New Adventures

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Home Sweet Israel

I hope everyone gets a chance to go to Israel at some point. It is an amazing country. I love to learn about the history etc., but I also love that it is clean, safe, and pretty. The food is safe to eat, people speak English, there are rubbish bins everywhere, the men are HOT (seriously – you need more proof that Israelis are Gods chosen people – look at how hot the men are J )

There was much more security getting into Haifa than in other ports we’ve been in. Last year my camera card was lost/stolen and I lost all the pictures I took in Israel so I tried to go back to some of the important places. Today I went on a tour of Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. We drove through the Jezre’el Valley to Nazareth. We went to the Church of Annunciation (said to be where Mary lived and the angel came to her telling her she was pregnant) It is a very large, beautiful church. The doors are huge with amazing carvings depicting the life of Jesus. The guide told us that the biggest doors were gifts from America – I was the only American in the tour group which is weird, but people thanked me for the doors J Nearby is the Church of St. Joseph – where his carpentry shop was. It was a much smaller church. Mary’s well is nearby – some say the Angel came to her there, not at her house, but really they are meters apart from each other! It doesn’t really matter. We drove through Cana but didn’t get to stop. I didn’t even pass anything that said Cana to take a picture. Last year I remember seeing tons of wine shops declaring to be the place where Jesus turned water into wine. We went down into the Jordan Valley to the Sea of Galilee. Last year I got to go on a boat ride on the sea and it was amazingly bright, clear, and pretty. This year I just got to see it from the shore and it was hazy so you can’t really tell the sea from the sky in my pictures. We ate lunch at a Kibbutz overlooking the Sea. There are many Kibbutz(I don’t know how to spell the plural) in Israel – they aren’t as socialist as they used to be. People used to work as much as they could and take what they needed. If you needed money, the group would take a vote as to whether or not it was actually needed. They don’t run exactly that way anymore but people do live on there and work and live kind of like a commune.

We went to Tagbha and visited the Church of Multiplication – where they fed the crowd with the loaves and fishes. It is a beautiful church with lovely mosaics.

We went to Capernaum – St. Peter’s village and saw the remains of the 1^st century synagogue where Jesus taught. There are also remains of more recent synagogues. There is a octagonal church (which delights me as a math teacher) over St. Peter’s mother – in – law’s house said to be where the four men lowered their crippled friend through the roof.

There are remains of the original octagonal church underneath a beautiful new church. It is literally a few meters to the Sea of Galilee and has gorgeous views. It is easy to see why fisherman lived here. This was the area Jesus “collected” his disciples. This was a border between several tribes and Matthew was the customs agent. He is always called a tax collector which he was but he also was the customs agent and collected taxes from foreigners.

The Sea of Galilee provides 25% of the water for Israel. It is a desert nation and it is miraculous the way they have built up the country considering there are pretty much NO natural resources. The Sea is in the northern part of Israel near the borders of Syria and Lebenon. The borders are well guarded because if either country were to take control of the Sea of Galillee… well it would be disastrous for Israel. After Capernaum we went to the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave his Sermon on the Mount. I remember thinking last year that it was the most beautiful place I’d ever been. Gorgeous gardens, beautiful churches, amazing views of the sea. And it is beautiful but due to the haze we couldn’t see much. The Golan heights are right there and we could barely see them. They are a contested border area – Israel is willing to give some of them back to Syria, but Syria wants the border to be 10 meters from the Sea. Um. Israel will never agree to that. They need the water!

The last place we visited today was Yardenit, the site where Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river. This is one place where everyone agrees that it is not the actual place where he was baptized it is just a nice place to commemorate it.

Jordan river baptismal site

Last year I went on a 2 week tour of this area and I was with the same people every day so it was easy to make friends. Here I am with people for just one day at a time and they are all with other people so talking to me is not a priority. Which is fine – it makes it easier for me to enjoy the holiness of places. But it is nice to have a little conversation at lunch. I met a woman today who lives in Mumbai – Andheri – which is very close to the part I live in. A lot of people hate tour groups. I’m ok with them most of the time – I get a little impatient with people who don’t know how to be in a tour group! But it is fun to listen to people’s observations. For example people complained that we had to pay to use the toilet and that they weren’t that clean. UM. Considering thousands upon thousands use those bathrooms every day – they were pristine. Mall bathrooms in America are far worse. And every single bathroom we went to had soap, running water, AND toilet paper (that is rare outside of America). And all western toilets. Those bathrooms are fabulous. I’d like to see these people use an Indian squat toilet. I heard people say they expected to see more military. It was weird – I saw very few soldiers whereas last year they were everywhere. Maybe it’s the places we went to? I don’t know. But we did see very few soldiers.

Tomorrow I will get to go to Jerusalem – one of my favorite places on Earth!

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Turkey and Cyprus

Christmas day Dec 25^th 2012 Alanya Turkey

It was a beautiful day – 18 degrees C – blue skies and not windy. The town was picture perfect. I went on a city highlights tour and was disappointed. We stayed far too long at places and it was a little boring. We visited a medieval citadel, the red tower, the Damlatas Cave. When I got back to the ship I took a nap and watched the Pope’s Christmas Eve Mass on TV. The captain of the ship found Santa and escorted him onboard J He gave presents to the kids on the ship. I went to the dining room for dinner and there weren’t a lot of people there so they seated me alone L I did have a nice turkey dinner with cranberry sauce.

Dec 26^th 2012 Limmasol, Cyprus

It was another gorgeous day. Cyprus is not very pretty. It is very dry with hardly any rain and there is wire fencing everywhere. I went on a Byzantine Heritage trip in the Troodos Mountains. The first thing I noticed when I got off the bus was the heavenly smell of pine trees! We visited the Church of St. Nicholas of the Roof. It is called that because its dome is covered by another protective sloping room. The frescoes in the church span 600 years. The churches are Greek Orthodox here and the guide explained some of the frescoes. Many depicted Jesus stories everyone is familiar with. There was one painting with Mary breastfeeding Jesus which is unusual. We also went to the Church of Panagia Forviotissa at Asinou – it had wonderful frescoes too. There was a scene in both churches that is common to Orthodox churches – Jesus at the resurrection pulling Adam and Eve out of Hell and lifting them to paradise with Solomon and David. Weird. Not sure how I feel about that or how Biblical that is. We weren’t allowed to take pictures inside either church so I don’t have pictures of them. We visited village of Kakapetria and had a typical Cyprus lunch – kabobs, hummus, potatoes etc. I got to stroll through some wonderful winding alleys in the village – postcard pretty J

Interesting things I learned. It is very much like Greece – they speak Greek and the food is similar. Cyprus was occupied by the Brits until 1960. They still have two military bases on the island. India was also a British territory and there is a lot of English influence etc. Weirdly, I didn’t see the same influence in Cyprus.

Cyprus comes from the word “copper” which Cyprus is famous for. We passed an asbestos mine which is obviously closed J They are famous for the carob plant – they make a lot of things with carob syrup. This is apparently where the measuring of gold in carats came from. Each seed in the carob is the same weight so they used it to weigh things – 4 seeds equals a carat. In 1974 the Turks invaded the northern part of Cyprus and are still there. The UN etc does not recognize this as a country even though they call themselves the blah blah blah of Turkey (I can’t remember exactly ) The demarcation line goes through the capital city of Cyprus.

It was a very peaceful day and tomorrow we are going to Israel.

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Why I love Swiss Air and Italian Immigration

On Friday night I rode on school transportation to the airport with 3 other teachers and once at the airport I ran into several other ASB people – it was a mass exodus from India J I was on the same flight to Zurich as one of my 6^th graders and her family. I sat with them while waiting for the flight and had the seat behind them on the plane. The mom told me how much her daughter has improved mathematically and attitude wise in my class and that she has heard other parents sing my praises too J good way to start the break.

The 9.5 hour flight was uneventful. Everyone on the plane slept. I watched 3 movies and took a couple 10 minutes naps – I wish I could sleep on planes!!!! I like that Swiss Air gave us a chocolate bar after breakfast at 5am J and they gave everyone a hot towel to wipe our faces and hands– even me in row 43 of coach!!

I had a very tight connection in Zurich and was irritated with security. I haven’t been anywhere but the plane since my last security screening!! They didn’t check my passport or boarding pass while I went through security which was weird, but they checked it later and asked why I was going to Rome – I said cruise and they let me go.

I had a quick flight – a little over an hour to Rome. For those of you who don’t fly internationally let me explain how it normally goes. As you get ready to land the flight crew gives you a piece of paper to fill out – where are you from, where are you going, why, how long, address and phone of where you are staying, how much money you have etc. When you land you go through customs, then immigration where they go over your piece of paper and depending where you are – ask you a few questions or grill you a lot. Then they stamp your passport and sometimes you have to pay for a visa then you are on your way. The immigration line can be an hour or two so I was a little worried about time.

That is how it normally goes. This is how it went in Italy. They did not give us a piece of paper on the flight. I walked through the door that said – customs nothing to declare. No one stopped me or asked me questions. Then I was outside where the Norwegian Cruise Line people were there with the shuttle bus. I was worried I missed something. I told the lady I had not gone through immigration. She said there was no immigration. I was really confused. There was absolutely no record of me being in Italy with the exception of the plane manifest!! She asked where I came from and when I said Zurich she said that is why no one checked me. I looked at my passport and realized that Zurich stamped it. So weird. I don’t’ have an Italian stamp, but I do have a Switzerland stamp and I never left the airport! Getting into Italy was a snap! It takes me far longer to get into the US where I am a citizen and far longer to get into India where I have a residency card!!

The bus ride was over an hour to the port at Civitavecchia. I was the only native English speaker amid about 120 people on two busses. I don’t speak French or German so my only hope was to make friends with the Spanish and Italian speakers. I was hoping there would be more English speakers on the ship. An old man from Luxemburg with limited English skills sat next to me on the bus – he was travelling with his girl friend (cute!) and her grandson. The ride was nice – the roads were smooth and not crowded and I didn’t hear a single car honk! I got on the ship and took a nap.

Travelling by yourself takes some balls sometimes J You get very weird reactions sometimes. Service people are always looking for “the rest of your party”. I went to dinner in the main dining room and the man asked if I wanted to be alone or sit with others. I asked to sit with others. On other cruises people sit at these huge tables with 8-10 people and you can get to know others. NCL is a little different and seemed to just sit groups of people with themselves. He asked if I would be comfortable sitting with a gentleman who was dining alone – I said sure. His name was Rej – British with two daughters in their mid 30s. It was his first cruise and we had a great dinner and conversation J I went to bed early to try to fight jet lag.

Sunday morning (dec 23^rd) I had breakfast at the buffet then walked on the deck for an hour. At the end of the ship there was a railing where I could do 45 degree pushups – I did 50! And I also did 100 walking lunges. Not my normal workout but trying to keep some strength so I don’t have to start over with Nilendra when I get back. We went passed Cicily – it was beautiful. I talked to one of the service people from Delhi and we talked India for awhile. He said he had many friends on the ship from Bombay. I am making it my duty to look at the tag of anyone who helps me to see if they are from IndiaJ The ship has Christmas trees and gingerbread houses up and Christmas music playing so it is a little festive. And the crew members sing out random lines from songs J After my walk I laid in a lounge chair and read a book. It was about 50 degrees F and lovely. At lunch there was a couple sitting at a table near me and another couple and their son sitting at the next table. And I heard the first couple ask the second couple where they were from etc and both couples are international teachers!!! One in Belgium and one in Italy. Both work for the DOD – one at a US naval base and one at a NATO base. So I told them I was an international teacher too and we all had a lovely conversation at lunch.

After lunch I took a four hour nap!! Don’t know why I am so tired! Tomorrow is another day at sea. I’m getting a little woozy. I do ok when the ship is close to land – this morning was fine, but the farther we get into open water the woozier I get. It isn’t that bad – I think most people don’t feel it. I am very sensitive. Thankfully my room is on the 5^th floor in the middle so although I can feel movement it isn’t too bad. The buffet, the workout room, the library are all on the 12^th floor and I can’t stay up there too long L The deck I walked on this morning is on the 7^th floor and was fine today because we were close to land. Hopefully I can walk tomorrow. Tomorrow is Christmas eve. I plan to go to a trivia thing and Caroling activity. At 11:30 tomorrow there is a church service so I will nap tomorrow and stay up for it J We also have Israeli immigration processing even though we don’t get there for 4 days!! They are the opposite of Italian immigration! We were supposed to go to two different ports in Israel, but due to unrest, we are going to one of them for two days.

I’m enjoying my quiet time – reading, watching tv I downloaded onto my computer, walking, and napping. I kind of like that we have two days at seas before I have to get up early and go sightseeing at places.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

I love my kids

I taught 8th grade for a lot of years then circumstances forced me to teach 6th grade and my principal and other teachers were concerned about how that was going to go!! I am not built for elementary kids! and 6th grade is pretty close. I've taught 6th grade for 4 years now and they are growing on me. :) It works out well for my teaching partner and I. I whip them into shape - mathematically and work ethic wise in the 6th grade and they are ready to progress in the 7th grade. As he gets to each unit he says he can tell what I teach because they KNOW it. Really know it!. He was gone one day last week and the sub came in to ask me to help with the project they were working on. I asked if they needed help with understanding the project or understanding the proportion part. and they said - "Miss Staley, we know how to solve proportions - YOU taught us!" ha! They remembered!

Kids often do really well in math in elementary school then get lower grades in 6th grade. Parents freak! It's because we study things that actually require work! and they have HW and actual grades. Last year parents were contacting me " my kid has always gotten 97s in math and now with you, they are getting an 85 - what are you doing?" Then by the end of the year - many of them thanked me for pushing their kid so hard and making them learn. I also tell them all the time that not only am I to teach them math, but my job is to teach them to be good, responsible people. This week one of the sweetest girls had a birthday and helped her mom make special cupcakes (they imported ingredients they couldn't get here). Well kids saw her in the hall with the cupcakes and mobbed her - all wanting one even if they weren't friends with her. I shooed a bunch of them away and got on them about being greedy. I went to the bathroom and when I got out I saw the girl sobbing. Kids had mobbed her again and flipped the cupcakes on the ground and grabbed them like wild animals. I was sooooo upset with their behavior. I had my H block and gave them a huge lecture on how we treat others and how that girl's special day ended in disappointment. I started crying - I was so upset for the girl. The kids asked why I was crying and I told them it hurts my heart when people's feelings get hurt. I let them cut math short and we made birthday cards for the girl and I let them use my special stickers and stamps. :) they wrote her lovely letters and I hope they learned a lesson.

At the end of the year the school gives the students surveys to fill out on every teacher. I picked the 10 lowest categories for last year and gave the kids a mini survey this week to see how I am doing so I know what areas I need to improve on. The kids responded better this year than last. I was a little surprised. I am tough on my kids. I expect a lot and some don't respond well to that. But these kids seem to. Here are some responses.

She puts in fun games, that make us remember stuff without even knowing. HA! like I'm being sneaky about making them learn.

She challenges me and has options to learn more if you don't understand something. Ex: extra help

She always is on your back and always gives us extra-work 2 months in advance so we can prepare for the test. YES! I am on their back!

She involves fun and jokes along with learning

she makes us get up and actually do something instead of just listening. Yep! they are expected to MOVE in my class. Math is a sport!

Like she laughs around and enjoys herself so it becomes fun when you learn in her class or during advisory.

We watch fun activity video about the topic and Ms. Staley does things to help us understand and also have fun like beat the clock. She wants us to be perfect on the topic by putting extra work on haiku to us to work on.

she always lets us do math games and if we do really well we will get a sticker or stamp
Oriental trading rocks and bribery works!!

She is really funny and makes Math extremely interesting. Before I did not like math, but know I really enjoy it. Ms. Staley happens to be my favorite. This is from a girl that is extremely immature and I am on her case constantly!

we do games, she makes it easy to understand

MAYBE... she could bring in pie this is in response to what I can do to improve. 6th graders :) They think with their tummies!

She gets stories into it to make it fun, and enjoyable.

She is so perfect she does not need to work on anything :) HA!! Several kids said I was perfect. I think we need to have a vocabulary lesson on what that word means. I am nowhere near perfect.

Yes,she shows us Charlie pictures and I enjoy that.

Because she makes me understand things in math that I don't understand, and makes me smarter. And, almost always, she shows us pictures or videos of Charlie

She makes us watch spy guys. She shows us Charlie photos!!

Because she makes me understand things in math that I don't understand, and makes me smarter. And, almost always, she shows us pictures or videos of Charlie

She uses khan academy and myimaths and the spy dudes which are cool.

Obviously Charlie (my niece) and spy guy videos are a hit!!

She always make new activities in class so we enjoy learning our new unit. She's always happy when she teaches which make the other students happy too and they stay calm during the math class (most of the time). I love math class this year because of Ms. Staley. The stickers are a great way to reward us, and makes us want to succeed.

I think we are fine. You do what you can and learning with the games is fun I love that line. "You do what you can." Yep. that is all I can do.

This year we have most of the 8th graders in one class and we split them into three groups. I have the lowest group. 11 girls and one boy. I love my Algebra kids but they drain the life out of me! After every class I go into my teaching partner's room and lament how I pour my heart and soul into those kids and yet we still don't understand slope!!!! augh!!! They are all kids who struggle with math and for the most part hate it and have failed most of their life. I'm in there dancing around, talking to the board. Doing all I can to entertain them and teach them. I give up my lunch time regularly to give them extra help. and here is a comment from one of them.

I think Ms.Staley is a very good teacher! She always tries to make math more fun for us, which is hard to do because most of the people in my math class despise math. But now, we don't at all anymore which I think is good. I can enjoy she likes teaching, sometimes she gets frustrated but then again so do all teachers and we're a bunch of 8th graders so it gets hard.

Not all comments were positive of course. I had two negative comments. Both from the same kid. So I need to work on my relationship with him :)

People wonder why I moved half way across the world? why I put up with the grossness of India?

Simple! I get to work with these kids!

My walk home from the gym

I have not been blogging very much lately. But today on my walk home from the gym I realized that what is normal daily life for me might be interesting to all of you. Although this was a typical walk home some typical things are missing - I didn't see any goats, ox carts, or roosters in the street today. I also didn't take any pictures of the beggars that bothered me, people taking naps on the sidewalk, people peeing in the street - because it would be weird to take pictures of those things :)

This the first cow I saw that inspired me to take picture as I went today - just chilling on the sidewalk. He was waving his feet around a lot so I went into the street to pass him.