Man, what to say. My life is so different from anything it was a year ago...

Teaching is going pretty well. My school uses scripted programs to help make AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress for those not hip to the education lingo) for No Child Left Behind. For the most part, I don't mind it one bit. Yesterday, however, was a different story.

The lesson for math was on elapsed time. To make it "interesting" to my kids, the program had a fake kid named Miguel that was going on different buses. My students were just NOT having it. They were messing with their desks, fiddling with their pencils, whispering to each other, and I just was to my wit's end.

SOOOO, in one of my more brilliant moments, I decide to throw the lesson to the wind (along with some better judgement), and had my students time how long it took for various students to walk to another classroom, shout, "THE BRITISH ARE COMING!" and come back.

This?

Got their attention.

It was great...one of those moment that the violins and power keyboard play along to while I am smiling, fist-pumping, and filming my Teach for America promotion video.

It was good.

*****

Last night was also the night of the annual Fall Festival at the school. Considering that I am the youngest member of the staff and also the most inexperienced, I got to be at the helm of the "BOB FOR APPLES" stand.

Basically, kids were throwing their entire head in the water, splashing around, and the rules became "TWO chances, if you spit or take a bite out of the apple, you are OUT!"

It was diptheria and whooping cough in a bowl. It was disgusting. Around 200 kids put their heads in the same bowl of water and sloshed around, getting a little on me and a lot on the ground. It was slightly amusing and even more disgusting than I can relate to you.

*****

I'm pretty happy with my whole situation, with the notable exception of the locale. Not so much the physical locale, but really the desolation of it all. I have some amazing friends that come out and visit, and I come home almost every other weekend, but I really underestimated how much I would really get lonely for the company of other people.

I have made good friends with the other TFA'ers out there, but at the same time, I can't commit myself wholly to them, considering my real true friends live only an hour and a half away. Besides, they are just as busy and stressed as I am with all of the school activities.

It is a strange situation, but I feel like it has happened with nearly everyone that I graduated from UNM with. Kind of hitting the post-college wall. It is really strange that I am making more money than I ever have in my entire life, but subtract car payments, insurance payments, cell phone bills (whew on that one), and tv bills (YOU try living in the middle of nowhere without it!), I feel like I am nearly making as much money as I did in college.

After I say that, it isn't at all true. I can afford to get my mom an amazing present for Christmas...and I am saving up for an extended trip to Europe, but I just see how much is deducted from my paycheck and it kind of sucks!!

Welcome to the real world, she said to me, condescendently.

Riiiiight?

*****

To sum it up:

No internet at home.
Great kids.
Teaching is kinda fun.
Really lonely.
Surviving every day.