New Year, New Me

(Attempting to take a pic of my new hair)

I don't have a lot of time to write today because I need to prepare my lesson plans for tomorrow and print out semester exam reviews, but I thought I would update on how my new year is starting off.  I visited my friend Lori at her salon the other day and got an awesome new haircut and new color.  She and I decided that I should go darker and redder with my hair.  I have to say I love the way it turned out!  It is a deep auburn type of color and it makes my complexion look a lot better than it had been looking lately with my faded highlights.  I really feel that highlights on me are a summer/spring thing only. 

So, I have a new haircut and it came at a great time because lately I feel like a new person.  I attended an orientation weekend last weekend for my Rotary Group Study Exchange program to Germany and I am really excited and very proud of my self.  I was able to truly understand what an awesome opportunity I have been given and how much this is going to affect my future career in education.  I also met a lady who does my dream job and made a great contact for advice on how to get there.  My dream job, by the way, is Director of Study Abroad at a university. 

I am reinvigorated in my job right now and it feels great.  I think that the Zumba club sponsorship has also had a big influence on my feelings toward my job lately as well.  I really feel like I am doing something meaningful and that I am making at least a small difference in the lives of teenagers. 

It's really early to say, but I am pretty sure 2011 is going to be just as good or better than 2010. :)

Salud!! (Cheers!)

Back to Work and Dancing and Interacting

So, I never had time to post pictures from Winter Break because work started again!  We went back to school on Monday and my life has been in full throttle ever since.  It has been a pretty good week back, though.  I had an Interact Club meeting with the kids on Tuesday and we made recycling  for classrooms in the high school and today I had a Zumba club meeting at the school. 

The Zumba fitness club I sponsor is really starting to take off.  We had about twenty girls today participate and finally were able to hook our student instructor up with loud enough music.  If you haven't heard of Zumba, you should really try it out!  It is a Latin-based dance fitness class that can burn up to 500 calories per hour.  The club at my school was started by a senior who is now a certified instructor.  The student and I have a goal to teach nutrition to the girls participating as well.  It is such an awesome thing to be a part of.  Today we had students and teachers dancing (finally I got some to join me!).  We had girls of all shapes and sizes and all of them had a blast, regardless of the fact of if they were doing the correct moves.  The best thing about the club is that the girls are getting healthy and having fun.  I know if I tried to get most of the girls there to run laps around the track, they would have laughed and walked away, but with the dance moves and the student instructor, the girls are really dedicated to this exercise.  We have another meeting tomorrow, so another chance to get my body burning some of my holiday calories!

Oh yeah, and my actual teaching is going well too!  I am teaching my booty off right now trying to get all my kiddies ready for semester exams that will be here in two and a half weeks.  Today we learned about new vocabulary and grammar and the thing my students found the most fascinating was the back pocket on my new Athleta sweater!  I told them it was for snacks when I got hungry for some chips.. :)