Jumpstart Your Health....and the epic journey home

The many weeks leading up to our big health expo, during which we aimed to eliminate obesity from the town of Mossyrock, finally came to fruition on May 25th. And it was an overwhelming success! Mind you, there might still be a few obese people wandering the streets, but we organized a fun community event, served healthy food that families LOVED, and got the kids and parents moving for a couple of hours.

The preparation was pretty substantial, and Liz and I ended up having to do the bulk of it (our Americorps team felt like slacking and not showing up until the last minute...though some of them had the decency to stay after to help clean up. The day began with an epic trip to Wal Mart, where we threw down some major dollars for all sorts of produce, pasta, sauces, juice, and much more. The only thing we struck out on was Tahini, but our hummus turned out great anyway. We returned to school, and got to prepping the lunch room for the big night. For a while it seemed like everything was going wrong: the putt putt golf had been "thrown away," the zumba and hip hop dance teacher cancelled that day, the nutritionist decided she could only stay for an hour, our internet went down, and we didn't fully know if we'd be able to provide the food we wanted. HOWEVER, we got all of the food, we found some putt putt, we got a replacement teacher to teach salsa (didn't end up happening due to technical difficulties, but it didn't end up being a big deal), and I didn't even notice the nutritionist leave. I ended up manning the food for most of the night, but it was great looking out at the room and seeing tons of people having a great time. Our menu for the night included:

Hummus, served with chips, celery, cucumbers and carrots

Peach-mango salsa to put on chips

Whole wheat pasta salad with peppers, onions, tomatoes, peas, parmesan, and light Italian dressing

Mini pizzas on whole wheat English muffins with sauce, basil, peppers, onions, and mozzarella

Taco salad with ground turkey, spinach, tomatoes, salsa, cheese

Fruit kabobs with pineapple, strawberries, bananas, apples

We had one rogue girl trying to dump ranch on everything, but Liz ended up hiding the ranch, and everyone went on eating healthily and in peace. Overall, a great success and kickoff into my memorial day weekend vacation.

However, my vacation ended up starting out a little more exciting than I would've liked. As I sat at the Portland airport on Wednesday night, listening as they pusehd back our departure time 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours, etc., citing tornadoes in Denver, I became increasingly antsy. Finally, at about 9 or 10 p.m., they canceled the flight entirely, leading all passengers to jump in line in order to re-book. I ended up lucking out and being 4th in line, but they were saying no one would be able to get on a flight for the next day, and would be lucky to find anything even on Friday. I actually began to entertain the idea that I would just have t pick another weekend to travel home. However, I heard someone mention Seattle, and learned taht there were openings on flights out of Seattle for the next day. I jumped on that, and was put on an 8:50 a.m. flight out of Seattle for the next morning. Lauren was nice enough to let me sleep on her (now pretty much my) pull out couch for a few hours, before making the wonderful drive from Portland to Seattle, with a 3 a.m. departure. I was a total zombie, but got up after just 2 hours of sleep, drove to Seattle, and was lucky to experience little traffic and a beautiful sunrise (meaning no rain! Shocking!). I pulled up to Alyssa's house, at which time she made me some tea and a salad for the road. A cab came and finally whisked me away to the SeaTac airport, from which I arrived in Denver at noon that day.

Then came the issue with my return, which was still scheduled to come into Portland. Yet my car remained in Seattle. Through some mastery, and sheer luck, I figured out a way home, and to have my car waiting there for me. My friend Kate HAPPENED to be flying out of Portland today, and Nikki HAPPENED to be flying into SeaTac today. Erego, Kate gets a ride from Liz to PDX, and I get a ride back to Morton in Liz's return. Dan goes to pick Nikki up from SeaTac (I mailed him my car keys), and he will drive my car back to Morton from Seattle. It hasn't all gone through yet, but I assume that by the time I'm home tonight, my car will be waiting for me in my driveway.

My time in Boulder was like a trip to Paradise, and I managed to do all of the Boulder-y things I had dreamed of, including:

*Lunch at Zolo, my favorite Tex-Mex restaurant, sitting outside in the 85 degree weather while drinking a beer

*Watching So You Think You Can Dance while eating Supper Salad (the show isn't specifically Boulder, but it reminds me of summers at home)

*Spin class with Kayla at 24 hour fitness, alongside all of the other Boulder fitness freaks

*Haircut from Bobbi

*Rockies game (they lost 5-4, but our seats were literally 14 rows up from the 3rd base line)

*Farmers' Market, which was totally packed because of the Boulder Creek Festival, but still great seeing the spectacle of all of the fresh produce

*Boulder Creek Festival, again with a day of perfect weather and sunshine. Booths visited included buying ducks for the duck race, a booth giving info on buying chickens (my parents' new dream), greyhound adoption to visit with our neighbor, and watching the community dance stage which featured some sort of contemporary dance where a bunch of pre-teen girls were just running around screaming at each other. Not the best....

*Visiting a MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARY, which is apparently also a wellness center/pilates studio. My mom wanted to see this place for educational and professional reasons, since her patients are always wanting her to prescribe pot for them. We saw all of the varieties of marijuana in various jars, some baked goods, and even weed-infused Glacier ice cream! It was pretty fascinating...

*We visited the Fauvers at their new, beautiful home, and reminisced about old times going to their house before soccer practice. Shockingly I didn't end up giving a balalaika performance....

*My parents and I went to Salt, one of my favorite Boulder restaurants, where we sampled some local beers, a bottle of Spanish wine, and some great food.

*Beers with Kayla and Kalina at the Walnut Brewery...the Devil's Thumb Stout was delightful

*Sunday morning blueberry pancakes, coffee, and reading the newspaper

*Shopping spree with my mom at the 29th street mall. Great success, but super tiring

*Grilled chicken, MOJITOS, and I Love Lucy for dinner....

*We walked/jogged the Bolder Boulder on Monday, the greatest thing ever. I don't know why I ever didn't participate in this amazing event--it's as much a party as it is a 10k.

*Went to the shop around the corner (King Soopers), but none of my favorite local characters were there, unfortunately

*Fulfilled my dream of drinking beer on the patio at the Southern Sun brewery. I even got a sun burn, something I haven't had in a while....

*Buffalo burgers bbq at our house, ate out on our deck, including corn on the cob, baked beans, and brownie sundaes for dessert. Champagne was our beverage of choice this time...

*My final Boulder hurrah was a trip to Cafe Sole, which has totally changed but still got my usual pre-airport beverage....

Overall, once I finally got to Boulder, the weekend was perfect, the weather was perfect, and I am not thrilled to be going back to Morton. However, I do have Zoo Brew to look forward to this Friday, at which I will be sampling beer while mingling with wild animals in Portland!

Still counting down till Memorial Day....

It's kind of amazing how much my attitude about this year coming to a close has changed in the last week. Now I am so ready for it to be over. From the horrible 7th grader who is trying to make me a victim of junior high bitch-politics by turning some of my favorite kids against me for no reason, to the utter waste of time school seems to be during a month of state testing, to stress from planning "Jumpstart your Health" without having any idea how it will actually go, I'm ready to fast forward to June.

For some reason, the system for state testing involves dragging it out for about 3 weeks, as opposed to getting it all done in a few days like I remember doing in middle and high school. As a result, it doesn't feel like anything is getting done in junior high classes. The science class has been watching Avatar, while supposedly working on a project (I don't think it takes a genius to figure out that if you put this movie on and turn the lights out, 7th graders are NOT going to be focused and gung ho about getting a project about plate tectonics completed to perfection). Not quite sure what the teacher's logic is here, but given how low many of the kids' grades are, I'm sure they could use a more conducive working environment in order to put a good effort into this assignment. The English teacher was gone all of this week, meaning all the class did was watch a movie, and more importantly I had to deal with increasingly restless junior high kids without any backup all week. I'm pretty conflicted about the remaining 2 weeks of after school program; my main concern is having a good handful of the kids on board to be at the health night.

Every time I go to Portland it gets harder to leave, especially when it's 75 degrees and sunny. Last night we went down to hang out and see a show (which ended up being really weird but it was still a fun night). This morning we went to the Saturday market, walked around, bought PUPUSAS, and lounged in the sun. Furthermore, the "Doggie Dash" was just wrapping up as we arrived (some sort of dog-walking 5k or something), so there were hundreds of dogs walking around. I'm looking forward to spending many long hours at the Saturday Market next year when I am an official Portland resident. I still have 3 months to secure a job, and I think I can do it...

Never call Randi a man...

Act I: Conquering the 10k

The 10k weekend turned out to be phenomenal. I finished the race in under an hour (good considering my goal was simply to finish. Also I had to stop and pee in the middle so totally could have finished with a record-breaking time if it weren't for that detail). The post-race celebration was crowded but fun, and some friends from Morton came down to celebrate with me, and hang out for the rest of the day in the big city. I also got a chance to see a soccer game, had some good conversations with job contacts, and saw an AMAZING show--Yeasayer--at the Wonder Ballroom. The 2 a.m. drive home in the pouring rain, and the hydroplaning that went with it, wasn't the best. But I made it.

Act II: Girls' Night

Our Americorps team hosted a sleepover at a church with a bunch of junior high girls. Let's just say, the teenagers had fun; I could've used more sleep.

Act III: Drama turns violent

When I went down to science class one day a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that Hannah was missing. Keisha, the other girl I work with, told me she was in the office because she had been in a fight. I learned that this meant she had made fun of another 7th grader, Randi, for having a man-voice (which she does). Randi's response was to jump Hannah and begin strangling her. Meanwhile, Rachel, another 7th grade drama-addict, thought it would be a good idea to join in the fun and begin punching Hannah. I didn't witness any of this, but it sounded extremely intense. Hannah is the type that, although it is often hard to get her to follow directions the first time around, and she'd much rather socialize than do any work at all, she knows better than to get into fights. Mostly because she's terrified of her mom. And I kind of am too. My impression is that she's a good parent and takes much better care of her kids than a large number of East Lewis County parents do, but she's very vocal and intrusive if she doesn't like something that's going on. And she lets people know about it. Anyway, Randi and Rachel were suspended for 10 days. They will be back tomorrow, which should be interesting. It's also interesting because Randi is one of the team captains for the Relay For Life team I helped form, and I'm a little afraid that no one else will want to join that team for fear of getting strangled to death.

Act IV: Bernarda's Upcoming Quest

The next stage of Project Bernarda: sending her to Spokane. But only for a few days. Since she is part of the migrant program, she qualifies to go to this 3 day conference with other migrant students from across the state. She'll stay in a dorm, attend workshops and participate in activities. Basically, I think it will be both most rewarding and most terrifying experience that a girl like her could go through. She is so ridiculously shy, is seriously lacking in confidence, and is not used to interacting with strangers. However, she perked up when I told her that the majority of the people there will be Spanish speakers. It will be great if she can actually connect with people from other communities, and actually communicate with people aside from the 4 other ESL students at Mossyrock! She has also never been on a plane before, and she kept asking me about what it's like. I think she wanted me to explain the sensation of flying, which I can't really do in English or Spanish. But I told her it's fun to look out the window. And she gets a free drink. And a barf bag. This should be unlike anything she's ever done, and hopefully she has a positive experience. I think she should just be thrilled to understand what everyone around her is saying for once.

Act V: Wulapalooza!

A couple of weekends ago, I went to Salem with Liz, her boyfriend Tyler, and Kate, to attend a music festival at Willamette University. Basically it was an all-day party on campus. We got to see the sights there (it's pretty, but doesn't come close to rivaling Vassar), listen to some mediocre student bands, go wine tasting, eat some sushi, and go to Liz's favorite dive bar. I also somehow got pulled into the middle of the crowd when the headlining band was performing, and at one point basically got taken down in slow motion. I got pulled back up by a stranger, but then some girl stomped on my foot, leaving it bruised and shoeless. I stumbled out of the mob, but sent some reinforcements in to find the shoe. Liz somehow ended up coming up with it. It was epic.

Act VI: Recyclepalooza!

Apparently there's a serious palooza theme here. I thought this event could also be called Reusapalooza because it kinda rhymes, but this works too. This event was supposed to be the culmination of the civic engagement camp that the junior high students went to Cispus for. However, many of them felt that they did not really need to contribute to this event, and we as a team put a little too much faith in their commitment. We ended up getting the event together, and as a member of the donations committee I definitely did my part--got a donation of 100 reusable canvas bags, donuts, soda, and water. We also had live music, recycle games, and crafts. Basically we had a pretty well-rounded event, but our attendance was less than impressive, mostly because I just don't think it's easy to get residents of East Lewis County excited about recycling. Many of the Mossyrock junior highers contributed projects to the Recycled Art Show, and a couple of them even won. But aside from those who had taken part in organizing the event, none came. I think it really takes a lot of motivation to get these people to travel from one town to another. Oh well, we did what we could, and came away with a surplus of reusable canvas bags from Wal Mart. Now I need to figure out a good event to give those away.

I realized that I only have a little bit more than a month until I have to say goodbye to my junior high kids. This summer, I will be helping out with the school's summer program, but that's just for elementary students. I'm trying to savor these last days with my students, and I am not looking forward to saying good bye.

Which Came First....?

I was thinking April would be a little bit laid back compared with March, buuuut not so much. Basically this is going to be a hardcore planning month, complete with prep for Recycle-palooza, getting things together for Health Night, and continuing to organize for Relay for Life. However, this is also a month of job interviews, networking in Portland, and dominating my 10k!

Random Tidbits:

Conversation between myself and Jonathan, who happens to be one of my favorite junior-highers despite this conversation:

Jonathan: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

Me: I don't know....

J: The chicken, because that's what God said happened!

Me: Well yes, that's what some people believe...

J: Yeah, God knows everything, it's in the Bible

Me: Yes, although not all religions read the Bible

J: Yeah, it's weird....also apparently it's illegal to make people tell you their religion

Me: That can be personal for some people....

J: I just appreciate that they do a good job to keep the evolution teaching to a minimum in science classes

Me: (In my head--AAAAAHHHH) (To Jonathan): Wow, you guys come from a different world than I do, I will just leave it at that.....

My working relationship with Hannah continues to evolve, and I learned some interesting information about her home life today which has made me consider adjusting my expectations, even though it pisses me off. She is a 7th grader with a 1st grade reading level, so that already gets her frustrated and, in her mind, excuses her from having to do work while willing her to be a social butterfly. Today I was helping her and Keisha, another 7th grader who gets some help (though not nearly as much) in Special Ed. Keisha was working hard to answer the questions, as Hannah applied lip gloss and attempted to occasionally copy off of Keisha's paper. Apparently she is not used to putting forth effort in this setting, because she resented me being there and she "always just lets Keisha do the work anyway." Not okay with me, as I told her, and did manage to get her to open her book and start to look up answers (with quite a bit of guidance from me). Ultimately, she did apply herself, but had to leave early, asking me as she left if we could finish the assignment in the after school program. I was pleased that she wanted to do this, and obviously agreed.

Of course, once we started the program, she was found wandering the halls checking out boys ("Oh man, I just wanna see Kyler Hazen's sexy, hairy legs!"), and I made her come into the classroom. I reminded her of our agreement to do the work, but she insisted that she just likes to do the work at home. I told her this was homework time, and we were going to work on this assignment. She replied that she needed to do it at home because her dad helped her a lot, and it quickly became apparent that by "helped" she meant literally did the work for her....given, she can't read so does need substantial guidance, but apparently he just finds the answer, points to it, and tells her to copy it, without any reflection or discussion of the material. I learned later from Mrs. Olmos that both of Hannah's parents have zero expectations of her academically--they do not care about her academic progress, nor will they support us if we try calling them to make Hannah work harder. Their only concern is her behavior, and this attitude surely explains why she is still illiterate at age 13.

Not to mention, a girl that I completely and totally loathe, and who happens to be Hannah's cousin, doesn't make the situation any easier. As I was instructing Hannah on her homework, Amber told Hannah that her "mom has a rule that she can do all of her homework at home," and that essentially Hannah didn't have to listen to me. I try to be sensitive to all of the issues these kids go through that may affect their behavior in school, but with Amber I just can't. She is a horrible, horrible, manipulative b-word, and she has had a HORRIBLE influence on Hannah. Of course up until about a month ago Amber wouldn't talk to Hannah ever because she hated her, but all of a sudden she let her in, and Hannah, happy to have a friend, is demonstrating a tendency to go over toward the dark side. At this point I want to focus more on preventing that as much as possible, and worry about Hannah's academic performance later.

PORTLAND WEEKEND (Never gets old)

Kayla, Lauren, and I are reuniting in Portland for a reunion unlike any other--the Bridge to Brews 10k. We're all going to FINISH the race without puking or dying, and have a beer-soaked celebration with the rest of the finishers afterward. I'm sure there will also be all sorts of reminiscing and quoting of high school yearbook entries as well.

Monday I also have 2 meetings lined up with contacts who are going to give me ideas on where to look for jobs. I also have an interview on Friday in Seattle, but I think they want someone who can start right away. Either way, the organization sounds really cool. And it is an honor just to be nominated.

HAPPY ROCTOBER (the way I see it, every month is Roctober)

March Madness

March has been jam-packed with all sorts of things--retreats to Cispus, 7th graders turning nasty, more Portland adventures, training, and planning for the future (both near and far). The month has been overwhelming, and MAN am I ready for a spring break. However, though my March madness has caused some stress, I've begun to really get some hands-on experience in event planning and organizing, something that will continue into April as we plan for some major May events.

Civic Engagement

I think I am among the few members of our team who can say, with confidence, that I truly enjoyed spending a whole weekend with 7th and 8th graders, despite the many complaints I also had. The curriculum we had to teach them as a preface to getting them ready for community service was noticeably boring, and certainly not something these kids (many of whom had come under the assumption that this would be more like summer camp than classroom time) were very interested in. Teaching them about the values of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution elicited quite a few yawns, making it hard to get them excited when we finally had the important task of brainstorming ideas for an actual community service project. HOWEVER, overall the kids had a blast, my Mossyrockers behaved swimmingly, and I got to hear all about the couples that had formed over that magical 72 hours. We played some great pick-up basketball (counselors vs. campers for like 2 hours), played volleyball, and had some fun dorm hang-out time.

The issue now becomes actually putting the planning of our decided-upon project (a Recycle-palooza) into practice. This event will be to promote education about recycling and sustainable living, and will also have a party aspect to it. The event still isn't as clear-cut as it needs to be, but I am one of the people in charge of getting donations. So far, all we've gathered is that we need to see if we can get Sun Chips donations, since their bags are biodegradable. Not a whole lot to work with there. We're also going to hand out special light bulbs and re-usable bags to people, probably also needing to be donated to us. Basically it seems that a lot of the grunt work is going to fall on our shoulders, as opposed to the kids', which I'm not thrilled about as I'm also trying to plan a couple of other big events.

Health Extravaganza at Mossyrock

We're finally beginning to plan our healthy food/living night at Mossyrock, which I'm excited about. It's going to be very Americorps-involved, and I think we're going to get a lot of donations from the community of equipment and things to use for games; the school has to donate all of the food. I'm hoping that this event goes really well, and that we get the junior high after school students really involved. I'm planning to single-handedly eliminate obesity from East Lewis County.

"You could be my man...You could be my Benja-man"

So Benjamin came to visit as part of his spring break, to soak up the wonders of Morton and my luxurious trailer. He also paid a visit to our after-school program, and as I'd suspected, Hannah took a liking to him. Though she wasn't too forward when he was present, once he left, she proceeded to make up songs about him (see quote above), role around on the ground and kiss wherever he'd stepped, and talk to him as if he were there. Kinda started to look a little bit crazy, but it was also pretty funny. And not at all surprising coming from her.

We also went to Portland, which was glorious. We spent a little time in Powell's (finally got to see the Rare Books room), walked around, I went to 80's dance night, and hung out with Lauren Haisley. On Saturday, we went to the Saturday market, where the weather was beautiful and the lines were long. After eating and walking around there, we found ourselves at Voodoo Donuts, the donut capital of the northwest, and waited in a ridiculously long line there. This was followed by a stint at a Chinatown coffee shop while we ate our donuts, then checked in at our hotel. The Silver Cloud Inn didn't have a lot going for it location-wise, but the room was super nice, with a great flat screen tv on which to watch the basketball tournament. I fell asleep, but ended up seeing the end of Northern Iowa beating Kansas which, especially after having been cut off from college bball for so long, was super exciting. The next morning we got the authentic Portland brunch experience, during which we waited outside for a really long time (Portland-ers are seriously crazy about their brunch), and then got served an excellent meal. Then it was time for Benj to get to the airport, and me to return to Trailertown.

Mean Girls

Some of my 7th graders are starting to get an edge to them that I really don't like. I've been witnessing all sorts of unnecessary drama, which would quickly resolve itself, for the entire year. However, now I'm starting to witness one superbitch (also very manipulative, acting nice one moment, and horrible the next) corrupting another girl who in the past has been my favorite. Now the latter girl mouths off at me and says horrible things to other girls, very obviously under the influence of her evil friend. I'm not sure if I can completely put a stop to this, seeing as how they are cousins and spend a lot of time together anyway, but I do plan on having a serious talk with my ex-favorite about how she's treating others, and throw in a threat to talk to her mom (that never fails to freak her out).

Life after Americorps

Finally, this week we had what ended up feeling like a pretty pointless retreat at Cispus, during which we stayed with another Americorps team and attended workshops and did some challenge course activities. Our team has recently become increasingly cynical about things, due mostly (I hope) to the need of a spring break. However, this team was kind of annoyingly the opposite. They were all super positive and excited and loving life and making Americorps jokes. They kinda reminded me of how I felt when I was around a lot of choir or IB people in high school--way too into what they're doing, and also super nerdy about it. They didn't seem like real people to me. While I appreciate their positivity, I like the realness of my own team, though after break I seriously hope they (we) improve the attitude a bit and reduce the cynicism. And each time we've been at Cispus, it's become more clear what a mediocre leader Rich is--he has a tendency to keep us completely uninformed, he is disorganized, and not at all assertive. I can handle this when we meet for a couple of hours a week, but not so much when I have to rely on his leadership for a whole weekend.

All that being said, I do plan on being refreshed and ready to make things happen after spring break, and other people had better be on board. I need to savor the last couple of months that I have with my kids (and Otis, who told me today he was going to miss me). In the meantime, Californiaaaa, Californiaaaa, here I cooooommmme!

Portland, more Portland, and the daily grind

Zwickelmania!!

The first of hopefully many beer festivals I attend in Portland, Zwickelmania was essentially a tour of a bunch of breweries in Portland, complete with free or reduced drinks and brewery tours. It was a fantastic experience, and I fear that Portland is going to turn me into a major beer snob. However, if all goes as planned and I am living there next year, that shouldn't pose a problem.

Bridge to Brews!!

Speaking of Portland, I have officially registered for a 10k on April 18th. My goal will be to finish without any major injuries/puking (although that would be pretty funny, in retrospect). Apparently the run involves running over bridges in Portland, and ending up at Widmer Brewery for free beer and general merriment. Hopefully my sesmoid stays strong for me.

Oh right, there's also work...

Last couple of weeks, work was pretty lame because I had to assist in giving standardized tests to the ESL students. Very repetitive, and extremely boring. Meanwhile I lost track of where my older ESL students were in their classes, so I basically have to play catch up. The after school program has had its ups and downs: some days the kids are great and we have fun together, other days we go to the gym and after like 10 minutes boys are punching each other, stealing each other's stuff, and girls are crying. There's one catalyst that usually contributes heavily to the bad days: his name is Aaron, and he's basically a racist, homophobic, sexist, ignorant piece of...cheese. He's extremely troubled and is basically doing in-school suspension all the time, but he seems to have the power to ruin the experiences of others at the drop of a hat. He's currently facing disciplinary action (shocker), so I'm hoping that means the program is much more tolerable at least for the time being.

Civic Engagement

Next weekend, our Americorps team is taking 20 junior high students from 3 different schools for a weekend at Cispus, including working on the challenge course, fun stuff like a bon fire and a hike, and lots of teaching on our part, which I'm not looking forward to. I am looking forward to spending the weekend with some of my Mossyrock kids, but I'm also excited for it to be over.

CALIFORNIA

I got to visit Stanford (and my family) last weekend, which was a great mini-vacation but also way too short. It was beautiful and sunny most of the time. I also had a brief stint in San Francisco to hang out with Andrea and Anna. We ate really big burritos, walked around a beautiful park, went to a gay club, and Bob's Donuts. This was just a preview of my spring break trip at the end of March, when I'm headed to San Fran for 5 days to get the full experience.

DRAGONS

Hannah, my illiterate 7th grader, has a unique reading style. Rather than try to sound out words (because, let's face it, that takes too much time and energy), she just makes them up with no regard for context....or the English language. A sentence that reads, "The rocks are weathered by erosion," will, in her words, turn into, "The riskadecks are warning by exercises." This tendency was especially problematic the other day when she was reading aloud to the class--instead of the word "During," she came up with "Dragons." I couldn't help but laugh along with the class--perhaps not very professional of me, but she didn't seem hurt by the laughter. Now every time I see the word "during" in my reading I can't help but think of "dragons." I hope that never goes away, it never fails to make me laugh out loud.

The weather at the beginning of this past week was BEAUTIFUL and I actually got to see the sun rise like 3 mornings in a row. Of course, now it's back to rain, though the temperatures are still pretty agreeable.

I finally saw the high school girls' basketball teams play. The JV girls were actually, surprisingly, extremely painful to watch, and I even thought about leaving. I like to think that my JV team was more competent. Then the varsity girls played, which wasn't really anything special. The game was somewhat close, but no real great standout players or teamwork. Plus I've heard the girls on that team are real biotches, so I couldn't really watch them without thinking of that. However, the next night I did go to the Junior high boys games. The B team is pretty bad, but the varsity boys are impressive, and very fun to watch. AND I got to sit with some of my favorite 7th graders, and watch the awkward 7th grade "couples" as they sit next to each other and don't say a single word to one another.

The Shakespeare unit in freshman English is already proving to be very interesting. The first assignment was a group project to make an informational poster about Shakespeare in a class period. The boys and girls were divided up, and the girls' group included the 3 ESL students and 3 girls who I've never seen lift a finger to do their work. The ESL students had prepared facts and questions to put on the poster, and were ready to buckle down; the other 3 spent the first 10 minutes talking and laughing about how Shakespeare may have been gay. Finally they came together and actually produced a decently interactive poster. The ESL girls made up all of the questions and found the answers, and therefore provided the "educational" aspect. The one question the other 3 contributed, which occupied the largest space on the poster, was, "What was Shakespeare's sexuality?" The answer on the inside said, "You'll never know, tee-hee." Despite my slight frustration at how the work was distributed for that project, I still thought that was kinda funny.

Freshman English quote of the week:

The class discussion focused on how Romeo and Juliet were from parents who hated each other, and didn't want them to marry. Savannah raised her hand and said, "I know exactly what type of person my mom wouldn't want me to marry: BLACK CHIC!"

6 more weeks of winter? I think not....

Important points:

-I love my job

-I'm psyched that we've just begun a new semester, because these kids need to start over with new grades

-I almost lost Bernarda, but then got her back

-I love working with the migrant program

-I wanna live in Portland next year, but I actually strongly considered staying in Mossyrock for another term....go figure

To elaborate:

As I was reflecting on my americorps term so far (I had to do this because I had my mid-year evaluation with Rich, my supervisor), I've realized just how happy I've been working at Mossyrock. There are certainly aspects that I don't like about my americorps position--I'm heavily affected by other people's negative attitudes, I get more than a little bored living in Morton, I get frustrated with the low standards of the schools in the community, and I still really really really don't like the Teen Center. However, I feel really connected with the students, and from day to day, that's all I really need.

I'm struggling with how to handle academics. With my ESL students, they're all extremely motivated to do well....and doing well for them usually means ending up with a low B or a C. How great would it be if I got a couple of them up to a high B or an A? I think that in math, it's a definite possibility, that seems to be their strongest subject. A real adventure is about to begin when we read Shakespeare in their English class. The language in Romeo and Juliet is hard enough to understand for native English speakers, so it will be extra challenging for the ESL students. They will have a Spanish version to work with, so that should be helpful.

With the junior high students, academic motivation is still so challenging. I can only really force them to do homework for half an hour after school, and since I'm not in their classes, I can't know for sure what homework they have. Overall, the district-wide standard just needs to be higher, so these kids stop settling for Cs just because everyone else is getting them. Some of the students I think have the most potential just settle for mediocre because that's what they're used to, and that's all that is necessary to get by. I guess I need to be grateful if I can influence just a small number of them to improve their grades.

Also, I was on the brink of losing Bernarda, which obviously would've put a real kink in the progress of Project Bernarda. For some reason, which I still don't understand, she and her brother had to move to a different school district, meaning she would have to change schools, start over, and attend classes where basically she wouldn't have...me. So she somehow convinced her brother to drop her off at a bus stop in the morning so she could continue to attend Mossyrock. Working out that bus route involved a lot of complicated planning, and she got on the wrong bus more than once (luckily I found her in time). It should be sorting itself out now. So now (hopefully) I have a semester left to teach her all of the English that I can. This is especially important since she told me she probably will not be going to school anymore after this year, because she'll have to work in order to survive. She is a freshman, so that is just sad. I'm going to try to encourage her to stay in school, but really all I can do is do my best to prepare her for the English-speaking world she is about to enter.

Speaking of migrants, we had our second meeting of the migrant program last week, which had a focus on teaching the parents about the internet. Though they didn't get a large amount of time to use the internet, the time we were in there was very exciting for them as well as for me. The woman I was helping had no experience with computers or internet, and I showed her how to do a google image search. She searched for the city in Mexico that she is from, and all sorts of familiar photos appeared. She proceeded to click on each one and tell me all about it, whether it be a shot of the Cathedral or pictures of people marching in a holiday parade. She would get so excited, she would grab me and want to tell me everything. It was really great to see that kind of enthusiasm, and because of the success of that night, we are having another internet night in February.

Upcoming events:

-This Saturday: we are taking teens from the Teen Center skiing. That's right, I'm going to be in charge of teens while also having to balance on skis. It could be disastrous, but hopefully I won't be in charge of more than a couple of kids, and hopefully I haven't lost ALL of my amazing ski skills.

-Last weekend in February: headed to Palo Alto for Stanford Parents' Weekend. I'm way excited to get out and have a break, and I get to see the family, and Anna and Andrea!

-Coming in May: Healthy living night at Mossyrock. This event has continued to evolve, and has been pushed (way) back from February to May. It will include healthy cooking, exercise machines, doctors, putt putt golf, possibly Wii fit, dance class, and maybe kickboxing. Apparently I will be "taking the lead," and having the kids help plan quite a bit of it as well. I'm super nervous/excited, at least I have a little more time to plan.

Awkward 7th grade science quote:

In science class, the 7th graders each had to take a post-it note and write a question about natural resources. They submitted them to the teacher, and she read each question aloud. The question that got the strongest response was: "What does 'resource' mean? Rachel is hot."

Everything is back in full swing in ol' Mossyrock, with the rain pouring, the teachers complaining, and the students actively avoiding their work. That being said, it's good to be back, and I continue to be impressed with the work ethic of my ESL students.

1. The Return of Noe

Noe was a Junior who I worked with back in October, but then decided it would be fun to move to Mexico. Once he got to Mexico, he decided it wasn't really that fun because his school put him in 9th grade instead of 11th. Noe wasn't having that, so he came back....with 3 weeks of the semester left.....and with hardly any work turned in in his classes. I'll see what I can do to change that, but the teachers are also going to have to be very generous in passing him. Though when I worked with him back in the fall, it was clear to me that he was used to doing nothing, and that the teachers expected him to do nothing, now he seems very keen on completing assignments, at least while I'm there with him. He has nearly completed a short essay about a Ray Bradbury story, and he does his math homework diligently every day. Not so sure about what his final numbers will be this semester (honestly, teachers have probably passed him in previous years when he really shouldn't have passed), but hopefully we can get a good start for next semester.

2. Project Bernarda

Bernarda is progressing nicely, still too shy to speak much English, but I know she's learning it....and I learned interesting things about her, like that she really likes spaghetti and cookies, and one of her favorite things to do on the weekends is to go to the Mexican grocery store to buy popcorn and Cup o' noodles. Sounds very authentic.

3. After school

Still loving my 7th graders, though the junior high drama is starting to get to me. Amber doesn't like Randi, and Randi really doesn't like Amber because one time Amber sat next to Randi's boyfriend Ryan. Then Amber told Mackenzie that she didn't like Randi, and Mackenzie blabbed it to Randi.

Not to mention the drama between kids and parents. Sam, who is a very nice girl, and does try to do her work for the most part, was in tears today because, apparently her stepfather is very strict and is under the impression that she has been coming to check in at afterschool, and then go canoodling with boys in the bushes. Literally. Not quite sure where he got that, and also am pretty sure she is not into boys.

Then there are Michael's parents: his dad seems like a deadbeat, and his mom is obese and has a beard...ON HER NECK. Neckbeard really doesn't seem to like to spend time with her kids much, and doesn't seem to understand that Michael is on the basketball team, and that she has to come GET him, we after school people can't just pull him out of practice whenever she wants.

4. Upcoming events

-yet another weekend getaway in Portland to hang out with Kales, Lauren, and Mermelade for at least a day, maybe 2....we're going to try our best to drag Mermelade out to the club with us (there's one particular one that has a BOUNCY FLOOR!). We'll see what happens. Either way, I will obviously be paying Trader Joe's a visit, as is standard on all trips to Portland or Olympia.

-Healthy Cooking night with the after school kids: We're going to try this again after failing in Morton, and hope that if a few of us americorps folk cook with some kids, more families will actually come...I'm not too gung ho about being in charge of this, don't really know how many people to plan for/have never cooked for big groups before, so hopefully it's not a total disaster...either way I really don't want these people to be so fat anymore

-MLK Day of service: next Monday our whole team will be either volunteering on an Organic farm in Olympia, or doing a day of cooking and food education (the latter seems more applicable, but the former seems very much up my alley/would be a nice throwback to last summer)

-Night skiing: we have to take a bunch of kids skiing, at night.... Considering my level of ability in skiing, it should be verrry interesting

-Olympics? There's talk of a trek up to Vancouver, since we're relatively close, to experience the Olympics....we'll see if it happens, but it would be pretty magical

Quote from my favorite SPEDster 7th grader, talking about her weekend to the class:

"I don't really have anything to say--WAIT! Oh my god you guys, I've got to tell you this, and you're probably going to laugh, but anyway. At dinner on Saturday, my mom made me eat FAT. FREE. RANCH. I know! Ew! So now I've decided I'm just eating cereal for the rest of my life."