It's the last day before Back-to-School and I'm sitting here on my couch enjoying a French Press and some morning talk shows.

I'm feeling good about going back to school tomorrow. The other day I was talking to one of my friends from school and she was lamenting the end of summer vacation. I got back from nine weeks of traveling in the Middle East on Monday so for me I feel like vacation is already over anyway. This past week has sorta just felt like killing time. I guess that's why I wasn't at all bothered by going into my classroom two days last week to start getting set up. I was in fact excited to do it. This is going to be my fifth year teaching and there have been summers where I went in early and summers where I didn't. This year it just felt right. I spent about eight hours total in my room and it's already looking fabulous. Teaching gets easier every year, and I guess so does setting up your room. I completely rearranged the set up of my room this year but it took no time at all (probably because I'd been imagining it since the middle of last year). I stopped by the dreaded "Teacher Store" and quickly picked up exactly what I needed. I now know exactly what to buy and where to find it. I was even smart enough this year to go before the crazy crowds and avoided waiting in line for more than an hour like usual. I think it's going to be a good year.

Tomorrow I get to start the fun part which is figuring out which kids tested out of ESL and which kids will be coming in. It's a long process but it's my favorite part of the year.

Now the real challenge: getting to bed early tonight so I can wake up at 6am! Ugh.

Ok, so I know this is totally wrong to say and I'm SURE I'll be regretting it soon, but . . . I'm actually sorta looking forward to going back to school a little.

(Please, don't hurt me for saying it.)

I've been having a fabulous vacation (better than I could have imagined) but I'm also looking forward to getting back to real life. Like my apartment, my friends, the city, and yes, even school.

It's going to be an interesting year with our assistant principal-turned-principal. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my little ones (especially my babies in the first grade who will now be second graders!!). And I love all of the beginning of the year organizing: my classroom, my schedule, finding out who's new to ESL this year and who tested out.

I'm sure come October 1st I'll already be counting down to summer break, but for now I'm reveling in the last days of summer and thinking about the year to come.