The chaos has begun

I love being here and at the same time I really wish I could be back in Spokane. I woke up this morning at 5am so that I could get in a run, quiet time, and shower prior to breakfast. I learned that leaving 30 minutes for breakfast is not enough. Actually after today the start time changes from 7am to 6:15am so a good night’s sleep will be hard to get. Oh well, it is all for the kids. That is what we are all reminding ourselves of. Tomorrow is the first day I get to see the school that I will be teaching at this summer. PS 86 in the Bronx doesn’t know what it has coming. Goodnight. For those of you who live on the west coast please remember that calling me anytime when it is evening for you means that you will likely wake me up. :( This has already happened a few times. Oops.

The last weekend of fun

Induction is now done, which is both happy and sad. It is exciting looking forward to institute but also terrifying. Long days and lots of hard work are ahead. Nothing extremely eventful has happened the last few days outside of some great discussions about special education and also diversity. I did rip my black dress pants yesterday…while sitting down next to one of the program leaders. Oops. That means that this weekend also gets to be a bit of a shopping experience in Manhattan.

Friday after institute finished up I That night we went down to the pier and got to check out downtown Manhattan at night. The city has all sorts of stuff set up for the world cup which was pretty sweet. On the way back up I upset a man in the subway. By upset, I mean be for some reason decided that the group I was with was too loud so he began to scold me about my ability to speak. He said that I would never win a Pulitzer Prize if I didn’t sound better spoken. Overall my diction was acceptable, but I said the word I think too many ****ing times. After about fifteen minutes he got off the train. I guess I don’t really know what experiences I will have on any given day.

Saturday I spent some time at a flea market down in Brooklyn with a couple of friends. I then had my first NYC bagel. We looked at apartments in the area as one of the girls in the group hadn’t been placed yet. I am hoping that I will be placed soon. About half of the folks at TFA NYC have their placements already and I have only met a few who like me haven’t had any interviews yet, but patience is a virtue. I went to bed early because I needed to be up early to head downtown for church.

Ruthie and I went to a church called Redeemer Presbyterian on the west side of Manhattan. It was right next to central park. The church was a bit more traditional in the way the service ran than I am used to. Overall I liked it very much, not sure if I will end up back there for the rest of Institute since it takes a little bit longer than an hour to get there on the subway. We start inductions tonight. From this point on I will be wearing ties every day. Yuck. I can appreciated being professional, but in this heat I might get to me a little bit more than it normally would.

Getting to know people

Well I don’t plan on updating the blog quite this frequently in the future, but right now there is so much going on that I feel like is worth sharing about. I am meeting new people constantly which is exciting but also draining. There are only so many times that you can ask the questions before they get dull. What is your name? Where are you from? What school did you go to? Do you have your placement yet? You get to a point where there is just too many people to try to meet. My new favorite thing to ask is for people to remind me of their name because I have forgotten. Along with the joys of learning all about TFA and the grad programs we also get the chance to have fun. Last night after a quick run to Rite Aid, a group of us played word games. I’m glad that there are other people here who get giddy over boggle. One other highlight of yesterday is that I found someone to go to church with this coming Sunday. She is a great person and I would love it if I was sure what her name was. I think it is Rosie, but to be perfectly honest today I will probably be asking her my new favorite question just to be sure.

Day One

I love NEW YORK!!! We just finished a meeting on one side of the St. John’s campus and when we came out it was pouring down rain and when I say pouring I mean this rain was a significant upgrade from East Hall showers and it was even more environmentally friendly. I am pretty wiped out right now from lack of sleep and going for most the day, but it is happy hour and TFA folks are going so I figure I should enjoy the free time while I have it.

I may have been a little bit over zealous in saying that I love NYC. While I am enjoying the weather I am finding the whole experience to be quite overwhelming. The first TFA person that I met is a guy who just graduated from Stanford, I had lunch with a guys who just graduated from Harvard and Princeton, our neighbors went to Vanderbilt, my roommate graduated from University of Chicago and he just spent the last year on a Fullbright scholarship to some little country that I have never heard of between France and Spain. It makes me feel a little bit self conscious about the fact that pretty much no one has ever heard of Whitworth. I did however get to have dinner with a girl who graduated from Whitman and we had a short bonding moment over Washington State.

The people here are great, however I do certainly feel that I am in a whole new world. This is not the cozy lovey dovey Whitworth community, there is no hello walk to greet people on and while we are all trying to get to know each other, it seems as though there is not a strong desire to be there for each other. I think that this next five and a half weeks in training will give me a good idea of what life would have been like had I gone to a large state university. I don’t anticipate that I will be a wild crazy student, that just wouldn’t be me, but I never really had to deal with the fact that the first thing a lot of people want to do is go out drinking an see who is single.

When it comes to the program I am excited to see what they will teach me and what I will be able to do with my students. I certainly see a place for God in all of this and how he can shine through the decisions that I make. The more I meet people the more I have the opportunity to show them were I am supported from.

The Day Before

Well I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole blogging experience, but since I do know that I follow my friends on their blogs I figure it's only fair that I create my own as well. The goal in this blog is to catalog my future adventures as they unfold. I will be flying to New York City tomorrow night to take the first steps towards teaching this coming fall. My hope is to have at least a brief update on a weekly basis. In reality, I am hoping to stay in contact with friends outside of this blog and not through it.

I started thinking about Teach For America back in October of this year. I originally dismissed the program because I was focused on other options and the representative that I met with rubbed me the wrong way. Through my experience in South Africa during January and a number of conversations with people who I respect greatly, I chose to apply for the program this spring. I applied without thinking that I would actually get accepted and when I received my acceptance I yell at my computer. My frustration in being accepted had more to do with my desire to not have to make a choice than it did we with me not wanting the job. After prayer and conversation I chose to accept the offer I was given by TFA. My original placement is in (1-9 Special Education) but I am also being considered for (1-6 General Education).

Today looking at leaving home for the foreseeable future I am beginning to second guess this decision. I don't know what to expect and that scares me senseless. I love being in control and knowing what is going on around me. I guess that this is probably a good time to learn. My prayer is that God will help me as I enter this new environment in finding friends, support, housing, and just about everything else that I am not anticipating at the moment. Inductions start on Tuesday and training begins next Sunday. I am excited and terrified about this adventure.