Day One

Monday was my first day reporting to my student teaching assignment. I was given a packet of information for my master teacher. It included my name, the school i was reporting to, the classroom number, the time class began, and my teacher's name. For a week, i held on to that packet and memorized the info. I am going to Oak Grove high school for 4th period at 10:53 in classroom X2. I had a map, i wasn't going to get lost. I had a bell schedule, i was going to be on time. In fact, i was aiming to be at least a half an hour early to get my ID and parking permit.

So the morning finally came and i was up early to make sure i didn't forget anything. I double checked the address, got a map, and checked the bell schedule once more. All of a sudden, i noticed the Monday collaborative schedule. That couldn't be for EVERY Monday, could it? So i called the school, and of course, the schedule was different. Instead of reporting at 10:53, 4th period was starting at 9:46. Okay, it was 9:30 and it was going to take me at least 20 minutes to drive to Oak Grove. I was going to be late. Through a series of phone calls to the school, and the principle's sectretary, i got a message to my teacher that i was going to miss 4th but was on my way. The school called back saying that i could go to 5th period instead.
I finally arrived, found the administration building, got my ID, and went to 5th period. I was extremely embarrassed.

Instead of Monday being my first day with my future students, Tuesday was my first day. The kids seem okay. My teacher told me that they were kind of wild, but they were nothing crazy. I guess i will really find out over the next couple weeks while i observe and work with them.

The tentative schedule is that i am going to take over the class on March 26. I wil do a 3 week unit on physiology, which is way more exciting than other some units. My master teacher teaches explicitly to the state content standards and therefore his kids do well on the STAR test. But his own classroom tests don't require anything but regergatation of facts.
I have tentatively planned what i want to cover during my unit, but i have to make sure i teach the standards and give them a test that follows his format. He doesn't make lesson plans, so i am on my own for this.

I think i have a good plan so far, i just have to work out the details and create some cool activities. Wish me luck!

Adrenaline Rush

I spend my tuesday nights in my methods course at SJSU. It is specifically for science teachers and is taught by two wonderful women who are also teachers.Tonight, some of us did 4 minute presentations on our hobby. I chose to talk about puzzles. I knew what i wanted to say but i hadn't made an exact plan of how it was actually going to come out of my mouth and i definitely hadn't practiced it. If i had, i probably wouldn't have talked as fast as i did. Even during my presentation, i knew i was going way too fast, but i couldn't stop myself. My fight or flight response had kicked in, and i was using that adrenaline to do neither. It probably didn't help that i was being recorded by two video cameras (for further review). But afterward, I got a nice comment from one of my classmates, which was a little calming. He said that i should talk more and that i was funny, or interesting, or something....it is all kinda hazy now. But it felt nice to hear that. Somebody wanted to hear more from me and know more about me.
As i was in the car driving home and i called Peter. He is of course still at work at 9 pm. And bless his heart, he listened while I ranted for a few minutes about my presentation and even while i got side tracked with a small case of road rage. The power of adrenaline is amazing.
I am hoping that i won't be such a freak in the classroom and that i can get myself under control.

Another surgery

It's not me this time, but it is my little kitty, Tulie. Peter took her in yesterday morning to get spayed. Our cat rarely meows but Peter called me from the road on his way to the Humane Society and our little baby was crying the entire time. It was heart breaking. I spent the day alone for the first time in six months. I missed her follwing me from room to room and when ever i got up, i checked my heels but there was no cat behind me. It was incredibly lonely. I am so used to her keeping me company in the bathroom or when i am writing emails. I am used to having someone to talk to throughout the day. I treat her like she's my baby in many ways because I take care of her but today, i felt i was missing a friend.

The Humane Society called and said,"There's been an emergency and...." and my heart skipped beat. They continued. "we won't get a chance to spay Tulie. Can you bring her back tomorrow?" I was so relieved. What a scary way to start a sentence. So I took her in again this morning with her crying the entire time. But once we arrived, she stopped and was very calm. I spent the day alone again and received another call. This time her surgery was over and i could come pick her up. Tulie was calm on the ride home and has been acting as if nothing happened. I have to restrict her activity and make sure she doesn't lick her stitches (which she likes to do). Hopefully, i don't have to buy her a plastic collar.

It's so nice to have my kitty home again. Thank you Jackie and Sean for finding this beautiful, sweet, and silly kitty for Peter and I. We absolutely love her. Here are some of my favorite pics of her, including a new post-op picture.

Gone

Well, it's finally gone and i don't miss it. Doctors removed my gallbladder last week and I am better for it. My surgeon told Peter that i had a pretty large stone in there so I am very anxious to ask for details at my post-op appointment. I had meant to ask my surgeon if they could take a picture and let me see/keep my stones, but i don't have any memory after saying good-bye to Peter and being rolled down a hallway. Opps, i should have asked the nurse earlier.
A week later, i am almost back to normal. My stomach still has four "stabs", as one nurse put it, and bruising, but i am feeling pretty good. Normally i love staying home and doing absolutely nothing, but this time, when i couldn't get off the couch by myself, i was incredibly bored.
I was also surprised at how much i wanted to see my parents after my surgery. I guess that means something.
It has been so fun eating foods that i have had to abstain from for the last two months. Tami's cookies, gravy, and other fatty yet delicious items. I had a huge chocolate eclair from Max's. It took me two nights to eat half of it, with Peter eating the other half, and it was a magical experience. All that chocolate, buttery pastry, and custard filling still makes me smile just thinking about it.
A few biological functions haven't returned from surgery. I haven't felt hungry or full which has been an odd sensation. I defintely wasn't expecting that. Otherwise, i am almost normal and looking forward to a normal life.

An accident in the parking lot

That's what i told peter when i came home last night. I had a little accident in the parking lot. And for some reason he got worried. No, no, no...not that kind of accident. I was bringing home dinner which consisted of two soft drinks and a bag of fast food. While trying to get out of my car with said food, my purse, and car keys, i dropped the keys as soon as i opened my car door. So, the logical thing to do would be to squat down with all my drinks and food and try to pick up the keys. Right? Ummm...the problem with trying to bend over while half sitting in my car, and the other half of me reaching for the parking lot floor is that the cup holder isn't very secure. That's when my sprite splattered to the floor and all over the car next to me. Shit! So, the next logical step would be to place the other drink and bag of food on the trunk of my car while i wipe off my neighbor's car and remove any embarrassing evidence of a Wendy's cup in the middle of the parking lot. And while I sat wiping down some stranger's car, my bag of food came crashing down next to me. Two orders of fries and five chicken nuggets splattered on the floor next to me. I was extremely pleased that no one was in the parking lot while i scooped dirty fries back into their containers to throw away. So all i had left were two hamburgers and one soda. mmmmm....satisfying. I can no longer deny that i am truely a klutz.

OK....It's true

It's true. I almost missed my flight home. Luckily, I had the universe working in my favor and I made it in time. Of course, my baggage missed the flight, but hey....it eventually arrived. I have to say thanks to Peter, my mom and dad, and Jesse for finding me and calling me in time to let me know my flight was leaving Paris in two hours.

That was quite an unexpected message to receive at 8:30 in the morning. "Grace...your dad keeps calling. He says that you think you are leaving tomorrow. But you leave today" You can imagine the panic and the laughter that ensued. But we called a cab and I made it there with a 20 minutes to spare and survived the rest of my 24 hour trip home.

I still can't figure out why I thought I bought a ticket for the 8th when I in fact was leaving the 7th.

The crazy thing about being home now where everything is the same as I left it, is that it feels like my trip never happened. Its like walking into Narnia, staying for years, only to return home without any time passing. I do have proof however. The magic of cameras has captured my trip and preserved it for me to look back on forever. Hahahahaha Narnia, I have exposed you!

a little bit from Milan

Haven't been able to find any internet in Venice so i couldn't chronicle our shopping adventures. Basically instead of seeing any actually important sites in Venice, we window shopped. And honestly, after seeing all the art and churches in Italy and France, we wouldn't have appreciated them anyways. Today we are trying to head to Modane, a small town in France. Im still not sure how we are going to do it, but we will try. Can't type any more, they want to kick us out of here, pronto. more later..

love,
grace

Florence etc...

I have no idea where i left off on my last blog since im pretty mentally exhausted. Since all the big museums in Florence are closed on Monday we went today. We stated with the Galleria Dell' Acedemia where Michelangelo' David is displayed. It is an amazing staue and it's height alone was impressive. It's 17 feet tall. Ginny and I were a little dissappointed in his hands. They seemed disproportionally big. Oh well, still beautiful and mind-blowing. After the Acedemia, off to other adventures around town and finally to the Uffizzi. Not sure about the spelling. They don't let you check your coat or luggage here so a warm museum plus my coat and day pack made walking around for a couple hours exhausting. Can barely remember much i liked besides Michelangelo's Holy Family and ....can't remember anything else. It's been a long day. After we escaped from the museums, we tried to get down to the river and relaxe and try to escape from the noisy busy city. But there are street vendors everywhere you go trying to make you buy their junk and noisey cars and scooters, so relaxing was very difficult. We walked home and immediately i collapsed in bed with my ipod. I think i deserved that nap after all that walking. Oh yeah, speaking of walking, ginny and I climbed the 414 steps to the top of the bell tower next to the duomo. Not bad. Ok, sorry of the poorly organized blog, but it's the best i can do in my current state. Why bother writing this, you may ask? well, this hostel offers free internet, so i saw a unoccupied computer and sat down. It-s very difficult to get a seat since there are only 5 computers. Ok, that's enough of that. Must eat some more pizza for dinner.



love,

grace

Lost in Rome

Got separated from Ginny and Kelty in the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. No big deal, some lunch and internet can solve anything. Just got an email from Ginny and i know they are ok.

Turns out that the vatican owns a lot of stuff. I just walked through 4 miles of galleries and rooms. Now my own personal problem with loooking at the Sistine Chapel ceiling is that i have seen it thousands of times and in quite good detail from the 8,000 piece puzzle that Peter and I have been working on. And that means picking up the box over and over and scanning our puzzle a millions times. So, the ceiling didn't offer me much. Plus it was extremely crowded with security guards yelling at people to be quiet and to stop taking pictures. But they never stopped, so i left pretty quickly. The one thing the sistine chapel was able to offer me was the walls. I had never seen those peices of fresco before. Off to the Metro to meet Ginny. Ahhh, the wonders of technology. Once was lost but now i'm found.

love,

grace

Roman Ruins

Went to the Borghese museum this morning. It requires reservations as they only allow certain amount of visiters in at once. That was really nice. I wish more museum did that. But then i guess you couldn't just walk in....oh well. So the big items at the Borghese are Bernini's Apollo and Daphne and The Rape of Proserpina. In Apollo and Daphne, he is chasing her and the moment he reaches her, she turns into a tree. Bernini somehow captures this which is really insane. With the Rape of Proserpina, Hades has kidnapped Proserpina and the most amazing part of the sculpture is his grip on her leg and how it succombs to his strengh. It is a awfully real experience. She is crying and you can see the veins in his arms. Click here to see the close up. Oi vay.

On another subject, also went to the Colloseum and the Roman Forum. Using Rick Steve's walking tour we ended up in the ruins of old palaces above the forum. We were wondering about for so long, we ended up being the last ones to leave the whole forum. We hadn't seen anyone for a while which was great since its rare to explore anything without a group of tourists and their tour guide getting in the way. I hadn't heard as much english as i did today.

TTFN

love,

grace

checking in

In Rome currently. Went to St. Peter's and that was completely insane. Ginny and i met a nice canadian girl from calgery. She happens to be a very good catholic and knows lots about everything catholic. So we got a good history standing in front of all the statues and all the tombs of various popes. The craziest part was in the the center of the basilica with four huge statues around this 70 ft bronze canapoy by Bernini. I am not sure what it was, just that it exusted all the bronze in Rome to build. They melted everything they could get their hand on to complete it. But the statues around it were of St. Helena (who found and excevated the jesus's cross), St. Veronica (the woman who wiped Jesus's face as he carried his cross and the imprint of his face appeared on her veil), St. Andrew ( who was crusified on a sideways cross) and St. Longinus (who stabbed Jesus in the side when he was put on the cross). The best part is the reliquaries above them. Above helena is a piece of the cross. Above Veronica is her veil, above Andrew was his head, and above Longinus is the spear he used. That was the most amazing part for me.

Didn't make it to the sistine chapel in time. It closed at 12.20. Very strange. Will have to go tomorrow.

Ta Ta For Now

Ciao,

grace


PS. Also went to the crypt and saw Pope John Paul's tomb. Crazy.

Italy so far...

We arrived in Milan at night and made our way from the train station to the hostel using the Metro. We mastered the Metro with ease, even if we had to ask for help the first time. Luckily, we both bought memberships to an International Hosteling group, so we were able to stay at this place. We met a crazy french-canadian named Hugo (pronounced Ugo). He is working in a hostel up in the Alps in France, so Ginny and I really want to go to now. The hostel is situated between to mountains where most people go skiing, but we can only afford to go snowshoeing. But shoeshoeing in the Alps seems like a great way to end our trip. So if our schedule works out, we are definitly going. Oops, i kinda got sidetracked. Right, Milan...

Went to the Duomo which was pretty insane. After seeing some many cathedrals in Paris, i thought i had seen them all. But i was terribly mistaken. The Duomo in Milan is so huge and ornate that it almost seems like too much. You can only stand there and think about the work that went into building it. Apparently, it took over 500 years to complete.

We went to go see the Last Supper, but the church where it is kept was closed. So then we went and visited a castle which was very exciting, even if the museum was also closed.

We left Milan for Monterosso, which is one of the cities that makes up Cinque Terra. These 5 cities are all connected to each other by trails along the cliff where no cars can access. We found a hostel online the day before and once we successful arrived, we found it closed for the season. I would like to state that i did try calling first, but it just rang, which seems to be normal for some hostels. Like the hostel, the city was pretty much closed. Everyone who owned a hotel came out as we walked by and asked if we needed a room. There were absolutely no tourists there but us and one american who directed us to where he found his hotel. But we settled on a hotel which was run by a very nice old italian couple. It was their grand daughter's first birthday that night and she was very small and quite captivated by my gloves. Since Cinque terre was pretty dead we decided we ought to move on to our next cities since we have only 2 weeks left and the rest of italy to see.

So we hopped on an early morning train to Pisa and walked over to the Tower which is very funny once it is right in front of you. That builing should never have existed. Aparently they noticed the lean after the third floor was put together but then the decided to keep going. Those crazy italians.

We off to Rome in only a few more minutes so i must go and walk to the train station.

TTFN

love,

grace

train rides

A few interesting train experiences

Jan 18th. Leaving Dijon for Aix

Try to speak with woman behind counter about reservations and how to get to Aix. She holds up a lot of signs with one including Aix and the time 18h15. So Ginny and i settle in to wait for 4 hours until our train leaves. About a half an hour later i take out the ticket and notice that we are doing some transfering and that we end up in Aix around 1800. And that we leave Dijon in 5 minutes. So we figure out the track and run upstirs. I ask a guy which direction is car 6 and all he says is, "Hurry! Go go go. " We run and just barely make it on the train before the train pulls out of the station. There is a little confusion about which car we end up in and which seats are ours, but we eventually settle in.

Next stop in in Lyon where we have to switch trains. We have about a half an hour so we go and find the restrooms. As we are walking back, the clock says we have 5 minutes before our next train leaves. So more running and hopping on the train.

Jan 22nd. Leaving Aix for Milan

Have to wait in the Marseille waiting room for our Connection to Nice, where we connect to go to Milan. As we are sitting and waiting a junkie approaches Ginny and asks for fire. No luck here since neither of us smoke. So he sits on the other side of the waiting room for a while and then returns all creepy like and sits next to Ginny. She is busy pretending to read a newspaper and thus ignores him until he offers her some drugs. We stay a little longer since i notice that everyone in the waiting room has their eyes on him. But we make our escape shortly and get on the train very easily since we leave the waiting room half an hour early.

Aix and Marseille

We have been staying in Aix-en-Provence for 4 nights now but i will say we've only been here for 2 days. Today we did a day trip to Marseille. We went with a friend we met here in Aix and he showed us around and got us around on all the right busses and metro. It's kinda crazy trusting someone you just met, but he has been very nice and we trust him completely.

I have really enjoyed Aix. Thank you to Aunt Rickie and the swedish girls from Amsterdam for recommending it. The town is really old and is kind of based around water. They have natural hot springs and have set up fountains all over town. One of the oldest ones, runs through the large city center square. It is fed by a natural hot spring and therefore all this moss has been growing all over it for hundreds of years now. you can't even see the fountain, it's just moss with water coming out of it. I went out tonight looking for some last minute post cards (no luck) and the fountain had steam coming out of it. I tried to take a picture but the light was low and my camera couldn't handle it.

The city streets here are very old in the center city and very confusing. But they are filled with shops, boutiques, and restaurants. Also, since there are a lot of student here, there is more of a night life. So restaurants are open later and there are a lot of people on the street. One night we went to a jazz club and a french band played a whole lot of crazy covers. Below is their crazy set list,

First set:

Radio Head (Fake Plastic Trees)

Eagle Eye Cherry ( Save Tonight)

Aretha Franklin (Chain of Fools)

Beatles (Ticket to Ride) / Them (GLORIA)

spanish reggea/ french reggae/ Sunny and Cher ( I got you babe)/ Shaggy (Bombastic)/ Bob Marley (Stir it up)/ Shaggy/ Sunny and Cher



Second Set:

some french rock

Rage Against The Machine (Killing in the Name)

Blur (Song 5)

Nirvana (Rape Me)

White Stripes ( Seven Nation Army)



Pretty crazy, n' est pas?



As far as Marseille goes, the best part was reaching the ocean again. We did some walking and saw some parts of the city, but took a bus out of town and walked to a nearby area just as sunset approached. I found a place to sit and took some notes as i watched the sun dip below the horizon. The most surprising thing was how green the sky became and how long it stayed that way. The white sea birds became black against the bright back drop of sunset and the light from the island light house finally became visible and I became much colder. But it was incredible to sit out there until it got dark and cold and i loved every moment of it.

love,

grace

New French Cities

New French Cities
Current mood:


I hope this email ends up spelled correctly. I am sitting in a cyber cafe in Aix-en-Provence and many of the keys are switched. So please forgive me when I mix As with Qs and etc...

Ginny and I arrived in Dijon yesterday and it rained all day. We really felt like we hated the city. But we found a nice pizza place and we were the only customers, so we ended up staying longer and having another glass of wine before we left. After our nice dinner, we walked home and didn't hate Dijon as much.

We didn't find a hostel so we got ourselves a cheap hotel. But it did have a shower, so that was pretty exciting.

The next morning, it did manage to stop raining so we went to the Museum of Fine Arts. It was quite good but going into any descriptions will take too much energy to figure out how to type.

Next stop, Aix-en-Provence where we went on q never ending hunt for a resonqbly priced hotel. Our first try was in a plqce where we got co,pletely ignored. Ginny peaked into one of the rooms, saw the crappy, dirty room and we were out of there.

Picked another hotel, and ate some cheese and bread in bed. Then off to find some dessert and maybe some wine. But everything is sooooo expensive. Found an internet cafe and here we are. Our next job is to find a youth hostel near the center of town.

Maybe i will be able to write more at another cafe where the keyboqrd isn't so crazy.

A Walk Through the Middle of Nowhere

After visiting the flea/ farmer's market this morning in San Florentine- where Ginny tried on a sweater in the back of the guy's white, windowless van and i kept a look out- Ginny and I packed a picnic and headed out of Vaudevanne to the town of Chailley where there is this cemetary on the side of the tallest hill in town. And on the very top is a chapel. So we did a long walk through farmland, got our shoes covered in who knows what, hiked up the hill, and enjoyed our lunch with our freezing fingers. It's awfully hard to eat an orange with gloves on. After some fun pictures we headed home, got a little lost, walked through someone's backyard and found our way home. It was so nice coming back to a warm house and clean clothes.

a few notes

I forgot to mention that yesterday we visited one of Anna's freinds here who lives in a chateau. Her son is a big deal at Shell and bought the place. The house even has a moat around it. Well, it could have a moat, they had it drained while they do construction. It's official name is Chataeu de Percey

Visited Noyers and Chablis yesterday

Took a great shower today. Felt like i was emersed in the warmest water. Extremely hard to get out of.

Aunt Anna

Many thanks to Benny's aunt Anna who has been taking great care of Ginny and I here at her home in Vaudevanne (not sure about the spelling). She moved at here about 4 years ago at the advise of friends and doctors who told her she needed to live more stress free or she would have a heart attack. So now, she lives in the country and lives stress-free.

Today she took us around to some really old villages. Noyers was really amazing. Everything was very old, starting from the 12th century. A small river runs through the town and we were there around dusk so it was even more beautiful.
Im still sick so i was coughing a lot and drinking a lot of water on our little excursion so my bladder filled quite quickly. But it being Sunday and all, everything was closed. So i had to do something i haven't done since i was a child. I peed on the side of the road. Luckily i had tissues and Anna had little sanitary wipes. The funny thing about doing it was that i had to pee so bad that i couldn't be modest or embarrassed about it. I just let it go =)

Tomorrow Ginny and I are going to go on a hike through the woods nearby and pack a picnic. It's so incredible out here.

more walking

So, more walking today. Ginny, Mayra, and I left the hostel around 10 this morning and took the metro to the Pablo Picasso Museum. That was really great, except it was too short. We went around the place and then ending up back where we started. The upper levels were roped off for some reason. But it was wonderful anyways. After that, off to the Pompidou where there is a modern art museum. That was a little hard to negotiate to get to the right floor, but once we found it, it was huge and took a couple hours. For me, modern art can be really exciting and interesting, but i really can't remember anything in paticular that i really liked. Oh well. Next on the list was some shopping on our way to the Louvre. The day before, Ginny and I found some great coats at this one store but decided to buy them later on our trip when we return to Paris. But today, every store, and i mean EVERY STORE, was having a huge sale. The store only had two coats left, one in gray (the one i liked) and one in brown (which Ginny liked) and they both happened to be our sizes that we tried on yesterday. And to top it all off, they were 50% off. It was fate. So Ginny and I came home with great coats and at an unbelievable price. After some more shopping and not purchasing anything, we went to the Lourvre. It was pretty empty. No lines at least. We were able to walk right up to the Mona Lisa. But my favorite was the Wingged Victory stature (not sure about the name there) and Cupid and Psyche sculpture. It was so soft and delicate looking. We didn't get to see everything since that would take days, so we headed home knowing that Ginny and I would return next month and finish it.

As far as the Eiffel Tower goes, aparently the top is closed for a month, so Ginny and I will try again when we come back.

TTFN

love,

grace

sore feet

Today Ginny and I went on a walking tour, thanks to Rick Steves, of Notre Dame and the surrounding area. Jesse and I started this tour when we were here last week but never finished it due to a lack of daylight and a lot of snow. So Ginny and I walked around Notre Dame. I gave here the few tidbits that i rememebred from the audio tour i took. Then we walked around the neighborhood, she went to Saint Chapelle, then more walking and ending near the Lovre. So we decide to continue and walk to the Lovre. Turns out, the Louvre is closed on Tuesdays. So i take out the map and the Pompidou isn't very far so we walk there and stop and try on some great coats. We make it to the Pompidou and that is also closed. Then after some more walking around the neighborhood we decide to take the metro to the Eiffel Tower. So we walk back to the metro and arrive at the Tour Eiffel after sunset, so the tower is all lit up. We deciede to take the stairs up instead of the elevator even if our feet are already sore. In addition, Ginny has got some sore calves and my knee and acheilles heal are hurting. But we take it slowly and eventually arrive at the 2nd floor about 400 feet up. The top is 1000 feet up. Now, im not sure if the stairs don't go to the top at all or what, but we couldn't find any stairs. Then we wait by the elevator but nothing shows up. I asked a guy in the souvenir shop about it and he said the top was closed. I was extremely upset. We walked almost halfway up the tower and get DENIED. We stood around for along time feeling like idiots and then had to head back down. So we opt for the stairs since there is a massive crowd waiting for the lift back down. We get down to the first level and find the stairs closed to get to the ground floor. So then we had to wait for the elevator anyways to get down all the way. That made me even more upset. So after that we retreated home very tired and not have accomplished much for the day except a lot of exercise. I guess our litttle adventure today is definitely worth remembering if only for how unclimatic is was. Anywho, im not sure what we are going to do tomorrow since everything will be open. So many choices.

TTFN

love,

grace