Construction

So, things are pretty upside down around here. Offices have been shuffled and furniture has been moved and who knows where half of the stuff ended up! But it's definitely going to be beautiful when it's all said and done! I can't wait to see the finished product... they are saying the end of July, which probably really means around September, or at least that's my guess.
To cover up the construction, they have posted HUGE posters of us teaching. They just choose random pictures from throughout the year and post them up, sometimes around the school, and sometimes randomly on billboards around the city. I made it on one this year :) And it's actually a decent picture.
Here's a bit of what the construction looks like right now... I wish I had before and after pictures, but you'll just have to go with the in-between pictures.

So, we're just going to skip the being at home part... I pretty much just did what I did before I came here... I hung out with friends and family. Not much to report there, but you can see pictures on facebook.
I'm now back in Thailand, and it feels like I never left. Except for the fact that they tore up half of the school and there are some new teachers and some that didn't return. But it's good to be back. I have two awesome roommates, both happen to be named Sarah, and there is also another Sarah who lives across campus. There are 4 new female teachers and one new couple. There are a lot of returning teachers which is unusual, but really awesome.
I've been here for 3 days now and still haven't unpacked, pretty typical. I need to go get coat hangers but I just haven't felt like walking to the store, so things have just stayed in my bags. I'm okay with that for now. I have an awesome new wardrobe that's really big and a nice new desk where I can sit and grade papers into the night. I'm probably going to be doing that often now that I have a class of 25! That's as big as classes get here, and I'm definitely going to have my hands full for the year!
We had our first day of orientation today and went over all of the changes and the new rules. We are blessed to have some awesome administrators that really want to help make things go well for us. With all of the construction going on and having to move offices and the staff room and so on, they've been great about trying to keep things as normal and un-hectic as they can. But that's what living overseas is all about, at least in the countries that I've been to. You just have to learn to expect the unexpected, be flexible, and go with the flow. It's not always easy, but you make it work.
After orientation my roommates and I cleaned out the entire kitchen and re-arranged the living room. It feels good to have things in working order. Now if I could just get my room that way.... of course we all know that's probably never going to happen, but we can hold out hope...
Here are a few pictures of the construction going on... they were taken a while ago... since these they have torn down pretty much all of it.. no walls or floors or anything. It's going to be a few months before it's done.