February 25
I hope you had all a good week! Ours was excellent! After the LOUSY 2017 we experienced, I'm beyond happy to be having a better year! Or, at least, a better February!
Monday, our exchange student, Niles, from Louisiana arrived. He immediately became part of the family, and I couldn't be happier. It's been really fun getting to include him in our day-to-day activities and getting to be part of the school's special activities. Tony and Coralynn frequently mention wanting more children, so I've agreed that we can get a 14-year-old if they can find one as sweet as Niles.
On Wednesday evening, the entire group of exchange students and their hosts came over for dinner. It was great. I cried I loved it so much. 55 people eating and laughing together on my back patio is apparently my love language. The more I work with teenagers the more convinced I am that they truly desire to be kids. As a teacher, I hear a lot about kids' and their bad choices. I hear about the horrors they can be in the classroom and at home. But, when given the opportunity, kids like to be kids. 35 teenagers at my house chose to play basketball and then have a sing a long. This is not the stuff PSA's are made of, but it is consistently true. When teenagers come to my house, they consistently overstay the time for the event because they are busy being kids: playing basketball or tennis, decorating cookies, playing apples to apples, singing karaoke. Give the kids the opportunity to be kids, and they'll take you up on it.
Thursday, we decided to all go see Black Panther. I brought a friend with us, and the 8 of us headed to the movie theater. Now, let's review for a second. I don't do movies. But I've seen 3 in the past 2 weeks. Yes, it's an anomaly. And it's stopping. If I learned that kids like to be kids on Wednesday, I learned Thursday that there is a lot of violence in movies. Wow. I am apparently out of touch, because everyone keeps telling me that Black Panther had so much less violence than other Marvel movies. Seriously? Are the other movies straight violence?? I loved the story line and the characters. The setting and costumes and "look" of the movie were amazing. But, all that violence rocked my world. I am returning to my trusty rock to live under.
Today, we let everyone sleep in (they hadn't slept past 6:15, so today's 8:00 seemed generous) and headed to Chinese breakfast.
Dim Sum is pretty much our "Welcome to Panama" event. The locks are cool; the canal is iconic. Chinese breakfast is just a yummy way to enjoy Panama!
Monday, our exchange student, Niles, from Louisiana arrived. He immediately became part of the family, and I couldn't be happier. It's been really fun getting to include him in our day-to-day activities and getting to be part of the school's special activities. Tony and Coralynn frequently mention wanting more children, so I've agreed that we can get a 14-year-old if they can find one as sweet as Niles.
On Wednesday evening, the entire group of exchange students and their hosts came over for dinner. It was great. I cried I loved it so much. 55 people eating and laughing together on my back patio is apparently my love language. The more I work with teenagers the more convinced I am that they truly desire to be kids. As a teacher, I hear a lot about kids' and their bad choices. I hear about the horrors they can be in the classroom and at home. But, when given the opportunity, kids like to be kids. 35 teenagers at my house chose to play basketball and then have a sing a long. This is not the stuff PSA's are made of, but it is consistently true. When teenagers come to my house, they consistently overstay the time for the event because they are busy being kids: playing basketball or tennis, decorating cookies, playing apples to apples, singing karaoke. Give the kids the opportunity to be kids, and they'll take you up on it.
Thursday, we decided to all go see Black Panther. I brought a friend with us, and the 8 of us headed to the movie theater. Now, let's review for a second. I don't do movies. But I've seen 3 in the past 2 weeks. Yes, it's an anomaly. And it's stopping. If I learned that kids like to be kids on Wednesday, I learned Thursday that there is a lot of violence in movies. Wow. I am apparently out of touch, because everyone keeps telling me that Black Panther had so much less violence than other Marvel movies. Seriously? Are the other movies straight violence?? I loved the story line and the characters. The setting and costumes and "look" of the movie were amazing. But, all that violence rocked my world. I am returning to my trusty rock to live under.
Today, we let everyone sleep in (they hadn't slept past 6:15, so today's 8:00 seemed generous) and headed to Chinese breakfast.
After Chinese breakfast, we came home to spend a little time doing nothing- a really unusual event for us. Saturday morning, my school had its fun fair. While there, Camilla earned this nifty red bandanna that was just asking to be tied on Chicheme. His goofy, huge self loved his new look!
Finally, I have to end with a special "Happy Birthday" shout out to my mom!! Today is her birthday, and my whole family won the lottery when we got to claim her as ours!! Happy birthday, Mom! May today be the beginning of an awesome year!!!!
To being on a good streak and being smart enough to recognize it,
L
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