I got in trouble for that last post (hi Dad), but even though I think it's scary and that the Bin Laden death-day-revelers were, in the words of my father, "yahoos," it does not mean that I don't love to pieces my country tis of thee. Go USA.

Anyway, this works out quite perfectly for me because it just so happens that two weeks from today I will be on board a flight to Chicago. I really don't want to talk about all the work that needs to be accomplished before that happens but I am excited to be attending the graduation ceremony at my Colegio on Friday night and to have received multiple personal invitations to next week's class dinner. Oh you guys, you make all this hard work so rewarding.

But for realzz, I really like my kids and as the weeks tick down I'm starting to realize they're not coming with me next year. Full disclosure: with some of them I'm quite certain it's for the best. That means you 3A ESO. But what about the ones who complain when their Spanish teacher comes to take over at the end of my class? What about the ones who have bonded with me so well they feel comfortable bringing up vocabulary questions about male genitalia? What about the ones who compliment me on my tan? (Keep it comin').

And what progress we've made this year. When I started out, my first day ended - and started, and continued - in panic and fear after the chaos of my 1A ESO students led the Spanish teacher to throw her arms up and proclaim the classroom a disaster before apologizing to me for their rabid behavior and excusing me to the teachers lounge. Juxtapose that with today, where in that very same classroom one of those previously delinquent boys politely hung his head in shame and pointed at a nearby student, indicating the intention of his aim, after a plastic bullet from his toy gun bounced off my upper arm. Oh you guys, you make all this hard work so rewarding!

Speaking of precious, today the music teacher told me that the boys in my 1ESO class had entered a song-writing contest, and chose to do so in English. This is feel-good teacher fun right here, my country tis of thee is rubbing off.