This has been a very busy week, which is why I have not been home much to update my blog. Tuesday night was the annual Senior Awards Ceremony, one of my favorite end-of-the-year activities, since it is so nice seeing my students honored for their academic success. Today was the start of final exams, and although I will still be in school for another 7 days, I will not see my students much from now on. The ending of the school year always brings me mixed emotions. I definitely need a break from the constant stress and 7-day work weeks, not to mention some time to work on my writing. But this is the last time I will see my seniors with whom I spent a lot of time the past three years. I will miss so many of them, especially both Jessicas, Divya, Giana, Manal, Naeema, Rita, Seema, Amy, and James, all of whom are really good people who should do very well in college.

Of course I’ll miss some of the underclassmen–Preeti, Rabbit, and Aishwarya–and teachers–Damaris, Maria, George, Adrianne, Megan, and Eric–but at least I know they will still be there in September when school resumes.

I have a tentative list of things I hope to accomplish this summer, highlighted by final-editing Fei Fei’s Tibet book, working on some fiction of my own, and reading at least 8 books that I have been stockpiling the past few months: Iron Council, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norell, Perfect Circle, Ports of Call & Lurulu, A Sundial in a Grave: 1610, The Year of Our War, Pompei, The Eight, as well as some of the nonfiction books I discussed in my May 28th blog. Stay tuned to these pages to learn how much of this I actually accomplish!