Last week of class

In my last entry, I forgot to say that I searched out a Zumba class in the vicinity and attended!  It was so much fun! The instructor's name is Marei Kalisch and she's an awesome Instructor! She is a professional dance teacher as well so her Zumba teaching was topnotch!!

Our last week of classes consisted of lots of grammar exercises and more songs in the classroom. They were all very helpful in my personal refresher course in the language.  On Tuesday (6/19), we all went out to a beer garden called Feierling to grab a couple of beers and socialize before heading to the movies to watch "Ziemlich Beste Freunde" (roughly translated, Rather Good/Best Friends--kinda loses the meaning in translation).  Our professor, Manfred, came along with us on this evening.  We had a great time laughing and sharing conversation at Feierling.

 


After the beer garden, we headed over to the movie theater to watch our movie.  The movie is about a man who applies to be a personal assistant to another man who is completely paralyzed from the neck, down.  Through this assistant job, the man learns to be compassionate and at the same time, teaches the other man to "loosen up" (horrible way of putting that since the guy is already paralyzed), and learn to appreciate life and take risks when it comes to people he loves.  That's a rough description because the movie was originally in French but then was dubbed over in German and the speech was extremely fast for me, so I didn't understand everything that went on in the story but that was the main idea...at least what I got out of it. :)  It was hard for me since the actors' mouths were moving in French and then I had to listen to the German.  When listening to a foreign language, I read people's lips a lot and it helps me understand more but since the mouths were moving to French words, that was extremely difficult to do, obviously. So I had to rely on my comprehension and listening.  It was an excellent exercise.


The rest of the week, we had the afternoons free to make any last minute excursions before the 2 week course was over.  On the Friday afternoon, a friend and I decided to make a quick trip to Basel, Switzerland to take pictures and see what sights there were to see.  There's a funny story that goes with this little journey...

Ririn and I went to the Freiburg train station to buy our ticket and had a lady help us get the best deal.  We bought the ticket and the lady then said that we probably will miss the next train but that we could catch the next one in an hour.  Well, we looked at the time table and saw that we still had a chance to make the train if we hurried. We ran to the track, saw the train and jumped on and sat down.  The train took off and about 15-20 minutes later, the ticket controller came through to check/scan tickets.  We handed him our ticket and he looked at it and...suddenly, we were in trouble.  He said (in German, of course), "Ooooh, this is the wrong train.  This is the Inter-City Express (ICE) and not the Regional train...the one you're supposed to be on is the Regional.  You each have to pay 25 € (symbol for Euro) for a total of 50 €."  We had gotten onto the wrong train without even noticing. :(  So, our little "cheap" journey turned out to be a total of about 38 € for each of us, when it should've only cost us each only about 12,50 €.  We learned our lesson.  Look before you leap.

 
                                          Basel train station

                                                    Elizabethan church/cathedral

                                          The Rhein River

   

 Münsterplatz

Monk Kloster

 

 

Chill day

While a few other groups are going to either Lake Konstanz or to Basel, France, I decided to take a rest day. Although now that I know most stores are closed today, I'm feeling just a little regretful that I didn't go to either location. No worries though...I'm thinking about taking a train to another neighboring town to do some more exploring. I will see if Tosin wants to go with me. If not, I will probably still go. I was going to use this weekend to do laundry but the office is closed for the entire weekend and so that's not a likely option either. So why not enjoy the surrounding areas instead? :)

TITISEE!!

Friday and Saturday, June 15th/16th: Another class day but only until 1pm. Manfred wanted to let us have the afternoon for planning our small group excursions over the weekend. My group went to go buy our group ticket to go to a small tourist town called Titisee. Strange name, yes. :) You pronounce it like tih-tih-seh. Very short "i" sound and not like ee. It was a beautiful little place nestled into the Black Forest. It was only about a 40 minute train ride to this little piece of paradise. We went on a walk around the lake and wound around through parts of the forest. Very beautiful! Along the main road, there are little vendor places and cafes. After our walk, we had lunch at a little snack stand. I had currywurst with fries. Currywurst tastes like a type of hotdog wurst with a curry sauce on it. Very tasty! After lunch, Marja and I went on a short boat tour on Titisee. It was nice to be on the water. It's really not known how this place got its name but people started calling it Titisee around 1750 or so. The water is drinkable and it's filled lots of different types of fish. In the winter, the lake freezes over to about 60m thick, which lends itself to ice skating and other types of winter activities. After the boat tour, we did a little souvenir shopping and then went on a little adventure to the neighboring city, Neustadt. Not a very good city for tourists. There really wasn't anything to see there except houses and a courthouse and a large church/cathedral but no marketplace for stores or cafes. After resting a little in the shade, we headed back to Titisee and searched out the Schwarzwaldkirschtorte (Black Forest Cherry Cake). It was the authentic cake! So delicious! You know it's really authentic if they use the cherry liquor. I tasted it for sure! Loved it!! It's just not the same anywhere else! So good! After our cake, we headed back to our guest house to rest for the remainder of the evening. Tomorrow, Tosin and I are just going to stay in town and relax. All stores are closed on Sunday so we will just lay low for the day.

Weiter (further)

Tuesday, June 12: Another class day and we met at the Institut. We had another language lesson with small activities and ice breakers to help with use of language mechanics. Manfred, our instructor, likes to break class up into small chunks of time to reduce the sitting time (I think) and to keep our brains going. We also went into the mediothek (computer/book room) to get oriented and introduced to the available materials for our use while we're here. That took most of the morning and then it was lunch break. We've been eating at the university dining hall (called Mensa). The food has been ok but it's been lots of potatoes..very heavy and sometimes not that tasty. Ha! Anyway, we eat there many times for lunch because we put some money on a lunch card and get 3 meals with each fill up of the card. This day we had afternoon class and it was a song lesson. The instructor gave us a packet of songs she has either collected or written herself. They're really cute and fun songs and she showed us some ways of how to incorporate these songs into either theme lessons or grammar lessons. They can also be used just for fun. It was a pretty good lesson and we are continuing next week since we didn't get all the way through. The afternoon/evening is always up to us. We can go into the city and shop or hangout or we can go back to the dorm and chill. Wednesday, June 13th: This day was used for an excursion to a nearby town called Staufen and we visited a school...it's our equivalent to a high school and it's called a gymnasium (pronounced with a hard G). The most interesting thing about this school is that most everything in the school is student-led. The teacher presence is very minimal ecxcept of course in the classroom but extracurricular activities and such are very independent. Sometimes there are adults for safety reasons if it's a sport. What's also interesting is the kids can smoke near the campus. It just has to be out a certain distance and not right on the grounds next to the building. The philosophy is that the more rules and restrictions, the more problems tend to happen and the least likely the kids are willing to work together with the adults to make a successful school. It makes total sense and this is not to say that they don't have their problems, they do, but the problems are decreased when there is less of a strict authoritarian presence. Their test results are one of the highest in the Baden-Wurttemburg region. The kids are all very self-motivated and the parents are behind their kids all the way to ensure success and are willing to do what they need to do in order for success to happen. With this parental eagerness, however, does come the pressure on teachers to perform under high expectations and high standards. This isn't a bad thing but I could see how maybe teachers could burnout possibly BUT the students, for the most part, come to school WANTING to learn!! A teacher's dream! So maybe the teachers aren't as easily burned out in that respect. The leader of tour says it always is heartwarming to see the students coming into the classroom with the willingness and eagerness to learn. They also have peer tutor groups that are student-led as well and the kids who may need the extra assistance come in free willingly and have their own intrinsic motivation to get the help. Simply breath-taking! Needless to say, it was a day filled with more new, exciting information to share with the kiddos when I get back to school. Thursday, June 14th: A day spent in the mediothek again actually checking out the teaching materials and sources. We were told that we could each pick out a book of teaching material and we could order it since there was money set aside for this reason. We can think of it as a free book! There were lots of choices and options for books so that makes the choice obviously hard but it's still an awesome opportunity to get something that maybe isn't as easy to come by where we live. The afternoon was spent learning grammar activities and games. That was really useful as well. Well, once again, it's gotten late and I need to head to bed. A group of us are headed on an excursion tomorrow and I will write more tomorrow about what we did. Until then!

Deutschland!

I made it to Germany unscathed and really tired. My journey started out early on Saturday, the 9th and ended with a 2 hour train ride from Frankfurt to Freiburg on the 10th. The whole journey lasted about 20+hours. I was exhausted! I was a little worried about finding the right train ride to my destination but I found the Deutsche Bahn office (Deutsche Bahn means German train--DB is the organization's name) and then I found the right track with no problem. But I still had a little anxiety so when I got to the track, I saw a nice looking girl about 18 years old and asked for confirmation that I had the right track and clarified information on my ticket. She was so helpful and then she and I just ended up being train buddies because she was actually headed to the same town as I. We sat together on the train and told each other about ourselves a little. Half in German, half in English. I found out she was just coming from Portland, Oregon from an exchange program. What are the odds that we were coming from pretty much the same area of the country? It was nice to have her there to help out. When we got to Freiburg, Silke and I went our separate ways and I headed to the guesthouse address that was provided for me. Once I got there, there were already a couple of people there who had been there since 11:00am. There was nobody there to give us room keys and we waited for about an hour and finally somebody showed and gave us our room key. The nice thing is we each have our own room with our own bathrooms and the rooms have a balcony door and window that open up all the way to let the fresh air into the room. That evening, a couple of women and I went into the city to get our bearings and look around. The city of Freiburg is a university town. The university is called Goethe (pronounced goo-teh) Institute and lots of people from all over the world come and take German language courses. We returned to the guesthouse and pretty much turned in for the night because we were so tired and knew we had a long day ahead of us. Monday, June 11th: Class day started and we began with introductions. There are about 16 people in our language group and they come from almost all corners of the world: 1 from Finnland, 3 from Russia, 2 from Poland, 1 from Czech Republic, 2 from Turkey, 1 from Macedonia, 1 from Nigeria, 1 from Taiwan, 1 from USA (me), 1 from Indonesia, and 2 from France. Very diverse group to say the least! We had instruction for the first part of the day and went to the bakery for a snack. I had almost forgotten how much a temptation the bakeries are here! The smells permeate the outside area as you walk down the street, and the baked goods are all laid out with care and eager advertisement. It draws you in every time. I have to watch myself. Fortunately, we walk everywhere! Lots of walking every day until our feet can't take it anymore...then we walk some more. The afternoon was spent on a city tour led by our instructor and then we did more walking in partners while we completed a scavenger hunt. By the end of the evening we were exhausted once again. The one thing that is the most intensively tiring thing about traveling abroad for language courses? Thinking, processing, speaking in the target language almost 100% of the time. German is the only way we all can communicate with each other. Tosin, the girl from Nigeria, knows English so every once in awhile, she and I will converse a little in English but quickly change back to German. Sometimes our conversations are half in German and half English! Haha! So far, I'm having a great time and I will have to write more about what we did on Tuesday and today but for now, I better head to bed. Tonight is the big soccer game between Germany and the Netherlands and there are for sure tons of people out in the bars and restaurants watching it but I'm so tired and lately it has been so chilly and rainy, several of us didn't feel like going out again after being out in the rain today and we decided to stay in and chill out in the common room with our computers and surf the Internet. We happened to also meet a guy who was watching the game on his laptop so we are watching it all together. I will write more later though.

Updated look

This is an updated picture of myself after I took a plunge and got a haircut that was totally out of my comfort zone.  It's an asymmetrical A-line style.  It took the rest of the day when I got it to get used to looking at it but now I LOVE it!!  It's pretty easy to style--just blow dry, straighten out the front and then put a tad of molding putty on it and it's good. :)

Here's the back of it.  Totally off of my neck, which makes working out even better!  Nice and cool.  Just have to keep the neck shaved because I have a weird hairline and it grows back pretty fast.  Anyway, thought you'd like to see the updated version of me since I haven't written in awhile.

Gute Reise! Bon Voyage! Happy Trails to you...

Well, I leave for Deutschland on Saturday!  I will fly to Phoenix, layover for about 2 hours, fly to Philadelphia, layover for about 2 more hours and then I'm on my way to Frankfurt.  It'll be quite a long day but it'll all be worth it to be able to go back to Germany!  I never would've guessed that I would get the opportunity to go visit again.  Kyle isn't going with me on this one though.  He gets to go with me in Spring 2013 on the student trip I'm doing...and that one will be almost free, if not, completely free!  That will be exciting too--2 trips for me to Germany in a span of a year?  Wow!  Looks like this German teaching position is opening up some awesomely huge doors this year.  I never would've imagined it.  I'm beyond fortunate and I thank my husband for being so supportive of this trip coming up.  He was the first one to tell me, "You have to do it."  So...I agreed.  Not much convincing needed really.  The only thing I really have to pay for is the plane ticket and that was a tad bit pricey but it's always pricey to leave the country.  And in actuality, the price isn't bad considering I had about 3 weeks to book it. 

The reason I'm going this time?  I'm taking some seminar classes to help improve my German language skills and rebuild confidence in the target language.  I applied for this program way back in late September and was turned down then due to so many applicants but I didn't realize that there was the possibility of spots opening up, much less, a few weeks BEFORE the program started!  What's going to happen once I get to Germany?  Not sure, all I know is that I have to catch a train from Frankfurt to Freiburg and once I get to Freiburg, I have to get to a guest house, which from what I understand, are dormitories where I will be staying for the 2 weeks.  I'm a little anxious of the unknown but my colleague, Jamie, has reassured me that it's a totally awesome experience and they really take care of you.  I will get a travel cost allowance while I'm there and some meals are provided.  Also, we will go on an excursion the following weekend.  Don't know where we'll go but I'm sure it'll be amazing wherever we go!  I'm just so pumped to be able to go back and refresh my language skills and regain the confidence that I have lost over the years since not speaking as much German as I had when I was teaching full time. 

After the seminar is done, I will head over to the southeastern part of the country to Erlangen, where my host family from 2005 lives and I will visit them for a couple of days.  I haven't seen them in 7 years!!  It'll be so great to get to see them again because when will be my next chance to see them?  The 2013 trip won't provide a chance because we'll be on a structured schedule and won't be able to stray too much, plus having to watch kiddos too.

Anyway, during the trip, I will have my Ipad with me and I will be updating on Facebook probably most days--unfortunately, I won't be able to upload pictures onto the Ipad onto the blog but I will write updates on here of what all happens.  If for some reason, I don't have much time for that, I PROMISE to have a nice, long update once I get back home. :)

Hope everyone is doing well and I will stay in touch.

HUGE UPDATE (as per many requests to do so...SORRY!!)

Sorry that I haven't updated since last year--terribly sorry about that! I know ya'll are wondering what has been happening in our lives lately so here's a HUGE UPDATE:

• School year is going amazing for me.  A little rough at the beginning--just getting back into the swing of teaching/speaking German but the kids are super patient with me and for the most part, I don't have many complaints about the type of student I have in my classes. :)
•  I still have a job next year to my knowledge. I will be traveling a bit (starting at Capital HS for 4th period--about 23 minutes away from Timberline HS where I will finish out with 5th and 6th period).  I will travel through my lunch and word on the street is that I will get my lunch paid out, as well as, mileage so I will get a little more pay than I am now.  This is a lot better than what I originally thought I was going to get which was a pay cut--Timberline is cutting one period of German so I would've only had 2 periods instead of the 3 that I had this year.  So this new deal is much better...other than the traveling...during lunch. But at least it's paid!!
• Since the current German teacher of German at Capital will be on leave of absence, I will get to takeover her position as group leader for the 2013 Spring trip to Germany...which means that I get to go to Germany FOR FREE!!!  Kyle gets to go with me for a very large discount--almost paid for but not quite but since we have 11 people signed up for the trip altogether with my school and Capital, the cost for him to go is greatly defrayed.  It will be a spring break to remember next year!!
• Kyle is working (not quite tirelessly) on his Master's and his Master's defense presentation is on the 11th of May. He's been under a lot of stress trying to get it edited and cleaned up.  He will then submit his entire paper for approval to the grad office after the final edits are made and we wait until about August until he can finally graduate as a MS in Electrical Engineering. 
• Tiger is doing well. He's the same lovable kitty! Social as ever and we have fully accepted him as a child. haha!!  We love him so much! Kyle has even come close to considering letting him sleep with us at night. ;)
• Summer vacation is approaching and we are definitely toying with the idea of taking a nice, relaxing vacation somewhere that has a beach and tropical atmosphere in order to escape the stresses of the past 2 years+ of Kyle's Master's work and now that it's almost finished, we're in desperate need of escape. Now, only to find the perfect location...

• Zumba® has DEFINITELY kept my extra time filled with teaching classes, subbing for other people's classes and going to the extracurricular events that it all encompasses such as many a Zumbathon®, choreography learning/practice sessions and specialty trainings... I am now officially licensed in regular Zumba® and Zumba® Toning (Zumba workout involving light weights).  The Toning classes will start this summer, although I've already introduced my students to it by doing a 50/50 mix of Toning and regular Zumba®.  We do the first half of class with the weights (warm-up not including weights) and then finish out the 2nd half without and just do the regular dance fitness.  This summer I will add Fridays to my schedule by doing a full hour Toning class at my Nampa studio that I teach at.  I'm already seeing the results in my arms and shoulders just by adding the resistance to my workouts.  Of course, Zumba® Toning is a whole different animal than that of the regular workout.  Since we incorporate weights in the dance fitness workout, our upper body motions have to be more controlled to avoid injury from holding the weights. We only work with 1-3 lb weights because this is not a class where we will build SIZE in our muscles but we will build TONE (hence the name) and we will build muscle endurance.  It's really been fun trying to practice for this class and I've got at least a half hour built up in choreo but I need the other half before I can start my whole hour class in the 2nd week of June. My students are loving it so far! My schedule is so jam-packed each week, Kyle can't hardly keep up with me but that's okay because he's busying himself with his thesis...

Well, hopefully that was a big enough of an update so far.  I'm sorry that I've been so terrible with keeping this thing up lately.  Just a hugely busy schedule has kept me away but I will try at least to update each month with all of our goings-on.  The summer should prove to be a little more laid back....maybe. ;)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Here's to hoping you and your families had the best Christmas yet and will be having a great new year when 2012 comes along!!! Love you all!


*On a side note, I've decided to get another type of Zumba license. I'm going to a Zumba Toning certification in March! Didn't take me long to spend the Christmas money once I saw that a training was coming to our town! Yay for no traveling! Just get up, get dressed and drive down the road! :) I'm super excited about this! Can't wait to add another dimension to my Zumba classes after March!!

Kyle's still working hard on his thesis. He's got 2 out of 4 chapters written so I'd say that's major progress!! He's got articles and papers strewn out all over the office floor...I'm trying to be patient with that.. haha! He's a good, hard worker and he'll have it finished by this spring and be able to graduate in summer if all goes the way it is going right now. :) Then maybe we might take a nice trip in the summer somewhere to celebrate his success.

Well, I better cut this off because I've got a CPR training to go to and then I'm out to lunch with a friend of mine.

An Update

Well, it's been a little over a month since the last time I've written. Sorry for being so lazy on this blog lately. Just got busy with a lot of other things so I'll give ya'll an update on the goings-on in the past month..

*Zumba has definitely been the major thing keeping me running from one place to another. Seems like I've got something Zumba-related most weeks and sometimes every night! As it stands now, I'm teaching regularly 3 times a week, soon to be 4 regular classes. A friend of mine had been teaching at Idaho Power for an employee wellness program they've got going on there. She's gotten too overwhelmed with other things in her other jobs and whatnot. So, she's handing it over to me. So after Thanksgiving week, I will be teaching M, T, W and F! Once the holidays are over then, I'm going to restart the Zumba Fitness for Faculty for another 6 week session. Whew! But the good news is, I'm really close to my final weight goal and all of this Zumba has definitely been the driving force to get me there! I'm pretty happy with that!


*School: Kids are still acting pretty decent. They're teenagers and they're talkative and at times, immature, but that'll be kids for you. If talking and immaturity are my biggest problems, I'd say I've got it made in terms of student quality. :) I love them to death (well, most of them ;) ha!).. They're great and I can always count on a pretty good laugh from them every now and then. Grades are good for the most part and I feel like this is going to continue to be a good year. I had my first formal observation today and the students in my 5th period did extremely well for me. They were attentive and mostly engaged and the principal even chuckled a little at one of my students. I think that's a good sign.


*Personal life: Hectic. What with Zumba and Kyle doing Master's work, we rarely find a lot of time to sit back and relax but lately we've found a little time. So I can't complain too much. We have a friend couple who have invited us out to their cabin in Donnelly (in the mountains) a few times. We've only really been out there once so far but we love going out there. It's so peaceful and quiet! Not to mention, great times with friends! We eat good too. ;)


That's what has been going on so far in our lives lately. About to have some very special visitors here on Monday night to stay with us through the Thanksgiving week. We can't wait to have my parents here for a nice, relaxing visit. I'm sure we'll try and take pictures. Until then, have a great rest of your week!

Almost halfway there..

Well, it's almost mid-October (which means Thanksgiving is near and so are the Christmas holidays, which means the year is almost halfway done..) and so far, I've survived the first couple of months of school. I've started up a Zumba Fitness for Faculty for a couple of schools near to my high school. We're having the classes at one of the elementary schools since they won't charge rent. :) We're having a blast!! Class is every Thursday right after school.


One thing though is that I am so busy. There really isn't a night or weekend where I don't have some sort of commitment. It's beginning to get tiresome. Granted, it's great exercise but at some point, I'm going to have to sit tight and not commit to stuff right away. I swear that Zumba is keeping me more busy than my real teaching job--haha! At the same time, if I don't have these classes or have to skip one for some reason, I feel bloated and I don't feel good. These classes are like a drug. I have withdrawals, like the bloating and icky feelings, when I don't get to partake in the classes for some reason. I'm hoping that at least in November, I'll be able to take a little breather. I've got 2 parties I'm going to be participating in for Zumba purposes: Zombie Zumbathon and a "Wicked" Zumba party...sheesh! Lots of fun but after I get done with those, I'm going to collapse! :) I'm not having my Saturday Zumba class on the 29th so that Kyle and I can escape town for that weekend and have some peace and quiet. No Zumba. No nothing. It'll be nice. We can be refreshed and then come back that Sunday afternoon ready to start it all over again--full force!


The kids in my classes are all pretty good kids. Only minor problems such as the normal stuff like, too much talking and not staying on task. However, I've remedied that for the a little bit (especially for my 6th period). It's called new seating charts and a heart-to-heart talk with them saying I know they can do better. So far, it's worked. *cross fingers*


Kyle is still working on his Master's. He hasn't started writing yet. He's hoping to start that soon. I'm hoping he'll start that soon too because that means this madness will be done. :)


Well, I better get going. Gotta go practice with a fellow Zumba Instructor for the Zombie Zumbathon later this month. :)

1st couple of weeks down, several to go!

School has gotten off to a great start! My kids are great and (mostly) behaved. :) Sure, they're talkative and can be a bit rambunctious but they're good kids, all in all. I've been majorly saved by my fellow German teacher, Jamie Gilderhus, with all of her lesson plans she so graciously gave to me this summer. I've been trying to beef them up where I can to make them my own. I've been trying to figure out my own pace as well and doing lots of trial and error attempts...although since school has but barely started, I haven't had that many "errors"...yet.. I should get a picture of my classroom up on here pretty soon.


I've also volunteered to be the Wellness Champion for my school in order to get more involved with the teacher community at Timberline HS. All a Wellness Champion does is be the contact for the lady at the district office to send posters and flyers and whatnot to me and I can hang them around the school for faculty. I also get to help decide what health initiatives we'd like to implement for the district based on needs and desires of the district. With that said, I've decided that I want to start up a Zumba Fitness for Faculty class on Thursday afternoons. I've already had about 8 teachers at my school say they were totally interested in participating and so we'll see once I get an actual location how many more I'll gain. I would do it at my school but there's been a snag, (don't want to go into details) so I'm working with the district lady to get someplace else worked out. :)


Basically, I've been going nonstop lately. I'm tired. Whoever said half-time employment was actually half-time? Yeah, it's called half-time because I'm only paid for HALF of my time spent. ;) No worries, I love my job so far and don't have very many complaints about getting to school at 10am... that part is awesome, I won't lie.


I've also started up a German Club and have a few student participants already. We're having a "Club Rush" this week to promote all of the school clubs and hopefully grow ours. I also have a Back to School Nite event tomorrow where I get to meet some of the parents of my students. I'm also going to try and snag some and try and convince them to come to my Germany trip parent meeting the following night so they can have their kids take part in a wonderful travel opportunity. I think the parents are the ones who I can grab and actually get their attention about this amazing opportunity. Who wouldn't want to go to Germany in 2013 with a couple of AWESOME German teachers?

Well, that's what has been happening with me so far since school started. Kyle has still been plugging away at his Master's. Not a lot of spare time lately except for last weekend when we drove up to Donnelly, ID to stay a night at one of his coworker friend's cabin. They were up there and so we had a nice visit with them. The fresh mountain air was just what we needed. It allowed us to have a nice sleep that night and we woke refreshed the next day. It was a great weekend.

Jennifer Campbell rocks Zumba at the Canyon County Music Festival

Here's a video of me teaching a Zumba routine (Bollywood music) at a local music festival. :)

And it's begun!

The school year is nigh and I'm gearing up for it this week, which means meetings, meetings and more meetings! I'm getting at a taste of how exhausted I'm about to become. Although I will say, these days I've been going all day. With this part-time gig, I probably won't be as tired. But the anxiety and good stress of starting something new will probably weigh on me for a little bit. Nonetheless, I'm completely excited!!! I've got new ideas for the classroom (stuff for getting the kids to participate, etc...). I've met one of my students already--he's a German exchange student. Already forgot his name. LOL! Anyway, he's gonna be my teaching assistant for my German 3 class,where I only have 9 kids and he'll be my resource for culture questions and any doubts I have about my language skills. I'm sure he'll be willing to help me out. :)


I'm sharing a classroom with another teacher who's there in the morning and the great thing is: I DON'T HAVE TO MOVE ROOMS FOR EACH CLASS!!! I get to stay in that room in the afternoon!!! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES ME! I get to plant myself right there and stay. I have my desk all set up for the most part, aside from odds and ends that will be added I'm sure as the year goes on. I plan on making a filing system (I'm not organized--not quite sure I'm gonna do this but it's gonna happen). I've got ideas for small projects. I'm excited for them. I think the kids and I will get along just peachy (here's hoping).


I'm sure I will have updates for ya'll soon. I'll let you know how the first few days/weeks went.

Wow, that was random/weird/nice...

I just had the nicest thing sent to me. A girl on Facebook befriend me after I sent a friend request because we had gone to middle school together. She was part of the people who may or may not have had a hand in making my life a little harder than it needed to be at that point in time. But I don't remember her being one of the MAIN ones. So anyway, she sent me a message apologizing for the way she treated me and that she hoped she didn't cause me too much grief. She said she wasn't really that way and that she's thought about me over the past several years and wanted to basically make amends.


That is an awesome thing for her to do. I mean, yeah, it came in 16 years later but hey, better late than never I suppose? I replied back to her thanking her for the nice message and that I turned out okay (debatable?--haha) and that I was very fortunate to have 2 very loving and caring parents to help me get through all of those tough times. Not every child has 2 parents nowadays that will take time to listen and comfort their children in times like those. I'm extremely lucky. And I told her that I really don't remember her being one of the main ones that gave me issues anyway. Or at least not that I can easily recollect. I do remember 2 girls to this day but it's all in the past and I have such a good life now that who cares what those 2 girls are doing? If I held that anger and sadness in for 16 years, they would've won. This girl that wrote to me actually seemed like a pretty approachable person when she was by herself and not around those other girls. I told her that pretty much. I said that, "Deep down, I think I knew you weren't like the other girls and it sorta confused me at the time. You seemed like you were a very pleasant person." Ahh, the power of peer pressure. I believe it's the strongest when you're in middle school. You're caught in between being a kid and an adolescent/teen. You're not quite sure who you're going to be at that time so you let other people decide for you, unfortunately or fortunately (depending on who you choose to be around)..


But it shows her maturity in writing this message and I only can appreciate her for this act of kindness.

The room is booked!!

A fellow Zumba Instructor and I have officially made it a goal for both of us (and other Treasure Valley Zumba Instructors) to attend the 2012 Zumba Instructor Convention in Orlando, Florida!! Apparently this year's Convention was a huge hit because not only did 7,000+ Zumba Instructors from around the world attended but ALSO the hip-hop artist, PITBULL made a special appearance for the Friday night Fitness-Concert! Wyclef-Jean also was in attendance as well!!

What happens during a Zumba Convention you ask? Well, think of it as a Comic Book Convention...BUT WAY, WAY, WAY COOLER!!! People also tend to lose a few pounds while there too due to massive amounts of exercise! This convention is only open to Zumba Instructors who are a part of the Zumba Instructor Network (ZIN) and are in good standing. There, they can get extra specialty certifications such as Aqua Zumba, Zumba Toning, Zumbatomic (Zumba for kids, ages 12 and below), Zumba Gold (Zumba for the active, older adult or the de-conditioned individual), etc. There's a new specialty that they've showcased during the convention and that's called Sentao, which is a Zumba workout on a chair--very low to no impact on the joints! The convention also offers specialty "boosts" which are little flavor sessions people can go to if they already teach a certain specialty and just need new ideas and whatnot. Now, the convention isn't all work and no play, they DO have LOADS of fun there too, such as the Glimmer and Glow Party and as I mentioned earlier, the Fitness-concert where special guest appearances may happen!

As you can see, this is a beyond-awesome event and I must be in attendance next year with thousands of my closest friends in the Zumba Fitness world!! And that's why I've gone ahead and booked a room at the most coveted event in a Zumba Instructor's fitness career...

This is what I'm talking about!!

This is my sweaty, hug picture with Camilo Jimenez. He's the guy that taught the Zumba Master Class I wrote about in the previous post. I had an AWESOME day.

And about a month later, I decide to post something...

Whoa, sorry ya'll. It's been awhile. Quite a bit has happened since the last time I wrote. Well, summer has officially begun and I'm happy to say that I can actually CELEBRATE this summer because I AM AN OFFICIAL EMPLOYEE OF THE BOISE SCHOOL DISTRICT!!! I have a part-time German position at a high school. I'll be teaching 3 periods in the afternoon every day (4th, 5th and 6th) and it'll be wonderful. :) I'm so excited because I think this position has potential to last a long time. It also has potential to grow into full-time maybe the following school year. I'm so happy now. I've already started some brainstorming for the year and for the lessons. Gotta get started since I haven't really thought about German in awhile. Hmm.. ;)


Another thing is Kyle got a small raise for good works at his job. Every little bit helps, right? :)


We went to Yosemite in early June and it was an awesome sight to see! We definitely enjoyed seeing the huge, beautiful national park. I will hopefully post pictures soon. This site tends to be a little slow in the picture uploading mode so I'll have to pick a few good ones to put on here so ya'll believe me that we actually went. hehe..


Today was a STUPENDOUS day because I got to do what I love to do the most: ZUMBA FITNESS. A fellow Zumba Instructor was lucky enough to have an important person in the Zumba Fitness industry come up to Idaho and conduct a Master Class (basically a HUGE Zumba class for any and everyone to have a great time and move/groove to music with one of the best dancers). He definitely was energetic and talented..AND his looks didn't hurt either. ;) His name is Camilo Jimenez and he had us dancing the whole morning!! The class started at 10am and ended at 11:30am. There was hootin' and hollerin' all over and especially when he would wipe his sweat with his shirt and "accidentally" lift his shirt up to show his abs. Hmm...he was eatin' it up. He loved the women screamin' at him. HAHA. I wish I had a video of it. I had a couple pictures with him. One where I was all dry before class (no sweat) and then one right after class and he gave me a BIG, SWEATY HUG. It was a good picture. Soon as I get it, I'll post it.

After the Master Class, a friend of mine that I had driven over with and I went to Nampa to go shopping at the Zumba Basics 1 training that was being held by Zumba Education Specialist, Barbara Klontz. I'm following her blog in case you'd like to read it. It's over there on the right side of my blog. She talks about having the condition of Hemachromatosis (body produces too much iron) and she's constantly in pain and is sick a lot, yet she has the gumption to be this powerful Educational figure in the fitness industry despite how crappy she feels. It's very inspirational. :) I was telling my friend that I almost feel as if these ZES's are like mini-celebrities because I just look up to them so much because of their expertise in the fitness program that I absolutely love. They are just awesome. I can't describe how completely phenomenal they are as people.


Well, it's getting kinda late so I better get going. I'm completely exhausted from this magnificent day.

New businesses take a lot of time and commitment!

As my mom and dad and many of you already know, starting up a new business is time-consuming and takes a lot of patience and most of the time, a lot of $$$! I've had a little taste of that lately with working at the Nampa Fit Studio. I've been so busy lately with doing Zumba Fitness demos for prospective Studio customers! Seems like every couple of weeks there's a place to be. It's fun though to get out into the public eye in hopes that client numbers will grow. At times, however, it gets a bit discouraging when I do put in all that time at the different locations--preparation, gas money, energy and only to not see class numbers grow. It's like, "where did these free credits go?" Why aren't these people taking advantage of a free credit? Anyway, I'm starting to see the fruits of my labor, if only for a short time--who knows if the numbers will continue to go up but Monday night was awesome! I had 6 people in my class! I had been having anywhere from 1 or 2 students and barely able to make 3 students! 3 students equals me getting paid. Anything under 3 means I'm either not getting to the studio because nobody signed up or there's only 1 or 2 people and I give them a workout for free. I'm so glad now that my numbers seem to be slowly increasing. It's definitely not been easy to come by. Time, patience and LOTS of energy. I love my boss though. She's what makes it worth all the trouble. She's so easy to work with and has given me ample opportunities to show myself and my trade of Zumba Fitness. She's invested TONS of money into this fitness studio of hers and I admire her for it. It's risky nowadays to put your life on the line and lay out a lot of money on something that may or may not work out. Fortunately, everybody is looking to lose a few pounds here and there so I think this studio will go pretty far and grow to be very successful.


At my other studio, I'm starting to see my numbers grow there too and that's been all me trying to get my Saturday class introduced into the public. I've walked around town posting flyers, handing out cards, posting on Facebook, etc...I've spent lots of my money on business cards, printouts and free class cards in hopes of upping my numbers there as well. This one is a little harder in some respects because really, nobody else is helping me promote that class but ME. I mean, it's on the studio owner's schedule printouts but I'm sure he doesn't really say much but that's okay. It's my class, my business that I have to grow and nurture. I've just completed my big project that I had been working on..my contest video for the Zumba Home Office. I choreographed (all on my own--my very first choreography project without the help of any youtube channels or other Zumba Instructors) the song of their choice, "Contigo" (a salsa song) and put together a production. It was truly amazing to see these 9 women come together for me to make this contest video. After the deadline is up, I will post a segment of it so ya'll can get a glimpse of my final product. I have to say, I'm extremely proud of myself and my students. Even if I don't win the contest, I can say, "Look what we did and look how much fun it was to do this together?" It'll give me the confidence to do it again in the future.




I love my job as a Zumba Instructor. It's worth the money. :)

Photo session. :)

I'm trying to upload a few more but the site's being difficult so I'll try later. But these are a few of my favorites. :)