Sometimes I still surprise myself

Some days I look at myself and am amazed at the things I'm doing in my life. If you would've told me ten years ago what I would be doing today, I wouldn't have believed you for a second. (It reminds me of a saying I once read, when someone asked God why we can't just know about what's going to happen in our own futures, and the answer was, "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me anyway...." Isn't that the truth?) Anyway, yesterday was definitely one of those days. From 7am until 11pm, I was an actress, filming for a commercial. The last scene was even of me dancing in a night club, and somewhere, somehow, I've built up enough confidence that I was able to do this on camera.

How, you may ask, did this come along? In LV, it's all about who you know, not what you know. So as some of you may remember, last spring, I received a phone call on a Sunday morning from a friend who is a film director, asking if I couldn't come and just play one short scene as a school psychologist in a series of video clips being recorded to show in LV schools. That in and of itself was a big experience for me, as I showed up, got make-uped and then handed a fairly long text (certainly not the "one sentence" I had been promised) and was told that "we're on" in two minutes, memorize it and be ready to go. I survived that experience, and was fairly certain that was the extent of my fifteen minutes of fame in life.

Not so. Mid-week this week, the same friend contacted me, asking if I would be willing to help out with filming for a commercial on Saturday. I said sure, thinking this would be another small, quick favor. The next day, I received another email saying that I had been chosen for the lead female role in this commercial and that I needed to send more photos of myself for the Estonian directors to look over. So I had to pull KB out of bed and we did a quick photo-shoot at home before school that day, because I don't have a model portfolio just ready to go. (Why, why, why they chose me over the other professionals, I still don't understand.....) Finally I found out that we would be filming two different commercials for a European hotel chain to be shown in all the Baltic countries. This required me to be ready to go at 7am on Saturday morning (I had to prepare and bring all my own outfits to change into) and the plan was that we would work until about midnight. Whew.

Luckily, I did not have to prepare speaking roles, as there will be a voice speaking over the scenes in the different languages for each country. The first scene was checking in to the hotel. They only had to stop recording once because of me, when I tripped on a light. Fortunately, that was the extent of my clumsiness for the day. :) The next scene was eating at the hotel restaurant. That was pure and perfect torture. This scene started being filmed at noon, we were all starving already, and we each had a beautifully prepared, aromatic meal in front of us which we were not allowed to touch. They also kept pouring wine into our glasses and taking it away to pour it back into the bottle, which we were not even allowed to sip. We were truly beginning to drool our own make-up off by the end of two hours of this torture.... Finally, when this scene was done, we asked the waiter to heat up the meals, ate them anyway and downed the wine. Then we all went to join the rest of the crew and ate part (or in the case of the men - all) of another lunch. Then we needed some serious coffee to pull ourselves out of the wine/food coma which followed such a good meal.

The next scene was filming a business meeting in the conference room. Then we filmed a scene in one of the hotel rooms, where I had to stand at the window drinking coffee and turn to approve the other guy's choice of shirt and tie. Whew, I had to drink lots of coffee during those shots (with my left hand, nonetheless) and it was so hot because of the lights I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, I did not.

Then we had some time to get ready before the night club scene. We raided the mini bars in all the dressing rooms and I took care of all the Bacardi. :) I did not even recognize myself by the time my make-up was done for the night club scene (black eyeshadow, anyone?) but it ended up being pretty fun. Thank goodness for those hip hop dance lessons last year, which made me not quite so scared to dance in front of a camera (or maybe it was the Bacardi?). And that was a wrap, for a very very long day. It's funny how tourists at the night club were taking pictures of all the filming and really treating us like we were some kind of big stars....

But my favorite moment of being treated like a big star was actually on Friday after school. On Friday, I had a bit of a warm-up in acting, as my class finally put on the play of "The Lazy Teacher and The Working Kids" for the whole school. They were absolutely superb (or so I hear, as I was acting the role of the lazy teacher and had my eyes closed for most of the production)! I was so, so proud of them! Even the ones who have been shy and nervous to get on stage in the past, really opened up and everyone did such a great job. :) After school when I was leaving, there were only a handful of kids left on the playgound, but a first grader ran up to me with big eyes and says, "I know you!!! You're the lazy teacher from that show!" It was crazy cute and put a big smile on my face at the end of a long and tiring week.

So today, I rest. I'll tell you why filming was so tiring yesterday and why my brain woke up well before my body was able to move this morning. Not because you are doing anything so strenuous, but because your energy is so on and off during the entire day. KB told me when I'm filming, be ready to "hurry up and wait", which was so true. You film one take, then they spend a long time reajusting things before the next take. Then you hear "get ready!" and your body jumps back to life, only to wait another ten minutes as they "quickly" readjust something else. And all day, you are requiring your body to jump to life at a second's notice. At least with teaching, you are "on" all day. Also tiring, but in a very different way.

In conclusion, I enjoyed trying something new again (and surprised myself that I was able to do it), I really enjoyed earning so much money in one day, but I'm glad to return to the classroom on Monday, because most days that's what makes me really happy.

If I don't write about it, I just might cry

I can count on one hand the number of times I've cried of happiness in my life. But this school year, I seriously feel that I will cry nearly every day from looking at this group of children just being themselves. Seriously, if you feel that the world is going to crap (as I do many a day living in LV), come take a look at my classroom because these are the kids who are going to save the world.

I was feeling a bit grumpy upon arriving to school this morning, when two girls, who get to school early because their moms also teach, are hard at work making a nametag for Mr. A, the assistant in our class, because he doesn't have one and they decided he needs one too. One says, "Mrs. Diana, you look just LOVELY today," and my mood already starts improving.

But this is what takes the cake. Show and tell today. I have never been a fan of show and tell - it drags on, it is nearly the same junk every week, it gets boring quickly, but the kids love it. This year I put a spin on show and tell in my class - each week there is a theme and they have to think ahead and choose something that will relate to that theme. It is all about what we are doing in the classroom - either related to our unit of inquiry or the PYP profile or attitude that we are focusing on. Since the beginning of the year, we've been focusing on the profile CARING, so today they had to bring something to demonstrate caring. Not such an easy task, fairly abstract. They blew me away.

One girl brought in her brother from kindergarten, and told all about how they are caring to each other in their play. Another brought a miniature table from a dollhouse with everything to set the table, and told us how on the weekends, when she and her sister wake up early before their parents, they set the table for them and prepare everything in the kitchen "so it looks and smells nice" when they wake up. (Really, I promise, these are real children!) Others brought photographs of themselves doing caring tasks at home (helping in the garden, etc.). Still others brought favorite books with characters that did something caring. Others brought their stuffed animal "pets" (some represented real pets, others were really just imaginary pets) and described how they care for their pets. Seriously, seriously, I was nearly in tears by the end, because if you could see how gently and sweetly they described all of this, how they listened and complimented each other, how perfectly superb they all are as individuals and as a group, you may start thinking the world might just turn out ok after all.....

A bit of freetime followed, because they have been working so hard for me, and again, I watched them all make sure to include each other in their games, involve friends who were sitting out on the side, and find ways to include each other or play new games if something was hard for someone. Then we walked down to music class, I was the tail of the line. When I arrived, there was no music teacher yet, but my class had arranged themselved perfectly, sitting on the risers, going "shhhhshhhh, let's surprise the teacher!". A group of angels on earth, that is what they are.

All props to their families, of course, for doing such a wonderful job at home. I also have mentioned to some that if you believe in that type of thing, I would say I have a classroom full of "old souls" this year - though I'm not an expert at second grade yet, I can say with a fair amount of certainty, that this is no ordinary grade two class. I am a lucky, lucky teacher this year. :)

What's worse?

Having your alarm clock wake you in the middle of a deep sleep or waking up on your own ten minutes before your alarm clock is supposed to ring, realizing that you have just totally missed out on ten minutes of sweet sleep? Latley, my body clock has finally adjusted to waking up early again, but it's overachieving. I don't really like it.

A Latvian miracle!

I went to the post office today. There was not a single line and three whole ladies were working and available to help me. I actually froze up with confusion about what to do next. I'm still in shock....

For your reading pleasure....

Please enjoy the first story composed by Grade 2B this year. We had read "The Little Red Hen" and talked about cooperation a fair bit, and how that would apply to our classroom this year. As our first group writing project, we talked about how good writers can take ideas from other writers - not copy them, because then it's not original, but simply use good ideas. So we planned our story. I had picked the characters (Grade 2B teachers and students) and the setting (our school), but the plot is totally and completely the fruit of their awesome minds.

Not only did we write the story, but we are publishing a book which will be donated to our library, and further, we are presenting a play of this story for our entire school in an assembly in less than two weeks. Once you have read the story, you will understand why I am now also shopping for new pajamas in addition to new shoes.....

I present to you.... "The Lazy Teacher and The Working Kids" by Grade 2B

One cold fall morning the teacher of Grade 2B came to the classroom in her pajamas and said, “I’m so tired.” Then the teacher made a bed with the pillows and laid down on them.

The children started doing circle time by themselves. They did calendar, date writing, counting sticks, writing the weather and doing their jobs. Then the children turned on the Jack Johnson CD and started doing their work.

When the children finished their work, they went to Art, I.T. and Sports.

Then they ate their snacks because it was time. They listened to Johnny Cash while they ate snacks.

During snack there was a fire drill. The teacher kept sleeping. So the girls closed the windows, turned off the lights, turned off the CD and got the red and green paper while the boys put the teacher on the chair with wheels and rolled her out the door. And they did not forget to close the door!

They went outside and the other teachers said, “What is this teacher doing in the chair?” The students answered, “She’s sleeping!”

They went back inside and put the teacher back on the pillows. The classroom had a fish called Bubbles. Sometimes Bubbles talked. Bubbles said to one student who had brought cake to school, “Give the teacher her coffee and the cake you brought.”

The children opened the teacher’s mouth and poured the coffee in. She woke up!

There was a note by the cake. Who would read the note?

“Not I,” said the teacher.

“Not I,” said Bubbles.”

“Then we will!” said the kids.

The teacher was so lazy she had forgotten how to read, but the working children taught her how to read and write again. And the teacher never slept at school again because she wanted to read and write like her students. The end.

Just to be clear, the kids really just wanted to call her the Teacher of Grade 2B (not Mrs. Diana, as I had suggested) - which I appreciate. However, I do get to play that role in our play.... Additionally, the story is quite accurate about how our days go (and I really do believe this group of kids would run the class on their own just like so!), all the way down to the Jack Johnson CD. No Johnny Cash yet, but I'm not totally opposed to that either.... :)

Shoe shopping

Very sadly the time has come. I have been living in LV for two years and seven months. I walk almost everywhere I go. My shoes have started dieing. I can no longer put off the need to buy new shoes.

In the first week of school, two of my long-faithful pairs of shoes broke. Working in grade two, the kids let you know that kind of stuff. I had just finished giving some long-winded explanation, asked "any questions?" and get, "Mrs. Diana, when are you going to buy new shoes? Because yours are broken on the bottom." There is no escaping, no trying to hide it......I only have one suitable pair of shoes for work at the moment. Hmph.

As many of you near and dear to me know, I have not had the best of luck in the shoe department here in LV. The first experience was in trying to find a suitable pair of black boots. Let's just say that the email I wrote about that shoe shopping experience made the black boots I did buy infamous with my friends and family back in the States. When I had flown back for my grandmother's funeral, the second words out of everyone's mouth, after condolences, were, "Are those the boots?"

My second shoe shopping experience in LV ended up with a pair of sandals that literally broke within the first five mintues of me wearing them and two months of jumping through hoops and more ridiculous stories before getting my money back.

So yesterday, KB finally threw me in the car and said he was taking me shoe shopping. Yes, yes, I think we both realize in hindsight that was a pretty nutty thing to assume that this would actually be productive for us to do together. My attempt at shoe shopping with my new husband looked something like this:

KB: "These are nice shoes." Me, thinking, could you possible pick a more horrific pair?? (Answer: of course, yes, because you haven't seen anything until you've seen shoe choices in LV.) After a few attempts of this, Me: "Why don't you go and look at your men's shoes?" KB: "Fine, I'll just go the electronics store." Me, calling him on the phone a few minutes later: "I don't want you so close but I don't want you so far away. What if I find a pair I need your opinion on?" KB meets me at the next shoe store and obediently looks at men's shoes until I find two pair I need an opinion on. KB's opinion: "They look like grandma shoes." Me: "Ok, it's time to go home now, I'll try this again on my own later this week."

MP, I miss you!!! I need your opinion on shoes!!!!

Later in the evening, I uncovered more of my trauma about shoe shopping. As a child I had extraordinarily narrow feet, which meant I could only shop at one children's shoe store and had about two options in that store. I never got to get anything I liked. To top that one off I also had flat feet. So in kindergarten I had to spend the year wearing brown orthopedic shoes. All of this has led to shoe shopping leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I remember the year I agreed to buy a pair of shoes (sometime in elementary school) which I hated, just to be able to stop shopping for shoes. I had to wear them the whole year and it was horrible. Most men would probably appreciate a wife who is not obsessed with shoe shopping. That's fine. Until it comes to the point when all your shoes are broken. I don't know, I just may be barefoot this winter....