Winter break was fabu. I traveled to Malaysia to visit cousins. Kuala Lumpur is a wonderful city as is the remainder of the country (what I saw of it anyway). I stayed with Mark and Jessica for the majority of the time. There was plenty of reading, eating, snoozing, swimming, toy-making, and school-searching. Here are the three toys I made whilst there.
Guillermo the Spanish Clown.
Harvey the Beatnik Lizard.
Lester the Lion.Pretty cool huh?
Well, after about a month in the tropics being lazy I traveled to Kathmandu for a week. It was quite cold there but we made fun. I met a lot of really cool people there and really had a blast.
After I came back to Mussoorie I had a phone interview with the MEF International School - Istanbul. A few days later they offered me a job teaching science to 7-10 graders which I gladly accepted. Istanbul has been a place I have wanted to go to for years and it was at the top of my list of places to go. I'll be teaching IGCSE chemistry and physics which will be a nice change of pace from the AP curriculum I've been doing.
As part of my going to Turkey I had to get a medical check-up. Everything was pretty standard but I wanted to go ahead and talk to the doctor about my blood pressure. It's been high for as long as I can remember. The doc back home just told me to keep ignoring it but I figured that now was probably my best shot. The doc here was definitely concerned about it especially since there's a family history. My bloodwork and ECG (EKG) came back fine so they think it's just genetics. I've been put on some meds and it seems like it's slowly coming down into a good range.
I think that covers the major stuff. I'm pushing the kids harder than ever to prepare them for the AP exam. They complain and moan about how difficult things are (especially the tests) but if it's anything like that past two years they'll thank me after the exam and say it was actually easier than what I had been giving them in class. My advisor group is graduating this year. Remember, these were the kids I decided to stay on one more year for. It's amazing how much they grow up in just three years. They really are great kids and I know that I have been spoiled teaching them. At least I'm not going back to the states to teach. The public school systems were in a state as it was without all the hoopla that's been going on recently. Yikes. At this rate, I'm not sure when I'll ever be able to go back.
