Gingerbread lattes and a project

I realized that I haven't posted in a while. Last week was very busy, and Joern and I have been coming down with a wonderful bug. We've been really tired and congested. It hasn't been too much fun.
Thursday marked my transition in my carreer. We had a teacher workday. The assistants had a Macbook workshop and talked about professional development. The teachers had a workshop on action-research groups. I really wanted to go to the Macbook workshop, since I have no clue how to use them, and I also wanted a say in the professional development. But, my principal and I talked about it, and decided it would be best if I attended the teacher workshop.
The workshop ran the whole day Thursday, and was partly interesting. By the end of the day, we had formed small groups with specific interests. I stepped out of my comfort zone by joining a group of teachers I don't know very well. My friends all ended up in one group working on handwriting, but that is not where I felt I could be useful. I am in the group focusing on literacy across grades. I am very excited to be working on something close to my background in speech and language. But, I am very scared to be taking part in a group to which I feel I can contribute relatively little.
It was also a little sad that I wasn't able to spend the day with my assistant friends. It is sad to me at our school that the teachers and the assistants don't really hang out together. There seems to be a divide. Right now, I am in the middle of that divide, which is tough. At my old school, my friends were all teachers, and I didn't really spend time socially with the other assistants. It is strange how different schools draw lines socially.
This weekend, we relaxed and visited Joern's friends who live along the Czech border. We are hoping to be able to go back to their house in a few weeks as the starting point in our hopeful trip to Prague.
Right now, I am in heaven, enjoying the wonders of artificially flavored syrup. We bought gingerbread syrup the other day. Now, I am enjoying a gingerbread latte. I feel like I'm at home in Starbucks! Aahhh. If only I could find a pumpkin spice syrup, it would all be perfect!