Great News!

So I may have a fair amount of typing ahead of me tonight. I don't want all my news to become convoluted into one blog so I'll be posting three tonight. The first one is just a small update of my day to day life and is full of good news.

To start, I finally got my final crown put in place on my tooth that I've had worked on for the last month. It's pretty and a good fit, but it also just feels nice to have the work done now. I think a little later on in my time here I'm going to get a full workup on my teeth and get all my work done and some preventative work too since it's so affordable compared to the system in America.

I also got to finally meet my actual boss today for the first time. It's strange because for the last two months I have been working on odd projects that have been assigned to me by a handful of people, but my actual boss and department head has been a complete unknown to me. Even today since it was her first day back we barely got a chance to speak but I look forward to getting to know her better in the future.

Finally, today I was joking around with my supervisor about teaching French next semester to cover for a woman who will be having her baby soon when Steve told me I'll be teaching English. I've been pretty forward my entire time here that I really would embrace any teaching opportunity that would arise in my time here and I have been pushing really hard to take on an English class (which is required) to free up the time and responsibilities of the native-English speakers who hold a doctorate degree. Early on it didn't sound like this was going to be a possibility because I do not have my Master's degree, but due to some tenacious efforts by myself and my supervisor, as well as the support of the International Affairs VP, it looks like in a month here I'll have my own class!  I'm so grateful for the many amazing experiences and opportunities I have here! I also hope that I might pickup a class teaching English for AMIDEAST, an NGO here that would pay quite well and then I'll be able to start actually saving some money.

So that has been my week so far, and considering I had all of last week off, November is shaping up to be a good month. Now if the weather would just change a little because I am starting to get jealous of that winter wonderland striking the northwest right now. Oh yeah, yesterday I also got my first opportunity to meet the university president which was nice.