La Primavera

¡Aquí está! Llega la primavera! It's official. Spring is my all-time favorite season. Don't get me wrong, I love the summer with no school, and Christmas is merry, and leaves turn all pretty in the fall, but there's nothing quite so good as springtime. And it's coming! In fact, in Texas it is already here.

I spent an absolutely fantastic weekend in New York and it was wonderful. We saw incredible shows, wandered through Central Park, and just marveled at the sights of the city in general. But I'm not going to lie, it was quite cold. Saturday we had snow flurries all day and I thought, "Wait a minute, isn't this March?" It turns out it was actually cold in Dallas on Saturday too but that's beside the point. On Sunday, we got back and stepped into the sunshine and it was as if my eyes had been opened. Something seems to happen in the winter and a haze falls over everything. Everything is just a little more gray, even on those sunny days, I'm not sure what it is. There's a good chance it's all in my head. But on Sunday when we landed in Dallas and felt the warm breeze in the air and even more so today, when I was outside for recess duty, it just seemed to hit me how much I missed Spring and didn't even realize it until now!

You see the thing about Spring is that it's filled with hope. It's that warm breeze in the air that whispers that something wonderful is coming. It's when February happens and everything is looking really dismal and then March arrives and says, "Don't worry! I'm here! The sun is shining and it will all be fine!" It's when you've been inside all day and you step out the door and it hits you like a breath of fresh air. Everything begins to thaw out and look a little prettier. There's more energy in the air and the wind makes you feel revitalized, not like you want to curl up into a ball and die. I love that feeling of being all cooped up but then you walk outside, stretch out your arms and just want to bask in the sun! That moment when you're chatting outside with a friend, looking at the stars and it's actually warm enough to drink iced coffee and still be comfortable.

When we were exploring New York I felt the need to put on every article of clothing I owned before venturing out doors, even if we were only walking a few blocks. I'm not kidding, Saturday I wore socks, boots, leggings, jeggings (that's right, 2 pairs of pants!), an undershirt, a sweater, a coat, a scarf, a hat, and two pairs of gloves. But then today it was sunny, breezy, and 85 degrees, and I was reminded of how much I love skirts and dresses, or even short sleeves shirts! Spring brings back all the best things!

But superficial thinking aside, there is something really joyous and hopeful about Spring. I feel like it's a season of looking forward to wonderful things to come (like weddings!) and embracing the new life and beauty all around us (flowers! trees! baby animals!). Say what you will about the season officially starting March 21, I for one am very thankful to live in a place where wonderful primavera dances on in a little early.

La Vida Comprometida :)

Crazytimes funtimes. Life is crazy right now, but I can definitely say that I've never been happier! I'm teaching all day, traveling on weekends, and planning a wedding to my very best friend! What could be better?

So first of all, planning a wedding is crazy! Before Ethan proposed but when I knew we were probably getting married this summer, I was nervous. I had heard from so many people about long it takes and how there's so much to do that you really need more like a year. Maybe some people do, but I am definitely not one of those people and fortunately my sweet fiance knew that. We got engaged on Thanksgiving and already so much has happened! Fortunately for us, everything is working out very quickly. Some of it is stressful at times, but it's also a lot of fun. With all the major things arranged, I'm looking forward to things like bridal showers, picking up bridesmaid dresses, and deciding what decorations to use for the reception. Funtimes.

It's also crazy thinking about how different my life is now and how different it's about to be. In less than half a year I will be moving my life again, but this time not by myself. This time I'll have a husband to go live with :) Which is one of the happiest things I can imagine. I'm very glad to be home and have this time with my parents this year, but I just cant wait to get to move in to a new house! A house that will be mine as well and we'll both be there together! After so much long distance I am beyond ready for Ethan and I to be in the same place. Funtimes.

Teaching is crazy too. It's hard. Really hard. We've got so much pressure because of standardized tests that this time of year is pretty stressful. It's difficult trying to help my kids grow into critical thinkers who solve problems, treat others with respect, love learning AND succeed on the infamous STAAR test. But despite these immense challenges, my job is exciting, rewarding, and always entertaining!
My kids are loving my engagement almost as much as I am! I get asked on a regular basis how that whole name change thing works and if they can come to the wedding. Now that would be some funtimes!

Weekends are wonderful because they mostly involve Ethan. Most weekends one of us travels to visit the other and let's just say we're racking up the airline miles! I've also been able to go to Oklahoma City to meet up with college friends and even maybe have a trip to Florida coming up! Traveltimes funtimes!

SO this blog post is maybe a little bit boring but that's pretty much a synopsis of my life right now!

A veces me pregunto, ¿cómo puede ser que esta es mi vida?

A veces me pregunto, ¿cómo puede ser que esta es mi vida? How is it that this is my real life? It is one of those extremely rare times since I started teaching that I actually have time to write and am in a mood to do it. But I was just thinking how extremely diferente my life is than what I imagined little over a year ago. On my computer I saw this page I had bookmarked last August that had links for schools to teach in Latin America. Remember that time it didn't matter where I needed to go just as long as I could teach somewhere? I was so prepared to go anywhere in the world that I think it's funny that God's plan was to bring me right back to my hometown. But now of course I'm so thankful to be where I am and I see little glimpses every now and then of just how perfect His plan is.

I don't know what I was thinking, thinking I could go off and start this by myself but I am so thankful to be near my family and my best friend Kaycie right now. And I'm so glad to be close enough that it's easy for Ethan and I to see each other. And I have this unique opportunity to be teaching in a bilingual program. This past weekend I got to be back with some of my best friends from college and I was reminded of just how sweet that time was. I miss it. But this time is sweet too.

As crazy and exhausting as teaching full time is, I still feel sorry for people who have any other kind of job. I love it so much that it's sometimes hard for me to fathom that other people wouldn't love it the same. My kids are fantastic and I'm blessed with 2 very small classes, making for a wonderful first year. Every day (well, almost every day) I see them and think, man, this is the best! However I am also becoming more and more aware of just how young and naive I am to the ways of the world. It astounds me how some of my kids have made it to the fourth grade and can't read or add. It hurts my heart for them. But then I'm also reminded how this is exactly what I wanted to be doing, these are the kids I always wanted and I understand that the circumstances are more difficult than I imagined before I started, but hopefully I can make some sort of a difference and positively impact these kids' futures in some fashion.

Fourth grade is the best because the kids are the perfect mix of hilarious and sweet. I enjoy these kids so much. But it's also a little terrifying because middle school looms just two years ahead and if the learning gap doesn't close right now it might not get another chance. I can't believe how quickly this year is flying by and I hope that the time we have is enough. I just have to trust that it will be.

The truth is that I can't believe I am already almost halfway through my first year of teaching! It doesn't seem real! Sometimes other teachers ask me questions and I think, why are you asking me? I'm not their real teacher. And then I remember that I am. So strange and so awesome. Everyday 22 fourth graders are entrusted into my care. I transition between languages a hundred times a day. I wake up in the morning and go to work at the job I have dreamed about and hoped for for so many years. Is this real life?

Amigas y Playas

This weekend I went on a long-awaited road trip with my best friends from high school. So. Much. Fun. There's really nothing like getting together with three of your best friends and catching up. The best part was I feel like we just picked up where we left off like it was nothing, even though the four of us hadn't been together since last May when Melanie got married. Now we all live in different places, but I'm so thankful that we're able to make time for each other and make little trips like this happen. This was a lightning-fast Texas road trip:

Thursday afternoon: Kaycie and I drive from McKinney to Austin to meet Melanie, stopping for coffee in Waco along the way.

Thursday night: Funtimes in our great state's capitol!

Friday morning: We find out that Katie's flight out of DC is delayed and she'll miss her connection in Houston and won't be able to fly into Austin until later tonight. That will clearly infringe on our beach time so we decide to drive to Houston to pick her up.

Friday afternoon: We pick Katie up at the airport, eat lunch in Houston and drive down south to South Padre Island. Woohoo!!

Friday night: Funtimes hanging out on the beach, catching up and eating fried shrimp :)

Saturday morning: Sunrise on the beach!!! Beautiful! Then laying out, playing in the waves and soaking up the sun!

Saturday afternoon: More laying out, playing in the waves, and soaking up the sun!

Saturday night: Funtimes meandering around the island. Lots of little souvenir shops!

Sunday morning: More laying out, playing in the waves, and soaking up the sun (although with a bit more sun screen than the day before)!

Sunday afternoon: Try to rid ourselves of all the sand (impossible), last lunch on the island and start the drive back to Austin.

Sunday evening: SAN ANTONIO!!!! Since we had to drive through it anyway, we stopped for dinner in one of my favorite places in the world. Mexican food on the river walk and a trip to the Alamo. Funtimes.

Sunday night: Austin. More funtimes hanging out and not going to sleep :)

Monday morning: Take Katie to the airport ridiculously early, sleep a bit, then head back to Dallas (making sure to stop in Italy, of course!).

Monday afternoon: Back home in McKinney! What a wonderful trip with wonderful friends. And Kaycie's such a trooper for driving that whole way!

We spent a million hours in the car, but really when you're with your best friends you have a great time no matter what, and our time together and on the beach made it totally worth it!

Esperando....

Lately it seems like all I am doing is waiting. Esperando. Hasta que pase...algo. No sé qué. Waiting for something to happen.

It turns out this whole out-of-state teacher certification is not quite as easy as it seemed. This has to be the longest process ever. I "got" my job in March. Spring Break. Before any of the other interns. I was so happy, it seemed perfect. A gift from God. A sign that this was exactly where He wanted me. Teaching in a 4th grade bilingual class, Language Arts and Social Studies. Perfect. Then of course through April I was still waiting, anxious for something to be more official since they had offered me the job in the interview. And I finally got the call with the offer. So exciting! But of course it was pending TX certification. NBD, this happens all the time. Nothing to worry about. So graduation comes and goes and I'm excited to start my first year of teaching. But I have to wait for my degree to post to get my transcript. Then I have to wait for everyone else's degrees to post so that the U of A certification person can take them to Little Rock. Then I have to wait for the Arkansas Department of Education to approve my certificate. And I wait. And I wait. And I realize I need to pay $100 more. And I wait. And this whole time I'm in communication with the certification specialist for McKinney ISD, but the Texas Education Agency won't look at my credentials until I actually have some. So I wait. And then Arkansas approves my license! Hooray!!! There was much rejoicing!!!

But I still have to wait for the certificate to come in the mail. But time is limited so I have them send a letter to TEA verifying my license. And I send all the necessary documents and get my fingerprints done and pay hundreds of dollars that I don't have to get everything submitted.

And after months of worrying and waiting I felt like things were finally happening for real. But then I called TEA to see if they'd received everything and they told me that it could take 2 to 3 more weeks to even scan anything in to process. And now, you see, time is sensitive. New teachers start back August 13. Three weeks puts me at the end of july. I can't take any of the tests I need to take until I get my review of credentials back. And no one can hire me officially unless all of this happens before August. I talked to the McKinney certification specialist again and there's literally nothing we can do except hope and pray. And wait. And meanwhile the other interns have found jobs, are attending professional development, meeting with their teams and setting up their classrooms.

Here's the thing. I have never been good at waiting. I am an impatient person. So maybe God is trying to teach me to learn to wait on Him. But waiting and not worrying is hard. In my heart I believe that He wants me here for a reason. That all of this fell together so perfectly because it's His will. But now I'm starting to worry because I really don't know what happens if this falls through. Teaching is the only thing I've ever wanted to do. I feel like I've waited so long for this first year. For someone who's known  what they've wanted to do since kindergarten, 13 years of public education, 4 years of undergrad and a year of grad school is a really long time to wait. And here I am all ready to start and it's not happening. I think maybe my greatest fear right now is that this is going to fall through. And I don't know what I'll do. Logically I know that my identity is not only in teaching but in Christ. That there is more to life than a job. That, in the scheme of 18 years of waiting, one more isn't so bad. But in my heart, I'm terrified. I don't know what happens if this job falls through. If I can't do the only thing I've ever wanted to do. Even though I am still fully aware of how blessed I am and how full my life is, right now this seems like the worst thing in the world and the waiting is torture!

But apparently at this point it's out of my hands and try as I might I can't really do anything about it. My tears fall in vain. All I can do is hope. And pray. And wait. And know that God is good. Because He is, you know. Even if this doesn't work out, God is good.

Un Mundo Diferente

So I guess I never really finished writing about Japan, but suffice it to say it was the trip of a lifetime and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Now it seems summer is in full bloom. Since moving back home I have been flitting about on little weekend adventures such as watching the Arkansas super-regional baseball game in Waco, visiting Erin's awesome lake house in Hot Springs, weddings in Fayetteville and Six Flagstimes funtimes. But despite all these fun times on the weekends, I found myself really lacking with things to do during the week. There's always coffee and pool time with my wonderful Kaycie, but I spent a lot of time just hanging around the house watching How I Met Your Mother and playing Words with Friends. Then one night I was at The Porch, which is this ministry for people in their 20s and 30s and the pastor was talking about time being our most valuable asset. You can have all the money in the world and all the skills in the world but once you run out of time, that's it. And we are only on this earth for a little while. So he emphasized the importance of using our time intentionally and making the most of every opportunity we have to serve others and share our faith. And as much as I love words with friends, it doesn't exactly provide with much outside interaction. SO I started looking for places to volunteer, that way I would be able to interact with new people and serve my community and I came across the Samaritan Inn. The Samaritan Inn is the only homeless program in all of Collin County, which is a very, very large county in the Dallas metroplex. I had volunteered with them in high school and after attending an informational meeting this year, I knew that was where I wanted to spend my time. They not only provide homeless people with a place to stay and food to eat, but they provide budgeting and parenting classes along with GED courses and job training. They're really committed to helping people change their life style and become self-sufficient.

So although I would love to spend much more time at this wonderful organization, they've only needed me a couple of times a week. But each time I am happy to help and hope that in some small way I can make a difference. It has been a really eye-opening experience. Even in my own town, there's a whole other world out there. I have been very blessed to never know poverty, even through hard times. But interacting with people who are my age or younger, have multiple children already and are homeless, that's a whole other life. Then there are people who used to be lawyers or nurses and for whatever reason lost their jobs and can't make ends meet. Or people who are trying as hard as they can to escape generational poverty and have nowhere else to go. All in my city. So this experience continually reminds me of how much God has blessed my life and how much I can and should be doing to bless the lives of others. Sometimes I forget and only think about places like Africa or third-world countries or giant, impoverished cities in the U.S., but there is so much to do even in a suburban city like McKinney, TX. Our world is so hurt. The least I can do is volunteer my time to help fix it, bit by bit.

No sé como decir 'aventuras' en japonés...

Mizu, sumimassen, arigato gozai-mas/mashta, onegaishi-mas, kore, hai, e-ie, cawaii...

These are essentially the only words I had to survive on during my week-long adventure in Japan. Water, sorry/excuse me, thank you, please, this, yes, no and cute.
 Fortunately I have friends who are much more proficient than I am.
Let's back up a little. Last July one of my dear friends went to Japan on an English-teaching program. This May, my very wonderful boyfriend decided to take me on a trip to visit him. So a couple of weeks ago we set off across the world and embarked on a Japanese adventure!
Departed: May 17, 2012, 6:00 a.m.: Little Rock.
From Little Rock to Houston, Houston to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Tokyo we flew.
Arrived: May 18, 2012 4:30 p.m.
We traveled through time and space and, after crossing all manner of time zones, we arrived at Narita Airport in Tokyo. We navigated our way through the airport and miraculously managed to board the correct train. Fortunately Cooper was meeting us at the station where we needed to change trains.
After wandering around the station a bit, we finally saw our friend racing down the stairs to greet us! Needless to say Cooper was a bit easy to spot what his tall, skinny frame and american face and bright red toms shoes in a see of very small Japanese people.

As we rode the train to our Hostel in Tokyo, we were amazed by this strange new world.  
1. Pachinko everywhere. It's like Vegas and slot machines meets ping pong and anime.
2. ANIME. Although I'm not a fan myself, I do know enough to say that those characters could have plopped right onto a street in Tokyo and blended right in. Talk about some crazy styles. Socks with sandals, toe-shoes, crazy tights, multi-colored fingernails, hats, fancy dresses, wigs, costumes,   pants, etc...
3. Anything cutsie that is popular with the American age 4-8 crowd is a hit with all crowds in Japan. I'm talking karaoke walls lined with teddy bears, middle aged parents with dangling animal phone charms, and pokemon centers in the middle of the mall.
4. Hats are very in. Especially with the elderly. And Japan has many many elderly people.
5. There is no end to the city. Even the quaint, country towns have more than 100,000 people in them.

 That weekend we ate a lot of delicious sushi and took Tokyo by storm! We saw a spring festival, visited temples and shrines, drew fortunes and wandered through what could have been an enchanted forest right in the middle of the city. We saw the newest, trendiest aspects of technology, the world's tallest tower, metropolitan centers that mimic Times Square and an intersection about as big as the University of Arkansas. And we ended it up with a Shinkansen ride to Cooper's town.

Lesson 6: Shinkansen=Awesome! Bullet trains that go up to 275 mph and can get you half way across the country in a couple of hours? I think so!