another year gone by

Here we are in June. JUNE! - that blessed time of year when teachers and students everywhere rejoice that the academic year has come to an end and two months of separation prepare us for the following year. I have three work days left. Can you tell I'm excited? Somewhere between when I last posted and this post, I dropped scalding hot tea on my leg. After about three weeks, it's healed well enough that I will risk exposing it to the sun, so I'm really ready to hit the pool.

The tail end of May was a whirlwind, as I mentioned getting ready for our International Day Show at school. It turned out to be pretty amazing, and of course, my students had the best performance. Chris was even able to come, so I was glad to have him there, too.

my little Frenchies

all of Grade 1

caught giving "teacher eyes" during the National Anthem

I closed out the hectic week of rehearsals and performances by celebrating my 29th birthday for the first time on May 31st. If ever there was a weekend full of fun and laughter, that was it! I'm so blessed to have so many wonderful friends and "family" over here, as well as around the world. We had a few great meals prepared for us, and I received a number of sweet notes and presents from family, students, colleagues, and friends. Thank you again! I think the most exciting present was the guitar Chris gave me. I'll be sad to leave it this summer...

This past Wednesday, we had our annual end-of-year breakfast for my school's elementary staff, which is always a lot of fun. After we go to work, we usually leave around 9:30 for breakfast, and then we have the rest of the day off. Pictured here are about half of the amazing ladies that I work with in the AAG elementary school.

 

Pictured below is my amazing teaching assistant, Gehan, and our awesome ES secretary, Shaima'a. Without these two ladies, I would probably go gray a lot sooner.

 

Chris is preparing to leave for Jordan and his summer Arabic study tomorrow. As far as I can tell, here is a tentative schedule of what our summer will look like. It's always an adventure!

- June 9: Chris leaves for Jordan
- June 18: Stephanie leaves for Boston
- June 22: Stephanie leaves for Pittsburgh
- June 29: Chris returns to Kuwait
- July 1: Chris leaves for Boston
- July (2?): Stephanie returns to Boston
- July 8-16: Chris & Stephanie travel to Iceland
- July (28?): Chris & Stephanie go to Pittsburgh
- August (18?): Chris & Stephanie return to Boston
- August 20: Chris and Stephanie return to Kuwait

"The heart of a man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9 (ESV)

the show must go on

In my elementary school, we are currently rehearsing for an International Day show of epic proportions. Each class in grades 1-4 has been focusing on one country of study in Social Studies from mid-April, which will culminate with a dance show performed by students for parents on May 28th. Well, at least that's what it was a few weeks ago.

As of the last few weeks, the show seems to be getting more press and interest, so we may not only have parents on May 28th, but we might also have newspaper photographers, dignitaries or representatives from embassies, officials from the Ministry of Education, President Obama...just kidding about that last one. The event is growing larger and larger though, and I hope that my little kiddos are up for it! We are not supposed to tell them about the growing number of people that will be attending, but I don't know if it's worse for them to be surprised.

My (1A's) class song is "Be Our Guest" from the Disney movie Beauty & The Beast. I chose it because it's lively and the kids are familiar with the words and tune. I've been fretting a bit about whether or not we'll be ready to perform in this extravaganza in (EEK!) less than two weeks, but I've realized that no one will actually care how synced all of their steps are. They're cute kids in matching dresses, singing something that has to do with France, and everyone will love them anyway. It will be nice if they aren't paralyzed with stage fright.

There have been a lot of pieces to this puzzle, including actually teaching them about France, having a tailor to individually measure each student and make their dresses, buying accessories (including matching shoes), choosing a hairstyle/song/dance steps, and sending home lots of those "Please send 10kd for this or that" notes. Our secretary is a saint and the one ultimately organizing the show and serving as the liaison to the school's directors.

 Posted throughout are a few pictures from rehearsal the other day. We're practicing on the ES playground, but we also practice on the stage in our auditorium, which is where the show will be held.

More updates on my sanity and our sure success will follow!
(p.s. If I'm not in the States by my anticipated date of June 18th, someone should come looking...)

more for music lovers

My taste in music is all over the map these days. With time off this week for my school's Spring Break, I've been listening almost 24/7 because I don't get to as much as I'd like. Here are some recommendations I'd like to make, so take 'em or leave 'em. I should mention that none of these artists are particularly "new," but I've just been finding out about the. We don't get to catch on to everything as quickly here!

John Mark McMillan
Probably occurring most in my playlist this week is this singer/songwriter out of Charlotte. He's got a folksy rock sort of style and sings a lot about God's character and real life. You might have heard the song "How He Loves," originally written by JMM but covered by bands like David Crowder and others. His voice is not pretty, but real.

Citizens
Chris has actually been listening to this group, which is surprising because he does not often voluntarily listen to music. A self-proclaimed "high energy indie-rock band" from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, this group does some new stuff with old hymns. I like their song "In Tenderness."

Alabama Shakes
This band kind of has their crazy own little southern rock/soul thing going on. They were nominated for Best New Artist of 2013 at the Grammy Awards. I like their song, "I Ain't the Same" and a few others, too.

I'm also listening to some Mumford & Sons, but they have been on the scene for awhile.

April already?!

As happens with most years, this one has accelerated after our school's winter break. I can't believe that the last time I posted anything was in JANUARY! At any rate, here are some random goings-on in our lives and a few snapshots to let you know we're still alive. We've a had a roller-coaster February, March, and April, but we love where we are and what we do.

Jordan
During the National Day weekend in Kuwait, we traveled to Jordan to visit our friends who previously taught in Kuwait. We did some sand-boarding, desert camping, doing the "Harlem Shake" (check us out!), eating lots of good food, and snorkeling in a matter of four days. It was an awesome time of catching up, and we hope to do something like that again.

 

National Day
Before our trip, I had the customary National Day extravaganza celebration at school, complete with a bazaar, food, dancing, and traditional outfits. My students are so adorable in their little dara'as.

Bowling Tournament
The Young Adults from church had a bowling tournament on three Fridays during March, and since Chris and I lead one of the life groups, we got to go have fun with them. These guys and gals take bowling seriously...fun!

 

Sri Lanka/End of March
At the end of March, Chris and his friend Kyle went to Singapore to an English conference, where Chris presented his foundation English program's methods for assessing grammar. GUST (the university where he teaches) sent him there with a nice stipend, which was great for us. On the way back, Chris and I met in Sri Lanka and Kyle carried on back to Kuwait. We spent 4 or 5 days there, mostly relaxing and spending unhurried time together. We also ate a ton of amazing seafood and swam/snorkeled each day at a beach we found the last time we were there, and we visited a turtle hatchery.

Easter/Early April
Easter for us was fairly low-key this year. Chris worked on Easter Sunday, but we had a big dinner hosted by some friends in our life group on Monday night. We sang some songs, took communion together, and enjoyed a great time of conversation. Also in April, Chris' flute quartet gave a recital in the auditorium of his university, and lots of our friends and his students came to support him. Thanks, guys! I will try to get some better pictures of that up later.

  
End of April
Finally, here we are at the end of April, when we celebrate Earth Day. My class made Trash Monsters out of reused tissue boxes and paper on Thursday, since we are on our Spring Break at school. We have one full month to prepare for the International Day show, when my students will be performing "Be Our Guest." My class is studying France this year, so we are doing a little throwback to Belle and Beauty and the Beast. It's every 1st graders dream, really. I also went to a women's retreat yesterday, held for ladies from all of the Lighthouse Church's services. There were 350+ women there, and it was seven hours of amazing worship and teaching. It proved to be a much needed respite and a great way to start off my week-long holiday.

 

 

Well, there you have it. That's the last few months in a nutshell. I'm sure I'm omitting something in there...until next time.

January links

Here are just a few things that I've found or been alerted to in the past month, which you also may find interesting or helpful:

Gingie's Journey
A dear church friend at home has recently been diagnosed with cancer. Her daughter, Molly, has put together a blog with some thoughts and medical updates so that people can be aware and praying throughout the difficult process. If you know the Allshouses (or even if you don't!), please pray for Gingie's healing and recovery, and for the whole family's peace and strength.

The Gray Havens
This is a pop/folk duo that I caught wind of via Tim Challies' blog. They have a catchy little sound and good lyrics, and that combination fuels my current interest in modern American attempts at folk music. They just got their start out of the great state of Illinois, and you can currently download their new EP here.

Ladies Who Do Lunch in Kuwait
Ok, I admit that I found this link a long time ago, but I have been checking it a lot more recently for news and happenings in the New Year in Kuwait. I like the variety of cultural and fun activities that the author posts, which is a really comprehensive list of events and information.

Oxford Owl
This is an amazing resource for those teaching primary age learners. Although it is a UK-based project and the narrators/story tellers speak with a British accent, the stories are awesome and it's all completely free! There are also videos with tips on teaching phonics, free e-books, math and reading comprehension activities, and games that are extremely useful. For moms, I'd recommend exploring the site to see what would be helpful at home, too. My students love it, and it's easy to navigate by age groups, from 3yrs to 11yrs.

garden of dreams

 

Here we are at the Garden of Dreams, a little green oasis in the middle of busy and gray Kathmandu, Nepal. If you like architecture or reading about kaisers from the turn of the 20th century, be sure to check out the link. We enjoyed a few hours here one afternoon, just looking around in the various nooks and crannies and inhaling a little higher oxygen content.

 We saw a few critters here and there...

And, we saw a lot of young couples walking around. Apparently, this is the place to "woo" the new lady in your life, especially if your 18-25 yrs old.

 

The gardens were beautiful, and the landscaping was really well kept! If you're ever in the neighborhood, I'd recommend it. It's near the old royal palace, which has been remodeled into a museum.

where the buffalo roam

Oh, give me a home

where the buffalo roam

where the deer and the antelope play...

 where seldom is heard

 a discouraging word

 and the skies are not cloudy all day.

For whatever reason, that was the song that kept running through my head in Nepal. Maybe, it was because of all of the buffalo roaming around on the streets! (They looked more like cows to me, but nobody asked me, really.) The two most-practiced religions in Nepal are Hinduism and a type of Buddhism, so naturally, the peoples' care for living creatures lends them to allow animals free reign over the streets. We saw many other little critters scampering around, but stray dogs and water buffalo were the ones predominantly seen in the city streets. We had a few friendly encounters with these guys, but we still ate some tasty buffalo "mo-mos," a local steamed dumpling of sorts, in a few different locations. I don't understand the whole we-love-them-but-some-of-us-eat-them thing, but I guess I don't have to.

More to come on the amazing country of Nepal...