First Full Week of School

We all managed to survive our first full week back at school and it really went well. It is great to be back with the kids - hectic, but great. I had some good rehearsals with my band and orchestra this week and I'm excited about the new music we are working on. Our next performance is the 3rd week of April, so we are pushing to get all this new music learned by then. The kids don't seemed to be as worried about it as I am, but hopefully they will step it up and work hard the next few weeks.

Wednesday was WOW (Wild On Wednesdays) after school for all teachers, staff, and workers. We were all split up into 4 teams (with corresponding colored t-shirts) and played games all afternoon. It was fun to see everyone together, playing volleyball, soccer, giant Jenga, Apples to Apples, and other random games. It always makes me happy when they do things that involve everyone, including the workers. And they gave us free beer, ice cream, and Chinese food, so that was nice too.

The week ended yesterday with a fabulous vocal ensemble rehearsal after school. There hasn't been a choir here at FDR for years and years, from what I hear anyway. A couple of kids have mentioned it to me, but I never felt comfortable starting one, since I don't have a ton of vocal experience. Luckily David, the new theater teacher, is a vocalist and has directed choirs before, so he and I decided to collaborate and offer after school choir. We didn't know what to expect in terms of turn out, but we had 13 girls there for the first rehearsal yesterday and it was great!! They were really into it and we had a lot of fun singing for an hour. David is directing while I accompany and it is nice to be playing piano again too. I'm really excited about this whole thing and am so happy to be able to offer choir and reach some kids other than the ones in band and orchestra.

All and all, a very good week!

P.S. My friend Karisti arrives next Saturday for a 2 week visit and we are spending Easter weekend at Machu Picchu, so look for more posts over the next few weeks. I can't wait for Karisti to arrive and to be able to show her around Lima, and around Peru.