Why I'm a Teacher

I love the Christmas season. The presents don't mean that much to me, but the gratitude does. In any job, you get cards from your co-workers, with no message and just a signature, which I usually just toss in the trash can and curse the person who never even says hello to me for wasting the resources. But the cards from the students are a different story. Today, a girl who has been kicked out of her home and is working to support herself gave me a box of chocolates and a card that said she thanks God for people like me in the world.

There are times when I am talking to people who sit in cushy chairs inside of big Manhattan skyscrapers and make three times my salary, and I get a little envious. But then there are those moments in my job where I am struck with what an impact I am really making on kids. For every student that is able to verbalize how I have impacted them, there are probably five or ten kids who I have helped, but can't verbalize it or won't realize it for a few years. I love teaching. That card is worth so much more than a larger paycheck.

Leavin' on a jet plane

SO here it is kids... I just booked my tickets to go to Brazil in February! yay! And... if everything works out as planned, I will be spending my summer in Florence Italy and traveling around Europe. Here is how this transpired...

By some odd fate, a few weeks ago I happened to be online when my cousin's old roommate from when he lived in Boise was online. I hadn't spoken to him (the roommate) in about 3 years or so, so I said hello and we started talking. We've been regularly in touch since then, and I told him, as I do everyone, that if he ever wanted to see New York, he was more than welcome to visit. He is from Brazil but he came to Idaho as an exchange student and then stayed for college. Right now he is in Brazil seeing his family for a few months, but will be returning to Italy in the spring. As I extended the visit offer, he reciprocated. I thought to myself, "Wow... now those are soom cool places to visit." So we started formulating a plan for the summer, since I have a couple of months off.

I was telling a friend about the plan and he mentioned that I may want to hang with this guy for a shorter time before I commit to a summer in a foreign country. He reminded me that we have a break in February. Since the roommie will still be in Brazil then, i can see South America in the spring, then Europe next summer. Fabulous! I discussed it with the roommie, he said it sounded like a good plan if I felt like flying to South America, and I booked the tickets (not that quickly, of course).

So... time to start learning some languages. This summer was going to be my present to myself for graduating (my master's) in May. Brazil can be my present to me for graduating from my undergrad, since I never really did anything for that except move right away to New York. Oh, how fun it is to rationalize big spending. Regardless of whether I deserve it or not, Im outta here!

Hectic Few Weeks

Okay, so I just realized that judging by my blogger, it looks like I never made it out of that Tony Bennett concert. The concert, I would like to say was TOTALLY awesome.

So, this is going to be a quick update of how I have been the last couple of weeks. THe day after the concert I went to Idaho to surprise my mom's side of the family for Thanksgiving. Obviously, since it was a surprise and we all know that my mother reads this, I couldn't post that on here, even though I was very excited. Then, on my last day there, I had the day of bad luck.

I woke up early to drive back to Salt Lake City. On my way there it started snowing, and I was driving a Neon. "Screwed" I thought as soon as I felt how it handled. Sure enough, only a little while after calling home to warn my cousin that the roads were bad, I got in a wreck. Bleh. But here is where it gets funny (because my stories always do). I wasn't injured in the wreck. THe police officer told me after I called for a tow truck, to wlak back to his car where he would give me the paperwork. I sludged through the snow, and opened the passenger side car door. A gust of wind caught the door, flinging it open quicker than I had planned, and WHACK! The corner of the door hit me right in the eye, giving me quite a shiner to go back to school with. So, there I was. Stuck in Box Elder County, Utah, in Brigham City, to be exact, with a rapidly swelling eye. Laurie's parents (my step mom, whose car I had just wrecked) were kind enough to drive down from Layton to pick me up and take me to the airport. I arrived 15 minutes before my flight was supposed to leave, and barely made it. Yes!

I thought that my luck had changed when I found that I was seated next to a rather attractive gentleman who appeared to not mind chit chatting with a chick in pajama bottoms with a black eye. Apparently it had not though, as I somehow either lost or had my cell phone stolen in between the plane landing and reaching the baggage claim, for the purpose of making multiple calls to the Dominican Republic.

Since then, I moved into a new apartment, had my thesis proposal due, and now finals this week. Also, with the move, I have had connectivity issues due to difficulties finding a compatible wireless card for my computer. Sometimes I think, "Maybe its time to get a computer with something newer than Windows 98." But, then I realize that's just poppycock and just like Mom stuck with the ol' dot matrix until 2001, I shall stick with this.

So that's how my life has been. I will write more about the events since then later, but I mostly wanted to let the world know that I am alive and well. I head back to idaho on Christmas Eve and wil be there until January 1st.

I have some awesome summer plans formulating..... stay tuned!!!