Under and Out

I started off the day by not being fully prepared for the weather. I ran out to catch my bus this morning in my tennis shoes, my winter coat and scarf, and absolutley no umbrella (ella ella eh, eh, eh). It was soggy, and then so was I. Oh well.

My bus ride was lonely, because my bus buddy Rachel (she works at my school) was out at a conference today. That left me to my thoughts and some photo taking. Here's one I liked from underneath the subway. Sounds weird, but the subway becomes elevated this far up and out of Manhattan. I thought it was a good depiction of the morning world waking up in the Bronx.

I spent the day helping kids write descriptive settings about their made up heroes, helping other students understand the word "perfunctory", and then having a 6th grader explain to me why he didn't want to use the term "bull shit", by saying bull shit to me...twice. I laughed. Hard.

Crankiness ensued when I realized that I had an after school staff meeting, which I think is funny considering we have a two day conference in Jeresey starting tomorrow. Don't you think we'll get ENOUGH time together? I DO! There is a plan to jump on all the hotel room beds though with Rachel, and my friend Corie wants to bond like teachers do- at a bar. It won't be all bad. I hope to have nice pictures. It's at a spa on the Jersey shore.

The day rounded out with some Thursday night dinner activities with Erica, Kate and Dan all meeting up at Blockheads. I sing praises about Blockheads. I heart burritos. As we were walking home (after a quick stop off at Pinkberry) I noticed Big Daddy's Diner, which I mostly took a picture of because I liked the fact that they sold "Burgers Shakes and Tots". Man, I like tots. I like burritos and Pinkberry and tots.

Say Something Funny!

I couldn't help myself. I actually didn't take this picture today. I actually didn't take any picture today, but I think it's more fitting that I just post one of the videos that I uploaded. I found myself looking through and uploading many of my old pictures from the computer I had when I was working and traveling abroad. They were FULL of great memories. So I feel it's fitting that my daily blog references memory lane as well.

It's about time I share a video from Korea. This one was taken about a week before the end of my contract in Pusan, so I had been teaching these kids for almost a year. It made me miss them SO much waching this. They are 4/5 years old, and they were my favorite group of students! Without further ado- the Wonderland School's Blue Class!

Rock the vote and burping lessons

I voted today!!

Did you? (where applicable)

After doing my civic duty I went to work out at the gym, so I rocked the vote, and rocked the scales. I rock.

Dan and I made delicious, delicious salmon tonight for dinner. Sometimes we rock at making dinner. Dan likes to say words like "brick" when he burps, and I decided that if I can't beat em', join em', so I was trying to burp and say a word. Dan tried to teach me through linguistics saying things like "you need to start a little lower with a good bi-labial, and end with a stop." I thought this was absurd, but correct.

Know what else rocks? My students. They all were very interested in talking about politics today, so when I was watching CNN tonight, it didn't suprise me that most Latinos support Hilary Clinton. I could have projected that myself based on my conversations. I think one reason might be that immigration is a serious issue with my students. Seriously. Their families, mother's, father's, even possibly themeselves are wrapped up in this touchy subject. It's real, and they are kids, people all here to make a better life for themeselves. There is no denying that. I wish that I had prepared more information for them, instead of teaching the timeline of the Spanish American war, doesn't it make more sense to prepare them to explain the timeline of today? They show interest, therefore I feel as if I need to play into them. It affects them as citizens of their school, their community, their state, and their country. Since I support my students as citizens, I feel as if I should support them in their desire to learn about their world.

I had an interesteing conversation with both my 7th and 8th graders this afternoon. My 7th graders wanted to know more about how the Townshend Act influenced the taxes of today. It was really interesting, and it was hard to put them back on track to their school work, but I liked the questions they were asking, and I'm glad that I felt knowledgable enough about politics, and unbiased enough to discuss it. They asked about term limits, brought up immigration issues, as well as they were all very interested in the way I'd vote.

My 8th graders later were reading a play about Women's Sufferage, and we had a pretty great conversation about women now having a choice. There were two girls in the class, which I was really interested in getting their viewpoint. One girl said that she didn't care to have the vote if it meant being forced to work, or go to war (issues brought up during that time (in the play)). The other girl, and actually the boys stepped in the most to defend equal rights. It's a releif to see that these kids heads are in the right place when it comes to understanding justice and fairness in today's society. We talked a lot about how women now have a CHOICE about working, or going to war, and I think it made all the students think. I DO feel proud that I have the right to go vote, for a woman, or a black man if I choose. I don't have to, but I did have the choice, and thank God for that. We've come a long way.

The picture of the day is not political, but actually a follow up to a January post entitled Christmas Tree Graveyard. Today I noticed with my eyes and nose that the parks, and medians have been mulched with christmas trees! Yay for Mulch Fest 08!! It seems it was a success!

I'm choosing sleep now.

Picture-palooza

Hey look, it's the ceral I took to school with me for breakfast but was denied milk when I asked the lunch lady! No worries, I just asked a student to take and extra and bring it to me in the teachers room. Score. Dry cereal no more!

Here we have the bus stop bench drenched in the milk that we gave to the students during their after school tutoring. Clearly not a good idea. It was really frustrating to show up and then have to feel guilty because an old woman came to the bus stop with grocery bags and couldn't sit. I documented the case in order to let my principal know.

I went to see the play on the right tonight: The Play about the Naked Guy, which was HI-larious. Not just funny, but side-splitting funny. I'm not kidding. Get your tickets today, it'll be a hit (I hope) and even if it isn't, it was still stinkin' funny.

On our way out Dan and I noticed many funny things, including a cute little buisiness women MOWING down on a Big Mac and extra large fry on the subway. I couldn't help but be curious about how she east like that AND looks lik that. Not fair.

One thing we noticed was this apartment building on the left. It made me wonder "what kind of people live in an aparmtent like that?? Curious...very curious. I'd like to meet them.

A Giant Super Bowl

Crazier things could happen. But not many. The New York Giants won the Super Bowl tonight, which was a big surprise to, oh, I don't know...EVERYONE. Underdog much? Well, it turned the city inside out, or at least what I could hear of it from my fire escape after the game. At one point through all the hootin' and hollerin' I heard one guy exclaim "I LOVE NEW YORK!" Yes, sir, I'm certain that you do.

It just means that my kids will be off the hook tomorrow as well. I had a pretty happy day today though, and I feel MUCH more rested than last weekend, so that's a start. Yesterday was bagels, park and organizing, then babysitting. Today was brunching with Rachel and Claudia from my school, which was fabulous, and should become a tradition on Sundays. I then went grocery shopping with Dan, and then I bummed out on the party I was supposed to go to so I could get work done at home.

What that really meant was that I set out healthy-ish snacks and Dan and I laughed our heads off at the commercials. That is until the end of the game when we both yelled at the TV when the Giants scored the winning touchdown in the last minute. Out of control. Neither of us even LIKE professional football! I've never seen a Giants game in my LIFE.

Well, it was worth it, considering Plaxico Burress played at Michigan State in my day. That was fun. I think the most fun was just standing around on the fire escape listening to the post-game din though. Spirit is such and interesting concept. It's nearly oozing out of every bar and pub in the greater Manhattan area tonight. I can still hear it through my window. :)

Duck, Duck, Goose

I took a walk around the Resevoir in Central Park today, which tops up there on my 5 Favorite Things To Do in New York list. It's true. I always seem to be drawn to the birdies, probably because my mom is a regular Dr. Doolittle. She makes friends with the ducks on Gull Lake, where we live in Michigan. I'm not kidding, they come to her when she calls. She buys them sacks of corn and saves stale snacks for them and stuff. And she also collects stale snacks from friends and family members to give to the ducks too. In the summer, they love to waddle up the yard just to say hello sometimes. It's cute, and pretty entertaining to watch.

That all being said, I find a sort of kinship with my mom through the observations of ducks. Geese are another story...they poop on the beach.

It was a pretty good day for a walk, although slightly colder than I wanted it to be. It was still good to get out and around for a walk though. The park sort of has this calming effect on me, which I enjoy, and don't take part in enough. I can see why it's called New York's back yard, people really flock there (along with the ducks and geese).

I think I was already asleep when I typed the last sentence of yesterday's post. It doesn't make and GD sense. Oh, and one last pic from the place where I was babysitting tonight (mad cash for such easy work-the baby slept the whole time!) Goo'night ya'll.

Wait, dangit, I promised I'd post this one too. Now really...goodnight.

I love bridges in Central Park!!

Rufus and Ravagh and the Rain

Fridays always deserve a cheer. This Friday in particulare because I made it through the day at school with minimal patience lost and actaully feeling like I made a difference in the lives of a few children today. Ahhhh.

It was play time with my friend Allison (Brazil study abroad trip). We hung out at my place for awhile before heading out tonight. It was a rainy, rainy night tonight, but we decided we wanted to see "The Savages" with Phillup Seymore Hoffman (excellent) and Laura Linney! We also decided upon further thought that we should try a new place to eat- middle eastern to be exact, from Ravagh. I dined on the BEST saffron ice cream and goodness. Here's Allison beaming over her saffron ice cream! P.S. we also got tickets to see Rufus Wainwright play on Valentine's Day!! Awesome. The rain- it's awesomeness comes and goes.