Monday: check.

I am without pictures for this post. I try to appease my visual-learner audience with photos of my everyday, but I'm afraid words will have to suffice.

I'm surprised at how quickly the day goes. I arrive at work a little early, but find that free time is limited. I'm squeezing in lesson planning and looking over material for the next classes on my skimpy breaks. I don't mind it. I enjoy a fast-paced environment, I love making my kids laugh, and I think I could get into this.

My first afternoon class (the first class I posted pictures of) were especially fun today. They're impressionable, very smart, and are able to hold a conversation and comprehend more intelligent subjects. We went off on a tangent today about the word "national,"- did you know that while the U.S. has a "White House," South Korea has a "Blue House?" - which led to talking about U.S. national monuments, then the Empire State Building, the Twin Towers, 9/11; - - these kids weren't even alive when that happened, by the way. I felt so old when I realized it had been almost 10 years that our country experience this tragedy. I was getting chills. I've been so emotional lately that just mentioning 9/11 chokes me up. We discussed the recent earthquake in Japan as well. I was so impressed with the comprehension of my class. They were also able to recall some U.S. history, like the Civil War. Another digression took me to acting out The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, one of my favorite stories. They were enraptured. I told them when their English is better to go and read that book because they would love it.

My younger class was doing a workbook earlier and had to write down how many people were in their families. At the end of the exercise we were to draw a picture of our own family. I drew my rendition of the Mannings up on the board, along with three silly-looking cats. While I introduced each member, they repeated me. I wanted to cry when I heard them saying, "Ashley," "Jordyn," and "Mattie Mae." So surreal. I don't know what it was about their little voices - but it hit me that they were saying the names of some of the people I hold most dear. To them, my sisters' names are simply words; not faces, not people, not anything they can fully understand. And they will never meet them or know them or love them like I do. I miss you, sisters.