Reflection by Numbers

I recently read a great article where a person chronicled her year abroad with a "reflection by numbers."

Here's my year in playful numbers.

• Number of Wisconsin (yes, Wisconsin!) high school choir concerts attended in Poland: 1
• The highest number of runners on one base during a school baseball game: 3 (whoops!)
• The number of people who have told me that I dye my hair an "interesting color" (and it's natural!): 6
• Average number of days a week my cell phone decides my apartment is in the Czech Republic and that calls I receive from Poland (the country my apartment is, in fact, located in) are "international calls": 4
• Number of times I twirled on a Salzburg mountain (with mom and aunt in tow) like Julie Andrews in "The Sound of Music": 1

• Number of holes drilled through my apartment walls - on separate occasions - and on accident - by my neighbors during their remodeling: 3
• Cost of the three-hour bus ride from Cieszyn to Krakow: 16 PLN (approximately $5)
• Number of sugar cookies baked for school parties/English worship: 28 dozen

• Number of clothing layers required to survive a 2-hour church service in an unheated sanctuary in February: 4 (long underwear, "clothing layer," fleece layer, wool coat layer)
• Number of medals awarded in the English Conversation Olympics: 100+
• Number of separate occasions where people accused (yes, I'd say "accused") me of being a vegetarian because I ate chicken instead of beef or pork at a restaurant or school event (umm...): 4
• Number of other Americans teaching in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic I've met (the majority are ELCA teachers in Slovakia): 27

• Percentage of students who, when I asked them in September what they wanted to learn in English conversation this year, said they wanted to go to the park across the street: almost 100%
• Number of flowers I received from my students on Women's Day because, according to my 7th graders, "these are for you because you are a woman": 6
• Average age of the other skiers on the bunny slopes the day I learned how to ski: 4

• Number of pounds split between my two suitcases when I flew to Central Europe in August: 91
• Number of ATM cards demagnetized/devoured by Slovak ATMs/stolen: 3 ("To lose one ATM card may be regarded as misfortune; to lose three looks like carelessness." - Oscar Wilde's likely reaction to my ATM card bad luck.)
• Number of people who helped me with my ATM crises: 8 (Mom, Dad, Jim, Elsa, Wanda, Kelly, Grandma, Grandpa)
• Number of free meals with my sister at a restaurant in Florence, Italy thanks to adoring waiters: 1

• Number of minutes after the bell rings that teachers at my school continue to sit peacefully in the teacher's room before finally heading to class: 2 or 3
• Average number of pieces of cake you're served at a Polish home...before you eat dinner: 2
• Number of people who have told me that McDonald's slogan "I'm lovin' it" is not grammatically correct: 3
• Number of visitors from the U.S. this year: 9! (Claire, Dad, Mom, Kate, Erin, Kelly, Aunt Denise, Grandma, Grandpa)
• Number of days at the beginning of the year I was afraid of the open flame hot water heater in my tiny bathroom: at least 30

• Average number of matches I need to successfully light the hot water heater every morning: 3
• Number of languages I've worshipped in this year: 7
• Age of my youngest student: 10
• Age of my oldest student: 70+
• Number of minutes it takes for me to walk to the "Bridge of Freedom" over the Olza river that connects the town of Cieszyn in Poland with the town Cesky Tesin in the Czech Republic: 7

• Longest number of consecutive days spent in one country: 9 days in Poland, when I had bronchitis and couldn't trek to the Czech Republic where I tutor in the evenings :)
• Number of days until I fly to Chicago: 19!