Second Semester

November. For some of you at home in the States, it's snowed already. For us, it still feels like July. Just thought I'd let you know that. :)

We've officially finished our first week of the second semester at school! It went quite smoothly for me, with the exception of Monday, which was one of those "wake-up call" kinds of days. The kids seem to have come back with more motivation than they left with (yay) and have jumped right into the swing of things again. The pace will be picking up over the next few weeks because of the Christmas program, which happens right before Christmas break. Apparently it's a lot of work. (So I hear, at least) Like everything else that's a lot of work, though, it should also be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it!

The biggest part of this week was that Michael got to start full-time schedule of teaching! In addition to his after-school and nursery teaching hours, he's taking over for the middle school history teacher this semester. He's teaching history for grades 7-10 (I still have 11 and 12) and so far it seems to be going pretty good. Lesson planning and grading have hit him pretty hard - for the first time since we've been here, Michael wanted to work on a Saturday and I wanted to go out and do something - last semester it was the complete opposite! Michael's classroom is right next to mine, which I think is fantastic. It's really fun to be able to wander next door during break and say hi/see how things are going with him!

Some of you may have heard on the news about the flooding in Thailand. Currently, the area where we live is not flooded, even though we're pretty close to the river. From what I understand, the areas on the other side of the river are really flooded, and northern Thailand has experienced some really extreme flooding. We wandered down to the pier a week ago just to see what it was like, and some of it was under water, but not bad enough to run all the way into the street or anything. There were sandbags everywhere and pumps to keep the water out. The other side of the river seemed to be quite flooded already, though. To my understanding, the goal is to keep Bangkok from flooding at all. However, keeping the water out of Bangkok means that the flooding gets really really bad in other places. Please keep the Thai people in your prayers, especially those who have been affected by the floods.

Well, that's about all, I think. Short update this week! Send us an email sometime if you get the chance - we'd love to hear from you, and I'm sure if you ask, Michael will be willing to tell some of the teaching stories he's accumulated this week. :)

Blessings.