Hey,

Part 2 of my "stories from others" storyline is here. This week's person is: Carolyn Baker, who is my hostmother. Here is some things she likes (to do):

1. Family is really important to her and very close. Not only brian and the girls, but also her parents and her brother and niece. She wants to be with her family. She misses her parents, who have been in South Carolina for the past couple of months. Her mother likes to bring the family together and Carolyn thinks she got that from her. She likes to seeks out a member of her family to be with more than anything else. Her mom likes to celebrate things like St. Patricksday, even though they are not Irish just to be together. She'd rather be with people than be alone.

2. Travel has always been important to her and her family. Her parents would bring her somewhere just to move around and go somewhere. There were no real distractions in the car back then, so they would actually look out of the window. She brought traveling to Brian, but he was not a traveler. She "converted" him and now he travels a lot too. She is not good at being in the house, but she'd rather be out of the house. She's been from Maine to Florida, and to the Mississippi river and to California. She's been to Europe and to Hawaii once. She likes to go to Cape Cod and when she is retired she wants to live in Cape Cod, but not until Ainsley finishes her school. She likes the sounds and the smells of the cape, and also the foghorn in the distance.

3. Exercise & Zumba weren't always a part in her life. She would ride her bike with Brian while he was running, but she was never into exercising. She started Zumba 4-5 years ago and she got hooked on that. She loves the music, the beat and how it makes her feel. She found a person named Lily and she loves the Zumbaclasses she gives. She never wants to miss a single class, and even gets upset when she has to miss it. She had a little mid-life crisis when she turned 50 and she wanted to do something with herself. So she decided to change and start exercising because she told herself she had to do something. Bootcamp "popped-up" at that moment and she joined that for 8 weeks and she took another bootcamp for another 6 weeks. Exercising is a part of her now and she doesn't want to stop doing it. It changed how she feels emotionally and the rest of her feelings about herself.

4. Being a (science)teacher is something that came along quite early in her life, but her initial decision was that she wanted to be a nurse. Her parents were both educators and she noticed that nursing wasn't her calling. She decided to go in the direction of becoming a teacher. She loves having her own classroom and passing on her knowledge and telling them how important Valley Central is to her and to them. She has been a science teacher for 29 years and she still loves it. Science is a fascinating thing for her, but sometimes it is hard to teach. Teachers have became sort of the scape-goat of all the things that are wrong with society. 6th grade is her favourite grade because they are just old enough to share things with and have thoughts go around in the classroom and have some fun.

Suprise!! No translations to Dutch this time! Oh no!!! So everybody who's reading this can improve their English reading skills :).

~Yannick