Ups and Downs

Moving overseas has taught me a lot of things. The first is that sometimes I won't be as good at things as I was in America. Things that had become second nature to me are suddenly the most difficult things in the world to do. There are barriers that prevent me from accomplishing all the things I want to accomplish.

One of the things I have had to REALLY adjust to is baking! I have had one baking fail after another. Now I'm not going to say that I am the best baker in the world, but I could at least make a batch of cookies or a simple cake using a cake mix with ease in the States. Here there are so many things that hinder my productivity. The oven is in Celsius and heats higher than the knob says. There are different oven settings that are just symbols and not words. The ingredients I want to put into my baked good is not exactly what I need or in the right amount. WHY DOESN'T AMERICA SWITCH TO THE STINKIN METRIC SYSTEM?!?!?!  I have learned the Czech translation of many of the most important items. Today I learned the difference between baking sugar and powdered sugar. Cukr na pečení v. cukr moučka.

Another thing is teaching. Again I am not going to say that I was the best teacher in the world in the States, but I felt rather confident at my job. I knew that I could walk into the class and get the job done. Now children in America are the same as children anywhere. My students here are a bit more motivated to learn their subjects, but teaching hasn't changed much. However, I find myself struggling with how to get my students active in their learning. This is partly due to teaching a new subject and also a new format of teaching. I was always a math science person. God knew this and blessed me with 8 science classes every week. That's over half of my classes. But teaching the English language has proven a daunting task to over come!

All of this to say that in all of this I have learned to persevere and rely on God to pull me through and teach me exactly what I need to know for the task at hand. Pride comes before the fall! That is SO true! When I begin to think I am getting the hang of something I get on the wrong tram and realize too late to transfer at the next station, or burn the top of a cake because I have the oven set on broil. I have learned in life overseas to just roll with whatever comes. I will mess up and I will make mistakes, but He is faithful to teach me something through the process.