You deserve a real entry...

You deserve a real blog entry to accompany the funny things that I see.

I've been back from Kuala Lumpur for 2 weeks now. It has been an absolute mad-house of trying to get caught back up and staying on top of life. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed my trip to KL. The city itself, the few parts of it that I saw, were absolutely beautiful. The food was so delicious! I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I did eat on more than one occasion in the food court of malls but, in my defense, the food there was to die for. The food courts are this amazing amalgamations of foods representing nearly every ethnic background in Malaysia. I ate Indian, Indonesian, Mediterranean, and Malay. Beautiful. I really cannot wait to go back!


The conferences that I attended were incredibly insightful and have already changed the way that I am teaching. I spent my first 2 days at an AP Literature and Language conference. Mary Ellen Ackerman is an incredible teacher. She was so right-on with so many things she said, techniques she uses, and suggestions for improving our teaching. I would love to attend a whole-week seminar. I feel like there's so many more things I can learn from her. However, those two days really solidified my thought that I am wildly unprepared to be teaching classes like AP Literature or Language. I need to do much more reading before I can guide students through that level of reading and work.

The three following days were the EARCOS conference. I couldn't believe how many teachers were there from all over Asia. I was in awe at meals when I would listen to the travel stories of these international school educators. They've been everywhere! Who knows what my future holds but it sure would be fun to have some my own vivid stories of Africa, the Mediterranean, Europe, South America.

And overall I was proud of myself for traveling to a city, to a country that I'm totally unfamiliar with. I didn't know the language. I didn't know so many of the customs. I didn't know. And during the week that I was there, I found my way around on public transportation. I visited places on my own. I survived for the week.

Speaking of survival, don't get me started on how I survived the airline that I flew. Oh my goodness. In the future, if I ever fly that airline again, I will be paying for express boarding. Express boarding? Yes, the airline is a general admission airline. No assigned seats. They look at your ticket when you walk into the terminal. When you pay for express boarding get to go first. For the general public, the rat race starts when it's nearing time for departure. Suddenly a mob forms where there was no line a moment before. They call your flight and everyone rushes out the door, runs to the airplane, and claims their seat. Doesn't do a lot to show the kindness and charity of humanity.

I am so thankful for the opportunity that I had to attend this week of professional development. I really feel as though I gained so much by listening to the variety of experts and teachers like myself. What an absolutely amazing opportunity!