Monday and Tuesday

I visited Niagara Falls yesterday and it was absolutely break-taking. I was a bit disappointed with the tacky tourist traps, but we did stop in Hard Rock Cafe to pick up some souvenirs and received a recommendation for a scenic drive and winery. Of course, we had to go. The drive was beautiful, but the winery was too pretentious, so we kept going and found a more suitable place in Niagara Falls on the Lake. It looked like a story book scene situated in New England. It was so picturesque. We tried delicious drinks and an appetizer with roasted eggplant, hummus, olive tapenade, feta spread with grilled pita bread. It was delicious!

Then, we headed back to the apartment to get ready for the first day of the conference.

Joe dropped me off around 8:20 and I realized that I had to register before going to sessions. So, by the time I registered, I was about 10 minutes late to my first session. This is the pre-registration day before the actual conference and it is packed. All of the presentations are usually amazing with the latest research and biggest people in the business. It is awesome. 

main session

breakout sessions

• 8:30-9:45 Session 1 - Technology in the Language Classroom: Relevant and Authentic Learning 
• 10:00-11:15 Session 2 - Eye of the Storm: Academic Vocabulary = Successful Secondary ELLs
• 11:30-12:30 Main Session (Jim Cummins) - Universal Design in Teaching English Learners: Articulating Evidence-Based New Basics 
• 12:30-1:30 Lunch 
• 1:30-2:45 Session 3 - Mentoring Progress to Advance ELLs' Writing Development With Standards-Based Tools
• 3:00-4:15 Session 4 - How Instructional Coaching Helps ELLs and All Learners  
• 4:30-5:30 STEM Education and ELLs: Consider the Possibilities 

I know listing the sessions might be super boring to someone else, but my day was filled with learning from the best researchers in the field of second language acquisition. I was like a kid in a candy store.

After the conference, Joe and I went out to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. They had an appetizer, dinner, and dessert for CAD 25, which is about $22 USD. It was delicious.

organic greens salad with maple balsamic

pasta with veggies

salmon and veggies

tiramisu and creme carmel

The night with a wonderful bath and glass of wine. I absolutely love a baths and always took them growing up. I have not had a bathtub for the past 3 years and I miss it terribly. It was a nice way to wrap up the day. 

Birthday Celebration 2015!

My birthday started a day early with a student giving me a Snickers and a sweet picture. I do not take for granted the pics/notes that I get from my students. As most of you know, I teach middle schoolers and they are full of ranging hormones which vary day by day. You never what you are going to get, but I have the amazing job of watching kids grow from sixth to eighth grade. And on top of that, I get to teach English to kids from many countries/cultures and I am often the first person they meet when they come to this country. We become incredibly close. So, I was delighted when I received this sweet not from a student. She brought it to me the day before because it was our last day of school before break.

Then, at conferences I received a gift basket from one of my former students on Thursday night. I had her for two years and then I missed her eighth grade year when I went to Africa. We were really close, so it is good that she still comes back to see me. 

On my birthday morning I went to Starbucks and ordered my favorite drink for free. I love that I get a free drink of my choice and of course, everyone is so nice. 

Then, one of my students brought in a bag of my favorite candy, Snickers. I love this student so much. She came from Togo and she has been here for about four months. She is an amazing girl and has such a supportive family. 

Then, my besties met me for lunch at Sugarfire, which is an awesome BBQ place. I had BBQ pork, mac and cheese, and fried green beans. Then, we went over to Sugarfire bakery and got whoopie pies and oatmeal pies. They were delicious!

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday with my family. My mom always makes our favorite meal and cake. I chose sweet tea, chip chops, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits, and chocolate cake with chocolate icing. It was delicious and reminded me of my childhood. 

After dinner and a walk over to see my dad's workshop, we opened presents and I received several thoughtful presents including a card to the J (my gym), slippers, earrings, a magnet, and luggage tags. 

This might be my favorite!

We also celebrated my aunt Mary Lou's birthday, which is on the same day as mine. Now that Ella is bigger, she helped me blow out the candles after my family sang happy birthday. Well, she tried to help, but I stole the thunder by blowing them out too quickly.

All in all, it was an amazing birthday with my family and friends and one I missed last year while in Uganda. Thank you to everyone who sent messages on Facebook, called, text, emailed, etc. for making me feel special from all around the world. I am more blessed than I deserve.

Boil Aventures...

I always have something exciting happening in the health arena and this week has been no different. On Thursday or Friday I noticed a red spot that was starting to grow and spread, but I didn't really think much about it. I worked out on Saturday as normal, enjoyed my weekend, and prepared for Monday.

See...not too bad, right?

So, then on Monday morning I woke up and noticed that my hand was very sore and growing. It looked like this:

I had a meeting after school and some of the teachers were a bit worried, so I thought maybe I should call the dermatologist and see if they could work me into the schedule. It is very difficult to get into Dr. Anadkat, so I didn't think I had a chance. When I have had these before, they are usually already down, so he doesn't get a chance to see them in action. However, when I called this morning, the office had a cancellation at 1:45 p.m., so I left work an hour early and headed to the CAM (Center for Advanced Medicine) for my appointment.

Dr. Milan Anadkat

I seriously have a huge crush on this doctor. He is personable, friendly, affectionate, and kind. It helps that he is also a cutie and possibly around my age. Today he held my hand as he examined it and didn't coil in disgust like everyone else. I was hoping that he was just going to tell me that it would go down in a few days, but no such luck. He recommended that we lance it, clean it out, and bandage it. 

prior to lancing

the office

The office at the CAM is quite impressive and could almost be mistaken for a surgical room. I knew as soon as they booked me in this room that they anticipated some sort of procedure. The procedure began with the resident shooting my hand up with lidocaine, which turned the skin around the area white. It hurt like hell, but I would rather have my hand numb when the doctor cuts into it, since I could hardly handle pricking myself with a needle.

Then, the doctor worked on opening the boil. First, he cut an X and then the liquid started flowing out. I watched the whole thing because I was so fascinated. Normally there is clear liquid, blood, and pus, but this time there was very little pus. Dr. Anadkat said that it was thicker than he expected and that maybe there was a small cyst too, but he will culture it to let me know what's going on. 

Although my hand looks a little more traumatized, I was assured that it will feel better soon. The resident bandaged me up along with some vaseline and sent me on my way. No more boils...well, at least for now.