I had to

go back! You can't tempt me with a beautiful classroom and not have me thinking about it for the rest of the night! So today my daughter Lydia, who is here for the month on her "Uni" holiday (Winter break from USF), came with me and lugged the very very heavy suitcase full of the books and fun things I brought with me from the states. I mean lugged. I mentioned the school is built on a hillside, so parking the car at the bottom and walking up the many steps is the easiest way to go. That is, if you're not lugging Mom's teacher stuff!

Then I just sat and looked. It was about 120 degrees inside (but I learned it's air conditioned later), so we sat, looked, and sweated. It felt marvelous. There is an easle. Yes! A rug area. Yes! Sharpened pencils and a desk for everyone with actual matching chairs! Wow. Three tall windows look out to the flora on the hillside. The front door is a screen, really, that opens to a shared hallway. There is a money poster with, of course, Australian money pictures. The mapping page asks students to identify the 6 states and 2 territories. Of course. There is a student dictionary booklet with the first page being for A. Among the words listed underneath, apple, Aboriginal, accident, Australian, automobile . . . Awwww. I'm not in Kansas anymore.

So we spent some time looking through the resources, the materials and the books, taking photos, sharing these precious moments, and sweating. When we left I set out Shel, Petite Rouge, The BFG, SkippyJon, American Cowboys, my songbooks, and my Bill Nye jacket. I'll wait till next time to really move in!

p.s. They sell disco balls at the discount store here!! What do you think, Karen?