Emmalee in the Desert

Have you ever gone away for a while? It feels so familiar and different when you return. I'm finding that after going back and forth so many times, I love the return. No matter if I'm going back to Minnesota or wherever I'm living... the return is usually something I look forward to. Maybe that's a part of why I like this international life... I used to always count down to christmas and thanksgiving. Now I count down to my next plane ride. When I go home, I love how certain places feel like they're yours. Like you can say "this is my  life. this is my  place" and as a person who feels at home in a couple different places on this globe... I get to say that pretty often which is nice.... and also funny. Like, how do I have a certain janky shawarma shop I always stop at on my way home from Jeddah? Is this really my life? I was home in MN for about 3 weeks to celebrate holidays. It was fantastic and snowy and cozy and filled with lovely people who I mi...

Thanks to some fantastic friends/coworkers, we went on a great little explore recently. Towards the end of december, a friend shared  this pin  with us. It doesn't look remarkable in the normal maps view, but if you click on satellite (in the lower left corner of the corner of the map) you can see a structure. What I've heard from others is that it's an old deserted turkish fort. How we figured that out, I have no idea, but I'm going with it! It took us about 45 minutes to drive out there and we brought a picnic. Logan's FJ Cruiser got us up the mountain (maybe a hill by many peoples' standards?) most of the way and then we started climbing. Here are some photos of our time at the fort: here we go! keep on climbing! we made it to the top! Perfect time of day to visit - loved seeing the sunset. Here we are having a picnic. At the top center-right is the fort.  That was tons of fun to head out and see after school. The person wh...

A lot has happened since I last posted. First of all, we put on a 6-12 musical written by a couple teachers and many students. Writing a show is HARD, and I was just in charge of some  of the music. It took many hours and lots of demanding conversations but we did it! I was amazed at our final production. I say that not to toot my own horn, but to really say that I see how this IB stuff works. The singers, actors, and instrumentalists used different genres, arrangements, led rehearsals, advocated for musical choices (changing keys, planning choreography around musical phrases, etc), and in general used all kinds of skills to put their musical talents on display. Second of all, the first trimester ended. For me that meant that I got new groups of 6th and 7th grade students. They have drama, music, and visual arts each for a third of the year, rotating at the trimester. So now I'm repeating the units I taught at the beginning of the year and am learning so much. The trimester com...