Wednesday, May 18, 2011

wahhhhhhhhhh

^^that is me crying.

I have been sucky at blogging.  I have been productive at living.  SOOOOO busy.

Last week, I had a week off from grad school classes.  It wasn't supposed to work out that way, but my professor canceled the last class, so that was nice.  I took the week off.  Well, actually, I had a lot of stuff to do, but it wasn't writing papers or reading, so that was great.

Last Thursday, the WVU percussion ensemble came to Josh's school and did clinics and put on a concert all day with his kids!  It was AWESOME.  The kids actually got to perform with the college kids from Josh's old studio in the concert that night and we got to see some old friends.  We got home late on Thursday night.  We both took Friday off because we were traveling to York to see Josh's family and attend a Surprise birthday party for one of our friends!  We left Friday early afternoon and went out to dinner with Josh's family at Chili's. I love that place.

Saturday, I got to hang out with my friend and bridesmaid, Lauren during the day.  Then we got ready and went to the party.  Josh's friend is a principal in York and it was a surprise party for his 31st birthday.  It was at the Lancaster Brewing Company with endless good food and great beer.  A good time.  I am now wishing I had taken pictures!

Sunday we had an early spaghetti dinner with Josh's extended family and drove home.  We got home around 7, immediately went to the grocery store, came home and unpacked and I started on grad school work again.  My first class of the summer semester was yesterday.  I had to do some work which was due on Monday evening.  I read and replied to forums allll night long.  Just in time for Josh to get sick.  He has practically been sleeping since Sunday night.

Woke up Monday, went to school, taught all day, came home and changed and went to McDonald's to work.  YEP.  That's right.  It was McTeacher Night.  We gave coupons for free happy meals at school and a percentage of income made that night goes to our school.  Well, here's the catch.  The teachers work there all night and serve the students and their families.  I worked the Drive Thru.  Surprisingly, I had a great time.  maybe a throw back from my Starbucks days???

Tuesday I was at school early.  I had multiple rehearsals in the morning for a program that night.  I had 60-70 kids at a time all morning.  Then in my only planning time of the day, my principal and supervisor show up and want to do a formal evaluation.  UGH.  It went really well, though.  I continued teaching all day, stayed after school to set up the stage, and then had a big program with the whole 4th grade and the strings program.  It went really well.  I rushed home and made it just in time for my first grad school class of this semester.  I was on that until 10, then I passed out.

Today I was a teacher all day and then came home and read a LONG article and wrote a 3 page paper on it.  That took until about 9:20 and it was due at 10. phew.

Tomorrow I am being a teacher all day, doing zumba with teachers after school, going straight to a class at the gym, coming straight home and getting online for class again.  This class meets on Tuesdays AND Thursdays. I can already tell I don't like it.

Friday is a busy day at school again and then I am coming home, sitting on the couch and not getting up until Saturday morning.  What about dinner, you ask?  Well, someone is just going to have to bring it to me :-)

Thursday, May 5, 2011

I Still Hate Writing Papers...

Last night I had my last online class of my first semester of grad school. 

My group presented on education policy and reform in Chile.  My portion of the presentation was specifically on recent policy and reform in higher education in Chile.  Does this sound boring to you?  It did to me at first, too.  Actually, it wasn't ever really all that exciting.  It just got less and less boring the more involved I got.

My presentation actually went really well and our professor and other students seemed very receptive and asked lots of questions.  That scared me a lot because I was terrified that they would ask something simple and I wouldn't be able to answer it.  But I did okay.

My last paper isn't due until Sunday and we plan on sending it sometime on Saturday.  It's hard to write a 40-page paper with three other people.  It's even harder when those three other people are located in: Chile, Puerto Rico, and New Jersey.  We had a hard time finding a time to Skype because of the time changes and work schedule differences and whatnot. 

So far, I am proud of my research for my portion of the paper.  It is by far the most extensive research I have ever done on my own and I hope I can report it accurately.  I feel like I am "growing up" in the world of writing, researching, and reporting.  If this is all I take out of grad school (even though I know it won't be) I will still be satisfied because that's important stuff, dude!

When this class is over I will have a few days until my next one starts.  During the whole two years that I will be in this program, there will only be about 14 days that I am not actually in a class.  They definitely keep you moving right along in this program.  No summer breaks for me for a while!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Check This Out

OH YEAH

I finished! 

Sorry it took so long to update, but I was recuperating.

We all finished!  Josh ran his 5K and beat his personal record by almost 3 minutes, Brian (Josh's dad) ran his first half marathon and finished in less than 2 hours(!), Alex (Josh's brother) ran his first half marathon and finished in just over two hours (!) and I ran my first half marathon and finished in 2 hours and 26 minutes!

More about the whole day to come :-)