Last Day of School!

Last day of school!! Woo hoo!!  Jake has one more recording session to do this afternoon, and then we are packing for Germany!!  I’m so proud of Jake and all that he has accomplished this semester.  He amazes me with his talent, creativity, work ethic, and work efficiency.  I have so much confidence in this life changing decision that he has made for himself, and thus us.  It is a brave thing to put aside a decade-long, stable career to go back to school and start afresh in a whole new industry.  He is making the very most of this educational process, yet while maintaining his track record of being a gracious, loving, attentive husband.  I thank God daily for this incredible man I’ve been blessed with.  Life is so sweet with him.

He has a few more videos to mix, edit, and upload so keep checking his YouTube page for more videos.  Last night I asked him when he was going to post his brass piece on FB.  Apparently, he thought he already had… but I guess someone’s been a little preoccupied.  To his surprise it was still just hiding away on his YouTube page.  Here is the brass piece… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPRdBWnCAiY

Here is his main page with his past videos, and more to come.  http://www.youtube.com/user/JacobComposer

So far this week has been a nice time with friends.  On Tuesday night, we went out to dinner with Bonnie, Andres, and their daughter Sofia before we leave for the holiday.  Jake invited Andres to come take a tour of the school since Andres is an artist and musician himself.  Bonnie, Sofia, and I met up with them at the nearby mall later since I was teaching and couldn’t arrive until about 8:30pm.  Bonnie picked me up from the metro station and it gave us time to have some separate girl time and guy time first.  When we finally met up, Andres was on a high from seeing all the amazing music equipment and studios.  Then we all headed to a Thai Restaurant in the mall!  ;)  

As always, we had a great time.  They are such a kind, fun, and God-loving family.  

Bonnie and I have been talking about going shopping for a while, but haven’t been able to find a time.  She’d been telling me to hold off on buying anything until we can go to PreMark, a store with really cheap prices.  Unfortunately, you need a car to get there so going on my own was not an option.  On Tuesday night, while talking about my need for some warmer things for Germany she suggested we go to PreMark the next morning.  Perfect!!  We had a great time, and I got everything I needed for less than I planned on spending!  Then we went back to her place for lunch before she had to go to work.  She works at a big department store here, and because of the holiday season she’s been working like crazy!!  9 days straight without a day off!  At least she gets Christmas Day!  She’s looking forward to January when she gets to go on pregnancy leave.

As for working I now have 5 kids students and 1 adult conversation class.  After I quit the adult class for double booking myself on Monday nights, they decided to switch the class to Wednesdays.  So now I still have that class.  This week I made my lessons Christmas themed, and everyone seemed to enjoy that.  I’m a little unsure how it works here in terms of what’s appropriate and what’s not regarding references to Christmas.  In the U.S. many schools change words of Christmas songs to refer only to “Winter” and “Holidays” instead of “Christmas.”  And teachers could get fired for bringing up anything religious in discussing Christmas.  I  had bought little santa hats and Christmas ornament crafts for my kid students.  I only asked the parents if it was ok if I didn’t see any Christmas decorations in their house.   I was tipped off that maybe I should ask when one very expressive little girl wanted to sing me a song she knew in English!  I was surprised when she started singing, “Jesus Loves the Little Children”.  First, because this song is not considered “PC” in the states anymore.  Second, because it was religious.  (She goes to a private “I’m guessing Catholic” school.)  And third, because she stopped halfway through looking around for her parents who weren’t in the room, telling me that she cannot sing this song when her parents are there.  And then she proceeded to finish the song.  In another conversation later, her parents told me that even though they are not religious they would prefer to send their daughter to a quality private religious school instead of the public school here.

I was surprised with another family to find they had a nativity scene set up in their house along with their Christmas decorations, yet they also had told me that they are not religious.  And finally, the last family, who also attend the same private religious school as the one little girl, had no decorations set up in their house.  When I asked those kids about Christmas, they first referred to Biblical characters including the magi, and not the usual commercialized secular aspect of Christmas.  I’m under the impression that they are a religious family.

So I’ve come to the conclusion that whether you’re religious or not, Christmas is generally celebrated along with recognizing the Biblical tradition at least to some degree. In my adult class on Wednesday, we did a warm-up with A-Z Christmas terms, and I was again surprised that more often than not religious references were mentioned before the secular references.  After that we had a discussion on the history of Santa Claus, and we had a structured debate on whether the commercialization of Santa Claus is good or bad.  They really got into it.  It was fun!

Well, I’d better go get ready to head to Jake’s school and watch his final recording session this semester.  It think this one is for a string quartet and harp.  My favorite instrumentation.  Then we have our final choir practice.  Think we’re going to sing in the lobby for fun.  Too bad I don’t have my Dickens caroling costume with me.  ;)