Another Snow Day

While I am ecstatically happy to have a day lounging around at home instead of working, it comes right after a three day weekend for Martin Luther King. That means I haven't been at school for 4 days. I am very worried about the creatures who are living in my classroom. I have about 15 African dwarf frogs and 12 or so tiny crabs. This is for our 'Animal Studies' science module. We have already suffered the deaths of 3 craps - reason unknown and I don't know how 4 days without food or heat will effect them. It was very strange at first to have creatures in the classroom but I have got used to them now and would hate to turn up tomorrow morning to discover an aquatic annihilation. Plus the millipedes arrive this week.

Half Way

Today is officially the half way point in our stay in America. 5 and a half months done, five and a half months to go! A certain teenage girl is excited about this, as the photo illustrates. I think it has an air of the prison cell to it. Disturbing!

Bloody Snowmen.

So the last couple of weeks at work have been very strange. Apart from having to work until 3:30 on the day before Christmas Eve (like some sort of Bob Cratchit), I found it very difficult to get my head round the way schools in NY must not do anything religious. In England, the holiday is Christmas and it is traditional that religion plays a large part, even for people who are not religious. There is is part of my job to teach the children the true meaning of Christmas although it is entirely up to them to believe it or not. It made me quite sad actually not to be doing that over here and I found it hard to get into the Festive Spirit! In the US the snowman seems to reign supreme, he is the overwhelming face of 'The Holiday Season'. I suspect this is because snowmen are wintery without being linked to any particular religion. I am so not getting into a religious debate but I feel that seeing people celebrate the customs of all the different religions in the world add to the rich diversity of life and help us to be more accepting of each others differences. I did however enjoy the American custom of the Holiday Vest (waistcoat). The photo above shows me and my wonderful colleagues all dressed up on the last day!

Mom's Apple Pie

Last weekend Sian and I took part in a huge Fall tradition, we went apple picking. I was amazed to see how many people - of all ages - take part in this extremely wholesome pastime. There were even groups of teenagers there! The Orchard we visited had almost been picked clean, in fact we only just made it in time as the next day they announced they were no apples left on the trees. As well as the apple picking there were baby farm animals, pumpkins for sale and hot cider and donuts. (Unfortunately cider in the US is non alcoholic!) The apples we picked were delicious and so far I have made a very successful apple pie and 2 batches of applesauce. Maybe I'm finally becoming domesticated.

You say tomato....

With the daily routine of 'get up, work, tea, bed' firmly in place I can sometimes forget I am in a different country, on a different continent! One thing that gives me an instant reminder is the pronunciation of some words. My favourite at the moment is telling the kids to say tomato (they pronounce the middle a 'ay' as in 'say'.) They think it's hilarious as well and enjoy taking me off asking for some yogurt (they say Yo-gurt with the stress on YO rather than YOG. They have been confused recently in Maths as we study data handling (they call it dar-ta!!)

One pronunciation that annoys me though comes from the TV. There is a Hyundai advert which specifically explains how to pronounce the word "Hyundai like Sunday"!! Surely this isn't right? Can any Koreans reading please let me know!!