Ups and Downs

I found a post-it note on my computer from a few weeks ago, and there was a link for this article on it. Apparently, I had meant to share it on the next post I wrote (back at the beginning of January). It's about home, and where you consider home. It's intriguing to think about. When I was at Ball State, I remember saying, "I need to go home now," meaning the dorm, my room. Jenny, my roommate corrected me and said, "This isn't home," meaning that home for her was back in Cincinnati, in the house where she grew up. I usually use the word home to refer to wherever I am living, but is it really home? I wonder when our childhood home or our hometown ceases to be home. When does "our" place become home? Does it ever?

This week has been a slight struggle discipline wise at the school. I'm used to having difficult moments...that's normal. One kid (ADD?) has been extra defiant and squirrely since he stopped taking his medication and another ran from the classroom Wednesday and hid in the men's restroom. But, this is out of the norm for my class, and I know that every class has it's ups and downs. I've had mostly ups. Speaking of ups, where I help with the after school program, we had a really good day Wednesday. It can be depressing, especially for Ester, who is with the kids every day, to work so hard and love on the kids just to end up feel like you are making little difference. That's not to say that there aren't good moments every time I'm there. Just sometimes getting after the kids takes all the fun out of it. Because of this, I am extremely thankful for the mood Wednesday, that the two of us could be a little more relaxed.

Tomorrow is el Día de la Paz (Peace Day I suppose), and so there is no school tomorrow. I thought it was Teacher Appreciation Day, but that's later on in the semester. The music teacher made a poster filled with the hand prints of every student from the school, 1st to 6th grade. Today I got to watch some presentations with the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders and then hear them all sing "No dudaría", a song against violence. I love the smiles from the girls when I sang along (I can explain it away because they too can sing in English) and did the motions that they had learned in class. I would have loved to see the presentations in the afternoon, to see my kids reciting poems and singing songs for their classmates, but I couldn't stay around that long. The rest of my day was last minute printing for my class this evening, going to the bank to figure out taxes and residency and my account (re a letter I received), cooking, and relaxing a bit. Tomorrow I'll go to ECA (American school) to visit and see everyone that I haven't seen in months.

I'll leave you a picture from my window last Sunday. I like clouds!
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