Teaching

Wow- it's been a busy few weeks so I'll bring ya'll up to speed. Started my practicum teaching (second grade at Leopold Elementary), got two jobs, playing softball for UW club (already had one tourny at U of I this past weekend), and having friends come in for my b-day on Sunday! Things are going great, but my days are buuuusy! I'll fill you in on a couple cute stories from the week:

1. I started babysitting this week for a 4 year old girl on the north side of Madison. When I went over to meet her, I noticed their newly redone kitchen and told her "this is very nice!" She replied "Thanks but it's not finished yet. We still have to put in the damn kitchen fan." Her mom was mortified! I'm sure little Olivia had just heard so much about the "damn fan" she thought it was a brand name by this point.

2. The same day, Olivia noticed the bandaids on my leg. I explained that I played softball and had slid into home and scrapped my knee. Her mom mentioned how great it was that I played and said how the neighbor lady was the head coach at Madison East. Olivia chimmed right in saying "That's Lane's mom. Lane has two mommies!" Stereotype....enough said. haha

Classes

School started on Sept. 2nd and so far I am in love with it: I have one class a day and none on Friday.....so far. My student teaching begins Sept. 22nd and I'm already nervous. I'm at Leopold Elementary school and no offense but those little guys scare the h-e-double out of me. I gave a presentation to a second grade class in June about Africa and I was SO not ready for some of their questions (ex. "how big was the elephant?" "Really big!!!" "No, like 25 feet big or 28 feet big?") So, needless to say, doing this K-2 in Spanish is a little intense.

Good news is, I LOVE my one class a day. Ok, they are 3 hour night classes so after a day of teaching I'm sure my butt will be handed to me later in the year. But for now without teaching in the morning, I'm loving it. FINALLY, stuff that really matters for what I'm going to do! THANK GOD....I mean, how many nutritional science classes can one take before you just want to go up to the professor, show him your thunder thighs and scream "THIS ISN'T WORKING!"

The roomie situation is working out great. We're all enjoying the "easy" first couple of weeks by playing "airsoft gun war" in the house and using laser pointers to taunt the neighbor boys! Saturday, Sunday, and Monday football is a must and I'm loving my first fall in the USA since I was a teenager!

Can't wait for camping this week with the extended family, another great fall tradition I've missed for years (along with my b-day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving). Hope you're all doing well!

Here's a picture of my World Language Education Cohort (E):