One of my students had to go home early on Friday because he pooped in his underpants. I was pretty surprised since he's not usually shy about asking to go to the bathroom. Then I found out that three of my students cheated on their spelling test because other students ratted on them. I didn't even notice. What a novice teacher I am.

Then after work I was winding down watching the television and the BBC news happened to be on so I decided to watch it since I've heard that their reporting isn't as biased about world events. They showed all these Iraqis looting in several cities. They also showed the Iraq representative to the UN crying over his country and his countrymen during an interview. My heart felt heavy and after the news was over I actually broke down and wept.

Today I went car shopping. My Caleb, Toyota Camry, was making some grinding noises so I finally took it to the mechanic last week and found out that my transmission, gear box, and axels are rusted. Probably due to driving in the Chicago winters, in the mixture of the snow and the salt. It was depressing news. The thought of having to purchase another car stressed me out. Thank goodness I have a job.

Erik and I checked out the Honda dealer first. We looked at the Honda Accord and found out that they come fully equipped with no choice of options. The salesman was young and negotiated fast. He offered us the retail price with our choice of color. He must've been pretty desperate for a sale. The lot was pretty empty. Then we went over to the Toyota and Lexus lot. We looked at the Lexus I300 and it was pretty nice but way over what I could afford. The Toyota lot was busier and they didn't have too many Camrys in stock. I guess they really are the number one selling car in the U.S. But I don't really want to purchase another Camry. I want to try driving a different car. Next we were off to the Nissan dealer and test drove a Murano. It was much bigger than I expected and I didn't like driving it because I felt like I was going to hit something. Our last stop was at the BMW dealer and I was ecstatic to find an automatic Mini Cooper. It was exciting just to sit in it. It looks like a cartoon. But it must sell well since they added $6000 to the suggested retail price which I do not want to spend and the horse power was only 115. As of now I'm leaning toward the Accord.

I spoke to Scott over the phone tonight. He'll be leaving for San Francisco tomorrow morning leaving Chicago for the next 27 months. He said that Dad was having a really hard time letting him go and said that I should move back to Chicago. I felt really bad for my Dad. At his old age, all of his own kids have left him. Scott said that he'll call me from San Francisco before he leaves for East Timor on Tuesday. Immanuel - God is with us.

I started losing my voice sometime late afternoon yesterday. I woke up this morning in worse condition but decided to go into work anyway. The day was challenging to say the least. It is impossible to teach anything difficult without talking. So my kids did a lot of coloring, drawing, pasting, and even watched a video for the first time.

I must've looked pretty miserable though. I had one student ask me if I liked teaching. I said yes. Another girl told me that their previous teacher had also lost her voice for a long time because she yelled at them too much. How sad. But at least she said that I didn't yell at them.

Luckily we had library in the afternoon so another teacher was in charge. Towards the end of our library time, two of my boys came in after a long absence in the principle's office from their lunch recess episode. One of them handed me a note stating the reason - that they were punching each other's private parts in the boys' bathroom.

This week was very stressful at work. This is the last month of my track so we received two letters consisting of 8 pages each with a list of all the things we are expected to finish up by the end of April. It's stressful because it's my first time closing out and I don't know where anything is or how exactly everything should be done. Luckily the teacher that I took over for is willing to help me out. I'm sure it will all get done somehow, but I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. I ended up sleeping at 8:20PM on Thursday and on Friday after work I consciously took deep breaths driving home because I could tell that my heart was very strained. I really needed to relax this weekend.

We had an all day Saturday planned to celebrate Joo's birthday, which was on April 1st, and she chose to go wine tasting in Solvang. Ahhhhh..... Just what I needed to help me relax - wine. Susan prepared some melt in your mouth crepes for breakfast before our road trip. She's really gotten into making crepes recently and I indulge myself each time. Afterwards, we headed out in Susan's newly acquired silver Rav4. The Pacific Coast scenery was breathtaking. We had to pass Santa Barbara on our way and since Susan has never been there we decided to stop over there for lunch. We ate at the Cajun Kitchen. Then we went in search for Baskin Robbins for Hannah but found out that they closed down. But Susan bought something for her friend at one of the local stores. The drive to Rideau was beautiful too. There was this huge lake in the midst of the mountains. We tried to go see Cachumba Lake on our way back but decided not to because we had to pay an entrance fee.

We didn't have too much time so we only got to hit two wineries. First, we went to Rideau where Joo is a silver member so we wine tasted for free. Unhappily, the chardonnay that Joo was looking for was all sold out. We walked out with a bunch of beaded necklaces and a red feathered mask for Hannah. Next, we headed over to Bridlewood. It was much bigger and they displayed lots of medals from their winning wines. But I had too much to drink at the first winery and could not finish the wines at Bridlewood. And although Joo said that wine is supposed to taste better after you've already drank some, I did not enjoy the wines at Bridlewood as much. But they had a large vineyard and the land and the building was picture pretty. Susan purchased a dessert wine she tasted last and we walked out with our wine glasses from the tasting. I must've been more under the influence than I thought because on the way to the car, I didn't see the curb and fell forward onto my knees in slow motion. Then I proceeded to walk over to the wrong car. My face was pretty red too.

We went back to Santa Barbara for dinner at Papagallo's on Nick's recommendation. They had good Peruvian food. Joo was the only one who opted to have wine with her meal. It was my first time trying the ceviche and I really liked the kick from the lemon juice and spices. As we drove home, Hannah, Joo and Susan sang through the entire Sound of Music soundtrack. Joo sometimes added dialogs and motions from the movie as she sang.

I want to share another marriage related conversation I overheard my students having this week. We were making Guatamalan plates this week and the last process is waterpainting. I had the students do it in small groups of four to avoid a big mess. As I was walking over to see how they were doing, this is the conversation I overheard.

"My dog and my cat got married and they didn't even tell anyone."

"No, they didn't."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, my dogs didn't even saying nice things to each other and then they got married. And now they're saying lots of nice things to each other."

I couldn't help but crack up.