Superficial Joy

Congratulations to all the teachers out there who have completed or as short to complete the "way worse than we thought it would be" school year! My last day was yesterday (June 15) and I have to say that this was my best year of teaching in my 11 years (which, by the way, I just figured out. All year long I thought this was my 10th year of teaching--maybe I just blocked out last year).  My two closest friends in Israel, Jessie and Lynn Aside from the fact that we were not on Zoom this year, which made everything 1000 times better, I loved my students. Because we were open in Israel, students got to sit in groups and move around and after spring break we no longer had to wear masks. Something new to me was Week Without Walls. My school in Abu Dhabi didn't do this was a first. It is really "3 days without walls" (Wednesday to Friday), but whatever. I was anxious about spending 3 days with 50 eighth graders but I was wrong. It was really fun! And it turned out to ...

I had a brief interlude in Dallas, my unofficial port of entry and exit in the United States. Aside from lounging in front of the tv in "soft clothes", playing games and eating pork, here are the highlights: I was collected in my aunt's new car! A year ago I left Dallas around the same time but utterly paralyzed with fear. The drive to DFW was amazingly anxious. We took a selfie, said our goodbyes and I went on my merry [read: terrifying] way. I felt that fear of going off the high dive when you don't really want to mixed with a fear of being forgotten, seasoned with a little worry about being laughed at. The economy seat I was in was so claustrophobic I asked for an upgrade to Business Class. I would have gladly paid the $2000, but there were no seats available. The terror continued as I walked down a tunneled,  air conditioned stairway to exit the plane and when the humid, hot air hit me I wondered what I had done to myself. A completely cavernous feelin...