Beginning of School

Hi there everyone!

There's so much I could say about school starting that I don't even know where to begin. Overall, it went pretty well. Of course, there are things I wish I had done differently (mostly in the classroom management/ discipline category), but I think it'll all work out okay. Now, I'm feeling overwhelmed and mostly exhausted. Teaching is a lot more work than you realize as a student. All the things I start working on usually end up taking three times as long as I think they will, but I guess better time management will come with time.

I'm currently teaching 6th, 7th and 8th grade math, and high school physics. I will probably be adding middle school music once a week. The kids in my classes are mostly pretty good, but as in any class, there are the few that are talkative or hard to handle. But I think I will be able to keep control of the class.
I didn't expect the high schoolers to be easier than the middle schoolers. I thought I would be able to treat the middle schoolers more like adults than I can - they're more immature than I remember middle schoolers being. But the high schoolers are easy. They're almost too quiet. Hopefully, when things get going and I can get them up and moving around the room doing experiments, they'll liven up.

The first two days were only half days of school, so I only had each class for 25-30 mins rather than 45 mins. I'm a bit worried since I found that exhausting, but, I'll have more to do when the actual subject gets going.

I have a wide range of skills of students in my middle school classes, so adapting the lessons for each of them will be a challenge. I think I have at least three different levels of students in each class. There are some that are really bright and finish everything really quickly - I know I'll need extra work for them to do. On the flip side, there are a few that will need a lot of attention just to get through. I hope that I pick up the 'art of teaching' quickly, because these kids need me to.

Today, there was a school-wide field trip to a fancy pool/ resort south of Prishtina. It was mostly the middle schoolers that went along. It turned out to be a rather relaxing day, when I wasn't too hot to function. I enjoyed the lazy river and a short nap on a lounge chair. :)

I'm hoping to get some rest this weekend, but its looking like it will be very busy. I have a lot of work to do for school and will probably be there most of the weekend. I wonder if my teachers always did this and I just had no idea....

First Day of School

I realize that I skipped a lot of time in my story, but, since I know people are curious/ anxious to hear about today, I decided to just give a tidbit. I'll have time to write this weekend...

5 Things About My First Day of School

1. A kitten in the hallway.

2. Middle schoolers eating foam shapes.

3. A student with an aching kidney.

4. A student who barely speaks English.

5. The chairs for my room arriving half-way through the day.

Settling In

Hi again. I've been procrastinating on writing - just being honest. Writing is not a strong point for me, so it takes a lot of effort to try to get a blog out.

The past week and a half have been just for setting in here in Prishtina. We've been so blessed to have such a strong support system of people around us, so we definitely haven't felt alone in the endeavor. Many returning school employees have been taking us around and making sure we know where to get everything we need. Everything from the egg store, the green market to get veggies, the pharmacy with reliable items, a great hairdresser (yay!), office supply store, etc... So I think we're pretty much set on things we need or know where to get them.

The four of us girls that are living here together, we have two flats across the hall from each other, are getting along really well - we're so much alike. It's so cool to hear all our stories of how we got here and see how God has placed us together. :)

Today is Bayram, or Eid-ul-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. This month was the ninth month of the Islam calendar, during which Muslims fast from dawn to night fall. Today is the celebration of the end of the fast, and the biggest holiday of the year - similar to Christmas for Christians. It's really interesting to be here during this time. We've been invited to come to an Albanian's home, Ismet who works at PHS, this afternoon. I'll write more about it later...

In Prishtina

Hi there - sorry its been so long since I last wrote. We've been trying to get the wifi working, but have been having a lot of issues.

I'm in Prishtina now in my new apartment! It's really nice!! It's quite big and has lots of windows so its very sunny and pleasant. My apartment-mate and I each have our own room with a balcony and we have a guest room. We're in a really convenient location to the city and school- it's really wonderful in that respect.

We've been here since Friday and have been really fortunate to meet up with lots of people from the school and been on a few tours. There's so much good food here- its a good thing we walk everywhere!! And we're looking for a gym. ;)

Teacher orientation begins next Monday - I'm really looking forward to that! Everyone is getting here soon and I'm excited to get going! It's going to be a great year!

Finally in Kosovo!

I made it to Kosovo - hooray!! It took me a while, I know. :) The traveling was fine, although the route wasn't logical - I flew through Oslo, Norway! I didn't really like it there - the airport was confusing and the people weren't particularly nice since I didn't speak any Norwegian. Oh well, I was only there a couple hours. The flight to Prishtina was longer than I thought - about 3 hours - and felt longer since the young girl next to me was sleeping halfway in my seat the whole time. lol! Fun times, right?

When I was on the plane and in the airport, I will admit that I having those "what am I thinking?!" moments. I had forgotten how scary and lonely it is to not be able to talk to anyone. I've only ever been in countries where I didn't speak the language briefly, and that was stressful enough. Moving somewhere that you don't speak the language is a whole other ball game, and I admit that it is still freaking me out. But fortunately, Lydia and Jeton were there waiting at the airport to rescue me. :)

The past couple of days I've just been hanging out at the Chesnut's house relaxing and reading up. I'm already working on my Albanian! I can say "Hello. My name is Caitlin." Amazing, huh? (not.)

Mirëdita. Unë jam Caitlin.

Next I need to figure out "I'm learning Albanian." and "Do you speak English?"  ;)

London

Sorry this post is so late.... London was so much fun! I traveled on Thursday without issue - except for some running to catch my train. You seriously should have been there to see Heather running through the masses of people on Princes Street with my giant case, knocking people out of the way - it was hilarious! I was having trouble keeping up because I was laughing so hard!

Friday, Elspeth and I went to the Olympic Park! I really thought that it would be really crowded and miserable everywhere, but it wasn't at all - I guess all the Londoners listened and stayed home. We barely had to wait for anything. We spent the morning wandering around the park and exploring the shops and things. It was a lovey day until about noon, when we were sitting by the jumbo screen at Park Live to watch the rowing finals and have lunch, when there was a spontaneous torrential downpour for a few minutes. Fortunately, the sun came right back out to dry us all off. Our event, women's handball matches, was at 2:30pm, so we headed over the the Copper Box in the afternoon. We had really great seats! Perfect height, no rows in front of or behind us because we were at the level of the walkways, and right by the athlete's area door so all the athletes and coaches watching were next to us. It definitely turned out to be a great experience - handball is really fast paced and exciting to watch! I'm totally invested now and have been keeping up with the matches. We chose both winning teams, despite who the majority of the crowd was rooting for - both Croatia and Russia won!
I'm actually really glad we went to a less high profile sport because we got to be so close to the athletes! I actually even pointed one of them to her teammate that had walked away while she was texting - lol! After the matches, we wandered some more, got some dinner, and watched the swimming finals on the big screen with lots of other people. It was so cool to be there and get the atmosphere, even if you didn't get tickets to be in the arena.

Olympic Stadium!

Epic handball!

Saturday, I went into to London and met up with James - he came all the way from Norwich for the day to hang out. :) We spent most of the day at Madame Tussaud's - I'd never been to one before and really wanted to go. Fortunately, James was very nice about it and tolerated me dragging him around to all the wax twins of movie stars to take my picture. haha! But, we made friends with an Olympian (I think she was from Algeria) and she took some pictures for us and I took a few for her - she was really sweet. :)  Especially compared to most of the people there - it was really crowded with some seriously pushy people. :(  But we still had fun. We had a nice dinner in a nearby park afterwards - such a lovely day! Thanks, James!

This was a necessary picture!

James and me and Julia Roberts - haha! Taken by an Olympic athlete!

Awww cuteeee

Sunday, I went to church with Elspeth and her sister. :) Then, Elspeth and I went into London to see more sights. She took me to Camden Market - such a CRAZY place! But I could do some serious shopping there! haha! We went to the National Portrait Gallery - they had a special Olympics portraits there and even some abstract art which included a video of David Beckham sleeping. Hmmm not sure how that's art, but none of the ladies seemed to be complaining.... We wandered through lots of shops and had sweets at a place called Candy Cupcakes - sounds amazing, right? I had a Mounds milkshake - soooo good!

I'm so blessed to have such awesome friends that made my holiday to the UK a blast - thanks James, Heather and Elspeth!!

Edinburgh 3

My last few days in Edinburgh were great! Monday, while Heather was at work, I went over to Old Town where I used to live and walked all around my old stomping ground. I went back to uni and to the halls where I lived and all the shops I loved. It was weird to be back, but still cool. That evening we went to a Belly Dancing class - which was really HARD but also really fun! Haha! I think if I lived there, I would keep going! It's a great ab workout! lol!! Then we met up with one of my old friends, Hugh, for dinner. He was the guide that took Mom, Grandpa and me on our Clan MacKay tour of the highlands two years ago. Plus, we saw him at the Scottish Festival in Williamsburg the following fall and he has taken some of our friends on tours since then. He is a really fun guy and it was good to see him again. :)

Hey there, Hugh! 

Tuesday, Heather and I went to a pottery painting place in the morning - so fun! She made a Mickey Mouse pasta dish (Disney - surprise, surprise, right? lol) and I made a Cher mug! Oh yeah! I'm the only person I know that is awesome enough to have a Cher mug. bahaha! Then we took the bus out to Ratho again to the Rock Climbing Centre and actually got to climb this time! It was so fun and we had a great instructor! You could just tell how passionate he was about climbing and that he loves job.

hard at work...

climbing!

Wednesday, we saw a really neat rendition of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was a promenade style performance by the Scottish Youth Theatre in the Royal Botanic Garden. It was so very cool! I've never been to a performance quite like that before. The actors are all around you rather than just in front - which is a new experience. Plus, the fairies were talking with us "mortals" while we walked between scenes, which was just an entirely new level of performance. Overall, I think it was fantastic and would definitely recommend something like it.

Olympic rings!

Today was my last day. We picked up our pottery this morning (so exciting! It looks good!) and then had lunch before I had to go. The past 10 days have been so much fun. Heather, you are amazing and I'm so blessed to have you as a friend. :) I love you!!