Two impressive forms of media impressed me this week…
This reflection on the 21st Century teacher

and Steve Jobs’ Stanford speech below, you definitely need to read this…WOW…

In a short amount of time, so many things can occur, – crazy, isn’t it?

I will pick up from where I left off last post, how is that?

We did prevail 2 Saturdays ago, (not yesterday, but the Saturday before) – with a great College Fair! We had success with the pizza selling, ordering 4 at a time, Three times, for a total for 12 pizzas blowing out of the fair, and we could have done with probably 6 at a time, but overall, we were lucy we sold it all and had the chance to raise an extra 1000 pesos added to the account. Not bad at all! 🙂 I was proud of

Camila, Ann, and Ji as they helped collect, distribute, and hold of the crowds between pizza deliveries and such.

I was able to actually get my clothes from a new laundromat

after the College Fair, and began the process of putting away clothes and Sunday allowed me to be lazy and settle in with the new kitten, Dewey.

Speaking of Dewey, it has been amazing to see her settle in among stranger, and those “strangers” – in the form of faculty and students, have done a WONDERFUL job in taking care of her. She is completely spoiled but overall, well taken care of. She can be VERY frustrating when she cries, (as Deborah and Tracy and testify to) but when you look back to see how healthy and excited she becomes when she is around people that care for her, you see how similar to a baby she is with the milk, formula,

burping, and the whole training, wow. It you do not have patience you either will or you will break after the kitten baby stage! 🙂

It still tugs at my heart if we could make her a part of the library, as the way the students transformed when she was around was amazing, they pitched in and took care of her, and completely melted when she was near! 🙂 The name Dewey (for Dewey Decimal) as well as originally named Francine (from Sarah!) It is interesting to see how the DF is snuck in there thoroughly representing Dewey in Mexico!

So let’s discuss the eats! 🙂
2 Fridays ago we descended upon Ka Wong Seng

by the Viaducto. I will not spoil the review I wrote on the area with the review of restaurants on this blog (see the page that says Important bits of info about Mexico!)

Agapi Mu Restaurant

Wow! This might be the true test, soaking wet, stormy night, cold, and still a great place! This restaurant in Condessa has some of the best Greek food, and I was taken with the Calamri, oh yes…DELICIOUS! Great hideaway and great restaurant! A definite hit! To make it even better, we relaxed at a colleague’s apartment afterwards and just a great Friday night all around 🙂

This past week was a blur with trying to sneak Dewy into the school every day, (minus Thursday and Friday!) In my sweatshirt most days (in a sock), in her carrier bag, people on the metro noticing, wow, challenges, and then finally the decision to leave her home 😦 In a week she learned to use the litter box, still WAS on milk only (this past Saturday she ate her first taste of soft food and hard food MIXED, progress!) – and so she is coming along so quickly!

Let’s see, Ms Fong, my boss, travelled to New York and asked me what I needed, of all things, I could only think of a Swiffer for the house that would carry well, lol. I could have asked for ANYTHING else, but alas, I fell on the Swiffer, lol. I hope she is getting lots of pics!

I am excited, tomorrow, I am headed camping for four days with Outward Bound with the 9th graders. We go without showers for 4 days, in the wilderness, and do service projects with locals as well as help students in the classroom that are of elementary age. Exciting! 🙂

I have a friend, Glen Richards, who is in India right now working with an orphanage and amazing to see his VLOG and images of India, you truly need to check it out. You need to check out his facebook with the videos he is making, wow. GREAT and the kids are benefitting as well!

I think CYCLICAL because I realize how much an impact one person can make, and seeing Glen makes me realize, if each one if us were to just live like there is no tomorrow, imagine how many people could be affected and how much the world could change.

With the passing of Steve Jobs, I know alot of people focus on just his accomplishments with APPLE, but that was a vehicle for him to realize alot about himself. His Stanford speech
is FAMOUS, and for good reason. It would do you good to check it out and apply it every day, I hope to.

In seeing Mexico, I realized how lucky I have been to have this experience, and to have friends at home to help keep things going. Melinda Duryea helped me make the first ability to get money sent home and pay bills, and I hope to get back on track. Danielle Levredge continues to watch the house and turtle, and reduce the amount of bad things that could be happening!

I need to bust some hours and tasks out today and finish some on the burner tasks such as writing an article for the upcoming issue of Focus (magazine put out buy the school) as well as catch up with my online classes – November is write a 50 000 word novel and I signed up! – and Web 2.0 Tools class), all which will help me become more of a resource using and adapting technology for teachers.

Additionally, I am sooooo excited that my immigration/FM3 paper came in! YEAH!

I could not travel to NCTE in November without them, and I truly want to make an impact and bring resources back for the educator here in Mexico.

In March, we are preplanning a trip to New York City for the Columbia Univerisity journalism Conference, that will span over the time of my birthday! If I can get the staff to come to this, wow! I am so excited that this could happen – and it will benefit the Literary Magazine as well as the students in publishing! That same week is a Celebration of teaching which would be AWESOME!

In March there also is a United Nations UNUM
trip to Dublin, Ireland which I was accepted to chaperone for the United Nations event for the students, wow….I am so excited! I wanted to try and obtain information for my uncle related to our family tree if I can get that!

I have realized it is okay to do alot of events, but if I do not pull information back from them, then it does me no good and others no good.

I forsee me catching up with bills (BORING) over the next few weeks, and also my classes I have enrolled in, and then jumping back and hitting my list of to see’s around Mexico! 🙂 In the process, I have begun to do the flashcard and recall exercises on SpanishDictionary.com,

ohmygosh! It really works better than anything I thought it would! Excellent! So I am getting there….:)

Alot for you to look over, but I hope by taking the last week off from posts, it has given everyone a chance to catch up! 🙂

I see life as cyclical, and if you believe this, then it is even more important to make sure you provide some good that will come back around and benefit others as it has you!