weekend in L.A.

I spent the weekend in L.A., courtesy of a frequent flier ticket from a very generous friend, with Colin. The story of Colin and me is a surprise, a blessing, an unexpected turn of events. It's fun and it feels so normal in a beautiful way. A little time on the beach, some good food (Korean barbecue is perhaps at it's best in L.A.), a nap on the grass, a walk to a redwood forest...just spending time together. A great weekend.

coming into focus

This is the backyard of my Mimi's house after a rain. That's a pool in the background, but it hasn't been filled in years.

I've been back in the States almost two years now. It's been time to refocus on what's right in front, as well as stay hopeful for the future. The long term picture is fuzzy and still seems far off. There are a lot of cracks in the plan: slow going language learning, struggling for hope in what many times seems a hopeless situation, waiting, not knowing. But, the rain is a reminder of hope. The cracks can be filled so the pool can hold water again. The picture of a reservoir of playful refreshment that a pool brings to a neighborhood is one to hang on to.

more school stories

Our school district issued macbooks to all the teachers who applied for one, so I type you this post from a shiny little white mac. I love it. I hope my clunky Dell doesn't get jealous, because I'll have to go back to that if (when) I stop working in Austin.

Things overheard in my classroom this week:

"I'm intelligent."
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know, but I know it's good!"

"I don't want a fancy engagement ring. I want a simple engagement ring and a really fancy wedding ring. I don't know why people do it the other way around."
(I interrupt this story and ask if they, as 5th graders, aren't a little too young to talk about what kind of engagement rings they want. She answers that no, they're not too young and that they also talk about how many kids they want to have and other things that I probably don't want to know.)

"Thank you for teaching us this!"
(This almost knocked me off my rocker. I was teaching a small group how to turn an improper fraction into a mixed number and one of the kids said this. I kinda laughed and he looked at me seriously, saying "No, really. I've been wanting to know this!" Amazing. A highlight of my week.)

"God is speaking!"
(In my fourth grade class, I turned on the overhead, which I don't use very often, so the lens was facing toward the ceiling instead of toward the wall. So, I guess he said this because it was projecting the light on the ceiling. I laughed and he liked that I found him funny. The next day, I was giving him a mini lecture on his behavior and he told me he wished God spoke more often. I told him I wished he did, too.)

"Miss, you're a good singer! You should try out for American Idol with that song!"
(I taught them a song to help them remember the order of operations - you know, parentheses, exponents, multiply, divide, add and subtract from left to right. They thought it was pretty great. One girl even came up to the front to be my backup dancer.)

loving my kids

amazing purplish flowers at the Getty, L.A. a wonderful place


I got back a week ago from the 22 hour (each way!) road trip to L.A. I do actually have quite a few stories (or rather, one long story) to tell from the trip, but I'm not sure I want to share it so openly yet even though I've been telling anyone who asks. So, you're welcome to e-mail or call me up!

Since I do need to post something before March is officially over, I'll tell you some cute things my 5th graders have done lately.

One day, the principals brought bagels, cream cheese, coffee and orange juice around on a cart to say thanks to the teachers. I was surprised and asked what the occasion was and the assistant principal said "We want to thank you for working so hard for our students!" As I was taking the bagel back to my desk, one of my students said "You ARE a hard worker, Ms. Sadler!" I love that kid!

I usually wear my keys to the school around my neck. One morning a student walked up to me, took the key and twisted it in front of my heart. She said "I'm holding the keys to your heart and unlocking it!" Love her too.

One kid who has been responsible for both fights I've had to break up as well as arguing with everything I say, general disruptiveness, etc. sat right next to me on the field trip Friday. I was sitting beside the creek, watching the kids hunt for fossils along the bed, and she came up and sat so close to me that we were touching. It was perhaps the best moment of the year. She asked me questions like "What would a kid have to do to get you to hit them?" I told her that I don't think a kid could do anything bad enough for me to hit him or her because I don't think that violence in response to violence is a good thing. I'm really thankful for that field trip moment, because I have re-realized my love for her as well.

a spring break road trip

(a flower at a roadside stand in Maui)

I'd be excited pretty much no matter what I was doing this week, because I'm really needing a break from my lovely (read:challenging) 5th graders. But, I'm really excited because I'm taking a road trip with a friend to L.A. I'll get to meet up with a few of the friends I worked with in China there.

I consider myself super lucky to have my life in Asia and my life in the States intersect twice in the space of a month. Two friends came and spent a week with me in February, and now I get to meet more in L.A.! We're driving all night tomorrow night, hoping that we can take turns sleeping and make it. If not, of course, we'll stop to sleep.

We'll be back on Sunday, with stories to tell, I'm sure!

memories of Asia

This amazing tree jumped out at me one drive home this week. It got me so excited because I associate this tree with the beginning of spring in Asia, particularly Korea. It looks like there are no leaves, like the blooms just appear out of bare branches, until you look more closely and notice a few green leaves. I didn't know we had them in Austin, and am now wondering if God has given this one to me in particular to add joy to my drive back and forth each day.

In Asia, this tree (I don't know the name, do you?) marked the beginning of spring. The beginning of spring in Korea, and more especially in China, was always greeted with a lot of joy because of the long, cold, dark winters. (And I love winter!) In Austin, spring comes more as kind of a run-on sentence that began with fall and had a few commas of winter thrown in. So, it's not as anticipated.

This tree sighting is part of a happy few weeks of memories that are coming back to me through phone calls from people I've known in China, whiffs of smells I only connect back to China, and meeting a lot of new people at work who ask me about China and Korea. Tonight, I have two of my best friends from my time in China coming to visit. They're coming from Pennsylvania and California and it's their first time to Texas! We're going to make a fast and furious trip at the end of the week to visit two other families from our time there. It's almost like as soon as I decide to commit to being here, the gates on the flood of memories of my "past life" have been opened to keep me from getting too comfy here. I don't mind that.

surfacing

So, I've been a real slacker about this blog. I re-enter here with a picture of a whale tail surfacing. I went to Hawaii recently for a few days with my family and took this picture from the coast (with the help of a stranger's telescopic lens!).

Last semester, I was a substitute teacher in Austin. I enjoyed the flexibility of it and getting to see so many different schools and students. If I had a bad day, there was always a new job to look forward to the next day!

I finally decided to commit to a real job again, mostly because I have no idea when/if I'll go back to Asia. So, I applied to some openings in the Austin district. The school year started and I still didn't have a job, so I kept subbing for a week or so. I finally got a few calls about jobs and had an interview just before I left for a trip to Hawaii with my family. (See my sister's blog post for more on that.) That school called to let me know they wanted me on the day we flew out.

So, I started my new job the day after I got back to Austin. I'm now a 5th grade math teacher in East Austin! It's my first time to be an elementary teacher, and I have a lot to learn. My class was pretty crazy the first few days, and there's still a lot of room for improvement.

I've noticed a lot of the sassy attitudes of individual students change to cooperative attitudes with just one or two one-on-one conversations during recess, lunch, or after school. Once they see I'm a real person and we get to connect on some level, it's amazing how much nicer they can be in class. So, I have hope for the rest of the semester!