A month goes by so quickly

I LOVE SIXTH GRADE! I think that's the best way to describe my year so far! It's been incredible. The students are so sweet, they listen (for the most part), and they're just so precious! I am so impressed by how much they've grown in just one month... I'm excited to see how they'll end up at the end of the year. Some of my students have already said that they can already tell how much I care about them and they love to come up and say hi... I'm so not used to that! The first few weeks, all I did was teamwork building activities... the kids loved it, I'm not sure that they were ready to really learn! haha. I'm learning that they don't know as much as I had hoped, but I'm really hoping to get them up to speed quickly.

I haven't been going to the gym a lot, BUT I bought a jump rope and I feel like a little kid all over again! I love it! I jump all by myself on the roof of my building and it's incredible :)

In other news, I just had the most incredible weekend! I went to San Miguel with a bunch of teachers from school and then headed to León and Guanajuato with four other teachers. It's something that I've wanted to do since I got here, but I let one person determine that for me. And let me tell you, Guanajuato is now one of my favorite cities I've ever seen! If anyone ever comes to visit me, that's where we're going! Pictures will come soon on FB, but some of the details are that I bought a nice leather jacket, I tried to find cowboy boots (epic fail), I ate more than I ever have in my life for the least expensive price ($30 pesos!), I saw a HUGE statue of Jesus!, we almost drove off the road a few times, we saw a TON of donkeys, poor little kids ran next to our car to get money, we saw some natural mummies (that was a bit morbid), I ate lots of delicious sugary pumpkin seeds (mmmmmmm!), I stayed in an incredible hostel with all kinds of funky animal print, I sat on a curb and watched drunk people almost fall down a cobblestone hill, I saw one of my students from last year (FIFTEEN) out at a bar, I sat in a hot tub, I made french toast with Luke for 10, did I mention that I ate a lot?, I tried REALLY hard to get into some techno music, and I didn't do any school work. None. It was GLORIOUS! Until today when I didn't have anything ready and taught 7 periods. Yikes.

Some of the highlights of teaching the past few weeks:

• "What's this, kids?" (holding up a funnel) "A margarita glass?"
• "Ms. Sarah, you talk really fast." "OK, from now on, if I talk too fast, give me a peace sign!" And then having one actually use it today. Adorable!
• Reading "What's Your Poo Telling You" to my students. "Ms. Sarah, are we going to read about poo today???" Thank you, Kathy Blomker!
• EVERY single time that the kids laugh at my jokes!
• My mentoring team winning one of the competitions by all stepping on my back
• Watching my kids scramble to get things done because they're used to coloring EVERYTHING and color coding their writing (Red for punctuation, blue for all other writing)
• Teaching my students how to be organized (a blessing and a curse)

Overall, I've been having an incredible year. My kitty is a little sick (we'll have to take him to the vet), I waited a month for internet, I've gotten pretty sick a few times, I've stressed out at work a few times, I got my hair CHOPPED off! (even though most people couldn't tell I got it cut), but after all is said and done, I am incredible blessed to have this life, have these students, have these friends, have this country! :)