virus,labor day, high school, race, desk...but no pictures....sorry!

My poor computer got a virus so it is currently at the NC State Help Desk being worked on by a bunch of Asians! I have full confidence in them getting the virus off my computer. Until then, they have loaned me a laptop which is great, but I have none of the pictures that I was going to include in my because they are on my poor computer...so you will just have to imagine visuals as you read.

I went home for labor day weekend. It was not laborious, which was nice, and I did get to see lots of friends and do lots of things. I had a four day weekend her in school and it was laborious, which was not so nice. I had lots of homework. I spent Wednesday observing at Panther Creek High School and instead of staying the in class I will be teaching I went and observed the other four Spanish teachers in the school (there are a total of five). One of the teachers I observed was the FLANC (Foreign Language Association of North Carolina) Teacher of the Year last year. She was AESOME! I observed her teaching her AP Spanish class and her Level I Spanish Class and she was great at both.

Tonight (Thursday night) I had parent-teacher/open-house at Panther Creek. I met most of the parents of the students I will be teaching, which was nice. It was weird being a "teacher" at one of those open-houses.

I go home to Asheville again tomorrow (Friday) because I have my big 1/2 marathon on Saturday morning. I'm really excited, because I love races and the atmosphere at races, but I'm really sad it's here. It seems like the last four months of my life I've been training for someting (either a triathlon or a running race) and this is my last planned race of the year. After this Saturday I have not "scheduled" to work toward. Also, this week has been really weird because I am "resting" for the race so I have only ran a total of 6 miles this whole week (2 miles every other day)...I feel really guilty and lazy, but according to my training schedule that is what I'm suppose to do. So, I'm really excited for the race so I can run a really long way, run hard, and feel that burn in my legs and lungs!

I also have a really really cool addition to my room (I will post a picture soon) of a beautiful desk! My dad made me a perfect, dark-wood desk with a drawer to go in my room. I didn't want to buy a desk and all the desk we had at home were either too big or the wrong color...so he just made the the perfect one. (I'm sitting at it now!). I looks great in my room and fits perfectly. Thanks, Dad!

One week down and many more to go :)

This was a good week. I got to meet all of my students...ALL like 110 of them (in only three classes!). I did a little "get to know me" lesson for each class speaking only in Spanish using props like my bike helmet, an apron, etc. when talking about things I like to do. Then I quizzed them to show them that they can understand more than they think in Spanish. If they answered the question right I gave them a mechanical pencil.

We had our first Destino meeting of the year and we had 5 new (all Hispanic!) visitors. How exciting. After the meeting we all went to the State men's soccer game on campus. Tomorrow (Friday) we have our Mi Familia (Hispanic organization on campus) cookout. I'm excited to get to socialize with my Latino friends from State!...and get to know the new Destino members better.

On Saturday I am volunteering for Fiesta Del Pueblo. It's an annual cultural festival that has live music, food, and all sorts of advocacy and educational programs for Hispanics. I am volunteering through Mi Familia with the Justice Fair. I'm excited because there is always good food, dancing, and lots of Hispanics!

I got an A+ on my FLES (Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools) Lesson presentation and written plan in my methods class!...which I was super excited about. I really really enjoyed doing the lesson (see previous post for details) and was very pleased with the grade. ...who knows, maybe I'll teach elementary school one day...but then again, maybe not.
I am also finding my methods class to be VERY beneficial and to the point. I wish that all of the education classes that I have taken previously in college had been so beneficial and relevent.

I've been sticking to my 1/2 marathon training schedule really strictly this week. I have even passed-up some late night social events so that I can get up early and run. (Normally, this would NOT be typical for me, but it's crunch time now because the race is only 2 weeks away...yikes!) I am going to try and run 11 miles in the morning. ...good luck to me!

Back in the Swing of Things

Now that I'm pretty settled into Raleigh I suppose it is time for me to get back into the grove of blogging....

I have decided that I LOVE my apartment and apartment location. I am two minutes from I-40, ten minutes from a newly renovated Super-Wal-Mart, ten minutes from Target, five minutes from school, and it's super easy to give directions too. I also love the layout, having my own bathroom and large closet, and I like my clean, organized, and respectful apartment-mates.


















































I have decided that I DON'T like riding my road bike in Raleigh. I road this morning for an hour and a half and it was super annoying. Every time I found a good two lane country road it led me straight to a large intersection. I asked some other bikers that I saw where was a good place to ride and they gave me some suggestions that I will try next week. I do however live about five minutes from a lake that has a five mile loop around it that I also LOVE running on.

I am an official "employee" (unpaid, that is) of Wake County as of yesterday when I went down to central office and got my teacher ID badge. I took a really good picture (YAY!) and I can now get into any Wake County sporting event free!....I saw this as a win/win situation (minus the "unpaid" part).

My roommate, Allison, and I went to the local farmers' market this morning where I bough some peaches and a green pepper. As for food, I have been cooking in large quantities and then eating off that particular meal for several days. Last night I cooked some rice and mixed vegetables in "sofrito" (a Puerto Rican classic of cilantro, onion, and garlic that they use to flavor about everything they eat). I also grilled some chicken that I like to have around for salads or to add to my rice.

In Destino news.... Last week we had a leadership meeting to begin planning for the year. In addition to Holly (our Campu Crusade Coach) we now also have Justin. Justin graduated from State in 2004 and then worked in Argentina with Crusade for 4 years. He should be a great addition to our leadership group. Also, tonight we are having a SURPRISE going away party for Ekaterina who is leaving us for a 9 month intership in Georgia. We are going to miss her!


(Ekaterina pictured here....)












I am enjoying my methods class (a 7-week "teach you how to teach" class). I'm finding it informative. We are currently in our FLES (foreign languages in Elementry schools) section. All of us are certified to teach kindergarten through 12th grade so we spend time studying each grade level and specific teaching techiniques. Yesterday I had to teach my Elementry School Lesson and I LOVED it. The idea in FLES is that you create a content specific lesson and through focusing on the content the young children just pick-up vocabulary and grammar. In FLES you can't just write notes on the board because the kids can't even read yet. So you just speak to them in Spanish the whole time and you have to be very repetitive. I had an abosolute blast teaching my lesson. My content focus was "patterns" and my grade level was 1st grade. Through my lesson, in addition to learning how to complete patterns, the kids were able to learn the words (in Spansh) for pattern, circle, square, triangle, boy, girl, green, blue, and red...and they took ZERO notes. I'm glad I will have the option to teach young children because I really did enjoy it.


(Pattern artifacts picture here....)















So, if you made it to the bottom I give you a "star"! (because teachers are no longer permitted to give out candy in Wake County.....LAME!)

Summer time!

Sorry for the absence, but I love summer and there are things I'd rather be doing then stuff on the computer!

History...check!

I have finished ALL of my classes but one, YAY! I took my history exam yesterday and to study I made a really large color coded time line of Latin American history...I thought it was impressive anyway. :)






















Last night some of my residents went to paint the Free Expression Tunnel in order to make their freshmen year complete...I tagged along. We spray-painted a whole bunch of nothing.

Spring is in the air!

I attended the Mi Familia end of the year Gala last Saturday night. The Hispanic organizations from NC State, Chapel-Hill, and Duke all get together for a night of awards, dinner, and dancing. If was an enjoyable night and fun to get all dressed up.

I went with several of the Destino Girls..... (pictured below)






























Also last Saturday in the afternoon we had our Triad Palooza...which is like an end-of-the-year cookout for my building. We had tacos, pizza, subs, games, and live music.







Yesterday we had our "Destino Despedida", or our Destino end-of-the-year/going away party. We spent the hot (90 degree plus weather) afternoon at the pool in Silvia and Manuel's apartments. We swam, played games, threw frisbee, grilled hotdogs, sat in the hot-tub (later that night), roasted marshmellows, and had a great time. We had a total of about 32 people...a Destino record!!! We also said goodbye to Rolando, our foreign exchange student from Honduras. He returned to Honduras on Sunday where he hopes to start a Destino on his university's campus. He is already in contact with a Campus Crusade staff worker who is working in Honduras.











































This week I have an exam Wednesday and a project due on Friday. I also will be busy with check-out and my other RA duties. Well, I'm off to study and work on a project!

almost there!

This week has not been too bad. I got the bulk of my work done before Easter so as long as I pace myself well I should not have any more stressful days the rest of the year! I'm on duty this weekend so I have to stay in the building tonight and all day tomorrow. However, we do have our Triad (the area in which I live) Palooza tomorrow afternoon. We will be having tacos, games, and live music. It should be pretty fun! Also tonight I will be spending several hours with some other girls cooking all the meat for tomorrow. Then tomorrow night we have our Mi Familia Gala. The Gala is the end of the year banquet that includes the Hispanic organizations from UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State. We all get dressed up, eat yummy food, and have awards. It should be pretty fun!

I also had a small scare this week when I called in to Stone Ridge Tavern to line-up summer work. The manager I talked to told me that they had been having so many college students just come back and pick-up random nights here and there but then not be availabe to work when needed. She said that since they needed more consistant/relaible staff they were requiring all college students to "reapply" and interview in order to get hired again for the summer. She also said that they were not hiring very many people. I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO HAVE TO LOOK FOR OTHER WORK! So, I called my dear friend Hannah who works there full-time, prayed about it...maybe God had other summer plans for me..., and waited. Hannah called me back today after talking to the other (more "normal") manager and the owner and since I will be coming back for the whole summer they are fine if I want to work there and I don't need to reapply. WHEW! Glad I have that into place!