spain

oh, so many stories to tell. we decided that while costa rica was the trip of many adventures, spain was the trip of many stories. such as

• when we walked around the Alhambra for an hour searching for the entrance
• or how, if I had a dollar for every time Brian looked at a map and said "Um, I think we need to go back where we started" my entire trip would be paid for
• or how we rode bikes along the beach in Valencia
• and driving in Spain almost gave me a heart attack

Stay tuned for pictures and details. You won't regret it!

the beast

Since today was the last day of school before spring break, and half of my students had already left for Europe and therefore were not in class, we had contest to see who could build the strongest bridge out of only a few sheets of paper. Here is the winner:

It held 100 lbs of weight without collapsing. It could have kept going, but we ran out of weights. It is named The Beast, for obvious reasons.

I am leaving school in exactly 29 minutes and heading home to pack for my trip to SPAIN!!!

what i've been up to

The majority of my time these days has been consumed with counting down the days until Spring Break and I leave for SPAIN! If you hadn't noticed, it's been kind of all-consuming.

For the sake of well-roundedness, I've taken a few breaks from counting down to listen to non-stop Air Supply and Chicago. I need to defend my title as name-that-cheesey-love-song champion. Brian has no idea what he's getting himself into.

Besides that, I've been reading, enjoying the lovely spring weather, talking kids into signing up for my robotics class, and getting ready for the summer.

numbers

1 - number of weeks until I am in SPAIN

4 - school days left until Spring Break

4.5- average hours of sleep I've been getting per night this week

5- hours of napping Friday afternoon

16-times my roommate and her "boyfriend" have broken up over the past 3 months

5,000 - hours I have spent listening to my roommates complain about each other. Rochelle now calls me "Switzerland". Haha.

tongue in cheek

So last week one of my students left a note on my desk telling me what a great teacher I am and how she learns so much, but still has fun. So nice.

And of course, I hung it up on my bulletin board and made all of my other students read it so they could also appreciate how great I am. I thought it would brighten their day.

Jeff (the same Jeff who lets me call him Betty) has made it his personal mission to win class MVP, and obviously could not be outdone. So he pulled out a piece of paper and with tongue in cheek, wrote the following note:

Dear Ms Reed,

Your work ethic and all-around excellence have continued to impress me daily. Your upbeat attitude and energy infuse the classroom with excitement and adrenaline-pounding anticipation to learn. You give every student an insatiable hunger to want to learn more and more. Great job so far and keep up the good work!

-Betty

spain spain spain

The trip is less than 3 weeks away, and is looking like more fun every single day. So far the plans involve:

• Finding a great deal on a rental car that was a good $150 cheaper than anything else. Same rental company, same car, less money. I don't know how I do it, but I amaze myself with my bargain shopping more and more every day.

• Flying into Madrid on Saturday, and heading down to Granada to see Brian's friends and explore the city. We'll go to church in Granada on Sunday (Easter Sunday), see a little more of the city, and then head out.
  
• We're spending Monday and part of Tuesday biking and exploring around here:



• Then we're headed out to Valencia to see the City of the Sciences, parks, and other adventures:


• Then back to Madrid to see the Museo del Prado and anything else that looks cool. (The details of this part of the trip are still in the works: