Teacher Appreciation Day

Today was Teacher Appreciation Day. Our school invited us to the office for a special tea in honor of all the teachers we work with. They also asked us to find a creative way to introduce ourselves. We decided to write a song to the tune of "This Land is Your Land." Each of us had our own verse (my first two lines were "I come from Georgia, we have no winter/I hardly saw snow before I came here") and then we closed together. With the permission of Amy and Jennifer, here is our last verse:

Jump, Jive, and Wail

Many of you know how much I love swing dancing, a love I first discovered while living in Houston. Well this year it turns out that one of my roommates, Sara, loves it too! She has been in the habit of going dancing at least twice a week for years (and frankly, she puts me to shame). So we've decided to join forces and start an American Dancing Club for our students and friends! We'll start off teaching them swing, but then we'll branch out into various other dances that Sara knows. Our first lesson was this afternoon in our living room, but it looks like in the future we'll be able to use a dance hall at one of the schools nearby.

Today was a ton of fun. We were able to teach them about 4 turns/moves in addition to the basic step, and they all seemed to really be having fun. We had a slight shortage of guys, but a few girls took the man's part and it worked out alright. And one of the guys promised to bring his friends next time.

Swing 101 (minus Roma, Roma, and Jasin)

Here's a quick video of some of the free style dancing at the end.