A Full Day Planned

I will be teaching all day.  While this is not the first day that I will teach all day, it is the first day that I was able to plan to be teaching all day.  If you follow that then great, if not, you’ll catch on.  Ms. Mylene gave me the activities that she wanted taught for today, in fact she gave me the activities for the whole week, so I was able to put together some plans.  I feel prepared, and it is a great feeling.  The Smart Board is up and running well and we are having fun now.  My lesson with the Smart Board are planned to provide the students with the opportunity to work on the Smart Board, and they love it.  The first class is working on large numbers.  We used country populations to practice working with large numbers and then they created a bar graph to illustrate the country populations.  It was a great activity and the bar graphs turned out great.  I felt a little like I was teaching concepts that were below where they should be but this is what is in their curriculum.  The next class was rounding and estimating, again I was surprised that the 6th graders had never seen this stuff before, and I was especially surprised to see that they had not done any work with decimals and fractions yet.  I had originally planned to do an estimating activity with decimals and Ms. Mylene told me that they had never seen decimals so I had to redesign that lesson.  Luckily I found a couple of websites with rounding and estimating games so the students got to play with the Smart Board and again the kids loved it.  The next lesson was a repeat of the first and again it went very well.  I was presently surprised by the success of the day’s lessons.  I felt that they all went very well and the night’s homework will help me to see if they really understand the concepts.

After school I had to kill some time again due to Pancho’s practice.  I spent most of the time in the computer lab trying to get caught up on my blog, but still I am behind.  I think my problem is that I get a little carried away.  I start typing and then next thing you know I have only said half the things I want to for the day and an hour has passed.  I just really don’t want to forget any of the trip.  The experiences are absolutely amazing and I want to include them all.  Luckily today I will have a lot of time to work on them, two hours after school in the computer lab and Odaly and Ivan are working late tonight so I will have all evening at home.  Should be a fun filled night of blogging, plus I will have a lot of time to talk Aimee and my family.  I have a lot to talk about after my trip to Chillan.

The Clocks Changed?

Today was a planned chill out day. We scheduled our traveling back to Concepcion for late afternoon and early evening so that we could just relax in the morning. We all kind of got up whenever and did pretty much nothing. It was great. The first thing that we did was make breakfast. This was quite interesting because we had 5 people in the kitchen all doing different jobs in the preparation and everybody getting in each others way. Chef Marshall was flipping ham all over the kitchen as he fried it for our hot ham and cheese sandwiches, quite amazing that we didn’t loose a single piece of ham. The breakfast was delicious. After breakfast we all just kind of hung out. We packed our things and had the rest of the morning to do whatever. Some of us were productive (not me of course) and worked on our journals, some read, some took naps, and some played cards. Marshall beat everyone at ping pong again, and that was pretty much our morning. It was very nice, really the first time we had down time the entire trip.

To our surprise our ride arrived early. We all were running around the cabana panicked trying to make sure that we had everything, and there were some of us that weren’t even packed (not me of course). We managed to get everything together and all squared up with the owners of the cabana, and we were on the road. It even looked like we were going to be able to catch the earlier bus back to Concepcion. On the way to the bus station we found out that our driver was not early, he was in fact late, but there was a time change last night that made it seem other wise. I am so glad that we were all informed of such an important piece of information.

We all got separated on the bus because evidently Sunday is a horrible day to travel, but luckily we all made it home together. We all got off at the same stop, caught another bus to the mall, and were all picked up and transported to our homes safely. The planning was a little unorganized, and I really had no idea how I was getting home until I was in a car headed in that direction, but I did make it home. When I arrived home, my family was very surprised to see me, and I’m not really sure why, but they fixed me a huge meal and hot tea and then it was time for bed. I made a couple of phone calls on Skype before I hit the sack, and it was extra nice because we were now on the same time as Ohio. Final thought before bed, This webcam is probably the best purchase I have made in a long time.

No Habla Ingles

Last night I spent about an hour outside looking at the stars. They were absolutely amazing. I really wish that Aimee were there so that she could have seen them with me. I really these weekends, they break up the trip a little bit making things much easier.

This morning we got up and had a very expensive breakfast for what we recieve in the club house that my cabana shared with several others. Right after breakfast we got ready for the day´s hike up the mountain. The bus arrived and we off to the start of the hike. We were all very pleased when we heard our guides speaking Spanglish, and found out quickly that between the speakers we were all able to understand each other enough to communicate. This made the GUIDED hike a little more worth the money. I had suggested just going for a trail hike because we would not be able to understand our guides anyway, but nobody went for that suggestion. The hike was amazing. It started in the woods and quickly rose in elevation. The trees and underbrush cleared and the sun began to bake us all.  As we exited the woods we began to see mountains of black volcanic rock.  It was quite the sight and we were informed that the near by volcano erupted 70 years ago and these huge piles of igneous extrusive rock were resulted.  After some time of climbing we were able to see the source of all the volcanic rock in the distance.  I was very amazed by this site because you were able to see the path of the lava flow through the valley starting from the volcano all the way to the point that we were standing, it was absolutely beautiful, a sight that I have never experienced before.

After many many pictures we continued our hike pasted the rock field and trough some woods until we came upon an old collapsing building.  One thing that I have found during my time here in Chile is that safety  is rarely considered, so we all climbed on the old collapsing building.  It was pretty solid?!?!  We took a bunch of pictures and it was time to head back to camp, or the cabana (there is supposed to be a little squiggly over that “n”, but I only have an American keyboard).  So we were all goofing around on the falling down hotel and our guides were ready to go so one of them said, “Ok let’s go”, in their sweet Chilean accent, and out of nowhere Marshall says, “No Habla Ingles!”  It doesn’t sound that funny on paper but the guides thought that it was the funniest thing in the world and it my have been the highlight of the trip.  We all got a really good laugh out of it and the guides repeated it like 100 time on the way back.

We went to a different mini market on our way back to the cabana because we bought the other one out yesterday, their closed for the rest of the season and I’m pretty sure I saw a nice new truck in the owners driveway (That is a little bit of an inside joke but I had to include it here).  So we bought out this mini market too, because we had to eat and the entire town is closed, except for a few mini markets that are also now closed due to lack of supplies.  We got enough food for lunch, today and tomorrow, and tomorrow’s breakfast, we are having pizza tonight for dinner cooked by the cabana club house.  When we finally got back to the cabana several people took naps and the rest of us all lost to Marshall playing ping pong.  He is no fun to loose to, by the way, because he is a really sore winner.  At around 8 o’clock we had dinner and watched a movie afterwards.  It was a great end to the day and we were all ready for bed.  Oh and I slept on a kid sized mattress on the floor in the living room, by my self.  My head to my butt were on the mattress and my legs were on the floor.  This is what happens when everyone knows you are a snorer.  The good thing though is I got to sleep right next to the fire all night long, so I was the only one that was warm through the night.  So There!!!

Another Day, Another Test?

My teacher felt that the 5th graders needed more time to take the that they started yesterday, and the 6th graders were taking some kind of standardized test today.  I had gotten a little confused about what was going on and to tell the truth was shocked when Miss Mylene told me that she was going to give them a little more time on their tests (I had though that they were taking standardized tests when really she was telling me that the 6th graders were going to be taking standardized test today).  If you think that is confusing you should have been here this morning.  To wrap this up and make this long and confusing story short, all of the students that entered my classroom today were taking tests of some form or another.  It made for a pretty boring day.  I spent most of it helping grade the tests that had been finished.  Between the two of us we got most of the tests graded and had some time at the end of the day to talk about next week.  She had decided that instead of me teaching everything next week, it would be better if we did a more team teaching thing and get her some more practice on the Smart Board.  I was fine with this because there are certain things that the students still need to hear in Spanish.  I think that it is good for them to be taught in English, but the ultimate goal is that they understand the concepts, and if this means they need to hear part of it in Spanish, then I see nothing wrong with that.  She told me what the topics would be and then it was time to catch another bus.  This time we would be traveling to Chillan.

Earlier this week, Marshall’s host Mother did all kinds of work and got everything set up for us all to go on a little weekend get away to Chillan.  A couple of our parents were waiting for us all after school to give us a ride to the bus terminal.  We all piled in the cars and were off.  3 hours, 1 tour bus and 1 mini bus later, we arrived at our cabana.  We unloaded the mini bus, checked into our cabana, and began to explore ideas for dinner, only to find out that we were in a ski town during the off season and the only thing open at the moment was a minimart about a mile down the road.

We practically bought out the store to stock up on food for dinner, snacks, and drinks (Cannot Drink the water in Chillan).  We made sure that we had cards and settled in for a night of games by the fire.  A couple of the girls wanted to cook pasta for everyone so thats what we had, and it was delicious.  We ate, drank, played games and enjoyed the easy conversation.  It was a very nice break.  No internet, but I’m glad I brought my computer for the music and possibly a movie.

Testing and Teaching

This title has many different meanings. To start, today would be my first day to teach the lesson I had planned. I had taught before while here in Chile, but this was my lesson today. I was going to use the smart board, and sure enough there is something wrong. I got to school a little early today, which is extremely rare, so luckily I had a little time before students arrived to “Test” the thing out. I was also granted a little more time just by the fact that Chileans wait till the last minute for everything, including letting me know that all the 5th graders would be taking some kind of standardized test today, so I had another whole class period to work on getting the smart board working. I worked on the thing all morning while the 5th graders finished up their tests and got it all up and running. It would have been really nice if someone at the school had any clue how to use a Smart Board, if it weren’t for the extra help in the classroom and the luck of having the extra time to plan, I would have never even worked on it until after school. But everything fell together, like it always does, and things went great. I had a lot of fun with the lesson, and the kids had a lot of fun with the lesson because they got to write on the Smart Board, which to them is way cool (well to me too). I really hope that I can have a smart board in my future classroom, they are so much fun.

After my lesson, my teacher and I were able to sit down and talk for a little bit. She said that she was really thrilled with my lesson and she thought that I had done a great job, but she would like me to spend most of my time here helping her while she learns that equipment. I told her that as long as I am involved and not just observing all the time, I would love to help her learn the tools. We spent the afternoon planning as much as we could for next week. We put together several lessons that utilized the smart board in several different ways, and they look as if they will be a lot of fun for the students.

The after school activities were much like every other day that I don’t have something planned. I took a walk to the mall mainly to get out some money for the weekends trip to Chillan, but also to kill a little time while Pancho had practice.

I know that Aimee is struggling a little bit now that she is not with her family. I know exactly what she is going through because I was there last week. We both know that we will be together quicker than we can imagine but it really does seem like forever away. I also know that she is doing much better now that she is again busy with her Student Teaching.

Chiflon Del Diablo

This day started out like any other school day, but we all had big plans for after school. We were going to Lota, the home of an old mine called, Chiflon Del Diablo. I will get more into the Lota stuff later. First let me talk about the school day.

I got to my classroom this morning to be surprised by 3 different guys working on the Smart Board. This was great to see. They worked clear through our planning period and just before the bell rang the Smart Board was finally up and running. I would be able to use it for tomorrows lesson (And I’ll probably even play with it a little bit today to showoff to the students what it can do). I do not remember much of the rest of the day other than the oooos and aahhhhs that I received from the students as they were WOWED by the new toy (I mean tool).

Like last Wednesday, and every Wednesday, after lunch my teacher was in planning meetings that we are not required to attend so she asked that I show her as much as I can tomorrow. I promised her that it would be my pleasure. Also after lunch we were free to begin our adventure (I call it an adventure because we would be taking the public buses the entire way, and we were entering a town of very low economic status). So a large group of Gringos took off on the buses trying not to draw attention to themselves (Right!?!?).

The top steps to looking like a gringo

1. Run to the next bus stop because you are at the wrong one, only to find out that the bus stops at the first stop after it turns around. (Check)

2. Be loud on the bus, speaking nothing but English. (Check)

3. Look as lost as possible on the busy streets of Concepcion. (Check)

4. Walk the impoverished streets of Lota with no way of communication to help you find where you are going or what you are doing here. (And Check)

So the adventure is going great. I learned a lot about the mine, Chiflon Del Diablo, and also loved seeing this different side of Chile. The Chiflon Del Diablo means the Devils Whistle. They named the mine this because of a tunnel that put in to allow the gas created in the mine to escape. While the mine was active there was enough air movement out of the tunnel to create a very low whistling sound that could be heard for miles. The mine was closed in 1976 because it now cost too much to remove the coal from the mine due to the large distance it had to travel, when the mine closed the whistle silenced. We also learned that before 1930, this mine used child labor, and many of the tactics were quite cruel and disturbing. For example a child miners first job was gate keeper, and to break the children of the fear that comes with working in the mine they were tied to one of the pole supports to keep them from running away. If they misbehaved they would have their flame taken away which simply meant that they would have absolutely no light. We had the thrill of experiencing what this would be like for a full minute, and I can totally understand the severity of this punishment. We were sat down on a bench and instructed to turn our lights off so that we were in complete darkness. As I sat there, I kept waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but it never happened, there is absolutely no light. Cruel?

After our tour we took a quick walk around Lota to see what we could see. After a short time of walking we found a beach were there were several small children playing and several surfers enjoying the rising tide. I took off to explore a little bit and found several tide pools that had been created by the rocks. I had to do my science teacher mode quickly though because the tide was rising fast and the rock would all soon be underwater. There were all kinds of cool marine life to look at even though I really had no clue what I was looking at. Right as I was being drug away by the rest of the group I captured what I think is the best picture this far. It was a great shoot of a wave crashing on the rocks, and just exploding up through the cracks, and then it was time to get back on the bus and head back to Concepcion.

This was not the end of the day though. Marshall’s host family had invited us all over for dinner and drinks when we got back to Concepcion. This was great because we were all hungry and they were making us homemade Empanadas. To all of our surprises the Empanadas were just an appetizer they had also made us several pizzas. After several Empanadas, a few slices of pizza, and a taste of Pisco Sour it was not time to finally go home. While the day was a lot of fun and I do not wish it away at all, I am tired. It has been a very, very, long day.

A Chance to Prepare

I know that I have mentioned that they are all on Chilean time here but the truth is it is more of a life style.  For some reason they have absolutely no worries.  This carries into the lesson planning.  My teacher is a great teacher from what I have seen but I never know what she is doing.  I would hate to have to take over for her because I really don´t think she makes lesson plans, yet she always has  an activity that has a specific way for it to be done.  At one point today she asked me to do a part of the activity and she did it again because I must have done it wrong.  Even though I really had no clue what I was doing, and I was completly flying by the seat of my pants it was a lot of fun working with the students. 

We really wanted to use the Smart Board today but it still was not working.  I was really bumed because I love to play with Smart Boards, so we did it the old fashion way, on the white board.  Maybe tomorrow (Fingers crossed).

After lunch is our planning time.  I was absolutely thrilled when she asked me if I would like to teach some lessons, of course I said yes.  She began talking about what she was going to teach and what she wanted to teach while I was here.  She went on and on and then she told me that she would have an activity for me to teach on Thursday.  By this I am pretty sure that she meant that she would give it to me at the beginning of class on Thursday.  I was not ok with this at all, I would much rather be a little more prepared and have something planned.  I asked her for the topic so that I could put a little something together.  She said that would be fine so I was off to start some planning.  I really hope the Smart Board is ready for Thursday, I would love to do my lesson using the Smart Board.  I think I will plan on it being ready. 

After school was just like any other day, Pancho had practice, so I had some time to kill.  No one was staying after school today so I was on my own.  I spent a lot of time in the computer lab trying to get caught up on my Blog/Journal (I am still behind).  I checked my email and worked on fixing an uploading error on my Kodak Gallery page, and then the technology teacher (also in charge of the computer lab) told me that I would have to go because she had to close everything down and go home.  Now what was I supposed to do, I still have about 2 hours and I am really sick of going to the mall.  I was really hoping someone would be staying after today so that I would have someone to hang out with and talke to.  I went to the mall.  I do like the walk there especially because it is so nice here right now.  I could not have asked for better weather.  After walking around looking at anything and everything (By the way everything here is much more expensive than in the states) it was time to return to the school to catch my ride.  Pancho and I were dropped off and just chilled around the house.  This gave me some time to get the planning started.  I really hope the Smart Board is ready.

Plans, What Plans?

The people of Chile, as I have mentioned before, are quite relaxed. While this can be quite a good thing it can also be a little frustrating. I myself am quite a relaxed person but I come nowhere near as relaxed as most Chileans. I mention this because I came to school this morning and my teacher asked me if I would like to teach today. This would normally be no problem, I jump on any chance to be in front of the class, but she had said nothing to me before this point. So I am not at all prepared. I asked her if she would like me to teach her lesson, hoping that she would have some sort of plan for the days activities, and she said, “No, you just teach what you like?” (Thats the best I can do typing her broken English, and yes that ended with a question mark). So my response was, “I would rather have a little something prepared before I teach”. She said that we would plan today then, and she taught some lesson that she may or may not have had a plan for, I’m still not sure.

While she taught her lessons I made every attempt to be as involved as possible. I found out this morning that many of the other teacher that my fellow gringos are with teach in all English, so I decided that they got it easy. My teacher is a half and half teacher, meaning that half of her lesson are in English and half are in Spanish. This completely sucks because I can only follow half of what she is teaching. There were several times today that I had to ask some of the students to explain to me what the directions were so that I would help with the activity, but I was doing my best to be involved wherever possible, it is no fun to just observe. When lunch time came around my teacher told me that she had some bracelet and necklace making class that she teaches to the 1st graders on Monday afternoons so we would plan tomorrow for the lesson that I would teach on Thursday and maybe Friday. Then it was, i believe, “See you tomorrow”. I still have 2 hours before school is out and then Pancho has practice till 5:30. What am I going to do with all of this time? I went to the computer lab and realy got nothing done.

When school was out I found out that we, as a group of gringos, were going to go to Lota on Wednesday and then to Marshall’s families house for dinner. Lota is a small mine town in which the mines closed years ago and are now there only for tours. I was told that it was quite beautiful but very impoverished, I am very interested to see a different part of Chile.

A couple of us walked to the mall to kill some time, and then I returned to the school to wait for Pancho’s practice to be over. I am glad that I brought my Sudoku today, it really helped to pass the time.  When practice was over Odaly gave us a ride home and then went to the office.  Pancho and I had the house to ourselves so we did pretty much nothing until dinner was ready.  After dinner Pancho worked on some homework and I called home.  I could have talked forever about the trip to Chiloe but I decided to let everyone read my blog, it’s more detailed anyway.  I went to bed early in hopes to be fully rested tomorrow.

A few final thoughts about the school:

I am beginning to think a lot about my topic for the capstone, Technology.  This is perfect because as I am sure I have mentioned, they are in the process of installing a Smart Board in my classroom.  I am sure that this is not typical of the entire school.  I should find out more information about this.  I was also surprised by the fact that the school as a whole only has 2 overhead machines that need to be checked out when used and returned ASAP (The kind that is used with transparencies, seems like ancient technology but I feel that every teacher should have one available for whenever they may need it).  A few other things that may not seem much like technology but are taken for granted in the states, are the lack of pencil sharpeners, and the use of 2 ring binders instead of 3 ring binders.  These things may sound strange to consider as Technology but I feel it is necessary to mention.

Home, Home Again (Kinda)

Today we would be making the long journey back to Concepcion. Another fun filled day of 12 hours cramped up in the back of a crew cab truck. The only problem is that this time we had already seen everything just in the opposite order.

The day started off pretty well. We woke up this morning and the house was still warm. We were able to keep the fire burning through the night and for that I was grateful. The fact that the house was warmer made it much easier to get out of bed. We had hot water for our showers but we had not water pressure. I was ok with no water pressure because it was hot. We were ready and packed just in time because just as we were about to walk out the door, Pancho came over to get us for breakfast. We all ate rather quickly because we all wanted to get on the road so that we did not get home too late. The car was packed and we were ready to get on our way. One last thing before we left, family photos. Marshall and I posed for several photos with my Family and the Abuelos. We said our goodbyes and our thank yous and we were on our way.

The rest of our day was long and uncomfortable. The ferry was a nice break but it was only 2 hours into the trip. A quick story about the ferry ride. As soon as we put the truck in park on the ferry Marshall and I were out and trying to find a good spot on the rail of the boat. Before we launched we were looking down into the water and realized that we could see the bottom of the channel and the water at this point was at least 20 feet deep. We were amazed by the clearness of the water. We tried to take a picture but the cameras could not capture what we were see (As are most of the pictures taken here). Just as the boat began to launch we saw a school of small fish. Marshall said to me, “Thats cool but I would love to see something big”. We weren’t getting our hopes up though. A short time later the ferry was about to pass a buoy and I notice something moving on the very buoy we were passing, and sure enough it was a sea lion sunning it self in the hot morning sun. To make this story even better, I snapped a picture and it was the last that was the last that would fit on my memory card.

The rest of the trip home was pretty, well, blah. We did not make any stop the whole way home except for the half way point to get gas. Thank God for the need for gas because I am pretty sure that if it weren’t for that we would have gone the whole 12 hours with out a bathroom break. I can hold it for quite a while but 12 hours is pushing it.

Overall this weekend has been great. I have had the opportunity to get to know my family better, meet the grandparents, I had a great time with Marshall there (someone to speak English with), and I feel that it provided the opportunity to bond a little with my Family. I feel much more comfortable living with them now and just knowing them a little better makes things easier. Even though there are some communication barriers I am still able to joke around with my family and we even have some small inside jokes. So far Pancho has made quite the impact on my friends. All that have meet him find him quite amusing but like him a lot. I now look forward to starting the week.

Sheep Roast

We woke up this morning to a freezing house again. The temperature was 50 degrees F. I really struggled to get out of bed. The fire just did not last through the night. So I tried to quickly get a HOT shower and then get dressed. Guess what, the water was not hot and the water pressure was so low that I could barely get the soap off my body. Once we were both ready it was over to the abuelos house for breakfast at 9. We had something that was very similar to homemade dough nuts, but I have no idea what they were calling them. These were plain and we put honey, or black berry jam, or rhubarb jam, or powdered sugar on them ourselves. They were great.

After breakfast, we drove to the city of Castro, to visit the artists market. This city is also the home to the last houses on stilts in Chile, and, what I am told is, the most famous church in Chile. I had no idea how cool the houses on stilts were until we were right there looking at them. Every picture that I took of them look as if they should be on a postcard. The Church was very beautiful as well, and I now understand why it is the most famous church in Chile. One of the pictures of the church that I took was I think the exact same picture as on a postcard that found at the artists market.

The artists market was the next stop.  This is where there were all kinds of different artists that sell just about anything and everything you could possibly think to buy.  The other amazing thing about this is that everything is hand made, everything.  I really had to resist buying a lot of things.  I did however make 3 purchases and they were things that were special to the island of Chiloe.  I was quite impressed by the quality work that was availible, the hats were amazing and there was all kinds of furniture that I wish I could fit in my luggage.  The other thing that was amazing was the price.  I bought 4 different things and only spent like 9 US dollars. 

After the artists market it was back to the house for lunch.  We were told that we were in for a treat for lunch and to return hungry, this was not a problem considering lunch is usually around 3 or 4 (I don´t think I will ever get used to that).  On the way we had to stop for a few more pictures of the houses, and the boats that last time we passed were laying on the beach and this time were floating.  I find their way of parking the boats on the beach to be very picture perfect.  The one city that we drove through that had the best views of the boats was Quemchi.  I really think that some of these pictures will have to be blown up and framed. 

When we got home, I could smell the feast as soon as we pulled into the drive way.  The first thing that I noticed was that both of the cars were removed from the carport.  Then I saw the smoke.  There was a fire already started underneath the carport an extremely large amount of meat on a stick resting on two supports over the fire.  It smelled delicious.  My abuelo told Pancho that one of the neighbors owed them a lamb, so they claimed it this morning and prepared the feast.  The fire was built early this morning so most of what remained were red hot coals.  We salted the meat and for the next 2 and a half hours we drank wine and took turns turning the meat.  The most interesting part was that we never left the fire.  Once the meat was done we would just cut some off and put it on our plates, if you wanted seconds you would just cut some more off.  It was delicious and I ate so much.  I was ready for nap time. 

After a short nap we took a trip to another neighbors house to help the abuelos get some more fire wood.  They were beginning to stock up for the winter (a wood burning stove is their only form of heat and their means for cooking food).  I was more than happy to help load the truck because I no longer felt bad about taking wood to try to heat our small house.  Perhaps tonight we will be able to keep the inside temperature above 50 degrees F.  We returned home, unloaded the wood and guess what, it was time for dinner (I was praying for something very very lite, I was still full from lunch).  Luckily it was only Once (spanish word for evening snack, also the number 11) tonight.  This meant tea and bread and something sweet.  The rest of the family was off to bed.  Marshall and I took some tea and snacks back to our house and got the fire going.  We struggled with the flu so at one point the house got pretty smoke filled.  Other than that we just sat around and talked and tried to stay warm. 

Just before I fell asleep, I could help but think, how much I wish Aimee were here to experience all of this with me.