Surge Protector Jesus & Barney's Commandments

Hi. As most of you know, this past week we got hit by Hurricane Gustav. In the process (as I've written about...) we had a huge power surge. Now, thankfully our house was not super affected, although we lost our phone and internet, so I guess we kind of were, but nothing was smoking or starting on fire like at school or at other people's houses.

The one anecdote that did come out of the experience:

Surge protectors are like Jesus. Yes. Let me explain. Karen, Christy, and Rachel's house had a surge protector that burned up. It died. BUT it protected the fan and their things that were plugged in. It gave its life so that others may live. It's true.

ALSO.
one day in the teacher's lounge we got in a discussion about how I'm weird. or moreso that I was a closet Barney watcher until I was in probably third grade (and by "closet" I mean that I didn't want ANYONE to know that I secretly loved that show...) Anyways, we decided that Barney's "I Love You" song is a parable for God's unconditional love towards us and of Jesus' Greatest Commandments. Jesus' 2 greatest commandments can be found in Matthew chapter 28:37-39. Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.
And if I need to refresh your memory of the Barney song, "I love you, You love me. We're a happy family..." God loves us unconditionally if we allow Him. We love God with a human love to show Him our appreciation for what He has done in our lives...with all our heart, soul, and mind. We are loving our neighbors as ourselves (i love you. you love me.) double meaning.

This stuff is deep.
Love teacher's lounge stuff. :)

getting late...need to go to bed!
lades!!

Week Update & AHHHHHH!!!

Ay-yi-yi is just what I have to say when I think about all that has happened this week. I cannot believe that my first week of teaching is over, and I’m so glad that I have one week under my belt as I head into the weekend! I apologize for the long, long blog. Feel free to skip some if you want, but there is some good stuff in there...

My Daily School Day:

Every morning we start off with a teacher meeting and prayer. Then all of our kids line up outside as Mr. Peterson (the school’s director) stands up on the walkway overlooking all of the students and we say “Good Morning Mr. Pe-ter-son” … not joking it takes us like 30 seconds just to say that because the kids say it so slow. It’s actually hilarious, and every morning I just laugh because it’s so ridiculous. Then we say the Pledge to the Bible in English (which I’m still learning) and then sing the Dominican Republic’s national anthem (all the teachers except me seems to have a copy of it…hmmmm so learning that is not going so well. I may download it and listen to it Lindsey Burkitt style (on repeat over and over and over and over again) to try and learn it before the end of the year…anyways then we head upstairs and have Brain Board (credit to Laurie Turner) and Bible lesson. At 9am my students have Spanish until 9:45 when they have their break/snack time, then after break they have Sociales (Dominican History) until 10:35. Rough morning, I have an hour and a half prep time. WOO! J Then I come back and teach Spelling and Language Arts (still getting the hang of that!!) then off to Lunch and Recess. Then we come back and have Reading and then the students have either Art or PE (depending on the day…) then I get to do the final push of Math and Social Studies (American history…naturally.) Although it does seem like a lot of breaks for me during the day (it is, I realize), our school day lasts from 8am-3:15pm. So it’s a long day for the students and for their teacher. haha Then I have to stay until 4 (which is an ETERNITY when I’m tired…) Basically I’m at school for 8 and a half long hours every day. No I’m just kidding, it’s not really that bad, but some days (especially Fridays!) all I want to do is leave right after school and do my work at home from the comfort of my couch.

Gustavo:

YES! We got semi-hit by Hurricane Gustavo this week. Praise the Lord that we didn’t get hit and no one that we know of in our area was majorly affected. We live in a valley completely surrounded by mountains, so they tend to less brutally hit our area, I’ve been told. Now after saying that, we did have a solid 24 hours of rain. With that came no power for a significant amount of time. With THAT came a loss of our water pump for almost 3 days. Therefore we had no running water in our house for 3 days. One day Kelsey and I trekked over to another group of teacher’s house to shower…BUT bad news now:

we have no internet, no phone, nothing. Something got zapped. We’re not sure if it happened in a storm yesterday, but our router is fried and our Vonage phone is fried. Therefore, we are going to have to get another one sent to us in 2 weeks. YIKES. It’s going to be okay though because thankfully we have friends who will let us use their internet (like I am now…) plus it’s time out of the house. Win-win-win

Friends:

I’ve been so blessed here thus far as far as being accepted by the other JCS staff. At first, I felt kind of alone because I came later than everyone else (because I got hired later than everyone else) and all I knew was Brooke. I met everyone, couldn’t remember everyone’s name, etc. BUT then Kelsey came and she was the new girl too. haha I think that may be why we immediately stuck together because everyone else had already made new friends, etc. except for us. Now, though, I feel like I’ve been at the school forever because I love everyone who works there, we’re able to joke around with each other, and just enjoy each other’s company. Although I’ve found no one to play basketball with after school (I miss that…) it’s okay. This week we (Kelsey and I) dropped off some stuff at Tim and Laura’s house (another couple that works at JCS) and they invited us in to dinner that some of the Dominican staff had made. It was SO great to fellowship with different people and meet new people from the school that I didn’t know. Last night (Friday) we had some people over to our house to have pizza (AHHH! Glorious!!) and time to hang. I laughed so hard for most of the evening and just love being with these people.

Other News (the funny stuff):

YES. I have an offshore bank account. I am sound cool!!! This week Maribel (our school’s business woman and coincidentally the mother of one of my students) took Kelsey (my roommate) and I and another girl to get our Dominican bank accounts. I got paid yesterday too! WOO! The unfortunate thing is that it was about $120.00 (US dollars) Yep. That’s it. That is why your financial support is so important to me because obviously that is not much to live on when, out of that small paycheck, you have to pay for food, rent, etc. and still want to live and have fun with friends. I appreciate it so much!

YES. We saw a pig on a leash being walked down the street. (no worries. my roommate has a picture)

YES. One of the girls I teach with (who will remain unnamed) accidentally dated an old German man. She liked his brain. (and by accidentally, she thought she was just going out for lunches to talk, but really he considered her his girlfriend…hilarious)

YES. I’m learning Spanish. My roommates (Anna and Kelsey were both Spanish majors/minors in college) probably get annoyed at my constant “Como se dice ________” (How do you say……) but they’re being patient with me and I appreciate it!

YES. I have super human strength. The door to one of our bathrooms accidentally got locked yesterday from the inside, so I busted it down with the half of the cast iron skillet that I already broke in half. What a laugh! Thanks to Christy Elmer* for helping me.

*see Special Shout Out

Special Shout out:

Christy Elmer. Wow. She never ceases to amaze me. hahahahahahaha She is a great encouragement to me as a new person to JCS as I appreciate her experience that she has at JCS (it’s her 3^rd year…) because she is one of the teachers who has been there the longest. You all should meet her. Plus her last name is synonymous with the world famous glue company. Man. She’s awesome blossom (extra awesome).

Skype dates may have to be put on hold…I’m sorry, friends. I missss you all and I’m doing well.

loves.

Alright…on to emailing a lot of people back, as I’ve gotten behind since we haven’t had solid internet in a long time…Thank you for your prayers and financial support!!!

Prayer requests:

1. SLEEP. I’m exhausted. I rarely sleep at night, as every minute sound wakes me up and I’m still getting used to the 3am roosters crowing.

2. I know this may be superficial, but my iPod stopped working. I cannot get it to connect to my computer and every time I try to play music on it or anything, it freezes. Maybe you didn’t know, but I LOVE LOVE music and so this is actually such a huge blow to me. It may sound lame, but I love to just pop in my headphones and escape the world…

3. My students. They are so great, and I really like them so much. We’re still learning to transition to each other, and they never ever stop talking. I’m learning and attempting more ‘preventive discipline’ (be proud, Dr. Siler) and it’s really working a lot. The extra time has curbed some of the misbehavior.

4. Our house. We’re all getting along great, and I just pray that continues. I appreciate all of the different personalities in our house, and I think that they are working well together. Pray that we adjust to living with new people and different people from ourselves and that we can have group as well as solid alone time.

5. Our house (again). This time it’s more about our physical house. Oftentimes the power goes out (which is natural here in Jarabacoa) but everytime that it does go out for a significant amount of time, we lose our water pump and then an electrician has to come fix it. It’s been the cause of some major angst this week. Pray that our lack of phone and internet is not something that weighs too heavily on us (or our families…)

post dedication.

Becky Vogler.
this post is for you. :)

so my students today in class had time to talk while they were working on their 4x each in Spelling.

this is what resulted.

Play My Music. Camp Rock Soundtrack.


Gotta Go My Own Way. High School Musical 2.

the roarsico

oh the joy of ESL kids.

my roommate Anna is reading The Mouse and the Motorcycle to her students for her reading lessons (the JOYS of not having a solid reading curriculum) and just gave her students a quiz about what has happened in the story (first 7 sentences) and what they think is going to happen (last 3 sentences). Needless to say we were CRACKING up as we were reading this...and just laughing that it seems so much like Mad Gab as Kelsey (other roomie) was reading them while Anna, Brooke, and I had tears streaming down our faces from laughing so hard. (okay. so maybe just I had tears...but the others were laughing hard too.)

cristofer

1 the keith si gano the man.

2 keith man si gano gtf a pal pal.

3 keith si gano cai.

4 n den he gano no gfi the roarsico.

5 keith si gano no go ra sepa.

6 keith go to paly with toy.

7 he man si keith than a rat.

8 the keith si gano a the rat to the wuao.

9 keith si gano ne go.

10 ne n keith taca the roarsico.

day 1: done.

i'm blessed with awesome roommates. awesome students (for the most part! check them out on my pictures site!!) and the possibility of making awesome friends with other teachers here. the huge opportunity to grow as a teacher. and the chance to just GROW so much in my faith. in what I believe. hallelujah for stretching experiences. (which is the main goal, right?)

Cantare de Tu amor por siempre!

HOLA AMIGOS! :)

I've been practicing my Spanish. I'm getting better! Or maybe it's all flooding back to me from the massive amounts of hours put in during high school. It feels good to speak Spanish here. I'm mainly too shy to do it in public, but around the house, I'm basically bilingual. :)

GOOD NEWS! Our 4th roommate made it here finally! Kelsey is awesome blossom. She has added a whole new dynamic to our house that just makes it even better than it was before she came! When she came, one of her first questions was, "Do you guys like Dr. Quinn?" At first I was slightly taken aback because...well...one of my prof's/mentor's/friend's name is Dr. Quinn. I busted up laughing because...yes, I do like Dr. Quinn. BUT NO. She was not referring to one of Taylor University's finest, she was referring to the MEDICINE WOMAN. YES. She had brought 2 seasons on DVD of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. Could life get any better? I submit that it cannot! (Brian Regan, anyone?)

Also. I have super human strength. YES. Indeed, you read that correctly. I, Natalie Kay Brewer, basically dissolved a cast iron skillet with my super human strength. Backstory: Anna (roommate) bought some nails with which we were going to nail into our concrete wall (we're allowed.) so we can hang things. like our pans. SO anyways...she assured me (after nailing in one herself) that the cast iron skillet was...and I quote..."indestructable." So then it was my turn to nail in this concrete-nail...started pounding it in...pound. pound. pound. SHATTER. It cracked in two. WOW. I'm so tough.

...and no...
Brooke and I have not killed each other yet, despite the pool going around on Facebook...haha

...and yes...
I'm Facebook friends with my roommates now. so we're officially friends. No worries about that! It dramatically decreased the awkward house tension that was filling the air by the lack of commitment on Facebook.

This morning we went to Nueva Vida. Church in Spanish was intense. Thankfully the pastor was a Spanish as a Second Language (American) guy. So although he did speak Spanish, he spoke slowly. I had a headache after church today. It was hard to listen, understand, comprehend, and get something out of the sermon. But I survived! And I kind of understood. Songs we sang at church today: "Cantare de Tu amor por siempre" (I could sing of your love forever) and Come Thou Fount (I'm not sure how to say it in Spanish) but I loved loved loved being able to sing worship in Spanish and really understand the lyrics and have them mean something to me...

This week has been kinda super tough for me. Two people who are super, super important to me have lost loved ones. It's so hard to be across the ocean while all I want to do is be there. love them. hug them. I dunno. I just wish I was there! But God is faithful. He'll take care of them while I cannot be there. He'll take care of them better than if I was able to be there. I love them. a lot.


ALSO.
LARGE SHOUT OUT!
WHITE FAMILY! :)
They generously supplied me with the best gift a girl could have. Feast your eyes upon this beauty. As I long for Polar Pops (from Handy Andy...natually) I can reminisce about all the good times I've had with these beauties. and from the Dominican, I can have a small taste of home. YOU ROCK! Love you guys...



ah. back to lesson planning I must go. I want to at least get tomorrow hammered out. I'm still overwhelmed by life...but life goes on...just trying to keep my head above water! Love you! Enjoy your week! :) Pray for me as I embark upon my first week of teaching! AHHH!

potential awesome stories.

okay. so Brooke and I walked into Jarabacoa yesterday so I could exchange money. in a bar. seriously. I'm not kidding. Then we ate at this SWEET Columbian restaurant that apparently everyone eats at when they come. After struggling through our poor Spanish skills with these Dominican (Columbian??) ladies, we got our food and headed back to our pad to eat. On our way back we came up with some pretty sweet stories that may potentially happen:

1. our neighborhood marijuana garden party. (our neighbors seriously do grow marijuana though...)

2. hitchhiking down the mountain (preferably on a motorcycle) to Santiago to have a TU reunion.

3. meeting a hot Dominican man and getting married. before we come home.

that's all for now...probably will come up with some more. and have more awesome adventures than even planned.

ladessssss! :)

PICS!

Thought you may want to feast your eyes upon where I'll be living for the next 10 months.


The view of the BEAUTIFUL mountains out my back yard.

One way down the street...

looking the other way down the street...

the view from my front yard. again with the mountains. awesome blossom.

BIENVENIDOS a Jarabacoa

whoa.
good morning!

i can say that this morning i woke up in my new home for the next 10 months. first to pre-dawn roosters crowing. yes, that is not a joke...probably like 4:30 am-ish? then at 8am I woke up to Dominicans next door speaking in Spanish. I thought they were in my house, though, when I first woke up and freaked out a bit. But really, they're next door. hahahaha it's the whole no windows thing that threw me off, i think.

let me give you a rundown of yesterday, my crazy long day. woke up at 3:30 am. no biggie. except it was EXTREMELY early. Got to Indy airport at like 4:10. waited for silly people to check me in until 4:40. Flight left at 6am. arrived in Chi at 6am. hmmmm...seems irrational, eh? chilled in the Chi airport, texted (my last times before I left!!) :( and watched Stomp the Yard on my iPod. left Chi at 9:50. slept and lesson planned all the way to Miami. (SIDENOTE: AMY! they played HIMYM on the PLANE!!! AHHH I LOVED MY LIFE!!!) got to Miami at 1:45. grabbed a $6 sandwich cause I was hungry, and sat and watched Cheaper by the Dozen after a few last phone calls to some awesome blossom friends. my flight to the DR got delayed about a half an hour (no big deal) and I'm fairly certain I was the only native English speaker on that plane...I cried when I got on the plane. haha lame. but this Dominican man (he was probably in his 40's) decided to talk to me. He told me that crying made me weak, and he chose to leave the Dominican when he was younger and never regretted the decision, and that if I ever needed anything, to let him know. Yeah, I got his number. The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful and finally arrived in Santiago, DR at 8 pm. (AMY! HIMYM AGAIN!!! ROBIN SPARKLES episode)
moral of the story: it was a long day. and only getting longer...

so I got here, was like "ummmm...how am I gonna know who is picking me up?" so I was just awkwardly smiling at anyone who would make eye contact with me. haha you know it.

so then I see this sign: Nathalie Brewer JCS and I thought "eh. close enough." quick smile and heading towards this guy. His name is Tony. He's AWESOME. His daughter's name is Kaylee (and is in my class!!) super sweet. although I look AWFUL and hate this first impression I'm making on my student. oh well. we started our dark journey to Jarabacoa. It was fun to just see the landscapes. well, what I could see of it in the dark. TONS of roadside stands, way too many people on way too few scooters, and tons of people just chilling outside, shooting the breeze. LOVED it. I got here to my house in Jarabacoa and all I wanted to do was pass out. Although I knew I should be friendly and chat with B-rooke. (we're roomies.) She was nice, kinda weirded out by the fact I was here (as am I...) and we just shot the breeze for a bit. I met my two other roommates, although my sleepy state has prevented me from remembering their names...Christy and Anna maybe? haha I'm a dork.

AND finally, I think I kinda just need to chill today though and adjust. I may just sit outside and enjoy the HOT beautful Dominican countryside.

today on the agenda:
1. unpack
2. pack up the stuff that is going to my classroom.
3. set up wireless
4. walk to school and then start in making my classroom 'my own'
5. eat.
6. scope out the local mountains. yes. I'm climbing many mountains.

alrightie. in the words of Flobots: "Look at me, Look at me. Just called to say that it's good to be ALIVE in such a small world..."


also. funny. when I open Google to find something, it's now in Spanish. hahaha awesome.


love from the DR.

TOMORROW.

whoa.
whoa.
whoa.


Can we please just slow down time a little bit? The past day or so have been awesome. I had some solid friends come visit, some hard goodbye's...some "well...I'll see you in June..." Thankfully I'm confident in the fact that we will stay in touch. Email, Skype, Gmail Chat...beautiful creations. :) ((haley. you should get skype. consider it.)) :)

I'm almost all packed. Cleaning is the next ugly task that I am going to partake in tomorrow. and tonight. it's what I should be doing right now, but alas, clearly am not. it's weird to think i won't see my room again for almost 10 months. wow. sad. i love my room.


in the words of hannah montana's bro: "shake, shake, shake, shake, a shake it."
no relevance. just listening to metro station.


on a more serious note: I got my class schedule today. I don't know when I'm supposed to be teaching, when I have to be out of my room, when I'll have lunch duty...all these unknowns. kinda makes me nervous. I've bombarded Brooke with more questions than she knows what to do with...it's becoming more and more real at this point. clearly. in 48 hours i will be resting in my Dominican home. I feel like such an inadequate teacher. I have no idea how to teach. or what to teach. I want to make learning fun--I want to challenge my students to do their best and get the most out of 4th grade. I want to challenge myself to be the best teacher that I can. It's an overwhelming prospect at this point. Thankfully I've had great role models and mentors from elementary school through college. I'm well prepared. I know how to challenge my students. I know my style of teaching. I'm prepared to learn, prepared to mess up, prepared to excel. all of the above. and seeking God's guidance, wisdom, and love through all of it. I'm learning...


learning to rest in God's faithfulness in every facet of my trip...


another note: i have my class list. yes. i have triplets. yes. i only have 14 students. and yes. they are all Dominican. i'm so excited to meet them! pray for our transition to each other.

3 DAYS!!!

AH! I'm home. and this HUGE life transition is finally becoming real. I've kind of had butterflies in my stomach all morning!

Yesterday I had some heavy goodbyes. I'm glad for the invention of Skype and webcams to stay connected with good friends. :) also for the possibility of Spring Break trips to Jarabacoa for friends still in college!!

The next couple of days are going to be heavy with friends (yay!!), packing, cleaning, and shopping. My agenda for today is to finish up my letters and to get my boxes ready to ship down to the DR--with my school supplies and stuff for our house.

Pray that I can enjoy these next few days as I'm frantically getting ready to leave and stressed out about everything and that I can enjoy my last quality time with family and good friends...at least for another 10 months or so...

5 days...

hi! today has been such a long day! work was exhausting. i'm still incompetent and feel like a n00b most of the time. because I am.

i open at 4 am tomorrow. yes. well, my alarm is set for 4 am. i have to be there at 4:30.

I get to go HOME tomorrow. I'm so stoked.
then a CRAZY 72 hours of packing, cleaning, family, friends, and goodbye's.

signing off and heading to bed...after Phelps wins.

g'night friends. :)

also. posted new pictures of my classroom! Brooke is being so awesome to me right now. she and the custodian cleaned my classroom and got it all set up. I'm so thankful!!

6 days...

Hi friends.

Let me kind of answer a few questions as to what is going on.
I'm leaving NEXT WEDNESDAY for the Dominican Republic where I will be teaching 4th grade at Jarabacoa Christian School. I will be living with 3 other girls (all teachers at JCS) in a house. I'm stoked. Yes, I will have internet. Hence why you should get skype and video chat with me. My friend Brooke has been sending me pictures of my new humble abode and classroom. Check them out on my photo site.

Today has been such a good day for me! I got to go visit my Spring Mill friends. That honestly meant the world to me, as I was afraid I would have to venture off to the DR without saying goodbye. I had a great lunch with Pat, Aaron, and Laurie. It just makes me smile all the time when I am with them. They have been such a huge support to me throughout the past year, not to mention the constant laughter :) Then I got to spend some time with Kate, who is not convinced that I should be going to the DR, although I'm about to change her mind. :) Finally I got to see Liz briefly. Everyone at Spring Mill just brings a smile to my face, although it was weird seeing so many new faces, and it makes me sad that I'll miss them for an entire year. My first batch of goodbye's was rough! Although, surprisingly, there were no tears. I cannot express to you what Spring Mill has meant to me. I love it.

Okay.
So I have officially bought over $90 worth of school supplies. I neeeeeed to ship them down there early next week. Or I won't have them for about 2 weeks! I cannot believe I'm really going. Work in Indy is good. I wish, though, that I was at home and getting ready for this huge adventure.

Although! Jess and I are having a sleepover with Haley tonight, which I'm SUPER stoked about. Chipotle, Guitar Hero, Starbucks, and painting nails is on the agenda. win win win.

peace, love, and applesauce.

8 days and counting...

WHOA. Can you believe it? 8 days until I leave!

I should be lesson planning. but alas. I have NO idea what to expect. haha

Things to do before I leave:
1. clean my room.
2. Typhoid shot --next Monday!
3. finish up at Starbucks (I work today, tomorrow, Friday, and Saturday!!)
4. finish up support letters--i sent out my first batch today.
5. go shopping.
6. see as many friends as possible.

please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I'm getting ready to leave! I'm trying to manage everything while watching obsessive amounts of the Olympics!

my awesome mom and dad bought me a webcam so now I'm super awesome.

LADES.

Wow.

Can I please just describe the last 48 hours?

I've decided to make a RADICAL life change and move to the Dominican Republic to teach 4th grade at Jarabacoa Christian School in Jarabacoa, DR. Yes, you read that correctly. I will be spending the next 9 months of my life in a foreign country, in a foreign culture, and with foreign people. THANKFULLY enough my dear friend Brooke is teaching at the school (how I found out about the job!!)

I'm going to be attempting to blog. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now this is easier than sending out a bajillion mass emails and that way whomever can check out what I'm doing...

Here's to a HUGE leap of faith...