Well, January was nuts.
Animals seen:
- pet monkeys
- pet parrots
- more dogs
- more cats
- A CUTE ORANGE KITTEN (which I proceeded to pet successfully, to my great satisfaction)
- a very hairy baby hog (picture to come … someday … need to steal it from Philip)
- wild iguana
- a whole slew of newts (it’s especially funny when they try to steal your food – very persistent little buggers)
- a venomous snake
- a tarantula (click here for picture) (did this so that people who DON’T like spiders don’t have to look at it) (it was cute and fuzzy) (and got stomped on about ten seconds after the picture was taken, the poor thing)
Events attended:
- New Years at Paramaribo
- A not-so-surprise birthday party
- 19-day Feast
- Unit Convention (where my girls sang their song – yay!)
- An afternoon at the park with the girls that sang their song as a treat (mmmm, and we had coconut ice cream …)
- Carnival (today was the burning on a stake of “Vaval”, the Carnival’s mascot, as it’s Ash Wednesday …)
Movies watched (you’d better believe it – we watched a MOVIE this month! … Two, actually!):
- Shrek 3, immediately followed by Shrek
(oh yeah. we’re so classy.)
Ongoing classes:
- Children’s classes (6-8 yrs old): 7 (one is being transfered to Philip in a week or two)
- Children’s classes (8-10 yrs old): 4
- Junior Youth groups: 2 (previously 3 – one was dropped last weekend in favour of a study circle)
- Study Circles: 1 (Ruhi book 1)
- Adult French classes: 6
- Total ongoing classes/events: 20 (huh. I thought I did some paring down of my classes, but apparently I filled up those free slots again … ah well, things are running much more smoothly now)
Traditional/cultural things learned:
- A couple of Saramacca songs
- A few dance moves (these desperately need work)
- A few designs that strangely resemble Celtic patterns (!)
- A few social differences concerning the roles of men and women
Personal things accomplished:
- A one-page comic (as I don’t seem to be modest about this claim, I think you all know about this by now)
- Almost done reading through book 1 of The Wheel of Time
- Setting up a music studio (!) (THANKS MOM, DAD, & JACKIE)(mom&dad: special midi cable and extra violin music; Jackie: midi keyboard and student violin)
- Getting two composition commissions: one in Reno (!) and one back home in Ottawa.
- … and surviving the month despite the dratted little black clouds that were hanging over my head.
