parents

These cool people are my (Bonnie's) parents.  Isn't this a great pic of them?
So who do you all think I look like?  Mom? Dad? Neither? Mailman (j\k)?  Give me your thoughts....

Here's a pic of me in case you need some help deciding.

Acro Crash

We have talked before about the fact that there have been a lot a crashes at the intersection right outside our apartment. They reconfigured the stop light at that intersection to reduce those crashes. A few nights ago we were sitting in our apartment and heard a lot of commotion outside. We looked out our window and saw this:
Looks pretty normal right? We went down to take a closer look and noticed the following things:
This is the railing right outside our apartment.
There are some benches that sit under this little gazebo thing. I'm glad that we weren't sitting there.
I kind of felt bad for this person. There were a lot of people standing around gawking and taking pictures. Oh, wait, how did we get these...

Nobody was hurt in the crash but is certainly made for an interesting evening.

1st Place at Nationals

My cousin, PJ, is a high school student at The Pembrooke Hill in Kansas City, Missouri.  He participated in a National History Day competition in the US that combines a great deal of historical knowledge with performance arts.  He picked a unique topic, which was containerization, and put together a 10 minute presentation that explains how this inovation changed the world.  It's a pretty interesting and impressive project!  Not only is it cool that he participated in this event, but he also won FIRST PLACE in the NATION for his performance!  Very cool.  Below is a video of his performance...it's worth a look if you have some time.

students

I'm going to take a moment to brag about my husband....

We've had quite a few scheduling conflicts at our school, and even though we are into our third week of classes schedules are still changing.  One of Tom's math classes is no exception to all these alterations and seven students were informed yesterday that they may need to move out of his class and into another section with a different teacher.  This is really not that big of a deal...

....Except for one student that Tom has taught for the previous two years.

After this one student was pulled out of Tom's class to be told about the schedule change the student came back and looked upset.  After a while Tom realized that she was crying so after class he pulled the student aside to check on how she was doing.  Her response: "Mr. Meyer, I don't want to change sections.  I want to stay in your class....I need you!!!"

How great is that?! Tom is such a great teacher.
And that concludes my shameless bragging about Tom.

In other student news...
A girl asked me if I wanted to try a really tasty snack.  I love free food, especially "really tasty food" so I of course took this student up on her offer.  After putting the snack in my mouth she tells me, "Do you like it?!  It's squid."

This student doesn't realize that most Americans don't really do squid, so I decided to grin and bear it.   After all, I do appreciate her thoughtfulness.  I don't appreciate her squid. It was gross.

Columbia Lovefest

This weekend we got to hang out with two other Columbia, Missouri couples, Andy and Lindsey and Scott and Cassie.

We ate some On the Border in Seoul and sweated in our apartment (our air conditioning is not working again).   We also got to meet up with another Columbia connection, Kim Stewart.

We had a great Sunday of hanging out with friends while drinking one of these at my new favorite coffee shops...(yes, that is a scoop of gelato on top of my smoothie!!!!)

We then headed over to Taj, an Indian restaurant in our neighborhood and ate some of this:

We had garlic nan (the giant bread looking thing), two different types of curry, and rice.  It was delightful.

It's been a joyful weekend.  "Thank You--Bye Bye" (if you look closely that is what is says on our receipt).

Our next trip

Ever since we watched the Long Way Round I have had a strong desire to visit some of the places featured in it. One of those desires was fulfilled when we got to see the Church of Bones in the Czech Republic this summer. Bonnie and I are planning to fulfill another one about a month from now. Every fall we get a break for Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). In the past we got a 5 day weekend for Chuseok. This year it falls just right that our school decided to give us a full week off at the end of September. So we decided to head here:
(the map is a little old, "Soviet Union") Why would we want to go there you ask? I would recommend you watch the Long Way Round; maybe it will make you want to go to Mongolia too. So what is in Mongolia? A few highlights:
Horses:
We might go horse trekking while we are there. Might... We are both have a slight discomfort with horses and Mongolian horses are on the small side. But it seems silly to not ride a horse while we are there.

The Gobi Desert:
I don't think we will be able to see the Gobi. Unfortunately, it is pretty far from Ulan Bator. However, it would be cool to see the source of the yellow dust we experience so often.

Gers (or yurts):
I will be disappointed if we do not spend at least one night in one of these bad boys.

Blue Sky:
Again, I will be disappointed it we don't see a lot of this while we are there. Mongolia is often referred to as the "land of the blue sky" because it sees over 250 sunny days a year.

I am really intrigued to see what Mongolia is like. I can't wait to experience it and snap some pictures of it myself.

Great Depression Interview

Earlier this year I had an interview with my Grandma about the Great Depression.  We had about an hour long chat over skype.  I recorded the whole thing and then cut it down to about 15 minutes.  My grandma was born in 1915 and she has some great memories about going through the Great Depression.  If you go to the link below you can download the audio file of the interview.  Enjoy!
Grandma's Interview

Week one done

I just want to give a brief overview of the emotions and thoughts I experience throughout the first week of school.

Monday:
It is great to be back! I missed my students. I missed my fellow teachers. Math is great. Teaching is great. My school is great. This is the life!

Tuesday:
Man I'm tired. Why do students think there should be no homework the first two days of school? Seriously I am beat. When is this day going to end?

Wednesday:
Do I really want to do this for the next 20 years? Do my kids remember anything? What?!?! You don't know how to graph a line? Why do I put myself through this? What is the point? (sigh)

Thursday:
It's only Thursday! What the heck? It feels like it should be September. At least my kids feel like I am justified in assigning them homework at this point in the week.

Friday:
I am tired but this is good. My students are fun. I like my job. I think I could keep doing this for awhile. I am glad that I have the weekend fast approaching though.

The first week of school (at least this year) has been a roller coaster ride. I enjoyed it but it seemed sooooooo long. Good luck to those of you that are getting ready to start your first week of school (as a teacher or student)!

First Day of School Video

A fellow teacher and friend, Joseph Fambro, made this video of the first day of school.   This should give you a little taste of what our school is like and some of the great folks we work with.

first day of school pics

It's tradition (see proof here and here) to take first day of school pics. 

We had a great first day of school.  Today was a day where I could confidently say I love my job. 

content

Blogging about Europe is done, our big pre-school year Costco trip is completed, a week of meetings/planning is over, and now it's time for the first day of school!  Two years ago my first year at GSIS (which was also my first year as a teacher) seemed terrifying.  Like for real...terrifying.  This year I think the word to describe our emotions going into tomorrow is...excited.  I know the school year will bring with it a lot of work and at times bumps along the way, but I feel really excited to be a part of this community.  I can't wait to see our students tomorrow.   I can't wait to use some of my new school supplies (as my parents know...I love school supplies!).  I can't wait to get into a rhythm of life again. 

Summer was incredible, and part of me is of course sad to see it end.  But it is also incredible to be a part of a mission and to have a chance to work.  Being in the states this summer was a sober reminder that we are very blessed to have jobs right now, especially jobs that mean so much more to us than just "punching the clock."

I'm the type of person that tends to think quite often "the grass is greener on the other side." And as Tom and I were hanging out at a coffee shop together journaling and reading I was struck with the reality that I feel content.  Although contentment is a welcome visitor I can't say it has become a constant companion in my life.  But I'm hoping this year will be a year where I can feel purposeful, settled, at peace, and content more often than not. 

Here's to year 3 at GSIS.  I'm excited to see what is to come.

you know you're like your mom...

when you are SUPER PUMPED about the new crock pot you just bought! 

If you have any good crock pot recipes please send them my way.

Last stop - Switzerland

Our last big stop on our European adventure was Switzerland. We booked a tent to stay in while visiting Interlaken.  It was really nice for a tent.

The inside:

We liked Switzerland a lot but one thing we were surprised about was that it is noticeably more expensive than the rest of Europe.  For example we paid $14 for a hostel quality hamburger.  And that was the cheapest meal we could find aside from going to the grocery store and getting salami, bread, and cheese (which we did regularly on this trip).  The highlight of our time in Interlaken was our first full day there when we went rafting.

Our second day in Interlaken (and our final day on the trip) was highlighted by rain.

As you can see the wet cow look pretty sad.  So we decided to take full advantage of the mobility the car provided us and find somewhere else that was sunny and on our route to Paris.  That turned out to be Dijon, France.

There is not a lot to say about Dijon other than we did get some mustard while we were there.  We hung out there, ate dinner, watched Inception and killed time until about 1 AM when we decided to finish our drive to Paris to catch our plane at noon the next day.  We got to the airport at about 4:30AM and we slept in the car until 6AM when the rental car place opened up.  We spent the next 6 hours in the airport napping until our flight left.

In summary the trip was absolutely amazing.  Traveling with 4 of our closest friends was awesome.  Driving through Europe was great and not difficult (with a GPS unit).  We will definitely return some day.

Italy--Part 3

Our last big stop in Italy was the Cinque Terre, which means "Five Towns."  These five little towns are located on the northwest coast of Italy on the Ligurian Sea.  We stayed in Vernazza, which was the fourth little town in the set of five.  The Cinque Terre is incredibly beautiful and is the home of pesto!

Above is one of the first towns.  One morning we hiked from the first town to the fifth town, and it took about five hours.  This was such a fun hike.  I felt like I was in the movie the whole time I was at the Cinque Terre.  Below is Carly, MK, and I before we started our hike.

Hiking path along the coast:

My handsome husband and I on the hike:

This is Vernazza, the town we stayed at. 

This is a hang out area at our hotel.  How great is this?!

Tom and I had a date night at this great restaurant.

Outside the restaurant.

At the Cinque Terre Tom and I decided for the first time in our lives that we like tomatoes. 

Vernazza had their founders day while we were there so we also got to experience a fireworks show at night.  It's hard to see in this picture but there were a ton of people crowded around the beach for the firework show.

Next Stop: Switzerland

Italy--Part 2

After leaving Florence we went on to Rome.  Our first stop in Rome was our hotel, the Best Western.  The only reason that I even mention this is because it was the only place we stayed our whole time in Europe that had air conditioning.  After indulging in artificial cooling for a moment we set off for Vatican City.  The Vatican has two key tourist places, the museum and St. Peter's Basilica.  The Sistine Chapel is the highlight of the Vatican museum. 

This is the panel on the roof that portrays the creation story.

Bonnie and I both agreed without any debate that the most amazing thing we saw on the whole trip was St. Peter's Basilica.  It was way bigger than I expected.

 St. Peter's Square was also way bigger than we expected.

The next day the plan was to take in every other sight possible since we only had a day and a half in Rome.  The first stop:

The Coliseum. 

The gladiators did a good job on that day.

After that was the Roman Forum.  It consisted of a pretty sizable collection of ancient Roman ruins.  It was pretty cool to get to see such old buildings (or at least the remains).

After dinner we went on a self-guided walking tour that took us by a bunch of great sights.  My two favorites were:

The Trevi Fountain.  This picture doesn't even do it justice.  It was huge and totally powered by aquaducts (I think).

and the Spanish Steps.

Next stop: the Cinque Terra.

the story of the rental car

 In an earlier blog post I mentioned that there was a whole story behind getting our rental car.  While on the trip Mary Kate breaks down the ordeal we went through in getting the car in Paris (see video below).  One thing to note is that at the beginning of the video MK talks about "the hole" which is the loving name we gave for the 6th very tight seat in the back of the car.  Don't worry, Mary Kate was not the only one that sat back there.  We had shifts for sitting in the hole, and I think Adam had the record for sitting back there the longest at around 3+ hours while he read War and Peace.  When we first saw that this car was going to be our rental car we all did not think it would be physically or emotionally possible to drive all across Europe in this car, but we made it work and made a lot of great memories in the process.  We didn't have an official total for the amount of miles driven but Tom has estimated that we drove 2,500 miles which is roughly how far it is from East to West across the continental US.

 

Italy--Part 1

I've been a bit intimidated to post on Italy because we did so many diverse things there.  So I decided to break down our blogging on Italy into parts, the first being Florence.

We left Austria and arrived in Florence.  This was probably the low point of the trip as far as energy, but we were able to rally and enjoy many of the sights Florence has to offer.  However, my favorite part of Florence was Marcello.  As we mentioned in a previous post, Marcello was a friend of a friend of Mary Kate's and he let us stay at his house.  Our first night with Marcello he cooked us tortellini with red sauce.  I asked him if he made the sauce himself and in response he said, "Of course!  What do you use...a can?!"  Although Marcello was a bachelor he actually had enough beds for all of us.  He even had a bathrobe and a towel for each of us waiting on our beds. Here's a picture of us hanging out with at Marcello's house at dinner. I love this picture because it really captured the mood of that night.

The ladies and Marcello:

Tom and I at Ponte Vecchio (a cool, old bridge left untouched by WWII).  This is another one of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Another big site in Florence was the Duomo (great, old Cathedral with a fantastic dome).  Here is the front:

The Dome (which looks much bigger in person than in this picture):

Inside of the Dome:

Carly and MK had bare shoulders so out of respect for the church they had to have their shoulders covered.  Attractive, right?

We climbed up to the top of the Duomo for a great view of the city. 

To close I will leave you with a small movie clip from Marcello's house.  Enjoy!