Thank you everyone for all the words of congratulations. I'm not sure if it has sunk in yet that in a few short weeks I'm no longer going to be having much free time. It's really weird, because ever since I was laid off I've really had a pretty easy schedule. There were times I had to get up early and work long hours, but they weren't constant. Teachers are expected AT school by 7:45 a.m. so that means getting up WAY early - Monday to Friday. Of course, I'll have a two minute commute ... so not too bad.

So I started off the week before my trip spending WAY too much money on clothes and getting a mani/pedi. Most of the clothes I got off the clearance racks at Walmart, but a few I got of the sale racks at Macy's, and I got two pairs of sale shoes at DSW. I'd looked and looked *everywhere* for shoes, but the only place that had shoes that fit *and* that I liked was DSW.

On Monday my landlord JJ got me to the airport in plenty of time. As we were driving there, I checked the gate info and found out that the plane was delayed 20 minutes. After getting to my gate, it turned out to be more like 45 minutes! When I got to Houston, I had ten minutes to make my flight - I took off my shoes and barefooted it past 20 gates! I was one of the last passengers to get on board!

Sr.'s N and M (who share a mobile home) met me at the airport. They both are older ladies - perhaps late 60's/early 70's. I was really impressed with both of them over the whole time I was there. Neither one of them had ever heard of Seventh-day Adventist, so they both had quite a few questions on that.

In Albuquerque we stopped at Fuddrucker's - their idea. We chattered easily the whole time - at the meal and the two-hour ride to their home. We also made a couple stops - one at Walmart. Sr. M picked up a small round of cheesecake after learning that I shared her love of all things chocolate - but especially cheesecake.

In order to get groceries (more than what you can get at the local Dollar General) there are 3 towns 30 miles away in 3 different directions. Otherwise, there is Albuquerque, about two hours away. So, obviously whenever they make a trek to Albuquerque, they try to consolidate it with errands.

That first evening I got settled in to my room. They share a 3 bedroom double wide mobile home. It is one of the larger and nicer homes in the mobile home park - they even have a one-car garage/shed! It was built/bought originally by a well-off mission volunteer who sold it to the mission when he and his wife had to leave due to health concerns.

Once I was settled, we all three ate cheesecake while watching the movie "Windtalkers." What a gory movie. - more gory than even "Saving Private Ryan" or "Glory."

The next day we got to the school in time for me to see the kids at the 7:30 a.m. breakfast/assembly. I was very impressed at the noise level in the cafeteria and how generally well behaved all the kids were. Before they were let go, they had "prayer." Instead of what I'd normally consider prayer - they sang a slightly different version of "You Are My Sunshine" after doing the sign of the cross in Navajo. Then they did the Pledge of Allegiance in Navajo. After that, the many volunteers that were there were introduced, and I also was introduced.

I was supposed to go out on a food run (taking food to the elderly Navajo who are far out on the reservation) but the woman who does that didn't show up. So instead, the upper grades Language Arts/Math teacher took me around. Two volunteer teachers were teaching her normal classes. It was really great talking with her. She seems like a very positive minded person, and she talked about how she really hoped that whoever the librarian was would collaborate with the LA teacher for the different lessons. I told her that that was music to my ears.

I got to visit the two classes being taught by the volunteers. One class was discussing different reasons/forms of writing to go along with an art project they'd finished earlier. They were quite attentive, and fairly responsive. The other class was responding to pen pal letters from students in Chicago. Some of them were having a really hard time knowing what to say back because there was not much they could relate to.

Then I got to go into the computer lab and library. They are both located in the same modular building separated by two bathrooms. The computer lab has about 25 computers and a smartboard. The computer technicians office is also in that same building. I had an opportunity to talk with her for awhile, and really liked her. She showed me the library's automation system (Destiny) and also showed me the handheld scanner that she hadn't figured out how to use yet. I found a user's guide on the internet and bookmarked it for her. She is working on getting all the books in the library cataloged into Destiny - they only got the program towards the end of this last school year.

While in the computer lab, I had the chance to take part in a computer class taught by one of the visiting teachers. One thing I noticed was that only about 70% of the kids were paying attention when the teacher was doing a PowerPoint presentation - the others were doing stuff on their computer. I mentioned to the computer technician, and to Sr. N (the principal) about a free program that could be installed so that the teacher could have complete control of ALL student computers from one computer. They were quite excited about that.

I was pretty impressed with how comfortable the kids seemed to be with using PowerPoint. I did definitely notice that there would need to be some reinforcement of lessons on not just cutting and pasting.

The library is fairly large, and within it is a large classroom which I was told is pretty much soundproof. There is a projector in both the computer lab and in the library classroom. One thing I didn't notice was an area for storytime/rug lessons. That is something I definitely will want to add - especially add in some comfy reading furniture like bean bags and low to ground futons. There were books all over everywhere, so I didn't get a really good idea of the tables - these were the books being cataloged. Overall, I was impressed by the library.

After school all the teachers/faculty go out to the busses with the kids. I got to ride on one of the busses. One of the kids from the computer class that I'd helped with her project was on it, so we had a chance to talk a little bit more. Some of these kids live nearly 40 minutes away from the school.

When I got back, we had our formal "interview." I was already pretty comfortable with Sr. N, so it was more of a continued conversation than anything like an interview.

Tuesday evening we had two of the teachers over for dinner - one of them was the upper grades teacher who'd taken me on a tour that morning. I of course was the main course. We had a lot of discussion of religion. One of the teachers has a cousin who is a Seventh-day Adventist - so she actually knew a little bit about it. It was too funny - at one point one of the ladies was saying "well, does it really matter what day of the week you worship on?" and the teacher with an SDA cousin was going "to *some* people it *does* matter" with her eyebrows raised high and indicating me. They asked me if I'd have any problem with attending mass every week. I told them I'd never been to a Mass, so had no idea, but if it was like the weekly chapels we had in my various schools, I'd have no problem.

Something really funny that happened (and I really hope this isn't offensive to anyone ...) but at one point one of the ladies said something about how many people have the misconception that Catholics worship Mary as the Mother of Jesus - but that the truth is that they honor her. After saying this, as a group, all four ladies turned towards me with solemn and intent looks. The same lady then asked me - "Do YOU honor Mary as the mother of Jesus?" I told them that Mary was the mother of Jesus, and that was an honor for her, so yes, I consider her to be special in that sense. They all seemed satisfied with my answer. I do wonder though if their meaning of "honor" is somewhat different than mine.

We also talked about Saints and about food. There was also some conversation about the school itself and the kids - but really not all that much. After dinner, the upper grades teacher took me over to her home so I could see what my potential home might look like. Most of the mobile homes are single-wide 3 bedroom places with a backyard. Furniture such as couches, beds, and tables are provided if you don't have them. The kitchen was quite nice with all the usual appliances.

The next morning we all slept in a little bit. While Sr. N and I were sitting out on the back porch eating breakfast and enjoying the morning air, she asked me whether or not I'd be ready to sign a contract if she had one ready for me when I got back from the food run. She said she needed to speak with a few people first, but wanted to know what I was thinking. I told her that I'd be more than happy to sign a contract.

When we got to the school I asked to see a copy of the teacher handbook. Wow! Having been out of the regular school environment for six years, things have definitely changed. They had nearly three pages devoted to rules and regulations about technology use by teachers and students. One thing in the dress code for teachers which really struck my funny bone was that we can wear "dressy" capris. I've never thought of capris as dressy, so later asked Sr. N what that meant. She defined them as having a "tailored" look versus what you might wear to a picnic. She also told me that the capris I was wearing when I asked her about it, were just fine.

While I was waiting to go out on the food run, I had a chance to talk with one of the volunteers from Chicago. He was a pretty nice man (married!) In the end it turned out that our talk was a very good thing, because he and some of his group followed me and the food run driver in a van on the run. We'd gotten a late start, and by 12:18 only had half of the meals delivered. I needed to be back to the school by 12:45. So the people in the van took me back. Of course, we didn't actually get out of there til nearly 2 p.m. ...

The lady driving the jeep for the food run was a Navajo. At first she was pretty quiet, but then she started talking more (after I showed her some interest). She'd been off the reservation and working as a nurse's aide in Albuquerque, but had had to come back due to some family problems. Most of the homes we went to were of some type or degree of mobile homes - generally set out by themselves, or in a group of two or three. There were LARGE amounts of space between each home or set of homes. Mostly the roads were rutted dirt or gravel. Can you say Dust?

I sort of learned how to say Hello and Thank You in Navajo. I attempted it with a few of the people we stopped at. From what I was told, the Navajo are very much about saving face - so even if I'd completely mangled the pronunciations, they would not say anything. At one point, everyone got out of their vehicles and we were taken into a traditional hogan. The elderly woman in it was someone who enjoys visitors. No electricity. No running water. No air conditioning. She was very friendly. The Navajo woman driving the jeep translated back and forth for us.

Oh - almost forgot! I found out from the jeep driver that there had actually been another person they interviewed for this position who'd been there the week before.

When I got back to the school, there was a contract waiting for me on Sr. N's desk. She told me that everyone she'd spoken to (including a number of the volunteer leaders) had spoken highly of me.

After I signed the contract she printed off a number of informational sheets for me. I also found out that I will get a 401K type plan! She also said that they'd be meeting on Tuesday to figure out the scheduling. (I'll be teaching PK3 - 8th grade library, and only 1st - 8th Computers. I'm going to be quite busy!)

As we were about to leave to head out to Albuquerque, we had quite the excitement. One of the neighbors dogs broke out of it's collar and ran over to our house. She eventually got into the backyard (fenced). The sister's dog Ben (sweet old fella) placidly laid there watching all the excitement. Both of the Sister's were trying to get the dog out. I ended up successfully getting it out (once - it ended up getting back in) by getting its attention, and then running away from it. It then of course ran after me and out of the yard. We ended up leaving with it still in the backyard (it managed to squeeze through the space between the gate and fence.) Quite exciting.

Overall, I am very excited about this opportunity. I think it will be quite challenging - definitely take me out of my comfort zone. Attempting to do a good job as both the librarian and the computer teacher is going to be very time consuming. But .. there isn't much in the way of evening entertainment anyway. I will be very much in a fishbowl as far as my faith is concerned. They will be watching me very closely I imagine - one of the Sister's asked me if I'd ever met a Nun before. I told her that I hadn't. She laughed and said that they better be on their best behavior then so I get a good impression. I responded by saying that I too need to be on my best behavior so they get a good impression of Adventists.

Working with the kids will be a challenge too. I've worked with full classrooms of younger kids, but not too much with older kids (other than my tutoring students.) One thing Sr. N stressed strongly was the need for strong classroom management - but also that she will back me up when needed.

The older kids (6th - 8th) have a really neat system set up campus wide. They are divided into "houses" ala Harry Potter. (haven't read them, so not totally sure what that entails) Teachers can add or deduct "house points" for behavior, homework, etc. At the end of each quarter (I think) the winning house gets to go on a field trip. The points, etc. are all done online. Each "house" has a leader and several other students that act as kind of motivators.

I'll be leaving towards the end of July so that I have time to get settled into my house and get started on my classroom/library.

Oh! Almost forgot. Due to my Master's degree, I will get nearly an extra $1k per year to my salary. I'm going to be the only new staff member this year. The other teachers have been there anywhere between 2 years and 8 (other than Sr. N who's been there for over 16!)

Pat yourself on the back if you actually made it through to the end of this.