First Bat Mitzvah

So a long weekend is here and I am ready for it :) This week was a short 3 days with kids which was nice and went by very quickly. We had the exchange students from Virginia with us so I had two extra students but they were both very sweet girls and fit in very well.

On Thursday, we had a Teacher Institute Day but I had permission to miss the morning part because I was invited to a past student's Bat Mitzvah. It was a wonderful experience and like nothing I had ever been to before. The ceremony was a mix of Hebrew and Spanish. I understood all of the Spanish just fine but the Hebrew....not so much. It was a beautiful ceremony and her parents both spoke and gave her blessings. She then gave thanks to lots of different people and ended the ceremony with a candle ceremony. She lit a candle for each year of her life and had different people come up and help her light the candles. One of them was her teachers and there was just one other teacher and myself there so we went up to help her light the candle, it was very sweet.


Jon, Shelly and I.

Today I am just relaxing and then going to a game of Jose's tonight. Tomorrow I am going to spend the afternoon/night at the beach and come back on Sunday. I will be coming home for another wedding next summer. Next June, my best friend Jenna will be getting married and she asked me to be her Maid of Honor this week. Another quick weekend at home but definitely VERY excited about it.

So Framingham sucked me in (which is the masters program) and I fell off the face of the earth. It just takes up all my time for the 2 weeks. I get home later in the evenings and then just want to do nothing before bed! I survived though and overall it went well. It wasn't my favorite class that I've taken but it was alright. It was Research and we had to put together a big research project at the end and present it. It was interesting and I learned a few things I guess haha.

After the class, got back into the routine this week, had a lovely Valentine's Day dinner at a nice Chinese restaurant in town and it was a shorter week of school because of the Turno event that is happening tonight. It is the annual school PTA carnival and it is so over the top it's ridiculous. They bring in carnival rides that they set up in the field and all of the grades have a booth (like a carnival game). There are concerts and it's just crazy. SO much that we have to cancel school half of a day for it haha but i'm not complaining! Next week is a shorter week also with only 3 days with kids, Thursday is Teacher Institute and then Friday is a holiday. I'm looking forward to it.


The ridiculous "TURNO" event at school.

This weekend I have no big plans. I think I might do some cooking and relaxing tonight, maybe more of the same tomorrow (with a few skype dates with friends) and then Sunday probably going to the beach for the day. I'm looking forward to having nothing to do and just relaxing. Sorry to not include too many pictures on the blogs but I honestly haven't been taking many pictures, I will try to work on that :)

I've been going through some phases of missing home and feeling far away, but a good friend reminded me that I need to enjoy my time here because I have the rest of my life to live in the states and I will be missing it here. It's so true that you miss what you don't have. I just need to remind myself of that. It's hard when I'm feeling down or I hear about friends meeting up or friends/family have big things happening in their lives and I can only be there through emails or skype calls. I know with skype it is wonderful but sometimes it's just not the same. Time is flying though and I am trying not to wish it away. It's already halfway through February, I can't believe it! Hope everyone is doing well at home. Love and miss you all!