Leave Your Sanity With the Nearest Customs Agent

It is the last week of the semester here in Taiwan. While that means that I am done with weekly paperwork until August, I still have to take my classroom apart. So, while my kids were coloring and being generally obnixous and not listening, I started taking everything off of the walls. My room is naked. It took a year to get it in order and half a day to take almost everything down. I have the calendar and helper chart on the wall still and the friendship tree is still up. But other than that, all the other stuff is in the recycle box or on a spare table so we can sort through it tomorrow and the kids can take all their papers home. The palm trees for International Week-recycle box. The solar system model that we made and hung from the ceiling-on the spare table. The totem poles-recycle box. The paintings of different foods for our class garden-waiting to be sorted. I am happy that the semester is almost over and looking forward to a new class next year. I am counting down the days (4 teaching days and 5 days until I am in Thailand) but it feels so strange to be in a naked classroom again. I will start in an empty classroom again in August. Time will be spent making charts and posters to hang up. My new class will spend time working on projects that we will display on every inch of wall possible. But it is hard to see right now. I went through the same thing last year at the same time. All my personal teaching supplies have been sorted into two piles; the stuff to take home for the summer to it will not be messed with and the stuff to stay here for storage. Every night this week, I will be taking stuff home and keeping it in prepartaion for next year.

This whole process of ending the school year has left me feeling quite befuddled. I have a plan at the beginning of each day of everything I need to accomplish at work and at home. Especially with this vacation thing, I need to get organized so I don't leave a scary, messy room with a pile of dirty laundry behind. I do well when I am at work making sure I accomplish everything I need to. Once I sign out and am on the bus home, the plan for the day goes out the window. I forget what I need to bring for work the next day. I forget everything I am suppose to finish so I can be ready for vacation. I have tried list making, I am tried a plan of what to do in what order. Nothing works. All I have to say is that this is a dream and in a few minutes, my alarm clock will go off and I will be getting ready for cooking school in Thailand. Yes, I go on vacation so I can be a student again. Then there is the week at the beach and this work thing is all just a dream.

Today my kids had a blast before the insanity of taking the classroom apart. We spent a month making volcanoes. Each kid brought in a bottle and we used newspaper, glue, paper towels, paint and a month of art classes to make them. Today we exploded them-the old fashioned way with baking powder and vinegar. It was very hot this morning and the kids were complaining about the heat (compounded by the fact that the air conditioning on the 4th floor isn't working and it is about 90 with the windows closed, blinds closed, and lights off) as soon as we walked out. Once the first volcano exploded, the heat was completely forgotten.