4th of July, College Day, and a weekend in Houston

So right now I'm sitting in the copy center waiting for my documents to upload to the server so that I can print them.  Luckily this will be the end of my work tonight and I can get to bed early.  I've woken up with a sore throat for the past few days, and today the true "ickiness" hit.  I spent most of the afternoon in bed and even slept through both church and breakfast this morning.  Thanks to some DayQuil, I'm feeling much better now.

Teachers ready for the students to arrive

 College Day was so much fun!  We got to give the kids a tour of some cool spots on campus including a part of the Berlin Wall, this million dollar building that reflects light in such a way that when sunset happens it turns all different colors, a college lecture hall, and the basketball stadium.  Our three boys were very well-behaved, and one of them even brought a notebook and was taking notes at different points throughout the day.  That pretty much made my day.  Probably because I was that kid in elementary school.

The million dollar building

My favorite part of the day though was probably when we were walking past the swimming pool.  There was an older gentlemen in a speedo, and one of my boys said, "He's wearing mini boxers!" and all three of them could NOT stop giggling.  It was nice to see some of their personalities come out, even if it was over mini boxers.

We worked Wednesday the 4th, and then got Friday off instead.  I got to go out to dinner with some of the other teachers on Wednesday.  Getting off of Rice was a great change of pace.  We watched the fireworks from the top of the dorms with lots of other people.  Unfortunately we couldn't celebrate too much since we had to be up early to meet our kiddos for the college day.

Dinner

Thursday evening I got to go out for drinks at a Mexican restaurant which was a blast.  Friday since I had the day off I got to have a nice relaxed morning.  During the afternoon I went to downtown Houston with some girls.  We realized afterward that we had probably gone to the wrong part of downtown because there wasn't much to see there and we even had to cross the street at one point to avoid some sketchy looking people.  We did, however, manage to find Forever 21 and some froyo so we all counted it as a success.  Friday was when I started thinking that I might be coming down with something because I was rather sleepy.  So I had a relaxed evening and went to bed early.

The lecture hall where college students learn and teachers
go to class when they aren't teaching.

Yesterday I attempted to get some work done during the day.  I succeeded in some parts while failing miserably at getting ahead like I had planned.  Since I had rested most of the day, I felt just fine and I went to Chinatown for dinner with some teacher friends, and then went out in Rice Village to a few bars with some other friends.  First we went to a Spanish tapas bar where I was delighted to have some tasty sangria, but disappointed that the tapas weren't free.

This morning was when I woke up not feeling the best.  And now here we are.  Luckily I got all my copies made, and they're all paper-clipped and in folders to take to school in the morning.  I'm so glad that this is the last week of institute.  I will certainly miss the friends that I have made here and will definitely miss my students, but I am very ready to shower without having to wear shoes and be able to make some of my own food.  After 4 weeks of dorm-living during the most stressful and exhausting experience I have gone through yet, I'm ready to be settled in.  Just 4 more teaching days!

The poster our students made while at college

What I don't look forward to is trying re-pack the mess that I have made my room.  There are hundreds of papers that need to be organized not to mention the various items I have collected over the past few weeks that most likely won't fit nicely into two suitcases.

Well that's it from this end.  Oh, except Houston's hot.  And humid.  I don't know why people choose to voluntarily live here when there are so many other places that are so much better.  Yay hooray for being able to go back to DFW!

Also- you probably figured it out, but unfortunately I can't post pictures of my students online.

Ciao <3