Our first typhoon

Typhoon Koppu arrived last night, what a site to see. Gusts of wind, sheets of rain, I had no idea that this is what people in the gulf regions endure! We faired well, stayed inside and slept through most of it. Koppu was given an 8 rating this morning so school was closed, boy were the kids bummed. (ha, ha) By 9am kids from the compound were running back and forth to each other's houses. Fortunately the storm decreased to a category 3 so we were able to go out. The American club opened around 11:30am and we were some of their first visitors. It is still raining but the wind has subsided. The roads are littered with trees but fortunately everyone seems to be safe.

Other highlights from the week:

1. Back to school night-first was Annie and Conor. Both kids have male teachers that love to teach. Annie's teacher is Barry Mernin he likes to tell the kids: Barry from Boston and Mernin rhymes with learnin'! Conor's teacher, Ryk Newcombe is from Australia, he is calm and focused. The whole upper primary collected money for the kiva project-a non profit that gives loans to women in developing countries, this was in honor of the upper primary school principals birthday, pretty cool.

Thursday was back to school night for Riley and Seamus, this is when my jaw really dropped. Small classes, motivated teachers and state of the art technology....they are so fortunate!! Each classroom has a smart board-a section of the white board that is a computer screen...so cool! The algebra teacher explained how she demonstrates a problem to the kids, turns the example into a pdf file and then sends it to the school wide email system. So, when Riley is stuck on a particular concept at home she can go online and see the example the teacher gave in class...amazing. And then Riley's world religions teacher...I didn't want to leave his presentation, I wanted to stand up and scream, yes peace can prevail on earth! But fortunately for Riley I contained myself. This teacher is Indian, he speaks with love and compassion like Gandhi, I just melted.

2. I drove for the first time!!! Not as bad as I thought. I won't go to Central anytime soon but the southern part of the island is manageable. Even Seamus admitted that I am a better driver than Rich. Speaking of Rich, he is in New York City until Friday. Barclay's is having a pow wow in NYC a big get to know each other party. And I am here holding down the fort, trying to remember to bring my umbrella with me wherever I go. Kids go back to school tomorrow. Riley is playing volleyball and singing in the school choir. Seamus is playing volleyball and rugby and playing in the school band. Annie is swimming and playing the piano. And Bubba is swimming, playing baseball, rugby and sort of playing the piano. Yes, a busy group but fortunately a happy group. Kids continue to make friends, find the food they like...oh this reminds me...I took them to the American Club for dinner on Sunday night, you would of thought they had never seen food before! 4-5 trips to the buffet, I had to tell the boys to slow down for fear they would get sick! Pretty funny.

And me, having a good time. Missing family and friends. I am going to a bunch of informational meetings to see if I might enjoy dragon boat racing, golf, etc. I have started to collect pictures of clothes I like that I will bring to Shenzen and have made...that is the theory at least...we will see.

It is 5:30pm, time to show Mae how to make easy tacos.

Love to everyone,

Mary