Holiday Letter

Dear family and friends,

Happy holidays! It has been a big year in my life, a lot has happened in your lives as well and the crazy world keeps spinning! But, here we are, at the beginning of 2017. I spent time with loved ones in New Mexico and Southern California this holiday season.

I started this blog in 2014 as I made my transition to international teaching in Myanmar. Here I am, two and a half years later, writing my "Happy Holidays" card to you, as I sit at my dining room table in my apartment in Yangon. :)

I hope that you have kept up with the blog, and there are certainly many details and photos in previous posts, but as I type now and reflect on the year, there are a few events that stand out. I welcomed 2016 with my parents in northern Myanmar! We explored Inle Lake and met the elephants at the Kalaw Elephant Sanctuary. 

I wrapped up my second academic year teaching Spanish here, including the pioneer (or hamster) class of Spanish 4. It was the first time that this course was offered at my school and the responsibility of setting routine, starting traditions and creating curriculum was mine. It was a project and an accomplishment, though I will never be done refining. One highlight was a visit from the Spanish embassy to my seniors' final project presentations in May.

I was delighted to return to Spain for June and July (it had been 7 years! too long!). Most of my time was spent hiking the Camino de Santiago, but I also completed my Spanish AP Language and Culture Certification in Madrid, reunited with an old grad school buddy for the Cruilla Music Festival in Barcelona and visited favorite haunts of Málaga and Granada in the south of Spain. Spain will always be my special place.

Spanish Teachers! This is just after our paella cooking class in Madrid.

English Teachers! I taught with these ladies 10 years ago! Reunion dinner in Rincón de la Victoria.

¡Profesores! We started teaching Spanish together in 2006 at the University of Washington... and we both survived grad school!

The chronic back pain that has been an off-again, on-again part of my life since I was 20 years old continues to nag at me, but I manage it with diet, exercise, yoga and, sometimes, medication. 

As the school year started again, the feeling of being overloaded and ready for a change of pace became more and more apparent in my life (What is my average teaching day like? Read this.). Like many teachers, I love what I do, but it can also be exhausting. A lot of time thinking has led me to a big decision regarding the direction of my life this year.

Announcement time! I am taking a sabbatical at the end of this academic year. I will finish teaching in Yangon in June, spend a few months in Asia, probably return to Spain (and maybe finally get to Morocco), visit folks in the states and then head south to Argentina. For now the plan is to do some traveling in Latin America and explore teaching, and other work options, there. 

Let me know if you want me to pass through your town, if you'd like to meet up to travel, or if you have contacts in South America, especially in Buenos Aires. I hope to catch up with many of you in the next year.

Peace,

CassyBee

P.S. The blog plan is to post twice a month, about every other Tuesday. Leave a comment if there is a topic (or place!) you want me to cover.