Bits and pieces

This blog post is brought to you by the sugar high that comes with a bag of M&Ms. Let's see if it can get me through this update, there's a lot to cover.

Last week ended well, my group was the best I've had so far. They really enjoyed everything and followed directions. Also, the teachers and parents came and were enthusiastic about the program; that's always nice to see. It was freezing all week (think defrosting the car in the morning), lots of layers were necessary to keep warm!

Meredith came to visit this past weekend. Visitors are always fun and it was really great to hang out with Meredith (as always). We headed to Cincinnati for the weekend. It was a good time but we both agreed that it was kind of a weird city. It seemed like we never found a central "downtown" type area. Every sight we went to see was in a different area and almost all of them seemed a little run down. The sprawl didn't really surprise me because it seems to be an Ohio thing. Columbus is much the same. Tons of businesses with a Columbus address are actually in what I would consider the suburbs. Also, it seems like you just need to drive about 5 minutes on any major road in Ohio to find a strip mall or two. But that's another story.

In Cincinnati we visited the Krohn Conservatory, which is an indoor botanical garden. It was very small but nice. They had a lot of tropical plants. It sort of made me miss Florida even though those weren't at all the species I saw in Florida. Krohn Conservatory is in Mount Adams, an area that overlooks the city. The views were really neat, you could see the Ohio River from above. After that we visited Findlay Market. It was a public market with indoor and outdoor stands selling all kinds of food and produce. Kind of a giant farmers market/grocery/restaurant area. We got some really great food there including delicious Ohio cheese! We definitely ate well on our trip. Besides the market we ate at an Indian restaurant and had brunch at a fancy vegetarian place.

Sunday morning I ran in a half marathon. I was a little worried about it but it ended up being a good time (as good as running 13 miles can be). There were some nice people in the race and also cheering, I was also really grateful to have Meredith there on the course cheering. I was sore afterwards but it was nice to say that I did it!

This week is the last week of teaching. We have a very small group, less than 20 kids. Quite a change after the over 40 we had last week! Also, the weather has turned warmer for us (highs in the 60s all week) which makes work much more pleasant. This is the only group that has opted to stay for the Thursday evening portion of our program. This means we will be taking them to see all the farm animals and actually have our camp fire at night. It should be fun to do some new activities with the kids as well.

Next week is just cleaning up and will only be a half week, so I probably need to start thinking about packing up my things soon. It's crazy to think 2 months have flown by so fast- I just got here! Once I pack up I am headed to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving, then down to NC. I'll try to keep you posted on what's going on and get some more pictures up soon. Until next time!