Wait, this isn't my seventeenth blog post?

Oops. You don't know how many drafts I've had in my head about a new post. Always when I'm in the car or shopping at Target, but never when I'm home or have a free minute to type out a post.

This job is busy! Aside from planning what I am going to teach and how I want to do that, there are a zillion administration things that I need to do as well. I currently have a long mental list going in my head of stuff I want to get done tomorrow. Whatever date tomorrow is always gets changed on that mental list (thank goodness for mental white-out), because there just aren't enough hours!

I was writing a quick message to a friend the other night and described how I leave for work at about 6:45 in the morning, and came home every night last week between 6 and 7pm. How did I work 12 hour days? Your guess is as good as mine. It didn't feel like it. Or, I guess, it flew by so it didn't feel like it. I felt it, though! I came home every night physically and mentally exhausted, and sat on my couch for at least a half hour just sitting and enjoying the peace. This past Saturday, I purposely spent (almost) the entire day doing absolutely nothing. Self-care is really important in the teaching profession, since there's always more for us to do, and it's way too easy to take our work home with us. But don't worry, I'm not feeling burnt out. Just always happy to see my bed.

The first week flew by, and the past two days have flown by as well. Part of that is due to the newness of everything and the sheer amount of work to do and people seen. Part of that is due to the fact that we have block scheduling, where most of the classes only meet every other day, which means that two days kind of smoosh together in my head when I'm recalling the previous days. The week feels more like Montuesday, Wenthursday, and Friday.

But I'm loving it. I'm loving the kids--for the most part, they're all pretty into it and seem to enjoy my class--and I'm loving talking about German allllll the time. It's basically my nerdy dream come true!

Tomorrow night we have Open House, where the parents can come and hear what their student's classes are all about and meet the teachers. I'm nervous and excited, but hopefully the parents have only heard positive things so far ;-)

Sorry. This post is kind of rambly and weird, but I'm not going to edit it, because I'm tired and looking forward to sleeping sooner than I'd like to admit.

Thanks for tuning in...hopefully my next post won't be so far off in the distance and won't be so bizarre.

My first days.

Phew. Time flies when you're teaching.

The first week is over and I'm heading into the middle of my second week. Hard to believe. The first week was filled with meetings and professional developments, which were actually very helpful and informative, especially just moving down here and trying to figure out where I was going and what I was doing. There was a lot of new information and an overwhelming amount of names and faces, most of which I don't remember anymore...well, I don't remember them together. I remember names but not a face to put with it, or I recognize a face but cannot place the name. I'll get it eventually, I'm sure.

My mom came with me for the first week, which was maybe the biggest blessing ever. We drove down together on Thursday, August 7 and arrived Friday (after stopping overnight somewhere in Ohio). We went shopping at Ikea and maybe every store in Columbia for furniture and other necessary apartment things. While I was at work, she unpacked my whole apartment and put furniture together as it was delivered. Oh my word, I could not have asked for anything better. She didn't complain at all and managed to get me completely unpacked by Friday! Incredible. My apartment is completely organized and unpacked, which after two days of work, I can attest that it is an INCREDIBLE relief knowing that I don't have to come home and find energy somehow to unpack my life of boxes. Thankfully, all I have to do when I get home is feed my cat, who is incredibly impatient and very loving when she knows it's time for food. (Okay, she's very loving most of the time, but really decides to pay attention to me when it's dinner time.)

Here are some pictures of my apartment, so you can see my living space :-) They're panorama pictures, so they might look a little curvy/warped, but it was better than posting 20 pictures of my apartment for you!

Living room from my front door

Living room from the couch

Dining room area 

Kitchen/dining room

Hallway

Full bathroom with washer/dryer nook

Washer & dryer 

Spare bedroom/office room

My bedroom

The dressing area (walk-in closet, kind of) off my bedroom, which leads to my bathroom

My bathroom

And, with the first two days behind me, I can say that I'm pretty happy with where I am and what classes I've been given. We're on a block schedule, so there are four periods each day, with two different day schedules (A and B days). One half of my classes only meet on A days, and the other half meet only on B days. So far, I've really enjoyed meeting all of my students and have a good feeling about this year. I'm excited to get to know them and get to work with them. I know some of them are sad that their old German teacher is no longer at the school, but I'm hoping they'll be just as pleased with what I have to offer.

Here's a peek into my classroom as well:

I papered this with pages from a German-English dictionary that was falling apart

And to all of my SalZH family: Ich wünsche euch auch einen guten Start (obwohl ihr auch schon gestartet habt). Ich hoffe, dass die ersten Tagen super waren und freue mich, etwas von euch zu hören. Ich vermisse euch, die Schule und die Schüler. Liebe Grüße aus den USA und Gottes Segen fürs neue Schuljahr!! :-)

Bis bald!

The Beginning.

Hello readers :-) Welcome to my new blog! I'm excited for the coming year and whatever is to come. And I'm excited to share it all with you. Thanks for following along with me.

So far, I've been home from Switzerland for almost three weeks. Some days it seems longer and some days not, but regardless, I miss it. I miss speaking German every day and I miss seeing the people I became so close to. That being said, since I'm so busy with preparations for South Carolina, it's not constantly at the forefront of my mind, so I'm pleasantly distracted from my Heimweh.

I had orientation a week ago with all the other district new first-year teachers, and there were surprisingly a whole lot of us. The district is very large, so it makes sense, but I didn't realize how large it was! Everyone I met seemed really nice and I'm excited to get to know the people I'll be working with directly.

I drove down with my best friend, which was a long 12-hour drive, but definitely not bad since I was "stuck" with my bestie for so long. I had long days of orientation on Monday and Tuesday, which meant there was a lot of information thrown at us, most of it useful and helpful. On Wednesday, I found my perfect apartment and then we drove back home. Phew.

So here I am, in Michigan, wrapping up my last few days at home. Luckily I don't have much to pack, since I did all of that a year ago before Switzerland, but my days are filled with many hellos/goodbyes (since it's the first time seeing them since I left for Switzerland and the last time I'll see them before moving to South Carolina), which is exhausting, but probably in the best way.

Mom and I will leave on Thursday or Friday to move me down there. I'm excited, nervous, anxious, curious--everything all at once. I have no idea what's in store for me in the next couple of weeks, but I'm anxious to get there and begin planning everything. I'm excited to meet my students and fellow teachers. And I'm so ready to finally be the real teacher and not the assistant (and hoping that all that extra practice will make me extra prepared for it all)!

Prayers are appreciated as I begin my new journey. And I'll keep you all posted on here on how it's all going.