Flashlights, Tropical Storms, Beach Dog, and more......

Okay so I know the title of this blog is a little random but we have had a crazy week!! Let's start with last week of school. It was the 3rd week of school already..I can't believe how fast it is going. Some stories of the other teachers really makes me appreciate my class. Our neighbor who teaches first grade had some excitement this week two girls got out of the gate during recess and walked down to the busy street. Another teacher saw them and brought them back, that however, is a minor problem in her class!! Crazy!! Brent's funny story of the week was that on Thursday he just took all of his students outside at the end of the day. He came back into his room, turned the light on, and sat down at his desk. He looked under his desk and found two eyes starring back at him. One of his students decided he wanted to play with flashlights under Brent's desk instead of going home. He went into the other kid's cubbies and got out their flashlights..it was pretty funny!! It kinda startled him a little, but then he couldnt stop laughing. My funny story of the week doesnt really compare to the others but I had a little boy tell me after three weeks of calling him a name..that I needed to call him a new name..... UHMMM??? OKay..little odd but I guess I will go with it. He doesnt speak much English and he was trying to explain this to me and I didnt understay why.. haha...anyways the week went by fast and we were excited for Friday. However, we all ended up going to bed early because we were so tired from the week. It was nice though. On Saturday we woke up to very loud thunder...just another tropical storm. This time it was Ernesto. We ended up getting lots of rain yesterday so we just hung around and went shopping and went to a movie. Brent and I were sitting in the movie theater last night getting ready to watch " Step Up" (Brent's choice...haha) and goodness we could not even hear ourselves..Puerto Ricans really do talk a lot!! We were nervous if we would even be able to watch the movie. But yah they did quite down during the movie...thank goodness. The movie is in English with Spanish subtitles. The people would cheer during the movie anytime something good happened. It was funny though. Brent and I also found this really nice restaraunt in our town. I had the best shrimp that I have ever had!! YUMMY!!
So this morning we decided to go to the Plaza and shop around at some of the vedors. I got some neat jewelry. Kelly and I have been talking about hammocks, so we drove to this other town near by and finally got our hammocks..we were excited..I might even let Brent lay in it. And now we just got back from the beach near our house. We decided to show Lola the beach..and she really liked it!! That's good because she will be a beach dog for 2 years!! Well for the rest of the night we are going to get things ready for the week!! Next weekend we are going to Rincon, which is considered the best beach town in the island. We are so excited. Also Kelly's sister from Washington D.C. will be down for a visit. We are excited!! Have a great week everyone...sure our's will be another interesting one!!
The Dills

Here we are at the Plaza in Guayama


HERE'S OUR BEACH DOG!





After a long day...PERFECT!!!

I had to add this picture!! I thought it was cute!! Have a great week!!

Here is our new little girl...LOLA!!!

Brent and I were looking online and found some Boston Terrier puppies. We decided to drive to Humacao ( about 45 miles away) to see the puppies. We fell in love with a little girl puppy. Oh my gosh she is adorable. She is quite a bit bigger than Rico and her colors are different. She is fun!! She really likes her food, she likes to play, and when she sleeps she spreads out!! We got her a bigger bed!! We miss Rico and will never ever forget him...but we are very happy to have a puppy again.


This is the picture we saw online. We both loved the
little pup on the left...and that is our Lola!!

Today Brent and I went with our neighbors, Courtney and Kelly, to a beach called Punta Tuna!! It was beautiful. It was nice sand and had a great view. We stopped and had a drink at this restaurant that was right on the ocean. We are going to find a different beach tomorrow. There is so much to do here..it is fun exploring new places. Here we are at the beach...we loved the light house.

We Love Fridays!!!

Yesterday was a very crazy and busy day. We had a good week at school. Yesterday it was raining and the kids did not get to play outside so they were very crazy. After school Brent played basketball with some teachers. They played against some of the students. Kelly and I watched the boys for a little bit and they did good. Brent was so exhausted when he came home. Kelly and I were busy getting our house ready for a big party for Courtney's birthday. We made a cake, put lights up, and decorated our back yard. We had lots of teachers show up. The school director and our principal even came. We had so much fun. At the end of the night the teachers were teaching us how to dance salsa and merengue. These teachers here are so much fun!! They said that some of the other overseas teachers in the past never invited them over and they never hung out together. So we are all excited to do things together!!! Today we are on our way to go to a beach in a different town!! Should be fun!! Here are some pics of last night. Oh yah look at this huge butterfly that Brent found.
Talk to you soon,
Brent and Katie

This butterfly is as big as Brent's hand


Here is Brent showing off is basketball skills!!




Here we are with our friends!!

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let everyone know our sad news because I have not got a chance to talk to many people. As you know Brent and I got a puppy on Saturday. Unfortunetly he died early this morning. He died from a head injury. One of our neighbors and a friend visiting for the week and she was going to be alone during the days while our neighbor was teaching. She ased if she could have Rico with her on Monday so she could have some company. We thought that was a good idea since it woeld have been his first day alone here. Well when we went to him pick him up after school she told us that she had Rico up on the bed and he fell of onto the cement floor. She said he was acting crazy. We looked at him and knew something wasnt right. We have a vet a block away and took him there right away. It wasnt good. He got very bad and started having seizures in my arms. It was horrible to watch this little innocent guy struggle to stay alive. He was just tiny only 1 lb 7 oz. They were doing everything hey could. The vet even took him home and told us last night that he wasnt doing much better. He called early this morning to tell us that he didnt make it through the night. Yesterday and today have been very difficult days. Last night we had to meet the parents of our students after all this happened and today of course we had school. I think the kids could tell something was wrong even though we were trying to act like everything was ok. We miss Rico so much. I never thought it would have been possible to get so attached to a puppy in such a short time. He made us so happy. He was ours and he was perfect for us right from the beginning. We are doing much better today because we know that he is ok and isnt suffering. The way he had to go was very hard and it is very hard not to be mad at this girl. We have not seen or talked to this girl, I think she is hiding from us. We understand that this was an accident and we really know that we did everything possible to keep him with us. We will never have another Rico and we will always remember our sweetest little puppy who was loved very much.

Brent and Katie

Introducing.......Rico, our new boston terrier puppy!!

We have our first pet together. We really did not plan on getting a puppy so soon. We were driving in Ponce and came across a dog breeder, who had all sorts of puppies, seeing them made us really want a puppy. We ended up leaving and going on driving trying to find a beach when we came across this other shop. We both liked the same puppy. I picked him up and never put him down. So here we are with Rico. He seems like a good puppy so far, Brent and I will be able to come home everyday for lunch and we are usually home around 3 so we shouldnt have problems letting him out. Our neighbors, Kelly and Courtney have two dogs and they both like Rico. Here are some pics.

Have a great week!

Katie, Brent and Rico

o
That tape on Rico's ear is to keep his ear from flopping over the wrong way!!



Here is Rico with his new neighbors, Miller and Winston

Baseball is not the same here!!

On Friday Brent and I went over to some other teachers house for happy hour. It was fun. There is 9 Americans here this year and we all get along very well. Some of the other teachers from our school were there too. After happy hour Courtney, Kelly, Brent and I decided to go to the baseball game. The P.E. teacher at Guamani School plays on the Guayama team. It is a semi pro team and it is a very big deal here in Guayama. We walked in and told them we were with Guamani School and we got in FREE!! We saved 8 dollars on tickets. Well we ended up sitting in the visitors section and we would all cheer really loud when Guayama made a good play. We thought that was a good idea until the 7th inning when the other team started making all sorts of good plays. They were cheering and playing music. They were very excited. A visitor fan looked at us 4 and did a cut throat thing with his hand. Yah we were a little scared. Fans get so crazy about baseball here. Well we made it out safely. I think next time we wont sit with the visitors!! Here are some pics of happy hour and the baseball game.

Here is me with Mary, 4th grade teacher from Denver!

A few more things about our school!!!


We made it through our first week!!!YEAH!! Last night we had happy hour over at some other teacher's house. We definetly needed that. Then we went to a baseball game that one of our fellow teachers plays in. It is a semi pro team. People are crazy about baseball here. We were a little scared sitting in the visitors sections. ( I will get some of those pics up soon). I have a couple more pics to add. Here is what are staff meetings look like..really!! We were on a bus ride to go have lunch and the yelled get of the bus..so we did. Oh yeah....just a little wine break.

Here is our wine break. This is Ms. Rosa, the 2nd grade
teacher, our neighbor, Kelly, and me. CHEERS!!

This was the view from the restaurant. Horrible huh???

Okay so I also have to show you what the students bags look like. It is insane. I have no idea why every kid needs a bag this big. We have to find a spot to put them all and it is difficult.


Here I am standing next to one. Imagine little kids with them!!


Well we hope you are enjoying our blog. We are having fun doing it. We have only been here 2 weeks and it seems like we have been here much longer. We are definetly happy here. We are meeting great people and seeing many new things. Teaching is great!! The kids are really some of the sweetest kids...who cares if they cant understand English that well!! Miss ya all!!

Mr. and Mrs. Dill

Meester and Missy Dill are surviving the week!!!

Ok so teaching here is so much different than the states. The students are very young, my third graders are only 7 and 8 years old...that is the age of some first graders in the US. The kids dont ever call us Mr. or Mrs. Dill...NO..it is meester and missy. They also always say I loooooove you and they like to hug a lot. We are having some long days and we are usually tired after school. We do so much work during the day and the kids dont have many breaks. My biggest challenge is my one student who speaks a limited amount of English..it is just crazy, I feel so bad for him because I know he is just lost during classes. I asked him how old he was and he said " yes", that is what he says for everything. WOW. Well this should be an exciting year...I know my days will be very interesting. Here are some pics of our classrooms!

Katie's classroom:



Brent's classroom:

pictures of the lizards! Also our blog should be fixed now so that anyone can post comments without being a registered user.

The baby, use the penny for size comparison!


the big one!

Our neighbor with the lizard.

Big News!!
Today was the first day of school.......It was one crazy day. Every one was confused about the routines and the procedures in the school. We didn't even have a recess duty schedule yet. The day started with us standing in a large basketball court filled with children and parents. We all held up our signs and the kids and parents all came lining up in front of us. Many children were startled and surprised when they realized they had a male teacher. After all the children lined up they marched into the school except for Brents' crying girl who refused to go in. Although several children in Brents line were crying all but one of them managed to make it in the room and find their seats. From there it was off to the races. The day was spent teaching routines and procedures and taking many deep breaths. Ironically brent's kids seem to be the best english speakers out of the three of us teaching elementary level kids. We all made it through the day, some of us needed a beer or two afterwards and the after school ride to Ponce turned into a giant vent session because they administration seemed less prepared for the first day of school than we were. In Ponce we dropped or neighbors off so they could pick up their new car and then we went to a huge mall where katie satisfied her craving for pretzel maker and old navy. Before going home we ate at a buffet at Sizzler! Once we returned to Guayama we went grocery shopping and did the nightly wal mart trip. At walmart all of Brents' children were buying their school supplies. The shopping was frequently interrupted by questions about the supply list. One mother even brought her concerns to Brent regarding the fact her child had no home work and took no note and wrote nothing in his notebook today. As for Katies day she may write another blog describing the details but I do know that at the end of the day she had a sick girl take a bee-line to the bathroom and get sick. The big news we have is that on Sunday we purchased a new car. Our neighbor Mr. Rivera took the 4 of us to Ponce where we went car shopping. Katie and us found a 98 honda escort that we appreciatte very much after pushing a shopping cart about 5 blocks every shopping trip for a week. I will try to post some pictures of our car, for some reason I can't seem to post the lizard pics but I'll keep working on it. We'll probably post again when the first week is over. I will try to get pictures of our classrooms up as well. Have a good week and we love you all,
Brent and Katie

The new car!!!!!!!!!






Katies' favorite job!

Just another day in Puerto Rico!!

We have already been in Guayam for over a week. Time is sure going by fast. Puerto Rico is a lot different than back home. Our first day in Puerto Rico we ate fried pig!! We share a house that is split into 3 different apartments. So there is a total of 5 of use here. Another couple from Kansas and a guy from New York are our neighbors!! They are all very nice. This will be all our first year teaching here. Our house is nice too..we are right across the street from our school. Here our some pics of our apartment and our lizards that live here as well!! We will put up pics of our classrooms and school soon. School starts on Monday. Brent and I are very excited our classrooms are 2 doors from eachother and we are teaching 2nd and 3rd grade. Should be an exciting year!! Miss you all!!

We're Married!!!! July 21, 2006 was a very happy day for us! We have so many wonderful memories of that day!!

.....5 Days Later Off to Puerto Rico!!!