Increasing Numbers!

Wine night number 2, was a great success, numbers are up and people are excited about it.  Every wine club goes off in its own direction and it will be interesting to see where this one takes us.  Last nights theme was ' colour' and we were to interrupt it how we wanted.  I brought rose wine and matched my clothes to it, others looked for labels and names and some just the colour they liked.  

 The group which has doubled and size, very excited!

I love when cultures learn about each other.  Especially between the Brits and the Americans.  Kim learnt last night for the first time, that her 'peace' sign might not be so appreciated in the UK!  It was a very funny moment.   It was a much needed break after a difficult week :)

A Sad day

I was not going to post anything about this but as I told the students yesterday I think the day goes down in history, not how I had hoped it would, but it will.  I want to be able to read back one day and hopefully see that all my predictions and fears that I have now were wrong.  Also, I thought if I had a rant here I may stop feeling the need to argue with people to no avail that believe that Donald Trump is the right man (and yes I think it particularly had to be a man) to be the next so called leader of the so called free world.
Yesterday as the results came in I was angry, shocked, scared, and over all sad. And I know there are many root causes to look at to see how this happened and I imagine we will hear all about them for some time..  Lack of education, social media becoming peoples main source of information, lack of trust in politicians, and so on and so on.  But it does not diminish the fact that the United States of America just voted in a self proclaimed abuser of women (grab 'em in the ....), a racist, a climate change denier, a tax avoider, fraudster... as the President of the United States.
This morning I had some very intelligent questions from 15 year old girls about how this happened.   One girl asked me if America really hates women so much that you could be elected as President after being accused of sexually assaulting 13 women.  The boys in the room chided in and said LOADS of women make false accusations against men, and we cannot just believe them.  The race issue then came up, his words against Latinos and blacks in particular and again there was rhetoric defending this.  This is what the younger highly educated (would argue that this is the best school I have worked in) generation believe, this is what they have taken from this election.  
It is a sad day.  And I hope to hell that this election does not impact the entire world in the way that I predict it will.
  

casa luchanda... The Dream Begins

I love teaching, I love the kids and the challenge of inspiring students in Mathematics.  But it is not my true passion, it is not what I love to do most in the world and certainly not what I want to do forever.  What I really have always wanted to do is something in the form of organising events and/or running some sort of hostel/B&B/small hotel.  Well that dream began last night when me and Luis welcomed our first guests to our recently listed AirBandB Villa.  We are both soooo excited about this venture. In fact, I really would do it for free (but not telling guests that!).  We spent the last week getting our spare Villa ready, I have never ever scrubbed and cleaned so much and the place was sparkling. 

We collected our first three visitors, three young German men and are now hoping for the best.  We are trying to run a place that we are slightly involved in making the  stay fabulous.  Although, will take a back sit and be invisible if that is what they prefer.  So friends and family we still want to have you all, but you may have to live in our house with us!

Banoffee Pie

One of my all time favourite puddings is Banoffee pie, I just love it and as it is really just a British pudding I have not had it in ages.  So when Jacqui invited us to a British Sunday Roast I took on the challenge of making one.  I was fairly certain that it would be a disaster but I was wrong.  It was super yummy! The whole lunch was fairly fantastic actually, Jacqui made it all veggie and I think all loved it.  Luis sadly had to miss it though, as he was lucky enough to get some unexpected time with Juan who got his flight home mixed up.  

 Veggie beef wellington, magical :)

 The chef, amazing job

 My big regret, not taking a full picture of my pie but here is a snap shot.

All virgins to a Sunday Roast.  It was pretty exciting introducing them to Yorkshire Puddings.

Poolside Dinner

I think we have finally entered proper rainy season, what it was meant to be all along.   Big bursts of rain and then sunshine, this I can cope with.  In celebration a few people came over to sit by the pool and order some Indian (I have kinda given up on the cooking, one I am not very good at it, two we lack an oven and three it is just so easy here not too).  

 Some of the chicas.  

 Some of the chicos.

 It was our third different Indian, not my favourite but still good.

Of course as the night progressed things turned silly, I am not sure what Luis is doing with the art work but looks vaguely dodgy.  I am working hard to obtain the hostess with the mostess title.  It is just the morning after and I am already planning my next dinner.

Finally...

Finally after a horrible month I am a happy girl again and I think it will only get better from here.  Tuesday morning I woke up with a spring in my step and was in the happiest mood ever.  What could cause this change one may ask?  Well the sun was finally shining, big and brightly and you could just tell this was the beginning to the end of the worst rainy season in several decades.  The last three days the sun has shone and the birds have sung and we have only seen a little rain shower here or there.  It is definitely not over yet and there will still be some more to come but I feel confident that the worst is over. 

 The schools lovely coffee shop garden.  

 All on campus have been smiling this week

I am so happy to say good bye to October.   I feel like everything is back on track again.  I did not realise it but the annual rain fall here is higher than the UK!

Halloween Pub Quiz

Last night was the Halloween Pub Quiz at our pub (not quite yet our local but working on it), it was such good fun!  I was not even going to wear a costume but Luis really wanted to.  So we go in the spirit, I was boiling hot, like ridiculously hot but was so glad we wore something.  Everyone was so dressed up and the pub quiz very busy.  We did okay in the normal pub quiz rounds but we killed all the side Halloween games.  We came first in Mummy competition, donut eating, and second in pumpkin carving.    

 It was great to have Luis at the quiz, not really his thing (mainly as fairly British and the presenters accent is very strong) but he had a good time.

 The team

 Luis did the whip cream one, it was quite funny.

We defo made the best Mummy in minutes.   Her pose won it for us really.

 We lost to this pumpkin... I cannot wait till next week when hopefully Trump becomes a distant memory.

Our pumpkin, I cannot take any credit for it.  Jacqui did a fabulous job!  There were probably 9 or 10 teams and we came fourth I believe so not too bad.  A nice night out.