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!