Drinking coffee in the evening is not a good idea, take it from someone who is writing a blog at 3 am.
Anyways, since I am wide awake and there is no one to talk to...funny how everyone else had the nerve to sleep...I decided to write my blog.
First off we have entered the time when the Christmas break countdown is no longer depressing. I mean when you say we have 37 days until Christmas vacation , it is hard to be excited, but a week and a half...now that is definitely doable....even on a lack of sleep.
School has been busy as we enter review and finals week. Even my fourth graders have finals, though unlike their high school counterparts, they try to avoid their homework by throwing their pencils out the window and dragging each other around the classroom by the foot. Also, the water bottle challenge is running rampant. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a pile of water bottles outside from teachers throwing them out windows. If you haven't been introduced to the water bottle challenge then you haven't been around a kid in the past 4 months. Sometimes I think my students think that learning is just the commercials between their competitions, but I have the last laugh by disposing of their bottles, so many of them only get one flip in class before Miss Nussbaum swoops.
Even though they drive me absolutely crazy some days, my students have wormed, scooted and danced their ways into my heart. It's hard not to love people who greet you every morning with a hug and a smile....insist on writing your name in hearts on the board and are determined to impress you during breaks. I had even one student demonstrate how she could bite a leaf...after which we had a discussion on things you should eat and things you shouldn't.
I'm also excited about our Christmas show and my students are super excited about dancing to Justin Bieber. Not a real Christmas classic, but it is extremely difficult to come up with dance moves to a famous carol. Hopefully all goes well.
Speaking of carols, there really aren't that many sung here in the Dominican Republic. On the radio at cafes, I usually only hear Justin Bieber on repeat. I guess songs such as "Let it Snow," "Baby it's cold outside" and "frosty the snowman" are hard to relate to on a tropical island. There is a plethera of Christmas lights though and since there are no resident Christmas trees, people have gotten creative by stringing lights on tree trunks and bushes. There is also a blow up snowman outside a store downtown dressed in cheerleader gear with writing on it that says "Let's Sno" It doesn't work in so many ways which makes it that more hilarious.
Well I wish you all a good night/ good day as we prepare for our sixth day of December. For anyone who is feeling stressed out, only 19 days until Christmas...now you can't be sad about that!
