I don't have the time to update really, so here are excerpts from e-mails that I have written lately...

By the way, all of my thoughts and prayers and frustrations are going to NOLA and their situation. The TFA'ers I know from that corps aren't all accounted for and I have volunteered my home for TFA's use...

Hola!

I know I've been a terrible friend. Truth be told, I've been working like, 70 hour weeks and I'm exhausted of the school by the end of the day. I am SO drained right now, my students are coming in fifteen minutes and all I want to do is go home and go back to sleep. Which is a terrible thing to think, but c'est la vie. Tomorrow and Friday I have a substitute for my reading training, and it'll give me time to really plan my lessons better.

My small town...well, it is definitely small. I feel really isolated, but fortunately, there isn't too much time to think about it.

I'm the youngest staff member at the school. It sucks. And they constantly ask if I really am 21. I feel like I'm 40 on the inside lately.

I miss albuquerque like all hell, but maybe after I complete my two years here i can go back home and finish my masters at main campus. It isn't that I don't like it, it is just that I don't LOVE it. I feel like I could cry at the drop of a hat. I miss my family and friends terribly. My small town is really like living in a foreign country. These kids can hardly write or read and it makes me literally sick. I'm totally broke, my last paycheck was my RA one in May--payday is next Friday, and I can't freaking wait. Then I won't feel guilty whenever I feel like buying Diet Coke. Dental insurance starts October 1st and I can't wait to use it....that is so sick and old of me.

You've found me on my most negative day thus far, but really, I would love for you to come and visit. Just seeing a familiar face would be wonderful. I've met some amazing people our age that are doing TFA out here, but really, nothing beats a real friend. I'm going to my parent's house this weekend to recuperate, but anytime after that, just give me a call or an e-mail.

**********

(August 27)

I spoke with Amy this morning, I was worried about the whole New Orleans under duress thing, but she is ok, in Austin at the present and apparently, had a super-shitty intro to GNO. She didn't get a job until 8 pm before the first day of school, she is teaching high school English, and her car got stolen.


From her front driveway.

I tried not to laugh, but I couldn't help myself. She sounded great though, she is excited at the prospect of not having to teach for months because of the storm.

I start tomorrow morning, I am pretty freakin' nervous, but that is my personality type (as you know). I'm scared to be too strict, but also scared to be too leniant. I don't even know what a 3rd grader looks like. My room has finally achieved the cute status that I wanted, I think I'm going to be putting up pictures of it on my photosite.

How is your school going? Do you like the other teachers? Mine consists of seven TFA'ers, one Peace Corps member, and a contingent of ladies known as the "200 + Club." They have haircuts that they get from the Pilot gas station (one of the four restaurants is inside as well--Subway, woohoo), are all unmarried, over 50, and weigh over two hundred pounds. I am scared of them--or of turning INTO them. My principal is a really energetic woman originally from NY who is referred to as "Mrs. ________." Because that is her name. I'm in a portable, but it is the best portable, really bright inside with good A/C.

My house is good. The wall decorations are a little sparse, but I've got a kitchen table, four chairs, a couch, a comfy chair, coffee table, end tables, beds, dressers, rugs, desk, etc. I did a lot of shopping with money I don't have, but it'll all work out in the end. I'm living by myself, but on a street with 5 other TFA'ers at my school.

What is my town like? Well, there are four places to eat within ten miles, the aforementioned PS, a B in a Mustang gas station, an American/Mexican place called the "WW," and "TBP," which I haven't gone to, but it is apparently barbeque. I have a PO box, and they only go up to 1500 at the post office.

Wow, this has turned into quite the narrative, but I want to know all about where you are teaching, what the area of Houston you are at is like, etc.

Talk to you later, take care, keep up the good work!