Christel and Faith

I was in Epping on Wednesday and I got to spend a couple of hours with Stacey, Christel and Faith. I hadn't seen them since Christmas (!!) and Faith has gotten so big. She is very animated and completely enthralled with everything her big sister does. Christel was her usual funny self and she kept me entertained for my entire visit. It was impossible to get a picture of the two of them where they were both looking at the camera and smiling, but this one is still pretty cute!

Girls Weekend in Boston

Sarah and I spent a girls weekend in Boston and it was great! Both of us were very happy to get away for a few days and be in the city. We used to go to Boston at least once a year before I moved overseas, so it was fun to start up our tradition again. No matter how many times I've been to Boston, it is always great to go back and spend more time there. I'm definitely a city girl!!

Our weekends in Boston are usually filled with shopping, sight seeing, and drinking wine and this weekend was no different. The bar in our hotel was great and we spent some quality time there. Here we are when we returned to the bar after going out to dinner (we had already been at the bar for pre-dinner drinks too). We also went to a great piano bar and listened to this woman sing show tunes, which was super fun.

Before we left on Sunday, we stopped by Fanueil Hall to have lunch at Wagamama, my favorite noodle restaurant. I first ate at a Wagamama in Amsterdam and loved it! I thought they were only in Europe, so I was very excited when they opened two in Boston in the last couple of years. It is very yummy and it always makes me so happy to eat there!

Sunapee

I realized I haven't taken many pictures of Sunapee so all of you can see where I am living now. It isn't nearly as exciting as Berlin or Lima, but it is still a nice place to live. Here is a shot of the harbor at Sunapee Lake. Everything is closed up for the winter, but I'm looking forward to spring when there is a little more going on around here.

My friend Karen came to visit at the beginning of the week and we took a walk through the harbor and around part of the lake. It was a beautiful sunny day and it was nice to be outside and to show Karen the "sights" of Sunapee.

The three story building up on the hill is my apartment building. I'm really happy living here and the building is in a great location. I'm right up the hill from the harbor, so it will be nice to walk around in the spring and summer. Spring is coming, right??? :)

Newport Winter Carnival

Winter Carnival in Newport is quite a big deal. This is the 93rd year of the Winter Carnival and according to people in Newport, it is the longest running winter carnival in New England. There is a full week of events, including snow sculptures, sports, town suppers, the Winter Queen pageant, and a parade. The sculptures in the town common are pretty impressive - on this one people can slide down the back of the alligator.

My students had to play for the parade, but instead of marching in the parade (don't ask - for some reason the previous band director didn't have them march) we set up on the Common and played as the parade marched by. It actually worked out really well - we got to entertain the crowd on the Common before the parade started and everyone was very appreciative. It was incredibly cold (don't let the sunshine fool you) and windy and my kids weren't super impressed to be out there, but they did a good job and were good sports.

The whole event was actually a lot more fun than I expected. I had forgotten how nice it is to be involved in town events - that was something I missed when I taught overseas. It is always good to get out in the community and for people to see the great things the kids do. And spending time with the kids at something like this is fun. A couple of my kids were super sweet and brought me a strawberry and whipped cream covered Belgian waffle - they had met before the parade for breakfast at a local restaurant and when they were telling me about their plans for breakfast earlier this week I told them how much I loved Belgian waffles. It was such a nice surprise to see them bearing this gift for me and they looked so pleased with themselves for their good idea.

Job Fair = Friends

The job fair I attended last weekend in Boston ended up being a bust. I only had two interviews and both were for choral jobs I wasn't interested in at all. The day was a huge waste of time and it was disappointing not to have it be more successful. I'm not completely discouraged yet - my associate says it is still early in the private school job search process and I actually got two referrals on Monday for instrumental jobs that I am interested in - one in NYC and one in Oakland, CA. I'm still optimistic that I'll find the right job for me for next year.

The best part of the job fair weekend was that I got to see a lot of friends in Boston. I stayed with Rosemary, which is always great. She made me homemade mac and cheese and we made smores in the fireplace and it was just great to hang out with her. The job fair I attended was also the same weekend as the international job fair in Boston that I have attended in the past and that friends of mine go to. Since there were no jobs for me to interview for at my fair on Saturday, I headed over to the other fair to meet up with friends from Peru. I had lunch with Terie and Kelani and heard about Terie's potential new jobs (she decided on Istanbul, which is very exciting). It was so great to see Terie and catch up with her. I also got to see Philip, my principal from Lima. He and his family are moving to Thailand next year. I miss working for Philip - he was a great, supportive administrator for me and I would love to work for him again. It was so good to see him.

I rounded out my weekend of catching up with friends by meeting David, Deb and Isabel for breakfast in Exeter on Sunday morning. They are friends from Lima, but Deb is originally from NH so I get to see them when they are home, which is great. It is always so good to see them and to see how much Isabel has grown. They are headed off to Zambia next year, so I am saving my money for a trip to Africa at some point while they are there.

All and all it was a good weekend. Seeing friends I haven't seen in a long time definitely made up for the lousy job fair.

"You're wild!!"

I spent last weekend visiting Nicole and her daughter Sierra. I hadn't seen them in what seems like a long time - maybe last spring when I first got back from Peru? Sierra is 9 months old and has grown and changed so much since I last saw her. She is adorable and super fun!! It took her a little while to warm up to me, but once she did I was rewarded with lots of beautiful smiles.

Nicole's husband Joshua was away for the day on Saturday, so we had a nice girls day - grocery shopping, playing with toys, reading books. Sierra LOVES to read books and listens intently when she is read to. She is a girl after my own heart!

Nicole and I have been dedicated fans of "Dirty Dancing" since the weekend in 7th grade when we saw it for the first time, and watched it probably 10 times in the course of 2 days. Yes, we've been watching this movie for 20 years! We've often watched it when we are together and we both can quote nearly the entire movie word for word. I found this "Dirty Dancing" trivia game and I couldn't resist getting it for Nicole. We played it over and over again and loved it!! It was so fun and we had a great time answering the questions and acting out the scenes and dances. And then, of course, we had to watch the movie. We decided we will show the movie to Sierra when she is in 7th grade so she can enjoy it as much as we do.

A New Day Has Dawned

What an amazing day! I luckily didn't have to teach at noon, so Christine (the choir teacher) and I headed to the school library to watch the inauguration. I have never been so excited! Watching Barack Obama be sworn in as President of the United States was an incredible moment, one I will remember for the rest of my life. It was inspiring, moving, and hopeful. A new day has dawned for our country and I am looking forward to what our future together will bring. Hope and change are good things!

A Good Weekend

I knew I would enjoying living back in NH, but this weekend was the epitome of how great it is to be here again. I spent the weekend seeing friends and family and it was great!! Friday night I was invited to dinner at the McNallys - Mary and I went to high school together and we've kept in email touch the last few years, but haven't seen each other since our 10 year high school reunion in 2004. I had never met Mary's husband Matt and her kids Emma and Ian and it was great to get to know them and put personalities with the pictures I had seen from Mary's updates. It was a great evening - yummy food (Matt made an amazing tofu/peanut sauce/asparagus dish), good wine, and great company. It was so nice to catch up with Mary and we marveled at the fact that we are both living in Sunapee. A guy we went to high school with lives here too, so it is amazing to me that three kids from Epping ended up in Sunapee, of all places! Thanks to Mary and Matt and the kids for a great night - I look forward to hanging out with you guys again soon!

Saturday was Eloise's 3rd birthday and I headed up to camp to celebrate with the Moore/Fairbairn clan. It is always great to be with them and Eloise was very happy with her birthday party. Here she is checking out the cute Webkinz I got her - yes, I'm up on my popular kids' toys, thanks to the Moore kids. And I'm happy to report that ALL the Moore kids are finally a fan of me. It took Emerson a few years, but I think he is my buddy now. Alex and Eloise have always thought I was pretty fun, but Emerson was never my biggest fan (he didn't love that I would come visit and sleep in his playroom, which meant he had to clean up his Legos). Tides have turned lately and Emerson and I are loving each other a lot more these days. He even told Jean that I was part of the family. I'm in!!!

I rounded out the weekend by meeting my brother for dinner at the Common Man in Concord. Marc and I haven't hung out just the two of us in a while, so it was nice to spend some time together. We caught up on all kinds of things over yummy Common Man food and beer. It was a great way to end a fabulous weekend!

The Countdown Is On

Obama Countdown
created by James Miller

First Day Of School

I survived my first day of school and it went well! I think I might have been a little excited to get started - I woke up at 2am, then again at 4am, and finally jumped out of bed when my alarm went off at 5:45am. I drove to Newport at 6:45 in the ice and pitch darkness and was in my office by 7am. Kids starting trickling in to introduce themselves and check me out - they were really cute about it. And some other teachers popped in to say hi too, which was nice. I had gone to school yesterday to meet the choir teacher - her name is Christine and this is her first year in Newport. She is super nice and answered all my questions yesterday so I actually felt like I was ready to start today. I think she and I are going to work well together and it is nice to have a music colleague again after being the only HS music teacher in Peru.

My classes went well today, for the most part. I really enjoyed the HS band and I know I am going to have a great time with them. We sightread some music and I am anxious to receive the other music that I ordered yesterday (the existing music library is filled with crap that I refuse to subject them, or me, to). The kids were nice and very helpful. The MS band was a bit of another story. I've never been a huge fan of middle school and I think these guys are going to be a challenge. There are some very nice kids in the band and they weren't horrible, but there were a couple of kids who were just crappy. I know it will get better as they get used to me, but I was EXHAUSTED after the MS rehearsal and, of course, it is the last period of the day every day!

All and all it was a good day and I am looking forward to going back tomorrow so that is a good thing! School finishes at 2pm everyday (so early!) so it is nice to have some time in the afternoons that I can spend in my classroom and get things done so I don't have to bring a lot of work home. I love setting up a classroom and getting things organized and it appears that the man I'm replacing wasn't very tidy or organized, so I have lots of work to do!

Thanks for all your good wishes for my first day of school. I appreciate the love and support!

The Year In Photo Review

Here is a recap of 2008, month by month:

New Years Eve

I am so happy to be back in NH! It is great to be so much closer to my friends again and not feel like I am a million miles away. I spent New Years Eve up at Wanakee, visiting with Jean, Mike and the kids. I headed over there pretty early on Wednesday since it was snowing and I didn't want to get stuck alone in Sunapee for the night. We had a chill day and then Lisa and Erin came over later to help us ring in the new year.

Our evening consisted of Trivial Pursuit, Bananagrams, a couple of bottles of wine, and brownie sundaes. What more could you want for a festive New Years Eve?? Here is our picture at midnight, just a few minutes before Erin went home, Jean and Mike went upstairs to bed, Lisa crashed on the living room floor, and I snuggled onto the couch.

I wish you all a wonderful 2009. I am looking forward to a new year and a new chapter of my life!

Newport MS/HS

I spent a few days this week in my new classroom at Newport Middle High School. When I walked into the room on Tuesday, this sign on the board greeted me. I think I am really going to like these kids! :)

The band room is incredibly large and only a year old. I have never seen such a great space and I am really looking forward to getting settled in and start working. I am a bit nervous about starting on Monday morning, but more excited than anything else!

Update

I've been feeling some self-imposed pressure to write posts about the past few weeks and all the holiday fun that has been going on. The idea of documenting everything that has happened seems a bit overwhelming, so I've opted for an abbreviated version. We spent Christmas in NH and it was great to be with family and friends. Our time together at Marc and Megan's house was spent watching Ralph open his gifts, in addition to opening some of our own.

I visited the Bellens on Christmas night and had a good time playing with Christel and holding Faith. Christel was the recipient of the quilt I was working on and while she, at 3 years old, wasn't super impressed with it, Stacey loved it and was very happy to see that her hard working teaching me how to quilt had paid off. I am very pleased with how the quilt turned out and I know Christel will treasure it in years to come. Here were are snuggled underneath the cozy quilt.

All and all, it was a great Christmas with family and friends!

Christmas Festivities

The month of December seems to have flown by! I can't believe we are only 2 days away from Christmas. There is 15 inches of snow on the ground in Corinth, so it definitely looks like Christmas. I've been busy the last few weekends with the usual holiday performances. I finished up my work at Foxcroft Academy with our winter concert on the 13th. It was sad to leave those kids, but they were very sweet to wish me good luck in my new job. I feel very fortunate that I had the chance to work with them and get to know them the past few months.

In addition to performances at FA, the choir at Mom's church had a big performance this past weekend. I've been directing the choir this fall in preparation for their Christmas Cantata. We've had a great time rehearsing every Wednesday night and I've enjoyed getting to know this group of church people better. They did an amazing job on the cantata and it was so fun to stand in front of them and conduct them in their performances this weekend. We all had a great time and I am so thankful to all of them for their energy and commitment. Here is a (bit blurry) photo of me and the choir as we warmed up before the performance on Saturday night. We sang to packed crowds both Saturday night and Sunday morning and it was great! Mom and I also had the choir over to the house for a party after the performance Saturday night, which was very fun. Lots of yummy food and good fellowship!

New Job!!!

Yes, you read that correctly - I have a job, a full time job!!! A few weeks ago I was hired as a long term sub for MS/HS music in Newport, NH. At that time, the job was only going to be for 4-8 weeks, beginning Jan. 5, but there was the possibility that the music teacher wouldn't be back for the rest of the year and I could stay through June. I heard from the superintendent today and it is official - the music teacher isn't coming back this year and the job is mine for the next 6 months! I really got a good feeling about Newport and the school when I went out there for my interview. The principal and superintendent were great and they just built a new fine arts wing on the school with a beautiful, HUGE band room. The job is 6th grade beginning band, 7-8 grade band, and 9-12 grade band and jazz band. I had a chance to hear the HS band the day I was there and they sounded really good. It was nice to see full instrumentation (I had no brass players in Peru - very tricky when it comes to band music) and they played at a pretty high level for such a small school. I can't wait to get in there and start working with them. I'm planning on going in over Christmas vacation to spend some time in my classroom and choose music and all of that stuff that I love!

And, of course, I need to find a place to live. I'm working on a couple of leads and hope to have something lined up in the next week or so. Then the next task is going through all my stuff in the basement and deciding what I need to take with me and what Mom will continue to let me store down there. I'm very appreciative that I could live at home for the past few months, but I am also very excited to have my own place again. And to unpack all my things, some of which I haven't seen since I packed them up in my apartment in Concord before I moved to Berlin.

So, things are looking up in my world and I am very excited about it! I'll keep you posted on further developments. And you're welcome to come visit me in the Newport/Sunapee area anytime!

Christmas Preparations

I have to admit that I do like living at home during Advent. My mom always decorates the house really beautifully and it helps get me in the holiday spirit. We were a little slow getting the tree and the decorations up this year, but they are up now and everything looks so nice.

Most of my ornaments are in storage in the basement (in a box that I wouldn't even begin to know where to find), but it was fun to put up all of Mom's ornaments. She has lots of nativity and Noah's Ark ornaments that are beautiful, but my favorite one is this very old picture of Marc and I. Yep, that would be 1979 - I was 3 and Marc was only 3 months old. I love it!

My mom has always collected Nativity sets and she has some really neat ones. I've bought her ones from the places I've lived or visited, so it is quite a multi-cultural collection. Here is a sampling of just a few of them, arranged along the windowsill in the dining room.

I hope you are having a beautiful Advent!

Giving Thanks

The past 12 months have been pretty rough for me, but I am hopeful that the holidays will signal the beginning of a new, better year. I used to measure time in school years as opposed to calendar years, as I'm sure all teachers do, but lately the marker of time for me tends to be events and big things that have happened. It was exactly a year ago that the whole situation in Peru started and that marked the beginning of what I didn't know would be an incredibly hard year for a variety of reasons. But that 12 month period of change, uncertainty, pain, disappointment, and frustration is over and while I am still dealing with many things that occurred during that time and I still have lots to come to terms with, I am looking forward to the next 12 months and am figuring that they really can't be as bad as the last 12 have been.

In the midst of all the bad stuff this past year, there have been moments of great joy and happiness and I am incredibly thankful for those. I was sitting in church last week (zoning out during Mom's sermon - sorry!), thinking about what I had to be thankful for, given how this year has played out, and while the list isn't incredibly long, it is very important to me. These things have kept me going this year and have helped me to remember that there are good things out there and that I should continue to look forward.

It seemed appropriate that the calendar end of my awful 12 months should fall at Thanksgiving, when we pause to remember what we are thankful for. So here is my list of things I am so thankful for in the past year:

1. My friends who have held me up and loved me through this entire year, even when I may have been a bit difficult to love. I hope I can be as good a friend to all of you as you have been to me.
2. My mom, who is truly the bravest person I know. As much as I think I am all grown up and I don't need her to teach me things and mother me anymore, I realize that she is constantly striving to grow and be a better person and I CAN still learn from her example.
3. The kids in my life who give me lots of hugs, make me smile despite whatever else is going on, and remind me that I am loved. Caitlin, Lauren, Alyssa, Ross & Kassie Clark, Christel & Faith Bellen, and Emerson, Alex, & Eloise Moore bring me lots of joy.

And some highlights of the year, in the midst of all the rough patches:
1. Family dinners in Lima with Reada, Dave, and Tim
2. Karisti's visit to Peru the month before I left
3. Chicago and Iowa with Karisti and Michelle
4. Footnotes at Wanakee
5. George's Pond with Mom, Marc and Megan

I am very thankful for all the good things in my life and I look forward to a new 12 months ahead. Happy Thanksgiving!

Update

I feel the need to blog today because a) I haven't updated in a while, and b) I changed the background/layout of my blog and I want to show it off. However, there hasn't been a ton going on lately, so I'm afraid the update may not be super exciting.

I'm continuing to substitute, with varying degrees of success. I had a few weeks where it was really slow and I only subbed one day each week. That was rough. Then this week hit and I ended up subbing 4 days (and could have done a 5th, but chose not to). This week's subbing was at a local elementary school that I really like. I never thought I would enjoy being back in an elementary school, but the kids and teachers at this particular school are really great. And I've learned some important things about myself and what I want in terms of teaching, specifically the age range of kids that I enjoy working with. High school is obviously my first love and I know I am a good high school teacher. But I also really like teaching kindergarten. Who knew??? I can't imagine I would ever choose to teach kindergarten over high school, but at least I know I can survive a day with 18 five year olds and hold my own. Now 2nd grade is another story... no thanks! It looks like I can do either end of the age spectrum, but not the middle. Keep me away from any classes older than 1st grade and younger than 7th grade and I will be a happy teacher.

In addition to subbing, I've started actively looking for full time jobs for next year, and even for the rest of this year if something comes up. I had a lead about a long term sub position at Singapore American School starting in February that was really appealing to me, but they ended up hiring locally (thanks to Michelle M. for all her help - if she and I had had our way, we'd be teaching together in the same school again). I'm following a few other leads for possible jobs for the rest of this year, but nothing that I am ready to write about yet and possibly jinx (fate/karma/luck hasn't been on my side this year, so I'm not taking any chances). And as for next year, who knows!! The international schools are starting to post their openings for the 2009-2010 school year and more jobs will be posted over the next month, with hiring to start in full force after Christmas. There is a tentative opening in Prague that I'm going to pursue and this job in Singapore might open up for an overseas hire for the fall, so that is an option too. And jobs at private schools in the States will start to be posted, so hopefully CS&A (the recruiting company I'm using this year) will start to refer me to some of those jobs too. I really have no idea where I'll be in the fall, but I'm open to anything at this point. !

So, that's the story for now. It is snowing here in Maine today, so I'm hunkered down for the day. I think I see some knitting and quilting in my afternoon/evening plans... I hope you are warm and cozy wherever you are and are enjoying this winter Saturday!

By the way, any guesses where the picture on the top of my blog was taken? I've been going through pictures from the last 4 years and reminiscing. I'll give you a hint - for those of you who received my Ofoto albums when I lived in Berlin, you've seen this picture before. It was taken exactly 4 years ago next weekend - my first Thanksgiving overseas. Any guesses??

It's A New Day

Here is a link to the new will.i.am video "It's A New Day". I highly recommend checking it out. Very inspiring. It is truly the dawn of a new day in our country!!