International Charity Bazaar

Yesterday I spent some time at the UN's Charity Bazaar. There were rooms full of different handicrafts and food from many countries. There was also a parade of costumes of the world. Here you see my grumpy Mikias from last year and my tiny Kidu from this year.

Thanksgiving I

My contribution to our first Thanksgiving of the season - chocolate cake with coffee cream cheese frosting.

Happy Birthday Tugi

One of the benefits of teaching is birthdays. There's nothing better than free cake to celebrate a kid's birthday. And this one topped the charts...chocolate mousse cake with dark chocolate frosting. Tugi is now my favorite kid.

Mini Me?

Look how cute my Noah is in my hat!

The First Christmas Market of the Year

It's not completely up and running, but enough to enjoy a leisurely stroll with a friend.

Ticket

While I never received a speeding ticket in the States my luck has not held up here in Europe. This is my second speeding ticket in a six month period.

The only thing that makes it less painful is that it's from Liechtenstein. I mean, if you gotta get a ticket it might as well be from one of the tiniest countries in the world.

As you can see, I was driving 62 in a 50 km/h zone...oops. At least it's only 50 Euros...much cheaper than tickets in the States.

Electricity

Have you really stopped to think lately about what a luxury electricity is? Have you pondered what your life would be like without it?

I hadn't either until I didn't have electricity in my bedroom for 2 1/2 weeks. It's pretty nice to be able to see where I'm walking and avoid the sharp corners of my bed.

Honduran Night

Last Friday Stacey invited us over for a Honduran Night.

Gisselle was our Honduran Chef. She explained about her country and some of the traditions of the food we were about to eat.

First we had tamales.

We also had yuca.

Followed by ripe plantains.

Here is Yvonne and I enjoying our evening.

Great food, great friends...can't ask for much more than that.

A Class Party

A couple of weeks ago one of my students brought in a couple of cakes for her birthday. One for the kids and one for the teachers. So far this is my favorite class party...who wouldn't be excited for a whole cake to themselves?

Below the students look on with fascination as I get ready to put the candles on the cake.

Toni waits as we serenade her with the traditional birthday song.

Birthday Buddy

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend Alonso's birthday party. I love this kid. Partly because he's a part of my favorite family here, partly because he shares the same birth date as I do, but mostly because he's a sweet boy.

I invited Miss Stephens along to keep me company. Here we are with the "birthday" boy in our oh so flattering hats.

The two kids at the bottom have no business being in my picture, I don't even know them, but they weaseled their way in anyway.

Fall Festival

Last Friday was our annual Fall Festival. Nearly the entire school community gathers to play games and hear the little ones (and sometimes the big ones) perform.

This year I helped set up and also ran the Chocolate Mess game with Sara.

These are two of my boys making faces as they prepare to sing.

A bit of their song...