First Impressions: Bahamas and LCISJun 11, 2012
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| Report on the day(s): Travel to the Bahamas went smoothly. We made the ferry, were able to meet Dad in the airport, and were also able to check all the bags/sax and everything got here safely, except a mystery missing shoe. My first flight (red-eye from Seattle to Miami) was fine, although I didn't sleep as much as I had wanted. My time in the Miami airport was spent at a Cuban cafe where I had epenadas for breakfast with cafe con leche. The plane from Miami to Nassau was bigger than I anticipated-about the same size as the planes from Colorado Springs to Denver. Nice! The views from above were spectacular, all shades of blue and views of beautiful properties and white sand. There are nice evergreens here too. After making it through immigration/customs I met two of my new colleagues, Kim and Bathsheba. Both very, very nice ladies, both Bahemian, both with lovely accents. So helpful and kind and warm. We went directly to school where I met so many people....I know I won't remember all of the new names until later. Ms. Kim, my new music teacher colleague took Mya (another new music teacher) and I out for lunch. I had a delicious wrap with mahi mahi and olive tapenade and we all shared fries with white truffle aeoli. Not too shabby! After lunch we helped the 6th graders with their graduation song and then I had a few minutes to meet more people. At about 4:30 we left (we being myself and Ms. BoBo or Stacey, my new boss/principal) and I got to go to my hotel. Super nice hotel right on the water at Cable Beach! I showered, changed, and then we went to the 6th grade graduation. Met even more people there, grabbed subway on the way home (about $2 more expensive per item here) and got to my hotel around 9:15pm. Impressions: Everyone is very polite, almost proper, courteous, and friendly. Everyone seems to have a smile glued to their face thus far, and why shouldn't they? This is paradise right? I can see the Atlantis hotel from here, and I even ate my Subway on a beach chair with the waves lapping on to shore. Pretty amazing. The students are very, very articulate and even on first impression, I can tell I will have some very loud (AWESOME) personalities to deal with this coming fall. I love personalities. There are a few shy ones, but overall, kids are kids, they are all different in some ways, but the same in others. From what I gather, I am replacing someone who has set the bar pretty low, which in a way is comforting, but also sad because the kids have not had the best music teacher. I'm not kidding when I say articulate, though. The graduation speech made by one of these little 12 year old students was stated more eloquently than I have heard at some high school graduations. Very impressive. As far as parents go, my guess was right-there will be parents asking "why isn't ____ first chair" rather than "why is music even a subject at school?" I would rather have over involved parents than under involved parents, but I know I'll have to be very strong in that respect this year. So far I have liked nearly everyone I've met. Already perceive some funny personality traits here and there, but overall, I think I will be very happy here. The students seem very willing to learn, engage, and take risks in the classroom. Oh-and the uniforms are AWESOME. Levels the playing field big time and I just love that. I do sense a little bit of tension between native and non-native islanders, but that is natural to some extent in any community I think. Anyway, time to catch some ZZzzZZ's. Tomorrow I'm pretty sure the plan is to apartment hunt, meet with IB coordinators and curriculum coordinators, and more. I'm hoping I get some time at the beach, but I'm here to plan for next year...so it would just be icing on the cake. If there wasn't already enough icing on the cake already. I'm feeling grateful to be here. Mom and Dad and LuLu are gonna love it. Tim will too. Lulu can hunt for her future hubby-haha! A handsome bahemian man! On that note, goodnight. Oh and yes, it really does look like the pictures here. Or even better!!! COME VISIT ME! :) |
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