Finally! A free Friday!

Tonight I am experiencing my first free Friday night of the school year. We've been in school four weeks now, and each week something different has taken up my Friday night/weekend. The first week, it was Chillin' & Grillin right after school, the second week I got in a car right after school and drove to Switzerland for staff retreat, and last week was the Fall Party. And NEXT week I'll be leaving for the middle school overnighter! So tonight, my rooommate is at a music department gathering and I am home alone, basking in the silence and enjoying a disgustingly delicious dinner of Wellness Flakes (a cross between Special K and Fiber One), Feuer Drachens ("fire dragons" - spicy puffed paprika chips shaped like dragons), and some Ritter Sport Pfefferminz chocolate. Doesn't that sound like something a husband would eat when his wife is away? Haha!

So this week was Spiritual Emphasis Week at BFA and the school brought in a band from Canada as well as a speaker, Bill Fenimore, to encourage and challenge the students. The topic was love and how to love like Jesus. The entire week's schedule was rearranged to allow for a chapel time each day, and the band hung out at different dorms each evening. One of the songs we sang was called "The Desert Song", and this was the part that really got to me: All of my life in every season/You are still God/I have a reason to sing/I have a reason to worsip. Exactly one year ago, I was going though a painful season of frustration, hurt, and anger towards God for not allowing me to go to Vienna. Even though I had no desire to worship during that time, I had reason to sing because God was and is still God. It has been so wonderful to look back on this past year and see His hand at work in using that situation to draw me closer to Him.

In other news, I'm finally starting to get a handle on lesson planning and have been able to prepare just a tiny bit in advance. All teachers have to have their entire week planned and daily lesson plans submitted to their department heads on Monday - this is huge for me, because 1)I've never had to submit lesson plans before, and 2) I'm very spontaneous when it comes to my lessons, so sometimes in the middle of the week I find myself rewriting the rest of the week! This may be my second year teaching but BFA is so different from Peace that it's like being a first year teacher all over again. I'm already looking forward to next year, when I will finally NOT be the rookie. But don't get me wrong, I'm absolutely loving teaching here. My eighth grade earth science classes assembled a timeline of events from the "Space Race" between USSR and USA, and it took up a whole wall in the classroom! Here are a few other pics of my classroom.

Also, my roommate and I made currywurst last week! It wasn't quite the same as what we had in Loerrach, and it didn't turn our tongues nearly as yellow, but it was still delicious. This is definitely getting added to our menu rotation.