Who'da guessed?

You never can tell, at the start of the day, what will happen. This morning I was left alone to go to work while everyone else drove off to a missions conference in Dallas. I could envision their running into old friends and making new ones, hearing great speakers, and relaxing... all this while I would be working hard at the last bit of teaching, and giving final exams, and averaging and reporting grades. Ho-hum. My life is just boring.

Well, my visions came true for them. But I got a surprise! Some of my students who had finished their exams yesterday and should have been sleeping in and lounging by the pool, came by to see me, instead. They brought a card and a big bouquet of roses and a delicious cake with "My favorite teacher..." written on it. It was so unexpected, so out of the blue, that I just stood there and cried. They laughed and said to each other, "I told you she would!" Then they came inside and shared the cake with the students who were taking their finals. And they got a photograph of them with me. I hope I will get a copy of it. What a nice memory we made today! No, you never can tell what kind of day it is going to be.

Adventures at Home

Martin got home safely from Uruguay, and then took off for the Walker family reunion in Oklahoma with Wimon. We've enjoyed mate, alfajores, and dulce de leche. Most of all, I have enjoyed memories. We now have an Iguazu cup to add to the collection for our civilized afternoon teas.

Marcella writes from Mexico that she helped her hostess cook a traditional chili dish for lunch. She refuses to try her Spanish out on us, though. I think she's saving it up to wow us when she comes home, like Martin did.

Marissa went to camp for a week at ACU, and is getting regular calls and IM pop-ups from her new Junior Scholar friends. She also has messages on the phone from school friends who are anxious to spend time with her.

Wimon has been chipping away at the work of getting ready for the fall. He's been on the computer quite a bit, and still has more to do. Besides that, he's been doing the cooking and fixing things like the garage door opener and the fuel gauge on the van. It was using up all of my adrenaline, by moving up and down and setting off the "no fuel" alarm bells at random times. Now I can save my adrenaline for more useful things. Like snakes. Or charging elephants.

I've enjoyed my Spanish II class. I have 23 students, and they keep my life from being boring. Two students write interesting notes in Spanish to each other and let me "find" them. One has made a funny "personal ad" video in Spanish. Another brought us breakfast burritos one day, and I got to tell them that "burritos" means "little donkeys." And we went to Mary's Restaurant this Friday, where most of them did an outstanding job of ordering off of a menu in Spanish. (We went to Los Arcos last time, but several of the kids didn't like it.)

It was fun to have Mom and Lauren and Jenny here to help me set up my fourth grade classroom. They did a very godly thing by bringing order out of chaos. And on the side, we enjoyed Eliana and Jefferson. And all of Jenny's kids and Gene, too, in passing. I think I am beginning to be terrified of meeting the kids with whom I will spend most of the next year, though. Maybe they will be less frightening when they have names and faces.

After everyone left, we did some housework and shopping; those things have to be done some time. I'm sure that people in Paris and London and Florence have to do those things, too; and I think that even people who go to an exotic marketplace in Turkey or Ghana must eventually succumb to the feeling that these activities are boring and meaningless.

So I try to make a point of starting conversations with the checkout people and the kids who take out my groceries. At least that can be fresh and new every time. It's not as efficient, but it makes the dull task more bearable. I don't think God cares much what we have for dinner, but he probably cares a lot about the girl who just got pregnant out of wedlock and the girl who has worked here all summer, instead of going home, in order to pay for her schooling at ACU.

This afternoon I finished reading In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Alexander McCall Smith's latest. I got to see Julius Ceasar once, and Twelfth Night at ACU three times (and would go again if there were any more showings; we are going to miss Nathan Jerkins!), so I've been royally entertained of late. And I didn't even have to board an airplane.