The End of Summer and the Beginning of a New School Year

The summer is finally winding down, but sadly the temperatures have been rising.  For the past few weeks I have been relaxing and enjoying doing nothing, with my fan going full blast, before school starts and the new volunteers arrive. I did not do any big international trips this summer, trying to save up my days to do some nice trips next year.  I did go to Stenje, a little village around the Prespa Lake, for a few days with Irena. Her family has a summer house there and we spent the days on the beach and the evenings on the porch.  It was a nice getaway.  It was very similar to a vacation with my family. We woke up and went from pj's to swim suits, stayed on the beach till lunch time, came back for a little break, and then went back to the beach until the sun went down.  In the evenings, we would sit on the porch. Listen to some music, snoop on the neighbors (people watching is a very popular pastime in Macedonia), and read. It was very quiet and relaxing.

 The beach. The beaches around Prespa are where you can find sandy beaches. The ones around Ohrid are very rocky.  There were not many people there; but it was still interesting to find that people from other countries like to come and spend their vacation here also.

 Irena's family's summer home. We spent alot of time on the top porch because from there you have a nice view and you can look out onto the lake.

View from the porch. I took this right after it had rained. You can see a rainbow above the yellow house.

School starts on Thursday. Every year school always starts on September 1st; it does not matter what day of the week it is. Last week and this week Irena, Maria and I have been working on getting the Resource Room ready.  Our goal is to have it ready to open on the 5th since the first 2 days of school are probably going to be a bit crazy. The kids are all excited to be back and sadly the teachers do not even have their schedules yet. So those first 2 days will be spent still getting everything in order.  We painted the walls a nice light creamy white color and then painted the bookcases and the windows brown.  Maria, who is a very talented artist, even painted some pictures on the walls.

 Maria painting the walls.

 Irena painting the bookcases.

 Working on the tree house. This will be behind the desk, which will house the computer and printer.

 The finish product. Isn't it amazing? It only took her 2 days and she did it all free hand.

 There was some water damage by the floor boards so Maria had the idea to add some more images to help cover it up.

After Week 1.  Its getting there.

Since then we have added a rug, some tables and chairs, and have been working on organizing the books.  A company from the states, Darrin Book Aide, will send a box of donated books to volunteers and international schools in need.  Irena and I both requested a box, not knowing the other one had done so, so in the end we received 2 boxes filled with picture books, young adult chapter books, classics, and even textbooks.

You will just have to check back next week to see the finished product!!!