The rest of my Saturday

So, I briefly posted yesterday about my first week of school. Then the rest of my Saturday had several other interesting stories that I wanted to share with you!
First of all, going grocery shopping has been interesting because of the Olympics and heightened security. No buses or taxis are allowed within two blocks of our apartment complex and the closest grocery store is probably about a 10 minute walk away. Which is fine when you're walking there. . .but when you're walking back with groceries. .it's not fun. So the school has been arranging vans to pick us up at the grocery store and drive us home. It was great before school started. . .but now that school has started, the pick-ups are too early in the day for those of us who need to go after school. So, the school graciously offered to arrange for a Saturday pick-up. We were all excited about it. . .but the actual Saturday pick-up has yet to happen. So, yesterday, I went to pick up a few things and planned on taking the van back. I went out to wait and saw several other teachers that were waiting for the bus. We stood and waited
. . .and waited. . .
. . .and waited. . .
Finally, about 30 minutes after the bus was supposed to arrive, we started calling people. Turns out that they had to cancel the pick-up because the drivers were needed for something at the school. However, this information was only passed down to a few people and none of them were the people who were supposed to inform the teachers that there would be no pick up. Thankfully, the GM of our city offered to bring his vehicle and drive the groceries back so at least we wouldn't have to carry them. As we were waiting for him, we saw his wife come down from the parking area, and she stopped to help us as well. I ended up riding back with her which was nice!
As I was coming up to my door with my groceries, I heard all this noise coming from my apartment. I took my key from the lock, looked around and double checked the number over the door. Sure enough, I was at the right place. Then I remembered that my roommate had had a balloon fight with some of her former students that morning as a going away party for one who was moving. Well, it was kind of hard to forget about the actual balloon fight because she has started filling balloons on Thursday and by the time Saturday rolled around, she had over 200 water balloons in various places in our apartment. But what had slipped my mind was the fact that they were all coming to our apartment to clean up before they went to pizza. So, I entered my apartment to find it filled with 12 of my 6th grade students and it was nice to be welcomed with a chorus of "Miss Shimer!" Then they proceeded to quiz me on who was who to see if I remembered their names. Thankfully, I passed. :)
After they left, I decided to watch a movie and relax a bit. As I was laying on the couch, watching a movie. . I happened to glance out the door that leads to our balcony and what should I see but a bunch of Olympic sailboats sailing across the water past my back door. I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. (You can see them on my picture page!) Every so often, I would see them come around again and a little later, I'm pretty sure I saw the wind surfers sailing by as well!
Seeing the race explained a lot about my experience as I walked to the grocery story earlier that day. I had walked out the main gate of my apartment complex which is right next to the entrance to the Sailing Center. Apparently, 100's of people were heading that way to get ready to watch the race as I was leaving because it was literally like a stream of people all walking towards the sailing center. . .and then there was me, trying to walk AWAY from the sailing center. Of course, I was the only Caucasian face in the bunch and it slowed things down a little bit as people stared at me while I was trying to get through. I just had to chuckle at what I imagined was going through their heads.
Well, I have a few more things to prepare for this week at school. Oh, before I do. . .I was talking with my friend Stephanie who I eat dinner with maybe twice a week. We've been having chicken and spaghetti and last night, we were trying to brainstorm different ideas for what we could eat. So, if you have any ideas for simple dinners. . .keeping in mind that I don't have cheese and casseroles aren't the easiest to make. . .e-mail me because I would love to start expanding my cooking repetoire!