Chilean Flavor

One of our good friends from high school, Maria Olga, who was a foreign exchange student from Chile, came to visit for a few days in the beginning of September.  I had just started at school and B had just gotten back from his grandpa's funeral, so it was a pretty hectic time for us.  She totally stepped up and made us dinner regularly, and we got to enjoy some really interesting foods!  Empanadas from scratch, anyone?

Empanada dough, with beef, olive, and boiled egg filling

We got to join in the fun once the dough and filling were made

It was athletic team shirt spirit day at school, so here I am in my Senegalese soccer jersey, making Chilean food. How very multicultural of me!

Before going in the oven, the tiny one was just the dough we had left

Proud of their work

I believe that was also Chilean wine we were drinking

The small one was obviously perfect for Nanaa, but after a few sniffs and pokes, she walked away.  Her loss.

Balcony Garden

We got some seed money (pun obviously intended) from my mom and some donations from a friendly neighbor for our start-up garden and put them to use.  We were told that only spinach and beets would thrive this late in the growing season, so we planted...spinach and beets.  They haven't been growing as quickly as we thought they would and hope we weren't too late in the planting.  It's not too cold here, but they're getting less and less sunlight every day...

Baby Beets

Baby Spinach

We are also trying to grow some herbs, we started with sage (looks mostly dead now), rosemary, mint, and basil.  We've heard you can't kill mint if you try, but ours is not looking great.  The basil looks ok but hasn't grown at all.

sad mint, Nanaa's namesake

Basil, sitting next to the rosemary inside because we were told basil needs pretty warm temps.

We also got a couple beautiful hanging plants, one from a delightfully nutty lady in Palo Alto who also sold us our table and a cactus, and another from the local nursery. So far the nutter's two plants are definitely doing the best of all the ones we have planted.

Queens Tears

Don't recall the name of this one...

School Daze

I took this picture on the first day of school as I was running out the door.  B was in Rockton so he wasn't there to commemorate the occasion.

The six weeks between now and then have been a total daze.  I had parent/teacher conferences (well, we call them personalized learning plans and make them a 4-page document after a meeting with the student and parents) all day Friday and Saturday, one on Sunday, and a few in the weeks before that and two more to go for students who stood me up...but still somehow having this Monday off has given me time for reflection and to catch up on blogging, cooking, and cleaning.  Feeling much better prepared for this week.

Nanaa the helper

Nanaa loves to participate in activities with us.  Particularly when the activities involve sitting down.  After finishing Infinite Jest over the summer, I picked up the Lord of the Rings trilogy, starting with the Hobbit.  Some Saturday mornings you can find us reading on the balcony.

Some evenings I even get a chance to read for a bit, and Nans doesn't let me do it alone.  You might notice one common thread in both of these pictures...the sweats.  I've just started the third book in the trilogy.  I hope good conquers evil in the end!

And of course, Nanaa likes to help B study.   But apparently he doesn't like to look at the camera...

Two Years in Bridgelandia

We had an anniversary last week.  With me stressed out from all the work from the beginning of the school year and B getting a really nasty cold, I can't say we celebrated in style...we actually celebrated by eating some soup I picked up on the way home, but our guest (Maria Olga, a good friend of ours from high school who was an exchange student from Chile) brought up this amazing bouquet of flowers from San Francisco, where she had spent the day.

I love this photo from our wedding.

Nanaa is not to be upstaged.

In fact, she's quite intense.

Walk by the Sea

This hike along the ocean was about a 45 minute drive from here...most of the time spent just sitting in traffic on our way to Half Moon Bay.  It was worth it

Seals!

Picnic spot

Fuzzy flowers

Classroom Decorations

Tomorrow is the first day of school!  As B says, I always need something to freak out about, so this time I chose decorating my classroom.

Welcome sign.  The stuff below it is from the other teacher who teaches in my classroom.

Excess math humor

My crowning achievement

The fields where the discoveries come from

B had the idea to make Applied Math like code.  Proud of that one.

The beginning of math time

People trying to estimate pi goes along the bottom

Look how many different regions have worked on pi!

Got a couple women in there

But not enough!

South America, Australia, and Sub Saharan Africa had no representation.  Need to find some!

Core characteristics wall.  I'm going to put up examples of when I see students displaying them!

This is just for the first unit!