today was a good day

The relative good and bad of days means more when you're abroad. A good day is really good, because not only was it generally good, you conquered the foreign culture, fit in, and felt at home. A bad day is really bad, because the foreign culture scores all the points for making you feel stupid and lonely and lost and confused, and everyone you want to cry to is half a day away, and they honestly don't quite understand anyway (unless they've lived abroad). So the fact that today was a good day is important.

As of this week, it's official: I love teaching. It's exciting, and there's always something new happening, and it's challenging, too. I love choreography, but it's been awhile since I got the 'thrill' that I have gotten this week from teaching a good lesson. I feed off the students' energy, and they always surprise me. Today, I was explaining something to one student during break, and all of a sudden I see a flash! Another student had taken a picture of me! I told him that he should let me know next time before, so I can look ready, then they told me to pose for a better picture. It was funny, and by second break after two three-hour-long classes, I needed to laugh. My afternoon class today is tough because it's only 8 students (after 31 this morning), and all boys. By Thursday night, I'm always ready to see my undergraduates on Friday morning. They are easily my favorites, probably because I've been working with them for seven weeks now and we know each other. They're also English majors, so automatically closer to my heart, and they are really smart and good at English. I should be writing their lesson plan right now instead of doing this...

But I felt it was important to talk about good days and bad days, because all those miles really start to add up, on both sides of the ocean. I've had more good days lately, probably because it actually feels like fall here right now, and that is my ultimate favorite season. It even smells like fall, and when the sun peeks through it looks like fall, and that makes me happy.