Sunday, December 24, 2006

EUROPE

I made it to Germany, not as easy a trip as I had hoped, but it's ok. On one of my trains I didn't have a seat because it didn't occur to me that traveling on the 22nd of December in France would probably be a big huge mistake. Talk about holiday traveling. So anyway, the lovely people at the train station were nice enough to sell me a ticket, despite the fact that I didn't have a seat, so basically I sat on my duffle in a small area next to the bathroom for 4 hours with about five other people sitting around. I'm not telling the story very well, but it definitely was way less than ideal.

Yesterday I went to a Christmas market in Ludwigburg with Shannon, her fiance Justin, and his parents (who arrived yesterday). It was really cool, and really really cold. It's really cool because at these markets you can get hot spiced wine and you pay for a mug, which you can return to get some money back, or you can keep. I kept. Cheap souvenirs, also useful for drinking hot beverages.

We went back to the train station to catch the train, and ended up having to wait for a little while so we did what any good German would do and had a beer at the bar in the station. It turned out to be not such a bright idea, because the train we got on didn't have a bathroom. We ended up getting off the train halfway through our train ride to find the toilets, and we were searching and searching, and finally ended up going to a really cool bar acroos the street from the station. It actually wasn't a dive, despite the proximity with the train station.

So far so good. I've learned some German words. I spoke French with a guy at the train station yesterday (around 2 in the morning... by that time of night, and after enough drinking, probably ANYONE can speak French!) He was cool, just trying to get to his grandparents' for the holiday.

Going on some train thing today. I'm trying to take pictures.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

We got sued

Yesterday when I walked into school, I had the fleeting thought that it might be better there if I were on drugs. So I think that's a sure sign that I'm ready for a break. Only five more school days to go before break because I'm taking Friday off. I NEED it.

I don't understand my students. I'm not sure they really like it when I'm there, but when I told them that I wasn't going to be there on Friday, they freaked out. Where are you going? Why aren't you coming to school? Can you just come back for our class? None of your business, because I'm not, and absolutely not.

I gave my class an assignment that involved reading some passages and answering some questions. They were FCAT-style questions (the standardized test in Florida), and out of six questions, I got 3 of them wrong. Good thing I found the answer key, or else I might start teaching them all the "wrong" information. I felt pretty good about myself when I finally found the answer key and double checked. There are definitely LSAT questions easier than some of the 8th grade FCAT questions, the difference being the difficulty level of the passage. I'm not sure if I'm really qualified to teach all this reading...

The Okeechobee school district got sued by the ACLU for not allowing a Gay-Straight Alliance to form and meet on campus at the high school. There are other non-academic clubs at the high school. CORRECTION: There WERE other non-academic clubs at the high school, but since the lawsuit was filed, the school board has gotten rid of all clubs. There are no clubs. This means no Future Farmers of America, and I'm not sure this town can function without it. Where will all the students learn to raise livestock??? (the FFA really is a big part of the community, and it's great that the future aggies can learn about it in high school) It annoys me to live in a place where so many people have tunnel vision. Welcome to the Bible Belt.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006



This is what it looks like in Okeechobee (most days.) I try to remember this when I'm stuck inside all day without windows.

Today I was informed by my students that I must have been drinking "hatorade" because I was hating on them. Or something along those lines, I'm a little fuzzy on the details. Every thing I say or so, someone has to say that it's because of race. Like a stop talking will get almost without fail, that's racial, miss! Yeah, not racist, just racial. I'm also a little fuzzy as far as that is concerned. Is it because I'm white? Is it because I'm black? Is it because I'm brown? No, it's because you're talking when I am. That's racial!

A long time ago, I said something that made my students think that I didn't have a TV. At the time, there was physically a TV in my apartment, but I didn't have an antenna or a DVD player or anything, so in essence I didn't have a TV. They apparantly only heard that I didn't have a TV, and I didn't bother to correct them. So every now and then I get advice like if you save a dollar a day, in a couple of months you can buy a tv. If you go to the landfill, you can find a tv and tons of other stuff too. Okay thank you. I'll keep that in mind. I'm pretty sure it's racial to not watch TV. I'll have to check on that.

This week has been crazier than normal, and I'm just going to go ahead and blame winter break that's coming up. Of course if that is real source of the crazy, I'm going to have to take the next two weeks off because I'm not so sure I can handle it anymore. I was covering for the basketball coach that teaches in my pod because she had to leave during the last period to make to to an away game, and I didn't realize how much of a difference there is between the "normal" students and the special ed students. I'm convinced that all the non-special ed teachers have it just a little easier than I do, because at least they have some normal to balance out the crazy. All I have is crazy. And I don't feel bad for calling my students crazy. I could say worse... Although I'm sure I'm being racial.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

My fish. It's big.


This is me and my fish. We were very happy together until my friend cut off its head, and it refused to die. We shared some great times. I'll tell the story about that another day.

Like maybe tomorrow, as I finally broke down and got internet at home. Yay.