Back Home for Thanksgiving

On Saturday, my scenery (and weather) changed a lot after I flew from St. Thomas to Chicago.  I am very excited to be home for the week spending time with my friends and family and celebrating Thanksgiving.  However, I am very cold! The weather is around 80 degrees and sunny in St. Thomas, and around 12 degrees and snowy here!

Despite the weather, it has been really nice being home.  My sister and her husband flew up yesterday from Texas, and I am getting in a lot of family time.  Yesterday, I also got to spend a little time with some very special people!

I was lucky enough to get to eat lunch with some of my old students at Belvidere South Middle School!  It was wonderful to see everyone.  They reminded me that I have been slacking on my blog, and I promised to do better!  Seeing them reminded me of how much I miss being their teacher!  They are all such wonderful young men and women.  I miss you!  

I hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving and a great rest of the year.  Hopefully, I will get to come back and see you all again! :)

New School, New House, New Car!

Sorry it has been so long since I posted!  Things have been crazy here and I have been very busy.  First, I had to set up my new room and start teaching.  My new school is great and I love teaching Spanish to my new students (even though I still miss my old students!).

I am teaching 7th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grade Spanish.  It has taken a lot of work to start all over again at a new school, but I finally feel like I am getting into the swing of things.  

I also had to find a house!  Luckily, I had a friend living down here already to help us look for a place.  She is from Belvidere too and I am so lucky to have her here to show me around!  We have a cute two bedroom house on top of a giant hill with a nice breeze and view of the sea.  We are still trying to unpack everything, but it's getting there.

Not done yet!  I had to find a car to drive as well.  I ended up buying a used Jeep from a friend of a friend.  It has worked out really well and I really like it.  Above, is a picture of my car in our front yard.  

I have also been trying to find my way around the island, but haven't had so much time to spare.  Last weekend I finally went scuba diving here.  It was great!  I saw so many different kinds of fish, rays, turtles, and even a shark!  I can't wait to go again.

I would love to hear how the year is going back in Illinois.  Send me a message anytime, and I will be better about posting again!

St. Thomas

 It was a lot of work moving to an island!!  On Saturday, I got home from Europe and had four days to pack up my life and get to St. Thomas.  I made quite a mess!  It was very stressful, but on Thursday I made it here!

 

 I had so many things for school and home, I couldn't fit them all into my three huge suitcases!  I had to mail some things to myself on the island as well.

My flight was very early in the morning, and I had a layover in Florida.  I was so excited when I finally got here!

My friend picked me up from the airport and took me to where we will be staying.  Our apartment will not be ready until September 1st, so we are staying with some very nice friends until then.  Here is a video of the view from the deck!

After that, we went straight to the beach!!  Monday was the teachers' first day of school at my new school.   Everyone is very nice here, and it seems like a great place to be!  I have been working hard on my new classroom and think it might finally be ready for some pictures tomorrow.  So, check back for those! Although I am happy to be here, I am still thinking about all of my students at BSMS.  I hope the first weeks of school are going well and miss you all a lot!!!

Click here to see my new school's website!

Goodbye Belvidere

Dear Students,

As most of you will see tomorrow on your first day of school, I am no longer a teacher at BSMS.  This year, I have accepted a position teaching Spanish on the island of St. Thomas.  St. Thomas is a territory of the United States and is located in the Caribbean Sea.  Some of you will remember that I visited this island for Christmas a year ago.

It was a very difficult decision to leave.  I am very sad to not be your teacher again this year.  However, I believe in all of you so much and know you will succeed!  I want to hear how your year is going and hope you will keep in touch.  I will keep updating my blog and hope that you all send me messages.

I got home from France on Saturday and am currently packing all my things and getting ready to move.  My flight to the island is on Thursday.  My new school starts the 26th.  I will miss you all so much!!!  Keep checking my blog for pictures and info about the island and my new school, and send me a message whenever you want!

 

Italy--Rome

Our last stop in Italy was Rome, and it was my favorite.  Rome was founded around 2,500 years ago in the year 753 B.C.  It is one of the oldest cities in Europe!  Rome has had a very interesting history and is home to many famous landmarks.  The picture above is me standing in front of the Colosseum.  The Colosseum is the largest amphitheater in the world.  It was built in the center of Rome in the year 70 A.D. and could hold up to 80,000 people.  The purpose of the Colosseum was to entertain the people of Rome with gladiator fights.  Gladiators would fight other gladiators and wild animals from all over the world to the death while thousands of Romans cheered them on.  

 Today, the Colosseum only partially stands.  Half of it collapsed after an earthquake, but it is a major tourist attraction.  Thousands of people visit it every year!  Here are some pictures and videos I took.

Inside the Colosseum--a floor used to cover the bottom and wild animals were kept beneath

 Right next to the Colosseum is the Roman Forum.  Today the Forum is in ruins, but it used to be a very important site of a large group of government buildings.  Here is a picture of the Roman Forum today, followed by a picture of what it looked like intact.

A little further from the center of Rome lies the Vatican.  The Vatican City is the smallest independent state in the world.  It is where the Pope lives and the center of the Catholic religion.  Although it is technically in Italy, it has been independent and has had its own government since 1929.

 In the center of the Vatican is St Peter's Basilica.  Designed during the Italian Renaissance in the 1500's in part by Michelangelo, it is the most famous work of Renaissance architecture and still one of the largest churches in the world.

 The inside is decorated with many statues and paintings.  The distinctive dome on the top of the basilica was designed by Michelangelo himself.  The most famous statue inside is another work of Michelangelo.  The statue's name is Pieta, and it it shows Mary holding Jesus after he was killed.

After, in a different church, I saw another one of Michelangelo's sculptures; Moses.  His sculptures are so lifelike, it is like they are real.  He really was a genius.

Rome is such a historic and beautiful city.  Everywhere you go there is a mix of ancient and modern world.  Here are some more pictures of famous Roman landmarks.

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi Fountain was built in the 1600's and is one of the most famous fountains in the world.

Pantheon

The Pantheon is the most preserved Roman buildings and one of the oldest too.  It was built in the year 126.

 

Finally, the Altare della Patria was built in the 1800's as a monument to the unification of Italy when it became an independent country.

Italy--Pompeii

After Pisa, we drove 6 hours to Naples, a city in the south of Italy, to visit the ruins of Pompeii.

Pompeii was an ancient Roman city.  In the year 79, Pompeii was destroyed by a giant volcanic eruption.  When Mount Vesuvius erupted, the city was buried in in 13-20 feet of ash and debris, and most of the people of Pompeii died.  The citizens of Pompeii were unaware that Mount Vesuvius was a volcano and had no idea what was happening at the time of the eruption. 

Pompeii was lost under all that volcanic debris for a very long time, about 1,500 years.  It was rediscovered in 1599.  In the 1700's, archaeologists started uncovering the city.  Because it was buried for so long, the city was not exposed to moisture and is very well preserved.  You can walk around the city and see how the Romans lived almost 2,000 years ago!  It really is incredible.

Pompeii was home to ab out 20,00 people when the volcano erupted.  It was a very big and advanced city with a complex water system, gymnasium, streets and sidewalks, restaurants, bath houses, and even a giant amphitheater.  It was traditional in Roman times for people to go see gladiators fight in the amphitheaters.

Amphitheater

Me walking across the Roman crosswalk

 Perhaps one of the most interesting things in Pompeii are the casts.  When the city was being uncovered, there were spaces found in the rock that looked like people.  When the volcano erupted, people were buried in ash.  Over time, the ash hardened into rock around them.  Over more time, the bodies of the people decomposed, but their shape was left in the rock.  Archaeologists filled these spaces with plaster and made a "cast."  This allowed them to see the exact position the people were in when they died.  Here are some pictures of the casts.

The tragedy for the people of Pompeii in 79 A.D. left us today with one of the most important archaeological sites in the world.  Archaeologists are still uncovering new things every day in Pompeii and its surrounding areas.  To be able to see the city and how people lived back then was an incredible experience. 


 Click here to watch a video about Pompeii