Post 1st day of school and 1st Greece race

So, a lot has taken place in the last week.  I survived my first day of school as well as my first open half marathon!  I'll start with the first day of school.  I am the type of person who is never really ready.  By that I mean being able to sit down and breathe before the chaos.  I always have five minutes to do ten more things before I can take a breathe and find myself bored.   So, of course, on the first day of school I wasn't ready for the kids to come.  But they came and went and all was well!  They are a bit more talkative than I expected but they seem to be a fun bunch of kids.  There are kids from a variety of different backgrounds, Greek, American, Finnish, Australian, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Norwegian, Pakistani,  and I am sure a couple of other nationalities.  It is pretty cool to be around so many different nationalities!

I am not quite in the rhythm of this school yet, but it will come with time.  When I was in Salt Lake everything was new at first too...my school...teaching...my friends...my environment and that turned out great!  Now, I get to do it again but where the language is also new.  It will come, I just like routines so I am excited to get into a good one. :)

So, I did my first race here in Greece.  It was a little spur of the moment race that my friend Eddy signed me up for.  He has been such a great help and I can't even imagine what life in Greece would be like if I hadn't met him!!  He was doing the half marathon of Marathon, Greece and so he signed me up too.  Since I got here I haven't really gotten into a workout routine yet either.  I have been running consistently and swimming twice a week in the Mediterranean Sea, so I wouldn't lose all of my fitness but I wasn't doing proper half marathon training, which I do want to do someday to see how fast I could run.

Anyways, the race was pretty cool.  There were around 1,500 people there running, which was really fun to see.  The race course is the same as the first 6 miles in the Athens Classic Marathon and then it turned around and went around the Tomb of the Athenians, where all the soldiers were buried, including the solider that died carrying the news from Marathon to Athens.  My plan for the race was to just see how I feel and run.  However, once the gun goes off, of course the competitive juices start to get the best of me!  I decided that I wanted to run at roughly a 7:00 min/mile pace, which would in turn get me to the finish line around 1:30, which I decided I wanted to be my goal time.  I felt good the first half and really mostly the whole race, except the last 1km, I was totally wishing that the race would end soon.  Other than that little part I felt pretty good and had a good time during the race too.  My final average turned out to be 7:10 min/miles with my final time being 1:35.  So now I have a starting point and with some proper half marathon training I know I can get my time down.

This up coming week I hope to start getting into a routine and figuring out how school works and how workouts work.  I am going to try a spin class later this week, which I hope will work out.  I haven't been on a my bike in about three weeks!  I really need to get some spinning in!  It'll come.  I just need to be patient. :)

I hope all is going well with everyone.  I miss you all soo much!

Sorry Aryn...your eyes were closed on this one.

Eddy and I at the race. 

What I won at the race this morning.  3rd place.

Week number 2

Hello friends!!

I hope you are all well and that school started smoothly for all of you!  I miss Copper Canyon and all the students, teachers, the familiar surroundings, and knowing exactly how things work!  Last week the new teachers started orientation and setting up classrooms here at ACS.  I miss my old classroom :(  It was hard to ship things here so I feel as though my classroom is so bare.  Instead of a huge classroom library that I am used to, I am limited to only a few books...okay enough with the negative attitude...I am excited for the first day of school and also for it to be over so I can know how things run and I can get used to the routines here.  I got my class schedule today and it is nice to have some free time during the day while the kids will be in art, music, PE, library, and computers.

Besides school, things are well.  I just got back from a weekend vacation with some of the other American teachers.  We visited two of the Greek Islands: Poros and Hydra.  It was fun to be on the beach again.  Although they are no Hawaiian beach, it was fun to be in a different part of the world on the beach.  The Greek islands are pretty cool and there are so many!  We didn't do too much exploring but I did get to see lots while I was out on my runs.  It was also nice to be able to relax and read my book and not have too much to worry about.  Also I am getting to know my fellow American colleagues better and they are a pretty cool bunch of kids!

Besides school and traveling, I am still trying to find a routine for my workouts.  I can run no problem and I have found a track that is near by my house, swimming doesn't seem like it will be a problem either.  I have been swimming in the ocean with my triathlon friend and I will also start swimming before school once school starts with some of the American teachers, but biking...I haven't quite got that one figured out yet.  My bike is still in pieces and it is my goal to get that put together this week/weekend.  Also, I will visit a spin class this week and see if that will be a good option during the week.  The roads here are crazy and the drivers are crazy..so I am a bit hesitant to go outside for a ride...I have seen a few riders...but not too many.  Hopefully I will start my training soon because that is one thing that I am stressing out about. I really don't want to lose my base and all the hard work that I have already done the past couple of years.  I know it is good to take a break from training since I have been training hard since last November, so I am not too worried, but in a couple of weeks I should have a plan!

Alright, I am off to the grocery store to figure out what to eat here.  Back in Salt Lake I just wrapped everything into a tortilla but I can't really do that here, so I am still figuring out what I will be eating. So far a lot of spaghetti when I am cooking.  The food in the restaurants are great!  I really enjoy the Greek Salads and I have learned to like feta.  I think it is a little different than the feta in the states..maybe not such a strong taste.  Anyways I like it.

Miss you all!