The last couple of weeks have been loaded with work, fun & fun work :)

Angela & I were extremely busy working on all the details of the Grade 12 Christmas Party that was held on Sunday, Dec. 17th. We spent a lot of lunches, evenings & weekends supervising students as they made snowflakes, constructed their snowman and decorated the teacher cafeteria. We also went shopping five weekends in a row for items they needed, like ornaments, balloons, scarves, tape, paper, paints, even toilet paper!



The party was so wonderful! The cafeteria looked amazing, but we were so impressed with the students as they arrived. They looked so gorgeous all dressed up. And the best part was they got to be kids for the night, dancing and singing, no uniforms, all smiles and no stress :>



The cleanup was quick, and the administration asked us to leave most of the decorations up for the next few weeks. But I was still in there the next morning with my handy Canadian vacuum to clean up all the fake snow :) The cafeteria staff was impressed that I showed up to do that...I guess they figured we would just trash the place and leave. I've given myself my own nickname: Lil' Miss OCD ...I love to clean around the office! But Mike will tell you...I won't even pick up my dirty socks at home! At home, I'm Lil' Miss Lazy, lol!

On Tuesday night after school, Mike & I went to a Grade 10 cooking competition. Mike was happy because after the judges tried the dishes the audience got to sample...although there was one dish that was blackened on the first try, then somewhat burnt for the final try. It was made with three different kinds of eggs (Mike said one was really, really salty and a strange shade of blue-green).

Wednesday night, we went to see some dramas in Chinese, put on by the students in the Lecture Theatre. One was "The Merchant of Venice", another was "Twelfth Night", and the third was from a movie about the last emperor of China. They were obviously hard for me to understand (my Chinese is still um, pretty basic, lol), but the students made them entertaining to watch. I'm just happy they didn't ask me to judge :)

And last night, Thursday, phew! More busy stuff! About ten of us crazy Canadian teachers went caroling around the school around suppertime. We visited the students in the library, the Korean cafeteria, the staff cafeteria, the Chinese cafeteria, the taxi drivers and guards at the gate, then across the street to all the restaurants and stores :> Our song list was popular...Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls Fa la lalalalalalalala, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas, except at the staff cafeteria...they all thought we were nuts!

Anyway, tonight everyone is going in to the Goose & Duck for some festive spirits (lol!), then a day of rest tomorrow because on Sunday four of us are going skiing! wheeeee! snow! Monday is Christmas and a day off, then back to work on Tuesday and practice for our Christmas performance on Wednesday. Hmmm, I think we've been busy, lol!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas together with your special people :) You are always not far from my thoughts and heart. I love you, miss you and I'm excited to be seeing you all in January when we're home.

love & smiles,

Kirsten xo