One year later...

Wow, it's been almost an entire year since I wrote on this thing!  Well, here it goes.

It's been a pretty busy and not so rewarding year at work. I've been trying hard to consolidate and finalize my curriculum, which means I've been working way too hard. This year felt like the first time I really understood all of the the things I needed to do; the difficult part was finding the time to do it. I basically wrote five textbooks this year (borrowing prodigiously from a variety of sources) in an effort to distribute everything digitally. Now that's done, and I can use three of those classes again, and only have to worry about two new ones for the coming year. I also completed a three course certificate program for teaching English language learners and a workshop for teaching IB mathematics. I've committed to seriously reducing the amount of coursework I attempt next year and concentrating on doing my job well. School's also in a big transition phase, with our founding director leaving and a lot of new staff coming in next year.

Mixed in there, Rani and I traveled home to Michigan to meet the parents, siblings, and nieces and nephews and traveled to the Philippines and Malaysia with some friends from work. Anyway, blah blah blah, it's been a long year, and I'm happy to have some time now to decompress and relax.

Right now, I'm sitting on the west coast of Sri Lanka. We're here for a month, and we started it out with a few days in a pretty fancy place to chill out before we start the real adventure.

Relaxing by the pool in Sri Lanka

Before arriving, we spent five days meeting Rani's extended family in Kuala Lumpur. There was lots of visiting with uncles and aunts, great uncles and aunts, first cousins, second cousins, and a few we weren't completely sure of. There was also lots of FOOD, glorious food! Banana leaf restaurants, Hawker stalls, and home cooked meals with a mix of Indian, Chinese, and other asian influences probably only found in a melting pot like Malaysia. Special thanks to Auntie Sheila and Uncle Hardev for hosting us and showing us around.

Banana Leaf lunch in KL

So, we're here, we're ready for some adventures, we're relaxing with lots of sun, sand, swimming, reading good books, and lazing around. I'll do my best to keep up with this and let everyone know what's going on. Happy summer, everyone.