back to work...for real this time

my first official day at lincoln school was today. i am a full time substitute for a woman who is on maternity leave for the semester. my qualifications fit the job requirements perfectly and being local it was much easier for the school to hire me. we will have teacher in-service tomorrow and next week monday and tuesday before the kids arrive on wednesday. this is going to be a much more demanding and hopefully, rewarding job than wenddy i house as 5th grade english as a second language, i could wing, but 10th grade integrated english and history, i can not! i'll be teaching kids from all over the world about imperialism, world war 1, world war 2 and the russian revolution. we will read four novels: 'things fall apart' by chinua achebe, 'farewell to arms' by ernest hemingway, 'animal farm' by george orwel and 'one day in the life of ivan denisovich' by the recently deceased  alexander solzhenitsyn. some of it's familiar to me and needs to be reviewed and some just plain needs to be learned. i enjoy the challenge and hopefully the kids won't have to 'teach' me too much. : ) so today all the staff met and introduced themselves according to years experience. new teachers first and all the way up to a woman who's been there for 33 years. really. she came overland from london on a trip and wanted to eventually settle in australia. she met her nepali husband and that was that! many very nice people and so many interesting stories. everyone is extremely welcoming and helpful and the feel around the grounds is that of a family. i've never been associated with a staff like this. there are buses that come and pick up teachers and students in the morning with two different arrival times and then 3 different return times in the afternoon depending on after school activities. i'll also be helping with the girls' soccer team which begins in october. they have really short seasons...maybe 2 months which culminate in a tournament of asian international schools somewhere within the region. i will definitely be going on the trip and look forward to traveling out of nepal a little more. one other exciting notable is that the famed chimp activist, jane goodall is coming to nepal and specifically wants to visit our school due to an eco-program that's been implemented. how cool is that that i will get to experience all of this in one semester. i will be finished teaching before i come home for christmas. plus, a couple friends are coming to visit in october and we will go for a major trek. (anyone else interested is most welcome!!) that and several other wonderful trips planned...and we bought used mountain bikes to get out and ride more. i'm even considering riding to school sometimes although it's about a half an hour ride on crazy kathmandu roads in crazy kathmandu traffic. we'll see. so, my first day was a splendid success and i'm happy to be meeting so many great people doing so many amazing things. i've attached the school's website in 'links of interest' on the right side of the blog for your browsing pleasure. take care; i'd love to hear from you! janice