Weekend Recap

This is my third blog entry for today-I guess I had a lot to say! Here's the recap of my weekend...

Friday

• BOOKED Thanksgiving Break in San Andres (an island in the Caribbean that is owned by Colombia) with Kelsi & Hana!! We still have to hear back from the travel agency about whether or not we can stay in our number one choice for a hotel, but if not we will gladly settle for number two.

• Teacher Happy Hour (girls only) took place right at our tienda below our house; what a lovely way to relax after a long week!
• Teacher Happy Hour turned into dinner with many of us at Crepes & Waffles...I had a chocolate chip waffle and chai tea for dinner. Clearly one of the best decisions I made all weekend. :)

Saturday

• Graded 60 quizzes on solving linear equations...only 20 left to complete sometime today!
• Watched the movie W in honor of you know who. I actually enjoyed the movie, and while I still need to look it up online to see which parts were factual, the movie gave me an interesting insight into his presidency and life.
• Got together with some fellow teachers for drinks and dancing...which led to this ridiculous picture of Kelsi & I. :)

Sunday

• I need to grade the rest of the quizzes...instead I am blogging and reading articles about the Twins online...and probably watching some more How I Met Your Mother online.

Sports Day & Dancing

As a teacher I attempt to love my students every day. They are all wonderful and intelligent and they challenge me to be the best teacher I can be...but some days they make it harder than others. Friday, however, was not one of those days. In anticipation of the week plus one day (next Monday is a holiday here) break, my students were happy, excited and fabulous all day long.

To finish off Spirit Week at school we celebrated Sports Day, where I of course wore my Twins t-shirt and hat. My students then proceeded to call me Ms. Mauer all day long without any request from me...told you they were intelligent! :) They clearly know how to suck up...

8th grade teachers on Sports Day...representing our home states with Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins and Colorado Rockies hats!

During the day I had the opportunity to watch my students' mid-semester dance evaluation and I was shocked!! They are so good! Not only are they good dancers, but they dance together in partners without any awkwardness...quite the feat for middle schoolers! In the US I think boys would rather die than have to dance with a girl. Here, dancing is so much a part of the culture that boys and girls alike love it! They have a specific class just for dance. I took some pictures while I was watching, but I don't think I did it justice!

All Comes Down to One...Déjà vu Anyone?

Here we are roughly 365 days later and the story seems much the same. In the last day of baseball's regular season the Minnesota Twins are tied for the American League Central Division with the Detriot Tigers. In 2008, we finished the regular season in a dead lock with the Chicago White Sox and went on to play a one game playoff that I would rather erase from memory than discuss here. (In summary we lost...) In fact, this is the THIRD time in FOUR years that the Twins have been in position to clinch the division title on the last day of the regular season. That alone makes baseball an amazing game. :)

In a shocking turn of events this season, Minnesota has beat the Kansas City Royals twice this weekend while the White Sox have beat the Tigers twice...thus the tie.

As I sat down to write this blog, I thought to myself, "How many of my readers really care about baseball in the way that I do? Is this really what people want to read about when they come to my blog?" I decided probably not, but this is who I am, and this is my blog. :) I can't really pin down a certain time when I really started to get into the Twins. Growing up my family always watched sports and my brothers and I all played softball/baseball, so I guess my love of baseball was sort of engrained. However, it really is an amazing game that I appreciate more and more as I learn about it. Some people say it's too slow (clearly these people have never tried to watch golf, because let's be honest, golf is the worst), but I absolutely love it. There are so many elements and layers to the game, and truly, anything can happen.

If the Twins and Tigers both win or both lose today they will play a one game playoff to take place Tuesday at the Dome. (Not Monday...since you know...the Vikings are playing the Packers @ the Dome. Lame.) I would love to be there today to celebrate the end of the last regular season in the Dome with all my fellow Minnesota sports fans, but I will settle for the amazing memories I have of the Dome so far, for it may not be the nicest field in the major league, but it has always been uniquely ours.

Here's hoping the Twins pull out the win today, the White Sox sweep the TIgers, and Joe Mauer receives yet another batting title. As stated in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune, "I suspect that some of the members of the ‘87 Twins who are part of this weekend’s festivities see a little bit of themselves in what’s happening right now. And we all know how their season turned out." Let's go Twins!!

p.s. Congrats to my lovely & determined friends who ran the Twin Cities 10 mile this morning!!! Were the three of you in the same race group?? Because you finished within two minutes of each other overall... :)