Back to the grind.

Five-day weekends are lovely.

Last Tuesday, I headed home for our guest speaking engagement on Wednesday at a local high school. Ken and I served on a panel of three with a Lebanese man who emigrated to the United States and is a successful local businessman. He actually showed us up since he had free taco tokens to throw around, knew the kids through his own children, and generally had some really interesting information regarding language. We were speaking to the French and Spanish classes and Ken and I tried to pass it off that knowing a language is very important, even though both of us stumble when it comes to taking up a new tongue. It was a nice day although students totally did not get our jokes. They did pay attention, however, and had some great questions at the end of each hour. Most revolved around Mr. Habeeb’s dreaming in English and how Ken and I have managed to finance our travels. I did meet two students who were both born in Okinawa, one of which did a lot of bowing and had a Japanese flag scarf tied around her neck. I pretty much just handed her a JET application.

On Thursday, Ken and I headed downtown to do the Chicago architecture river tour. I got some great shots and it was a beautiful day. The tour was really fascinating and worth the money! We ate lunch at Heaven on Seven and I had one of the best dishes of my life – shrimp and grits with cornbread. The grits. Doublewow. The shrimp. Wow. I also gained 5 pounds in 20 minutes.

Friday was spent with my mom working on our world famous lamb cake. This year, we went all out and bought tips and bags for the frosting. As a result, we ended up with a lamb that looked like it was “covered in potato salad.” (Quote – Mike) It was cute.

Saturday involved eating my weight in mashed potatoes at Ken’s house and then heading to a bar near my parent’s house with my parents and Brooke and Mike to hear my cousin play in a Nirvana tribute band. It was odd that he was playing in the Middle of Nowhere, Illinois, so we couldn’t miss the opportunity. This bar also broke all rules and allowed smoking which eventually did everyone in.

Sunday – church, ham, food, good.

Then after a great weekend, complete with $3 martinis and plenty of time with friends, I came back to work to find out that Thailand was experiencing another fabulous uprising. Perfect timing considering I currently have 76 students there for spring break. I got to spend most of yesterday putting out that fire and dealing with some anxious parents.