School started back up yesterday. After two weeks off, it felt like the beginning of the school year all over again. On one hand it was great, I was able to do some things completely over that didn’t work for the first three weeks and I was able to start over with a few students who were behavior problems and affecting my mood in the classroom… on the other hand, it was hard starting all over. The beginning of the year is tedious, investing students, getting them involved in big classroom goals, management, procedures… I was impatiently waiting for that period to be over so that learning and instruction could take place. We had finally gotten to the learning part when Ike hit. To my wonderful surprise, yesterday went very well. All of my students showed up to school (there was an understandable fear that we might have lost a lot of kids due to how transient our students are and when they evacuated, we feared they may just as well stay where they fled to). My kids came very eager to see me and begin learning again. School is stable for them with the structure and support that many of them need. In a sense, coming to school to see Mr. Street was comforting and a relief from the chaos that Ike brought. My kids lost a lot… some roofs, some holes in roofs, some flooding, and all without power.
The power is still a huge issue in Houston. There are about 500,000 still without power two weeks after the storm. Last night, on my drive home, I saw a caravan of at least 50 utility trucks driving down the freeway. Crazy! For some reason the caravans of ambulances, police cars, S.W.A.T. vehicles, and now utility trucks that this hurricane has brought, intrigues me. Life seems to be returning to somewhat of a normal state. The city is still a mess in parts, especially south in Galveston and surrounding areas (40 miles from Houston).
In order to make up for the loss of school, I think the school board is going to vote to extend the school day 1 hour for the remainder of the fall… school from 7:15-4:00 seems crazy to me, but the students need it.
I am coming home in a week to run the Portland Marathon. The hurricane put a little bit of a damper to training but I am not going to let that stop me. I have been dealing with shin splints in my left leg. I am excited to be in Portland and excited for the marathon challenge.
Working at the running store has been a lot of fun! The customers are fun to talk to. I am learning a lot about the mechanics of running and feet and various shoes and technology that can be used for the variety of problems runners and walkers face. I really enjoy it.
I have been thinking a lot about next year and am really indecisive as far as to what it is exactly that I want to do. I am going to apply to another graduate program and compare it to the Boston College program. In addition, I think I am going to apply at a few places in the Northwest and work for a year or two until I know what it is exactly that I want to go to graduate school for. One idea for next year is to work at the admission office or development office at Whitman and gain some experience working in higher education. Another idea is to apply to work at Oregon Episcopal or another Portland area private school (I can’t teach public as my Texas license won’t transfer without three years of teaching experience in Texas). Another idea is to work in the business sector for a few years in either PR or HR and see if business is something that I may want to go into. There are a lot of options; I am trying to figure it all out.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
Ike visits
(editor note: the internet is extremely spotty so in the interest of time I am not going to edit this nor worry about grammar and this post my be posted in pieces as I am unsure how long I am going to have the internet working for.)
Ike came with a fury as I was sound asleep and left in its wake a mess and an extra week at least of summer vacation. I really don't have too exciting of a story as nothing horrible happened to me, just a loss of power which we still don't have back. At the very last minute my roommate and a couple of TFA friends and I decided to go to one of my friends condos downtown (he was out of town and willing to allow us to housesit for him). We were SO fortunate to be downtown because a. we never lost power as downtown has the only underground power lines in Houston and b. had we stayed in our apartment our cars would have been smashed by huge slabs of fence and trees which littered our parking lot not to mention the humid heat that infilterated our apartment once the air conditioner stopped running for the first time in months.
We rode out the storm in style. With school being canceled Friday, I spent the first part of the day working at the running store lifting everything off the ground and preparing the store for the hurricane. Following work, my roommate and I and a few friends loaded up on wine and board games at Target then went to the condo downtown, ordered pizza, watched many episodes of the television show House and had a good time just hanging out, waiting for Ike. Periodically we'd step outside to see how the weather had changed while watching the news to see that hours before Ike even hit land, areas of Texas were already flooding and the sea walls were already being breached, we knew at that point, that this was going to be real. We watched as the wind picked up. Everyone in the condo complex was on the top deck of the 12 story complex hanging out in the wind and drinking "hurricane" punch. It was a party.
I went to bed around midnight not willing to stay awake until 3:00 am when the storm was supposed to visit downtown. I woke up once to go to the restroom and looked outside to see horizontal rain and hear the wind rattling the building, but then fell back asleep soundly. We all slept very well that night in the middle of the condo complex that was built in the early 1900's and made entirely of brick and stucco. (It was this very building that JFK spent his last night before his trip to Dallas where he was asassinnated the next day). We woke up at 8:00 not really thinking much had happened. Looking through the one small window in the condo did not reveal the disaster that stepping outside revealed. Quickly, we ran outside to see what had happened. The shock of seeing the Chase tower, the tallest building in the South and the 8th tallest in the world, made it real. The building had lost every single window from the 30th floor down and with the loss of windows came an incredible sight of piles of glass, office papers, office furniture and mini blinds. Everywhere! We couldn't walk outside much at all due to the ungodly amount of glass in the streets, on cars, and sidewalks. Then the SWAT teams came through downtown and numerous police cars and the city wide intercom system yelling "Stay inside" "off the streets!" We went back inside and continued the House marathon as we never lost power (one of only a couple of hundred residences in the entire city that did not lose power so we're told).
Later in the afternoon we ventured outside to the ONLY restaurant and bar open and watched college football and ate hot food and drank beer thinking we were mighty luck to be where we were around other very thankful people as well. Then I was interviewed by Canadian television and we stayed inside for the next day or so. The effects of Ike struck even harder as I drove to my apartment bolting down power lines, trees, lamp posts, and see crumbles of buildings that did not fair very well. We discovered that we did not have power, so we emptied our refrigerator and freezer and bunkered down at another friend's apartment that had power. The House marathon continued. We took our first showers and were one of very few people able to go on a treadmill and get a workout in.
The city is bouncing back up, albeit slowly. There is still very few people with power, although we just got it back but we're in the medical center. I donated not one but two units of blood and might be going to Louisianna to help out with whatever is needed. There are some Houstonians there that sought refuge from Ike as well as some people from LA that felt the enormous empact of the storm. I am waiting for confirmation on what the need is. It's interesting watching how poeple react to no stop lights and having to revert back to the olden days of traffic control of patience and fairness. Seeing people at the grocery store frantically diving for what little ice or water is left. Yesterday Target was out of all beer, water and produce as well as all perishables. Stores are slowly opening, today, I went to my first Starbucks in a week. Things are open around us but again we're in a bubble that had its electricity come back on first. Gas stations still have mile (not exagarrating) long lines and are being run by the police. It's quite the sight.
I am so thankful for everything I have. It's crazy seeing CNN and all the catastrphic things that are happening with the crash of Lehman Brothers, hurricanes, floods in Chicago, and Palin on a presidential ticket, what is going on?!
I am thankful to all of you the reached out and expressed concern. I love you all.
Ike came with a fury as I was sound asleep and left in its wake a mess and an extra week at least of summer vacation. I really don't have too exciting of a story as nothing horrible happened to me, just a loss of power which we still don't have back. At the very last minute my roommate and a couple of TFA friends and I decided to go to one of my friends condos downtown (he was out of town and willing to allow us to housesit for him). We were SO fortunate to be downtown because a. we never lost power as downtown has the only underground power lines in Houston and b. had we stayed in our apartment our cars would have been smashed by huge slabs of fence and trees which littered our parking lot not to mention the humid heat that infilterated our apartment once the air conditioner stopped running for the first time in months.
We rode out the storm in style. With school being canceled Friday, I spent the first part of the day working at the running store lifting everything off the ground and preparing the store for the hurricane. Following work, my roommate and I and a few friends loaded up on wine and board games at Target then went to the condo downtown, ordered pizza, watched many episodes of the television show House and had a good time just hanging out, waiting for Ike. Periodically we'd step outside to see how the weather had changed while watching the news to see that hours before Ike even hit land, areas of Texas were already flooding and the sea walls were already being breached, we knew at that point, that this was going to be real. We watched as the wind picked up. Everyone in the condo complex was on the top deck of the 12 story complex hanging out in the wind and drinking "hurricane" punch. It was a party.
I went to bed around midnight not willing to stay awake until 3:00 am when the storm was supposed to visit downtown. I woke up once to go to the restroom and looked outside to see horizontal rain and hear the wind rattling the building, but then fell back asleep soundly. We all slept very well that night in the middle of the condo complex that was built in the early 1900's and made entirely of brick and stucco. (It was this very building that JFK spent his last night before his trip to Dallas where he was asassinnated the next day). We woke up at 8:00 not really thinking much had happened. Looking through the one small window in the condo did not reveal the disaster that stepping outside revealed. Quickly, we ran outside to see what had happened. The shock of seeing the Chase tower, the tallest building in the South and the 8th tallest in the world, made it real. The building had lost every single window from the 30th floor down and with the loss of windows came an incredible sight of piles of glass, office papers, office furniture and mini blinds. Everywhere! We couldn't walk outside much at all due to the ungodly amount of glass in the streets, on cars, and sidewalks. Then the SWAT teams came through downtown and numerous police cars and the city wide intercom system yelling "Stay inside" "off the streets!" We went back inside and continued the House marathon as we never lost power (one of only a couple of hundred residences in the entire city that did not lose power so we're told).
Later in the afternoon we ventured outside to the ONLY restaurant and bar open and watched college football and ate hot food and drank beer thinking we were mighty luck to be where we were around other very thankful people as well. Then I was interviewed by Canadian television and we stayed inside for the next day or so. The effects of Ike struck even harder as I drove to my apartment bolting down power lines, trees, lamp posts, and see crumbles of buildings that did not fair very well. We discovered that we did not have power, so we emptied our refrigerator and freezer and bunkered down at another friend's apartment that had power. The House marathon continued. We took our first showers and were one of very few people able to go on a treadmill and get a workout in.
The city is bouncing back up, albeit slowly. There is still very few people with power, although we just got it back but we're in the medical center. I donated not one but two units of blood and might be going to Louisianna to help out with whatever is needed. There are some Houstonians there that sought refuge from Ike as well as some people from LA that felt the enormous empact of the storm. I am waiting for confirmation on what the need is. It's interesting watching how poeple react to no stop lights and having to revert back to the olden days of traffic control of patience and fairness. Seeing people at the grocery store frantically diving for what little ice or water is left. Yesterday Target was out of all beer, water and produce as well as all perishables. Stores are slowly opening, today, I went to my first Starbucks in a week. Things are open around us but again we're in a bubble that had its electricity come back on first. Gas stations still have mile (not exagarrating) long lines and are being run by the police. It's quite the sight.
I am so thankful for everything I have. It's crazy seeing CNN and all the catastrphic things that are happening with the crash of Lehman Brothers, hurricanes, floods in Chicago, and Palin on a presidential ticket, what is going on?!
I am thankful to all of you the reached out and expressed concern. I love you all.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Tonight's Run
I went on a run tonight right before dark and had the most euphoric beautiful experience ever. For once in several months there was not any humidity and the temperature was in the mid 70's with a nice pleasant breeze. I began running and I felt great. My body has been hurting recently and I had a really bad weekend where I just felt overly lonely which began on my Birthday without really having anyone to hang out with. Anyway, I began running feeling well and enjoying the weather. As I was running, I switched music from the normal techno/music with various beats that I run well to, to a mix that my dear friend Angela made awhile ago. Along the route I first ran along the bayou, along the rushing water from recent rain and along grassy meadows and trees. I ran through a nice neighborhood and into the medical center. I ran through the medical center, the largest in the world, passing the radiation center, the cancer center, the several children's hospitals, the medical schools, listening to this mix from Angela with a bunch of songs with various meanings. I felt so powerful and at ease, I was running a great pace without breathing hard, I felt great. THe anxiety I felt all day ceased. I kept going, I passed a young 20 something year old woman with a bald head from cancer sitting on a bench in the dark, then I passed a roaring waterfall, ambulance with paramedics working on patients, a car accident, mean while I kept going, listening to this beautiful music thinking God, I feel so good. I am so healthy. THen I passed a few homeless men in the park. All my stress and my unhappiness exist why? There are patients looking out the window at me, healthy, running, feeling great to music with sentimental and powerful lyrics. I am blessed. Darkness drew. I kept going. I ran through the zoo, through the golf course, memories flooding from my years with Angela, Canby, home, mom, living. I eventually got back to my apartment with a different outlook on things. I think this is what is called a runner's high. This makes absolute no sense. I did not do justice to the run I just went on, but that's the beauty of it... it was too incredible to put into words :)
Friday, September 5, 2008
Turning 24 At School
Despite feeling like a circus conductor trying to train 42 different monkeys that understand different languages and commands, life at school is going really well. I am having fun. I feel much more confident and enthusiastic than last year... it is amazing what one year can do! Second year is truly much easier. I have two sets of 5th graders with 20 and 21 in each class. They came to be really behind which is making me work really hard right away with a huge sense of urgency to get them to pass and at the level of their peers. It is nice having a stable classroom where I am not pulled to do this thing and that. Stability has led to a huge increase in overall happiness. Each day has seemed like five in one and after school tutorials start in a week!
Other than school I have been really busy teaching a few private lessons after school and working out, the Portland marathon is now in a month, yikes! I am excited despite some shin issues. Being busy outside of school by exercising has given me something to do and not feel as lonely. I cannot wait for the day when I have a lot of friends and family around me.... my life is in quiet solitude right now which is apparent today on my Birthday with no real plans of anything other than going for a run when it cools off. It makes me sad, but whatever, I chose to be here and put myself in my situation.
The kids have helped me celebrate my Birthday, they began the day singing to me. One girl gave me a bottle of cologne, haha. So sweet. Another boy gave me a snow globe that had to have come from his house with one dolphin in it that is in its position, but the other dolphin has broken off and lays dead on the bottom of the globe!!! I have also gotten an old stuffed animal and Hershey kisses, the thought is what counts in the lives of these kids. My homeroom class from last year brought be a cake and sang to me at lunch. The kids have made my day.
Gotta go grade some tests to see if I really taught them anything this week!
Robert
Other than school I have been really busy teaching a few private lessons after school and working out, the Portland marathon is now in a month, yikes! I am excited despite some shin issues. Being busy outside of school by exercising has given me something to do and not feel as lonely. I cannot wait for the day when I have a lot of friends and family around me.... my life is in quiet solitude right now which is apparent today on my Birthday with no real plans of anything other than going for a run when it cools off. It makes me sad, but whatever, I chose to be here and put myself in my situation.
The kids have helped me celebrate my Birthday, they began the day singing to me. One girl gave me a bottle of cologne, haha. So sweet. Another boy gave me a snow globe that had to have come from his house with one dolphin in it that is in its position, but the other dolphin has broken off and lays dead on the bottom of the globe!!! I have also gotten an old stuffed animal and Hershey kisses, the thought is what counts in the lives of these kids. My homeroom class from last year brought be a cake and sang to me at lunch. The kids have made my day.
Gotta go grade some tests to see if I really taught them anything this week!
Robert
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