High School

I thought I would blog about High School, since I don't think that Josie will...but it has been an interesting experience so far, seeing my last child enter high school. I have been at this high school thing for a long time, longer than how old Josie is, actually. I am kind of sad to be at the end of this time of my life. :o(

So, Josie was all set to go to Timpanogos, which is a really great school very close to home. But, when I was in Egypt, she called me one day and said that she thought she would like to go to Provo High so she could continue Arabic; she was working really hard at StarTalk, and didn't want to lose the ground she had gained. Arabic is only offered at Provo High and Lone Peak High which is too far away to be logistically possible.

I said that I would call Provo High when I got home, but what was I thinking? I should have looked them up and called them from Egypt (on Nancy and Andrew's Utah County line) because by the time I got home they were so busy that I couldn't get an appointment with a counsellor until Tuesday Aug. 18. Which would have been fine if we didn't have tickets for Wicked in San Diego that very day.

So I just decided we would forget the Provo High possibility, because as soon as we got back from San Diego, school started. And the day after school started, Patrick needed to be on a plane to Egypt. So I was very busy getting Josie off to school and Patrick off to Egypt.

But on Friday afternoon, Audrey the Arabic teacher called me. The counsellor had come across the note the secretary had left her telling about us, and she was so busy that she asked Audrey to call us. Audrey really, really, really wanted Josie to come to Provo High. By now, Josie wasn't sure, because she really liked all her Timpanogos classes. But we made plans to meet Audrey at Provo High on Monday morning at 7:30 August 24 to find out about what classes might be available there. Josie really wanted to just go to Provo for Arabic, and stay at Timpanogos for her other classes.

But we learned that it is going to be a fabulous year for Arabic at Provo High. They got federal funding to have a teacher from Egypt to team teach with Audrey, so they have two teachers and money for cool things as a part of the funding. So Josie was thinking it would be good to be in Arabic at Provo.

We had to go back to Provo again on Tuesday morning at 7:00 to finish up the schedule, but they couldn't give Josie any classes for real until we filled out papers at the district office, because Provo and Orem are in different school districts. And they said the paperwork would take at least two or three days. They said in the end, we would get in, but not to expect it to happen very fast. Which was discouraging, because how lame is that to be floating between schools your first year of high school, when it is already hard to find friends and figure out where your classes are?

I ran Josie back to Timpanogos to school, and then ran back to Provo to the district office. (Well, actually, I drove. If I had been running, I would have been even more tired and discouraged.) At the district office, I learned that Josie would have to choose one school or the other--the state won't allow students to straddle districts. They can straddle schools WITHIN a district, but can't do two districts at once.

I ran back home to get all the documentation the district asked for, then picked Josie up at school so she could go to Provo to visit the Arabic class, which the administrators had given her permission to do. Then, I went back to the district office to turn the papers back in, because Josie had decided that she wanted to take Arabic badly enough to give up Timpanogos.

I walked into the district office, and the person I needed to talk to was on the phone. But just past her I saw my friend. So I said, "Hi Claudia." And she said, "Hi Myrna. What are you doing here?" And I said, "I am trying to transfer Josie to Provo so she can take Arabic at Provo High." And then we just chatted back and forth about this and that for quite a few minutes, until the lady in front got off the phone. When she did, Claudia said, "I want you to treat this lady really nice because she is my friend." And then I told the person what I needed, and Claudia broke in and said, "I know her daughter. She is a wonderful person. She is the kind of a daughter that all parents wish they had." "Really?" the other lady said. "Yes she is. She is a really good girl," Claudia said. "Is she so good that I don't even need to call the other school and check up on her?" she asked. "Yes," Claudia said, moving her hands expansively, "her reputation proceeds her."

"Okay," the other lady said, "That's good enough for me." And she stamped a paper and handed it to me. "You're all set," she said. "This is all I need?" I asked in amazement, "They said it would take a couple of days." "Well, it usually does," Claudia said, "but this is a special case. Just don't tell them we can do it this fast, or they will be sending us more work than we actually want to do." And we all laughed.

I went back to Provo High, where I amazed and dumbfounded the counselling center with my already signed and stamped paper. The registrar said, "I can't believe you got this all done today! I have never seen a student approved this quickly!" And I said, "I was pretty amazed, too."

So, she was in, but what about classes? Well, Provo High has a couple of other selling points: they have the International Baccalaureate program. And they have a modified math program, so that you can take Algebra 1A one year, and Algebra 1B the next, so you are taking twice the time to learn the concepts. We think this will be a heaven-sent thing for Josie. She may be able to finally bite the math bullet.

And the counsellor had a fabulous idea for seminary: both of her first period classes are seminary, so that when she goes to Gamelan at BYU, she can just go to seminary on Monday, Wednesday and Friday every week. She will end up with MORE seminary than everyone else, because they only have five days in two weeks, and she will have six.

Josie auditioned for choir and is in the concert choir. Today we changed her into drama and peer tutoring, and that helped her to make some friends and have people to spend lunch time with, so she is very happy and life is good. She even said it was an "amazing day" even though with her schedule change she had to go to Algebra two days in a row! Even that didn't ruin her day! We feel so blessed.

She has seminary or gamelan, concert choir, english and arabic one day; seminary or gamelan, drama, peer tutor and algebra the next. She is a happy camper.

Blast from the Past

This is an addendum to my "It's Fabulous!" post from July--my cousin Lori sent me a photo of us taken at her Sept. 4, 1971 wedding reception!
I didn't even know there were photos of us performing! Aren't our skirts short? Mini-skirts were in style at the time, and I am pretty sure we thought our shorts were pretty modest and not quite "in style!" Now I am like, wow, those skirts were short!

Bird of Paradise

While Nancy was preparing dinner tonight, Rachel and I were sitting on the couch looking at my pictures from South Africa. There are a lot of wildlife photos, so I was doing commentary and asking questions. "This is a daddy ostrich. And this is a mommy ostrich. What kind of ostrich is this? And here is a mommy baboon and a baby baboon. This is a daddy baboon. Oh, here is a bird. And how many birds do we see here? Oh, look at the penguins. See how many penguins are walking along. Where do you think they are going? And here is a bird of paradise. This one is yellow. They are usually orange, but isn't this yellow one pretty." Andrew was sitting across the room listening to our patter.

A few minutes later, we are all sitting at the table eating. Rachel kind of slowed down and was not finishing what was on her plate. So Andrew was encouraging her to eat. "Take a baboon bite, Rachel." And she would pretend to eat like a baboon. Then he said, "How about a bird of paradise bite?" Rachel looked at him all confused, turned and looked at me, and I said, "Well, Andrew, it is kind of hard to take a bite like a bird of paradise, because a bird of paradise is a flower!"

How was he to know? We had been talking about it with baboons and birds and ducks and penguins and ostriches! What was he supposed to think!

"See" reference

Hurray, I am relieved of the need to post for a whole week! I am visiting Nancy, and she is a blogger extraordinaire, so anyone who wants to follow what I am up to, please visit Heissatopia, and she will tell it better than I can!

Cape of Good Hope

Who knew, back when I was learning about Vasco de Gama and other Portuguese explorers that I would one day be standing on the Cape of Good Hope? But that day came! Awesome experience! Thanks to New Zealand's own Neil Shephard for the photos. There were 14 of us on the tour, and grateful that we brought a photographer along. These are just a sample of the 216 photos Neil took.

Moyo

This is just blatant advertising for Moyo.

If you have ever wondered if you would really like to visit South Africa, stop wondering--you do want to. And when you get here, make sure you include a Moyo evening in your itinerary.

Moyo is the Swahili word for soul, and the intent of a Moyo experience is to feed you, body and soul.

Moyo is at the Spier vineyard. You enter through the gift shop (in a Disneyesque sort of way) and then you are in another world. All around are trees and waterfalls. I went with Tom and Polly Tatton and Carlos Solare, and were joined by Steve and Penny Kruse. Csaba and Mary, Hester and Peter and Wesley our van driver and his wife also were at Moyo tonight. Polly had asked for a tree reservation, but our host said it was kind of cold, so they had saved us a spot in a tree and also inside. We climbed up to our tree spot, and it was lovely--I climbed to the top of the tree, past two more dining areas, to look out over the valley. I took a picture with my disposable camera, so someday I may post it.

We decided it would be too cold and went inside the tent. They had a table for us right by the drumming platform, and with a good view of the stage where the band performs. We were also right by one of the fires, so it was toasty warm, but they do provide thick blankets if you need them. First they serve you a cup of hot soup--ours was pea and onion. Yummy! Then four types of breads from various parts of Afica, served with four dips from various parts of Africa, served with a delicious salad.

THEN you go to the buffet. All you can eat...salad bar, vegetable bar, starch bar (mostly rice and couscous dishes--the potatoes are in the vegetable bar), meat bar (wild and tame red meats), chicken bar, fish bar, dessert bar. I hope I didn't miss any. Oh, yes, a kind of legumes and lentils bar.

The African drummers and dancers would perform, spelled off by the Bob Marleyesque rockish band on the other stage. The drummers/dancers are fabulous! They are actually singing, too, belting out their songs while expending enormous amounts of energy dancing. And may I add that the dancers were all dressed modestly, the girls all in black from head to toe. Surprise, surprise--one of the male dancers came and got Tom Tatton to dance on stage with him! And Tom did fabulously for an old guy of seventy years! He followed the dancer move for move, until the dancer ended by suddenly sitting on his derriere on the edge of the stage. Tom said, "I'm not doing that!" Polly was so worried because Tom's pants have a tendency to descend. She was just mesmerized, couldn't even pick up her camera, every once in a while whispering "Pull up your pants, Tom." He was too busy keeping up with the dancer to pick up Polly's vibes, but all was well--the pants stayed up. Carlos and Steve got some great pictures of Tom's Moyo Moment--I may have too; just my camera doesn't give out advance information.

So...then we came back to our guest house, and it was the end of a fascinating experience. All for R225, which is about $30 US. Not bad for a full-on buffet AND entertainment. (Oh, and the cost of the flight to South Africa, too...)