Sweat and Sleep

That seems like all there is to do around here now a days, sweat and sleep. I was planning on going somewhere at lunch today because I am tired of spending SO much time inside. But, it was blazing hot and I didn't feel like getting sweaty without a purpose. If I knew where I was heading, I would have gone out, but just heading out and possibly not getting anywhere and being drenched in sweat just to get no where didn't sound too appealing. I tried reading, but of course that made me sleepy so I took a nap. Good news though, I really did only take a 20 minute nap. I actually woke up and got up when the alarm went off.

At least my down time was productive today and not totally filled with solitaire, crosswords, and reading. Yesterday and today I've been working a lot on prepping for my lessons next week. I never have enough props because I have to make them all and so I decided to start early. I planned lessons where I would need a lot of visuals and so I'm working on pulling them together now so that lunches next week can be spent exploring, regardless of the temperature (I'll suck it up if it's hot and I'll cover up if it's raining).

Wow, it's the third paragraph before I'm getting to what I did very first thing this morning. I guess I'm not always one for chronological order. Today was the first day that I tried one of the workouts I've been reading about instead of my run. It didn't take very long at all. I don't feel like it pushed me too hard, but while I was doing it, I was definitely working. I'll see how sore I am tomorrow before I say if I think it did any good or not. Tomorrow I'm going back to the one trail I found that is a climb up a mountain. I think I'm finally ready to attack the hill (because according to my reading, that's better for me then straight running anyway). Good news about this new workout plan that I'm adapting is that I'll be able to sleep more. For one, it doesn't recommend working out everyday, and the workouts take less then the hour it takes me to bike to the trail, run, and bike back.

I didn't need the time saver this morning though. Because I taught the morning lesson for Kaylene yesterday, she taught the morning lesson for me today and so I didn't have to be doing anything until 10:40 am. So this morning is when I got my scripture study and ensign reading in. It was a good morning.

My afternoon lesson was on leaves and the veins in the leafs. For the activity we did crayon rubbings of the leaves so that it was easier to see the veins. I had lots of different kinds of leaves that I had picked on my run yesterday and at the start of class I passed them around for the kids to look at and feel. Between passing them around and letting the kids do rubbings of the leaves, the leaves got pretty demolished (especially when Jared got his hands on them and honestly ripped them to shreds). I had like 10 minutes left after they had colored all over their papers (so it's not like I could just let the keep going) and I needed more leaves before the next class came in so I decided to do a leaf hunt. We walked around outside in a line, holding hands. When they saw a really neat leaf, they would stop me and I would pick it. It was pretty good quick thinking if I do say so myself (although it just occured to me that I wouldn't need good quick thinking if I would have prepared a better lesson).

At lunch today they had corn on the cob as their soup. So it was corn on the cob in a broth. I was getting out a piece of corn and I realized that there were funny black things in the broth. Ha! They were chicken's feet. I was so close to asking Teacher Steffanie if I was allowed to have a chicken's foot, but I decided not to. I wouldn't know how to eat it, the kids would laugh at me, and I wasn't feeling too adventurous at the moment. But thinking about it now, I don't think that the feet were prepared to eat, I think they were just to give flavor to the broth.

I've already covered my lunch break, a lot of working on my next week's lesson and a little bit of napping. My afternoon lesson was on Wonder Woman because I had to represent my own sex in the discussion of super heroes. I felt sketchy teaching about her though because her outfit is seriously inappropriate (and so are the outfits of the female villains she fights). Needless to say, there were way less pictures on my PowerPoint today.

I played with the rascals after school today and I got sweaty and my feet got so dirty. But I'm glad that they have fun with me. May is so cute. They all tell me I'm beautiful (which of course makes me feel good) but today May told it to me on several occasions (they were all saying it a lot today actually, which is weird because I chose to not wear makeup today). She told it to me right before I left to go upstairs. She said "Teacher, you are so pretty" and I said, "No, I'm so sweaty." Then May tells me, "No, you are so beautiful, your sweat is beautiful." How precious is that? Even when I'm a sweaty sweaty beast, they still think I'm beautiful. Oh, I'm REALLY going to miss Taiwan, if just for the shallow reason that people tell me I'm beautiful :o)

I had a grilled cheese sandwich and a side of re fried beans for dinner. The beans were so bland and so I would eat a bite of bland beans and then eat a bite of sandwich so that I had flavor. I'm pretty sure that's how my dinners are going to go for the next several days- fix something really flavorful and in between bites of that, eat bites of beans. I still can't believe that I was so moronic and made all of the beans at one time.

I did more lesson prep after dinner and was just sitting in my room so bored. Natalie had been gone forever and I was wondering where the heck she goes all the time. Then I realized, it doesn't matter where I go, I just need to get out of this place. So, I got on my bike and swung by the juice stand. Ronald is either mad at me or he only really ever like Nancy because he doesn't ever want to talk to me any more. Which, actually that's okay because I really did just want juice tonight. I mean, I would have talked if he wanted to, but I rode up on my bike (meaning I didn't park it in hopes that he would have time to talk). I took my bike to the beach, but not the normal place I usually take my juices or dinners or what have you, I took it further down to the side of the beach I had explored on Saturday. It surprised me because it was pretty crowded. Everyone there was a freaking couple though. I felt like such a loser being the only one on a bench without a boy to hold. A little farther down there was a bigger group of people shooting off tiny fireworks. It wasn't much of a show and it made it so that I couldn't hear the ocean waves. I did stay for a while, but probably not as long as I would have stayed if I had been at the quieter end of the beach. I took the extra long way home just to be out of the house that much longer and I stopped at the fruit stand because I was in need of fruit. I laughed to myself when I realized that I was buying California nectarines. And I also bought some apples. Today the guy didn't through in any free watermelon, but he did put in some dragon fruit. Dang it. Is there a way I could have picked out the free fruit he gave me? Dragon fruit is not my favorite. Oh well, it's still pretty good, and I'm way appreciative of his generosity (so don't get me wrong). I'm starting to wonder if he always throws in a free bag of fruit if you spend a certain amount or if he really is just friendly to white people. Either way, it makes me happy to get free fruit :o)

Hmmm... what's left for today? I'm not tired, so it's a good thing that I promised Dana that I would stay up until she got to work so we could talk for a little while. I've got 4 minutes until she's at work so I'm going to go get ready for bed. Peace out!