaching a class." In a flash she taught me how to lead 2 activities, and sent me into the room of seven particularly active 4 and 5 year olds waiting for my teaching expertise. I began the first activity where I pulled prizes out of a bag for the children to claim. (This is to get them to practice saying "I want such and such, please" in Spanish) Of course, the first prize I pulled out of the bag nobody wanted. Nor the second. Nor the third. Crap. Finally I dumped the contents of the bag on the floor and made them pick what they wanted. Part II of this activity was then to go around to get them to say what they had. When I started leading the prompt.. "Who has the ... " I realized that all the prizes where things like magnifying glasses, skateboards, chinese yo-yos, all things I have NO IDEA how to say in Spanish! The panic set in and I began to sing "Who has the thing, who has the thing..?"

Meanwhile there is a parent actually KNOCKING on the door of my classroom with 7 on-the-edge 4 year olds, to ask to speak to the director. (Sidenote: When I followed up with her later to find out what was so urgent, she informed me she just wanted to schedule her daughter's make up!) There are children telling me in English that they have to go to the bathroom, and seeing how I, as the director and not normally IN a classroom, am normally the one to escort the children to the bathroom, I had to get a mom out of the lobby to take the children. I finally get them to the table to eat snack and I try to drag it out as long as possible. I gave them all as many goldfish as they wanted, but soon I had some children still at the table eating, others climbing onto their chairs, running around the room, screaming, crashing into walls, CHAOS. And sweet Monica in the adjoining room with her Parents and Tots class is trying to help me by signing through the window while keeping the parents from looking through it! It was 9:40 and the missing substitute still had not arrived.

I had to move on, even though I had NO idea what to do. I hoped I would think of something during the 2 second walk to the carpet. Nothing came. One little girl told me she would just sit at the table since she wasn't feeling well. I made the rest get in a circle and make the circulo GRANDE and circulo PEQUENO. They all looked at me confused because we'd already done this as a warm-up activity. Meanwhile little Meg, sitting at the table, pipes in "Teacher, you're doing it wrong! This isn't how Spanish class goes!" WELL, NO KIDDING. Finally just before 10, the teacher arrived, and I bolted.

After I took some deep breaths I went into the office to call a non-Spanish speaking coworker in management and tell my story. He laughed as he told me of his experience getting stranded in a class with 18 children and a parent staring at him. He, of course, jumped right in with.. "Raise your hand if you have a birthday this month!" 4 little hands went up into the air. My coworker then proceeded to lead the group in singing "Feliz cumpleanos a ti (Happy Birthday).." 4 TIMES. Thank GOD the teacher had arrived by the end. I guess it can always be worse.


They say that an idle mind is the devil's playground (or something like that), so at least I don't have to worry about that! Boredom at work is definitely not high on my list of concerns.

Oh, Grandma!

Some of you should have gotten the link to all of the pictures. Here are a couple I couldn't resist. Grandma with her two newest Great Granddaughters, and Aunt Barby playing with Elinore. We had such a wonderful weekend. I'm so glad we made it out and were able to see everyone. Everytime I go to Long Island I am a bit jealous that they all get to live there. It is such a neat place. However, then I try to drive somewhere, and I am grateful I don't have to do that very often. I like Michigan better anyway!
 

Well here it is, my hair post haircut...I suppose I could've taken pictures before hand, but you can use your imagination...it's good for you :-D

Weekend with friends.

We spent this past weekend with our dear friends Megs and Alan. As the snow melted, tempereatures rose, and the sun shone, we enjoyed the company of our friends. We ate heartily, relaxed, played some games, and carried many conversations. Elinore was wonderful. She chilled in her snuggly on our walk. Later the guys made snowballs with some of the remaining snow and tried to hit the canoe across the pond. It took them quite a few tries before either of them succeeded. After such a great weekend, it is hard to part with them.
 

I would aslso add:

Harry Potter IV
A professional massage

My Birthday List

Finding Neverland (DVD)
Peter Pan 2003 (DVD)
Seabiscuit (DVD)
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Soundtrack
A horse (for real)
Putumayo music
earrings

Grampa!

Elinore loves spending time with her grandpa! I think she's sucking her thumb in every picture we got of her that weekend.

Mom and Dad, I'm glad you came for a visit. We had a great time! 

Satisfaction

I finished my quilt today!! Yippee! 

More Sad News

Well, I found out today from Mom that Pebbles is in the beginning stages of renal failure and we are not sure how much longer she is going to be with us. I'm not going to lie, I feel like our family is sort of falling apart...at least the furry ones anyway. I'm very sad

Elinore, the trooper

Thanks for meeting us for dinner, Mom, Dad, and Cait. It was great to see you (and to have something to do for those boring 6 hours). As we told you, our trip to Thailand was great!! I've posted a bit more on our own blog site (follow the link to the right). Elinore was such a trooper. She learned how to sleep just about anywhere and spent a good part of everyday in her snuggly. All of the clothes you sent us were worn and we were grateful to have such summery things to dress her in. Kevin was especially glad she had a couple outfits that were not pink!

Giant Feet in a Small World

Considering this was my third trip to Chile, don't get me wrong, but I didn't expect to "discover" very many things about Chilean culture. I guess I somewhat smugly assume that I am an "old hand" when it comes to Santiago. However, I was able to spend just enough time down south to not be overwhelmed by the differences, but be amazed at how I'd overlooked them on my previous visits.

#1. (And this was not so much a discovery as a confirmation/reminder of a previous discovery) US Rules of the Road DO NOT APPLY in Chile. Lanes are mere suggestions to motorists, and in fact, really have nothing to do with turning at intersections. You are free to turn left, right, or continue straight ahead from whichever lane you choose in Santiago. Rolling down your window while the light is red to inform the other driver that you will be turning in front of him or her is considered good etiquette, but is by no means necessary. One will use judgment however when deciding whether or not to turn in front of the big yellow micros.

#2. When Angela, Irache, and I went to the mall in search of wedding outfit accessories, the food court at lunch time was packed. (You'll notice the wonderfully traditional fast food joints that we could choose from) I followed as they searched out a table with 3 chairs and 1 old man sitting peacefully, finishing his lunch. My heart began to beat wildly as Irache sat down at the table next to the man, Angela pulled out a chair for me, and then Angela stood near the man waiting for him to finish so she could take his seat. I was appalled by my friends' rudeness in pressuring the poor man to choke down those empanadas, until I realized that this must be normal behavior. Knowing that Chileans and Americans have different concepts of personal space should have made this not quite so momentous, but it was a phenomenon that I somehow missed before.

#3. The world is not too small to meet the student who is currently staying with your host family (in CHILE, I might add) and find out he is from Naperville.

#4. Being an ambassador of the US Culture can range anywhere from refusing to be silent when it becomes clear that Chileans do not understand the "YMCA" (I was horrified to observe that those brave souls who did not walk off the dance floor when the YMCA began to play, all waved their arms around during the "Y.... M.. CA", but did not make the letters!!), to teaching your host brother the art of the S'MORE. (Everything was authentic except the campfire)

#5. (And this was shocking indeed) According to Chilean standards, I have GIANT feet. I don't mean to say large, I mean GIANT. Now for those of you who are scrolling back up to see if my feet have made it in any of the pictures, let me just say that I wear a US size 8. That's just about as average as they come. HOWEVER, while shopping for shoes in Santiago I was discouraged to find out in the first few stores that when I asked for a particular shoe in a size 38-39, the shoe attendant looked at me a little surprised and shook his head no. Angela ended up walking into every store before I even started looking at their shoes to ask if they even carried anything in a 39. When finally they would say yes, she would ask them to just bring whatever they had. Oh the shame! I eventually was able to find a winning shoe, but I will think twice before taking these colossal feet for Chilean outfitting again any time soon.

As Jen and Kevin recently said in reference to their trip in Thailand, the best travel stories come when things go wrong. I could tell you all about the wedding, the beach, the 90 degree weather, the ice cream, the sea lions, the kiwi, pear, papaya, strawberry, raspberry, apricot, peach, and cactus fruit nectar I got to drink on a daily basis, but that's not nearly as fun as recreating the moments when I found my inner-self shouting "What is going on?!"

Funny Story

This made me laugh.

So I went to Target a little while ago to get a new tote bag, as I have decided to deactivate from Delta Gamma, and can not use the bag with letters on it. I had seen some bags I liked at the Target at home for laptops, so I went to go see what they had. I found one I really liked it had a spot for the computer, things for pencils and what not it was perfect. So I grabbed it as well as some chips and stuff for that fantastic chili dip for super bowl sunday and then I checked out. When I got back to my house I was looking over the reciept and realized that the bag I had just bought rang up as a diaper bag. I was SOOO confused because I had gotten it in the laptop accessories isle, so I looked at the tag attached to the bag and read what the contents were: a changing mat, insulated bottle bag, a dirty diaper bag...I opened it to see there is in fact a changing pad, bottle bag, and dirty diaper holder. However, my laptop DOES in fact fit in the bag, and if I didn't tell you it was a diaper bag you would never know. I was expecting it to cost me somewhere around $25 but amazingly it only cost $6!!! What a find, I'll be sure to pass the bottle bag, dirty diaper carrier, and the changing mat to Jen and Kev when they return from Thailand.

Growing Like a Weed

I just wanted you all to know how little Elinore is growing. She had an appointment today! She weighs 11#4.5 and she's already 23.5" long! I can't keep up with her!

The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships

Funny, the name Elinore actually comes from "Helen". How will we ever keep her modest? 

Well all,

I have successfully made it back to school and after a very frustrating day of cleaning off files from my desktop, I have successfully done it. All I have to do now is load those files on to my laptop and get the Microsoft stuff from IT and all should be sugar and popsicles. I'm happy to be back at school!!

The Peanut Fairy

Sometime over dedication weekend, the peanut fairy visited our house. We discovered two whole unopened jars of peanuts!! I wonder how that happened... 

Peace

Lately, whenever we lay Elinore on her tummy, she falls asleep within five minutes. The other day she fell asleep on her playmat with her hand in her mouth. I think she is just such a picture of peace. 

These are the only photos I could get to download. The first one is of Shadow and me in July of 1990. She was just 8 weeks and I was four. The one of her staring into the fireplace is from New Years weekend. And the last picture is a picture from her last few hours at home.