Over the ocean and through Chicago..it's home to Hillsdale we go.....

2,000 miles can be a big difference temperature wise. It’s weird for me to imagine warm, tropical Dominican Republic as I’m huddled under a blanket in “see your breath outside” weather Michigan. On the bright side, it finally feels and looks like winter and of course there are freckles of snow outside so perhaps we will have a white Christmas. Probably the best part of coming home was rediscovering my mom’s homemade bread, being able to get water from the faucet (my parents laughed at my enthusiasm on this one) and of course seeing the Christmas decorations up around the house…the stockings are hung by the chimney with care.

Getting to the United States was actually more eventful than normal. When I arrived in Atlanta, I went through security and they did a hand swipe on me for “explosives.” Apparently, my hands tested positive for something, so I spent the next half hour as TSA went through my things and I got patted down. I was actually most nervous about getting thrown into an interrogation room as you see in the movies with bright lights, but after discovering that all I was hiding in my book bag were pencil shavings and my shoes really weren’t bombs ready to go off, they released me.  

On the flight to Chicago, apparently Toto was found by the row behind us. After several radio calls asking for the owner…and walking up and down the aisles with the little white dog…..everyone thought it must have been a stow away and wondered how it could’ve possibly gotten on the plane and if the owners were looking desperately for it back in Atlanta. About a half hour later, the owners were found and apparently had slept through all of the announcements. I pity their alarm clock.

Being back home in Hillsdale is a very strange phenomena. It’s strange how different and yet how familiar everything feels. Sitting here eating soup and watching football with my parents makes it easy to feel as if the entire Dominican Republic experience was a dream, but at least I have the cuts, scrapes and bruises from my many adventures in the Dominican Republic to prove it really happened. Now, I get to go decorate the tree. My dad thinks it is done, but obviously all of my homemade ornaments from my elementary school years are missing. Tradition is tradition, and the tree is not complete without the angel with my second grade face on it that my dad lovingly named “napkin head” is on the top. It’s good to be home :D

I'm coming home...tell the world that I'm coming home!

14 days, 6 hours, 48 minutes and 11 seconds until I see my family, but hey who's counting? In all honestly...I truly believe that as the day draw nearer..I get more and more excited. Talking to friends and family on the computer makes me want to pull them from the screen and give them a huge hug. I think though being back in the states will be a little of a culture shock after getting accustomed to life here. Here are 10 things that I'm going to need to get reused to

1. There is such a thing as cold snowy weather- After having 4 months straight of sun and t-shirt weather... I'm sure it will be a shock to be donning the winter coat once more, but I am excited to have a white christmas. 2 weeks of snow is perfect to get sledding, skiing and snowballs fights in and then return to the tropical weather.

2. I will be considered normal- Perhaps the tannest Hillsdale resident...but still I I will lose my celebrity status as "americana" "rubia" and "gringa because everyone will look just like me. It will be strange walking down the streets without hearing "Dios mio, you are boot-i-ful...o hola rubia...  I feel like I will constantly be looking around, but it will be nice to be part of the background again.

3. English will be the only language- It will be strange to not hear Spanish on the streets anymore . I will be able to understand 100% of what people at stores, on the street and at restaurants are saying and they won't be able to switch languages to talk about that clumsy American.....but I know I will miss being able to use my Spanish and I'm sure I will accidently try to ask strangers questions in Spanish

4. There will be lots of cars- After living in a world of motos for four months...seeing a plethora of cars sounds outrageous.  It will be strange not seeing motos lining the streets or zipping in and out of traffic.

5. I can drink water from the faucet- This will definitely be hard to get used to. To think that if I want to I can stick my head under the faucet and take a big drink sounds outlandish after buying water from the colmado a couple times a week and pumping it into water bottles.

6. American money-I know this seems strange...but I found a $20 dollar bill that I hid in a book back from August...and I just stared at it for a while and thought how weird it looked. I have been handling Dominican pesos so long that American money looks ridiculous to me. Also Dominican pesos are worth a lot less. It will seem strange to go from spending $1,000 Dominican pesos at the supermercado to spending something like $25 dollars. What a big difference!

7. I will not have to light the stove- It seems such a ridiculous notion that to turn on the stove all I will have to do is push a button. I don't think I will feel quite as accomplished fixing supper in America without using a flame to light the stove...where's the thrill in that?

8. Laundry- Laundry machines!? What are those? I don't think I'll remember how to use a dryer after hanging my clothes on the line for the past four months

9. No more waterfalls, mountains or palm trees-I have gotten accustomed to seeing the mountains lining the outskirts of Jarabacoa that it will be strange to see the corn fields and evergreen trees of Hillsdale. Not that Hillsdale doesn't have its own comforting beauty...but it doesn't quite compare.


10. Talking to my friends and family without a computer screen between us- This is the greatest Christmas gift I could've asked for. I will wager that  I will cry when I see my family again because they have supported me so much here and they are home to me.

November Notes

So recently I woke wondering how many days I had until Halloween when I realized it was already November. The time has gone by so fast. I think the months are confusing to me because during November in Michigan I would be donning my winter coat and getting up early to karate chop the ice off my car windshield while here, it is still warm enough to go to the beach.

Speaking of which...I did get to go to the beach for the first time on Sunday. I was shocked to find that the water was actually...warm. For a Michigander like myself who always expects a battle of wits with freezing water...it was a very, very pleasant surprise. Though sometimes I wonder what it would be like to see the faces of the native Dominicans in Lake Michigan....in November. Polar Bear Club anyone?

This week I also went on my very first field trip with my class. We went to the zoo in Santo Domingo. Now, Santo Domingo is much warmer than Jarabacoa and so after about an hour of walking around and seeing the animals....we were covered in enough sweat to desperately want to go back to sitting on the air conditioned bus. We ended up eating at Price Smart which is very similar to Sam's club. Where we went wrong though was we gave the students pop and ice cream and then put them on a bus for two hours. It's amazing what students find to entertain themselves from telling jokes to taking off their shoes to stick their feet in their classmates' faces. Watching the students tap each other and pretend it wasn't them or hide behind curtains brought back a lot of memories from my own school days...it is weird being on the other side..a part of me wants to write apology notes to my elementary teachers for all the creative ways my classmates and I came up with to entertain ourselves on buses....also probably should include my parents on that list as well.

35 days until I go home for Christmas. I'm really excited about seeing my family again and I'm definitely wearing running shoes so as soon as I see them I can run like a crazy person to give them hugs...but I know that a part of my heart will be left here. Jarabacoa has changed for me over the past 100 some days. It has gone from a scary unknown foreign city...to  a place I've grown to call home. I'm beginning to believe that home is not a place, but people. People who you can relax with, laugh with and cry with. God is so good and I honestly don't understand or get why he has blessed me with so many amazing friendships here, but I'm so thankful  that no matter where life takes me, God will be there and in Him I will always find my home.

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus." -Philippians 4:19
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Random Thoughts from a Random Mind....

I've been here three months! Three months, a quarter of a year as I recently told a friend back home. Here in the Dominican Republic the people have already started hanging Christmas decorations and lighting up Christmas trees. Our office at school is fully equipped with a cardboard box chimney and of course an aluminum tree. It was always a tradition at my house to wait until after Thanksgiving to put up Christmas decorations, so it's odd to see them up before Halloween has even struck. Surprisingly, with the Christmas decorations I'm beginning to long for the colder weather. I miss sweatshirt weather.and hot chocolate weather and sitting on the heater with a book weather.

I finally feel like I'm acclimated to the D.R. and life here...definitely will never completely fit in what with my reflective white skin and blonde hair but I'm doing alright finding my way to the shops and conversing or at least attempting to converse with the people here. Actually sometimes when I've been (attempting) to speak Spanish for a while...I find that I start thinking to myself in Spanish until I finally remember that I don't have to, since surprise surprise...I speak English. I've also begun my own war with the ants in the kitchen. I learned that they bite...but armed with a sponge and spray I think I do alright as the powerful Goliath....

My students are doing well. They are busy little bees and sometimes I feel a lot more like a mother than a teacher...especially when I need to tie their shoes...dust them off when they fall, or convince them that shaking their butts all around the classroom is probably not the best use of their time. They love to talk, chat, scream, laugh, run and slide everywhere. Some of them have definitely mastered how to whine out, "Miss Nussbaum" and they have all gotten this amazing talent of losing every single one of their pencils. They love to cry over the small stuff and play teacher by pointing out the things that everyone else is doing wrong, while simultaneously doing the same thing. They've tested my patience in every way and there have been days when I come home exhausted. In the end though, the price is worth it. I love those moments when they finally get the lesson or when they finally do something nice without any reason at all. I love that they enjoy sharing "Miss Nussbaum" spottings from the weekend every Monday and that they really mean it when they say "good morning." Life is so much more exciting as a kid. Everything holds much greater significance from a loss pencil to a opportunity to play a game..and it has definitely caused me to open my own eyes as well.

With Christmas decorations popping up all over town and "Feliz Navidad" appearing in shop windows...I'm beginning to look forward to seeing my family for Christmas and meeting my new baby nephew. I'm looking forward to snow, Sunday homemade waffles Christmas cinnamon rolls and ping pong showdowns. I cannot believe Christmas is less than two months away and soon and very soon I won't have to peer at my family through a screen but can actually hug them in person and that is probably what I'm looking forward to most of all.

October With a Side of Honesty

I was looking through my journal and was very humbled. I cannot believe how a journal of feelings and problems going on at the time can be such a testament to God's love, wisdom and of course patience. I wish I was a better journaler because so often we can only see how God worked each situation out from reverse and by that time we are knee deep in another problem trying to find our own way out of the muck and ignoring the bridge God is pointing us towards. 

I am stubborn and sometimes I believe I know what is best for me when reality is I don't. In October of last year I became to feel like it was time to leave Will Carleton and teach abroad. Month after month...my journal entries question why God would ask me to leave a job I was good at, a place I loved and everything I was comfortable with. I tried to find every excuse to stay, but I knew I had to go, and now I cannot imagine not being here.

What would my life be like if I decided not to come, I don't even want to think about it. Yes, it is harder to do laundry, get used to the power going out twice a day and light a stove with a lighted chop stick and oven mitts, but I wouldn't trade it. I love the people I've met here and how this already feels like home. I love that I can walk to the ice cream place...run in the morning...laugh until I snort and have people in my life who are like family.

I love how we always think that we are doing God a service when we follow Him, but I hate that. I hate how people so often equate following God's will with sacrifice. Trust me...God doesn't need me...He never will.I think God has to laugh at me when I say "okay I'll do this God, don't want to, but I'll do it as a favor to you."  He chooses to use me as a gift to me, so that I become a better person. I could've stayed in Hillsdale and I would have had a great year, but I would have missed out on so much. It is almost scary to think about how close I was to not coming, how I tried to find every excuse in the book to stay where I was comfortable.....safe and in my predictable little pattern,

So I guess what I want to say is that I'm thankful and humbled. I see how different my life has become over the past couple of months and I'm so happy to be here. I think I need to realize how my own ideas of my happiness are so often clouded and limited to time. I have no idea where I'll be in a year or two, what I will be doing, but looking through my journal has given me peace. My life will not go the way I expect, the way I plan, it never will, but looking back I will be able to see how the puzzle pieces slowly fit together to make a life far more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. 

Tales of a Fourth Grade Something

I think one of the things I'm most thankful for here is that I still have the opportunity to teach. Honestly, I'm sitting here trying to imagine what else I could be doing and it scares me a little bit. I think that I'd lose a bit of myself if I wasn't teaching. Don't get me wrong, the students have definitely tested my patience and the class has practiced "silence" many times, but at the end of the day, there is no job I'd rather have.

I think that the hardest thing about teaching is that you have to be vulnerable You have to be willing to get up each morning being prepared to pour all your energy, all your patience, all your love and all of your knowledge into the students and you have to stand up in front of the students knowing that sometimes everything you have won't be enough. There are days where I don't have the patience to answer the 20th question on the homework assignment, talk to the frustrated parent or deal with the crying kid, the kid who bullied him and maintain the class at the same time.  \

I remember the first time, I realized I didn't have it altogether and a little panic set in, but then I remembered that I don't have to have it altogether and when I fall, I've got a God who says "I've got this, give all you've got and don't be afraid, because I will refill you." I love those moments, because I'm reminded of God's presence because I can tell you if it were me, I'd be crying at my desk or running around the room screaming. There are times when I cry out, "I've got nothing." and God answers, "But I've got something."

I also think teaching students, teaches me a lot about my relationship with God, while actually more about my own stupidity when I approach God is similar to how some of the students approach me. I am very humbled when I see students who try to be really sneaky thinking that I won't see what they are doing. They think if they are low to the ground or scoot across the floor I won't see them.  Sometimes I think God must laugh at us like I laugh at my students' attempts to hide from me.

Also, occasionally my students don't trust my directions and try to do it their way and then they fail miserably and get even more confused. An exasperated me tries to untie all their mistakes, but then I've reminded of all the times I've tried to do the same thing with God and well it has turned out the exact same way.

I love teaching though with all my heart and I live for those moments when the student finally realizes that he can do it. I love seeing his face slowly change when he solved the problem that had been giving him trouble and actually I think I screamed for joy out loud yesterday when the student I tutored finally mastered a concept we had been working on for a while. Yes, he jumped a little bit, but if I can scream for my sports team, I'm definitely screaming for my student. He approached me today for the first time for a hug  and it is moments like that which make it all worth it to get up the next day and do it all over again.

So, I guess what I want to say almost two months into the Dominican Republic is I love being in a new environment and meeting new people, seeing new places and trying new adventures, but I'm also thankful that my job stayed the same and I get to keep that part of me that is more comfortable dancing to Silly Songs with Larry with 9 year olds than surrounded by people my own age at a party. I thank God each day for those 15 little bodies who drive me up a wall, but who I wouldn't trade for the world.

Blessings from the DR

God is good and I just don't get it. There have been so many times here when the exact thing I prayed for, the exact thing I desperately needed God provided in a way that exceeded all my expectations. And also there have been things I didn't pray for, that God decided to grant me anyway. Sometimes I feel like screaming at the sky," I know that was you God, but I don't deserve it, none of it." It still astounds me that when we pray, when we fall to our knees, the most powerful being is willing to answer some of our most superficial needs. Honestly, in order to survive, I don't need friends or a good place to live or even the ability to talk to my parents, but God has granted me these things and so much beyond. I'm so thankful that the thousands of times I mess up and the times I ignore God, he still helps me. There is such security and courage knowing that the troubles we face in this world can never overwhelm a God who loves us.

So, I've decided to make a list of blessings, or at least some of the blessings, that God has granted me, though none of them I deserved. I think living in such a cause and effect world, it is so hard to understand why God would give so many beautiful and perfect gifts even when we neglect to pray or read the Bible.

1.My parents' encouragement and their willingness to be there for me no matter what- The first couple of days were hard to adjust to a brand new life and I am so, so thankful for my parents. Hearing their familiar voices always makes my heart smile and even my Dad's sad little jokes are a (little) funnier thousands of miles away.  I am so blessed with two amazing Godly parents as role models. I love that they support me and are backing me 100% and I feel so much more confident knowing that at the end of the day, my parents will laugh with me, cry with me, pray with and of course send me oyster crackers in the mail.

2. Having a great class-My students are already finding a way to sneak into my heart. I love the way they attempt to say "Nussbaum" like "Miss Nussbumps" and how they insist on giving hugs every time they see me. I love the way they grab their desks and push them right up against mine as their sneaky way to ask for help without saying the words and I love how they quietly sing "Pharaoh, Pharaoh" under their breaths during transitions. I love how easily they forgive and easily they love and how honest they are. Sometimes I think the adults should go to school and learn from the students.

3. Opportunities to attempt to speak Spanish-I'm thankful for the opportunities to work on my Spanish and I'm very thankful for the people on the other end of the conversation. I'm thankful for their lies of "you speak Spanish very well" and I'm thankful for their patience as we struggle through a conversation. I especially love practicing Spanish with people who aren't fluent in English...that way I feel slightly less of an idiot because I feel like we understand the difficulties together.

4. I'm thankful for the people here- I honestly never expected to meet so many great people here so soon. It sounds kind of depressing, but I whole heartedly believed I would be a lonely mess the first couple months here and was all prepared to eat my fair share of Oyster crackers and watch movies.God though, put people in my life already who are some of the nicest, most selfless people I've ever met. They are willing to help me find places around town, meet for dinner, play sports together and even listen to all of my awkward stories. I'm so thankful for each and every one of them and the way they've made me already feel at home here in this brand new country.

5. Skype dates with my little niece-I think it is hard to top seeing my little two year old niece on Skype as she says "Ta! Watch this! Ta, where you at?" She is so sweet and one of the greatest blessings in my life.  I also love talking to my sister and am so excited to meet my little nephew come October.

6. New cooking opportunities-I am actually so excited to try out new recipes and experiment with cooking. Some of the experiments of course haven't turned out, but I just learned how to light the stove, so cookies here we come!!

7. Friends back home-I don't know what I'd do without them. Thank you for keeping me updated about life back in the States. I especially have to thank Miss Courtney O'Shaughnessy for being a blessing in my life for the past 6 years. I love how we are basically the same person and I love how I can tell you anything and everything. I can't tell you how many times I'm so thankful that God put us together in that Spanish class, granted one seat away from each other. I'm so glad that you are just as awkward as me, so that when I meet my awkward quota for the day, 10 minutes after waking up I know someone understands me.

 8. God's presence- I've been so humbled by the countless reminders of God's presence. I have a sense of security and peace that is not my own. I feel like I can rest, knowing that I don't have to have my plans perfect because I'm not in control and I don't have to be. I'm so, so thankful, that when my energies run out, when I come to the end of my rope and I have nothing else to give, God provides.

Often people say it is hard to be a Christian because of all the rules and regulations, but I disagree. I think life would be so much harder without God. What would I do when I came to the end of my rope like I do countless times? Where could I possibly turn? It literally scares me to think of a life without God, a life where He wasn't there. There are things I will not do because of my beliefs, but there are so many more things that I can do because of them. I can cry out for help, I can trust, I can have peace and security even in the midst of troubles. I'm so thankful for the reminders that the relationship with God is more valuable than anything I could ever name and though I fail a thousand times He still lifts me up and holds me and reminds me that He is there.

"Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself,' the Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."' -Lamentations 3:22-24