What does Mother Nature have against us?

We left Florida yesterday and now we are in Washington D.C. and IT IS COLD! grrrr. But! We did have a great week in Clermont, FL. I took Teele on her first jet ski ride and she learned how to drive it as well...and I took Makly on his first REAL jet ski ride...their sound effects were enough to brighten my day for a week :-P hehe

We met several teachers at Clermont Elementary school that I think define what education should be. Dedicated and truly determined to do everything in the student's best interest...teachers that genuinely care about their students and their lives and their experiences...so thank you for that, and you all know who you are!

Many of the kids this past week had us laughing out loud...

*Zuly's instrument is called a "Cuatro". She is counting out loud in Spanish with the kids up to the number four so they can learn the name. Then she holds up the maracas and asks them "And how do you call these?" and a kindergarten student yells "CINCO!" as confident as ever....

*Zuly is trying to teach the kids how to roll their "r"'s by telling them to imitate the sound of a motorcycle engine...we just keep getting voom voom voom instead rrrrrrr!? (Other singers: "They don't have the rolling "r" sound in English...")

*I am selling t-shirts at an evening concert and a kid comes running up to the table (he's probably 7 or 8) and grabs an adult extra large t-shirt and starts screaming at me about how he wants it. I reach out to grab the t-shirt and tell him he will have to wait and come back with his parents...he proceeds to play tug of war with me and literally hangs from the t-shirt.....my face I'm sure was priceless (Something along the lines of expressing "Where are your parents and why on Earth did they let you out of the house today?!")...and Steve and Teele had the privilege of witnessing the whole scene...thank you guys for the back up...haha.

Through our wonderful connections at Clermont Elementary we also got to visit Walt Disney World! We went to magic Kingdom first and watched a parade of pretty princesses and handsome princes and then road some rides. Then we split up and Teele and I visited Epcot...Ya know, we created our future in a time machine and traveled around the whole world in just three hours...SOUL tours can do amazing things for you I tell ya....Talk about using your time wisely ;) Annnnnd Zuly, Makly and Steve liked Disney so much they went back again later in the week! I think they literally saw everything.....I'm glad they had the opportunity and had a great time!! :)

Friday after school we embarked on the longest SOUL drive in history I think...a total of 15 hours between two days...Being in the car for that long together can make you goofy... And I think some of the best people watching and random life experiences can happen at rest stops...officially. For the SECOND time on this tour, Teele and I found a ladies bathroom...a single ladies bathroom....one door....no stalls.....with two toilets set right beside each other. And (this is probably too much information but I will give it to you anyway because it makes the story  better...) we had to go so bad, we used them! So we are laughing and when we exit the bathroom Makly and Steve are still in line for the men's room. We explain why we are laughing and Steve walks towards the women's bathroom because he wants to see this - and I say "oh but Steve, you can't go in there!"...annnnd the guy working behind the counter proceeds to make the "psht" noise as in, uh it doesn't matter! and says "Oh yeah he can...it's probably better anyways". Turns out some kid had a volatile accident in the men's bathroom and it was inhumane to force anyone else to use it. So after Teele and I used the double toilet...so did the boys! It's kind of a weird and gross story, but I can just picture this being a great scene for a movie.

We stayed at a hotel in Savannah, GA last night...which makes me kind of sad because we heard so much about what a nice and pretty city it is...and we were only there basically to sleep :( Oh well...we did have a lovely continental breakfast that provided us with a great laugh to start off the day. Zuly see's a waffle machine but doesn't know how it works and so she calls me over and says "Okay Jackie you are the American here...show me." The hotel employee over-hears her say this and proceeds to pretty much make the waffle for her...and he says "When it's done it will beep at you." Zuly looks confused and says "what? beep?" and he looks her right in the face and says "Yes, it will go 'BE BA BEEE BEEEE BEEEEEEEP'" when it's done. It was the best impression of a waffle machine beep I have ever heard! It kind of reminded me of a scene from the most recent Alvin and the Chipmunks movie...which I saw with Miss Kristen Henderson and I think she is the only person who it will understand why, hehe.

Now we are in Washington D.C. and we get to be tourists all day tomorrow!! I think this is the thing I have been most excited for on the entire tour...I am really looking forward to it!! I am just bummed that I lost my camera charger, so i won't be able to take any pictures on my own camera :(

Countdown: 56 days till The Netherlands!!!

Peace, Love, Capitol Building! ~Jackie

p.s. I spent 5ish hours thoroughly cleaning the SOUL train inside and out this past week during my time off because I am officially a workaholic and now it is covered in bug guts. wahm wahm wahmmmmmm.