English class and Walking Meditation

Whoosh! So many new people and experiences...all in two weeks. My ESL classes began this week, of course, so I suppose I should start with them.
I am teaching from 9-11 am and 6-8 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays and I'm tutoring a lady from 8-9 on Tuesday and another from 2-3 on Thursday. Talk about i-n-t-e-n-s-e! That's five hours a day of speaking the slowest, clearest, most basic English that I can, or at least attempting to do so. I am reminded frequently to do better in all those areas when I see blank stares coming at me from around the table. :) So, I'm pretty exhausted after every session, class or tutoring, but it is good, and I'm learning a lot. I have students from countries in almost every continent!
South Korea
China
South Sudan
Russia
Peru
Brazil
Mexico
I love them all and am excited, and overwhelmed, about all I need to learn about their cultures and worldviews and how to best reach each one of them where they are at. Whoosh. :) It's good.

Tomorrow at 7:15 am I'll be starting my landscaping job part of the summer, too. So that will be an experience in itself. And this weekend I'm coming back to KS for my dear cousin Chad's wedding to his lovely Sara.

So, funny story that I promised in my Facebook status. Thursday morning, I was decently prepared for class, with a nice lesson plan written out. My morning students went at a slower rate than my evening students, just fyi. But then, only one of my evening students showed up for class, so I thought I'd just do some one-on-one work with her farther along in the book. Then, one of my least advanced students arrived, and then a new student arrived, so I had three different students than I was expecting and was kind of needing to work from three places in the book. It was insanity, and by the end I felt like a rotten teacher and cried about it over my lunch. The Lord renewed my heart, though, and I was getting ready to do my lesson plan for the evening, when I got two phone calls that took up a couple hours, which was fine, and they were both great conversations, but it just gave me a later start than I expected. Then I remembered I needed to run to Office Depot to pick up ink for the printer here bc I wanted to print some handouts. "That'll only take me 30 minutes or so," I thought, which would still give me an hour to prepare for my lesson. It was 4:20 at that point. Well, I ended up getting royally LOST and drove around for an hour. My reasoning was so confused...why did I do this, why didn't I plan better, why me? Finally I threw my hands in the air (I was stopped at a stoplight, so it was okay) :) and said, "God, I give up! You take over. You be in control. You give me what I need for my lesson tonight." Within two turns, there was the Office Depot, and I knew where I was again. I made it back in time for class and even got my handouts printed (a miracle in itself - since when does a printer do what you want it to do when you're in a rush??). I didn't prepare at all, except for reading through my teacher's book while they were practicing conversations, but the class went amazingly well. My students understood the grammar concepts very well and we were all relaxed and had a great class. I'm telling you, God is pretty crazy awesome. You'd think that I'd learn to give up sooner, and save myself some pain.

Oh, and Walking Meditation. I just read this article on Yahoo about natural ways to feel happier, and one of them was "Walking Meditation." And I quote: "Stride slowly for 20 minutes sans iPod. Stare at the ground 6 feet ahead and focus on the soles of your shoes lifting and dropping."

Yes, well, I walk and meditate at the same time, aka, pray. I just laughed at the article because I felt intelligent. I could have told them that meditating and walking is extremely refreshing. I've found some good routes around the neighborhood, one that includes a little fishing pond. It is so lovely to be out and about and around people. I can't even bring my music with me because there are so many people to say hello to. :) The Lord and I have lots of good conversations on those walks. Yep.

The end. I'm going to go get some sort of refreshing drink, such as strawberry lemonade, or orange juice, or something, and go to bed. :)