Coolin' off

Tomorrow night my wife and I board a plane to head back home for the holidays.  We're both really looking foward to our time home, though neither of us can really put a finger on the reason why.  We don't have a lot of things to buy in the states, and we saw most of our friends and family just a few months ago when we were home in August.  I think we're just looking forward to a change of scenery from Bamako, plus it will be nice to be with our families for Christmas this year.  Last year we were in Arusha, Tanzania on Christmas morning and I remember wandering around town, looking for something to do.  I'm excited for cold weather.  Seriously.  People keep talking about how cold it is here, but I still sweat like a toilet during the day.  In the morning it's approaching decent temperatures, at least by my standards.

For the past few weeks my wife and I have been busy with our day to day lives here.  I've been contracting and have a few different projects going right now.  When we come back in January, I'll be subbing again at the American school for a week and a half.  This time, it's for the fifth grade class and I'm already sure it will go a lot better than my last go-round of teaching.  To begin with, I got to meet with the teacher before taking over and he gave me the rundown of his class, some lesson plans, and answered every question I could come up with.  And of course, this time around I'll actually be comfortable with the subject matter.  Rather than fumbling my way through geometry, I can (somewhat) confidently talk about fractions.  Plus, I'll get to teach some science and language arts, too.  I'm looking forward to it.

Anyway, happy holidays to all.  I've got to finish packing.