Puerto Rico Journals

The journals are finished! (Thanks for the help Sue!) Each student and teacher chaperone will have a journal for our trip. Students will use these journals to reflect on each stop along our trip. That is, if they're not too tired from our daily adventures! 

Our group is twice as large as last year-and this is only for the first week. Here just a few of the places we will be visiting with 15 wonderful students:

-The home and studio of  Samuel Lind

-El Yunque Rainforest

-La Parguera and a bioluminescent bay

-Hiking and zip lining in Tanama Forest

-El Arecibo Observatory 

It is hotter here...

...than it is in the desert where I'll be staying.

Crazy! But I'm so excited about being there. I want to get there and get settled and start being there.

I know that I shouldn't but I have expectations but I do. And I won't be disappointed, but I'll definitely be confused by the reality of the place, like the weather. This chart is next week's weather.

I have this great idea of making a short video. I have no idea what it will be, so I'll just let the place and people I meet dictate it.

This chart below is today's weather (It's live and embedded, so it is literally today--whatever day you're looking.).

View Detailed 10 Day Weather Forecast for Beersheba, webcams, weather maps & more at Weather-Forecast.com

This face.

I will miss this stinky guy. Of course I will miss everyone, but look at his eyes...really look at that cuteness. Maybe Uncle Matt will send us pictures of the boys.

My place in Israel.

This is where I'll be staying while in Israel. I have to imagine that there were trains left in the desert, right, because what else do you do with abandoned trains?! This is cuter than many of the apartments I've had here.

I'm so stoked about getting there and settling in. My Hebrew is getting better, but I'd imagine that it will be much better when the summer ends.

Send off treat

I decided to make our favorite treat this week. These are the fudgy brownies from www.paleomg.com. We don't feel so guilty when we eat them and they are amazing. I have a feeling these next few evenings will be filled with brownies and cuddle time with the kitties.

Where's Mark?

Well, I'm at home, but I'll be in Ezuz, Israel, soon enough. Ezuz is a really interesting place with a fascinating history. I'm not really sure what I'm getting into, but I know I'm going to have so much fun learning and living. Here is a link to a wiki page for Ezuz. Follow the links at the bottom of that page for more details. And here is a link to the farm where I'll be staying. I love the train car housing I'll be staying in.

I don't know how much traveling away from the Negev I want to do once I'm in Israel, but there is a lot that I want to see in the area.

New Water Shoes

I think these shoes are all I needed for my Puerto Rico trip. Now I get to focus on spending some time with Mark before this week slips away from us!

New boots!

Val leaves in only 7 days, and I'm quick on her foot steps out of the door myself--just four days after her. We're busy gathering our whatnots and making sure we have everything in line here at the house. We feel pretty good about the timing, but there is still much for each of us to do--like grades, comments, get the necessary stuff for travel (like these hiking boots), get our list of stuff for our house sitter, love up the boys, watch the sunset...you know, the important stuff.

A week or so left...

Val leaves on the 2nd for the start of her adventures, and I'll be here with the boys. We've both got so much to do for our wonderful travels this summer. Of course we're lamenting the fact that we won't see one another for about two months, but when we're together again it'll be like we're newly weds! It will take us another year to process what we did apart, and then we'll do it all over.

We have wonderful lives that allow us to do this, and thank you for all of the support from our friends, neighbors, the school where we work, our cats--just everybody.

Our idea is that we can collectively blog so that people with an
interest can see our comings and our goings. Plus, since we don't know how much we're going to be able to communicate directly--she will be busy making music and I'll be busy chasing scorpions---we thought this would be good for us to.

So as we embark on our journeys, we do hope that we can post enough pictures, videos, words or whatever we can so that you can follow us through our adventures. Please feel free to email us, and Val will can still be reached by telephone--except when she can't.