Hurricane Day!!!

In the states I celebrated having school cancelled for snow days, but living in the DR we celebrate school cancellations for hurricane days! Yesterday, school was cancelled because of hurricane Hannah. The weather wasn't terrible but the hurricane was making an unpredictable path and looked like it was turning around and heading right back at us once it had passed. A day off here is a little different though. Not as exciting because there isn't much to do. I was going nuts being stuck in my apartment all day. I was able to watch a few movies at one of the other teacher's apartment and we made a delicious meal to eat. Then I tried to get ahead on some grading and lesson plans.

It was an exciting day because I was able to skype my dad (this is talking online and we use a webcam) while he was at the church and he decided to walk around the office and I had an opportunity to see and say hello to most of the church staff. It was nice and put a big smile on my face :)

Then, in the evening I had an oportunity to make some phone calls to the states. It was great. I spent a long time on the phone talking to some friends and my sister...it was a great way to end the day.

School attendance was low today because all of the public schools were still canceled due to the fear of the weather. During my weekly lunch duty I was embraced with the pleasant gift of having tons of screaming 5th and 6th grade students standing on tables making a huge scene because a huge, fuzzy tarantula was racing around the cafeteria. I had to try to look composed being the lunch monitor...but I was FREAKING OUT. Luckily one of the secretaries was there and she chased after it and killed it. It was a fiasco, the lunch room was loud and crazy. My principal came out from across campus to find out what was wrong. I hope I don't EVER see one of those again.

Tonight we finally had the Open House at the school. It's funny the way Dominican's handle this. At school today many of my girls were telling me that they had to go to the beauty salon to get their hair done and styled for the Open House. I was afraid I was going to look like a mop compared to them. The Open House was great, but long. We began as a big group and then parents were free to visit in the students classrooms with the teachers. I had lots of parents in my room. It was great and I really enjoyed all the parents. I had great conversations, but I was overwhelmed by all the activity. After about two hours I caught a ride with another teacher to go back instead of the bus..bad choice. We got a flat tire on the way back. It was dark out and we were in the street trying to change the tire and then the jack broke as we were in the process. We were trying to have a good attitude but it was frustrating and not so safe. My roomates and I walked to find a taxi to take home, but none of the taxi drivers would take us, it was frustrating..finally we found a taxi driver who was not being lazy and wantd to make some money and took us to our apartment. It made for a later night than what I wanted, but I'm finally back safe..hopefully they will get the car fixed and get back safe soon too.

We recieved a hurricane update at school today and they told us to be prepared because there are some hurricanes in the area and they always take unpredictable paths. I had planned to go on a Young Life leadership retreat this weekend in the mountains, but it was cancelled due to the weather threats :(

I feel fairly safe and secure since I live in a valley, but please keep those who have been harmed by the hurricanes in your prayers.

Whew..alright...off to bed... :)

The picture I attached is I guess what you call the elementary gym at school!