"I'VE GOT A GOLDEN TICKET"

Howdy. I decided awhile ago that I wanted to try my hand at rugby. I had my first practice on Saturday, and it went pretty well. A few other friends from around here all went to the first practice to see what it was like, and I'm pretty sure we are all going back. I'm sure it will get harder, but it really wasn't as rough as I was expecting. I was pretty sore on Sunday though. I think it was just the fact that my body hasn't had to move like that for awhile. All I've been doing is mostly running, biking, and swimming on and off for the last 5 years, so it will take a bit to adjust to being physical again. I had an awesome time though, and can't wait for our practice this weekend. I have a few bruises, and thought I might have pulled my groin after inadvertently doing the splits at one point, but all in all pretty successful I think.

On the teaching front...Our kinde classes got changed up at the beginning of March, so I now have 8 kids in my class instead of 5. Those 3 extra kids sure do make a difference. I really didn't have to discipline much with my other class, but things can get kind of out of control with 8 kids, if none of them are listening to you. I had to lay down more structured rules today. They now get one warning for bad behavior, and then they have to sit against the wall in the "thinking chair". After that they have to go sit in the hallway. Then, if they are really bad, they have to go see Julie Teacher. She is their Korean Teacher who has some sort of power over those children. All she has to do is say their name and these kids snap to attention. I was very happy that the kids all seemed to understand that I meant business, and I only had to put one kid in the "thinking chair"today. We will see how they do tomorrow...

Other classes are going well. There is maybe only one class that I just don't really like at all. One annoying girl just kinda gets them all riled up. And there is another girl that is not my favorite. Her name is Ann. She doesn't like the way I say her name, and yells at me almost everyday. "My name not Ann." I guess I emphasize the A too much. She wants it short. Ann. I guess I say something like Ayann. I don't know, maybe it's my Iowa drawl. I think she uses it as an excuse not to answer the question though because she doesn't usually know what's going on. So her way of covering is by yelling at me that I said her name wrong. I now make a point to say her name extremely short. She didn't yell at me today, so that's a plus.

The other day I walked into one of my classes, and it was really cold in the classroom. I said, "burr, it's cold in here." I of course couldn't stop there. I had to keep going with the claps, and knee slaps, and stomps saying, "there must be some Toros in the atmosphere, I said burr, it's cold in here, there must be some Toros in the atmosphere."(It's from a movie, if you don't have a clue what I'm saying) None of them had any clue what I was doing, but I got a good laugh out of the one of the girls, Sandy. At least I amuse myself.

Not much else to report. Things are good. The weather is mostly starting to warm up. We did get a couple inches of wet, slushy snow last week, but then it was back up to the mid-fifties over the weekend.

Hope this finds you well. Talk to you again soon...