Day 4- "It's a small world after all"

Well I guess I should begin this post with the happenings of yesterday afternoon. Janette and I attended Zumba class which is held at a gym covered in graffiti, it was very interesting to take a look of all of the different artwork painted all over the building. Zumba was wonderful! There were people of all different shape, sizes, colors, genders (yes, I did say genders. We had a man near my father's age getting down with his bad self). The teacher was one of the most energetic people I have ever seen. She had such a crazy, upbeat personality that kept you entertained and motivated the entire time. Janette and her friend describe her as a psycho because she makes all of these strange noises during the workouts. I do believe I will be going back soon with her!

I woke up a little later this morning to a nice breeze. Today hasn't been quite as cool as the previous days and it looks like we are heading into a heat wave for the rest of the week. Sigh... After breakfast, Penny came to pick me up and it was off to another day of professional development. Today we discussed the importance of writing and how to important it is to spread it across the curriculum. At first the information was extremely engaging, but by "morning tea", aka break or recess to us Americans, everyone seemed bored out of their minds. I, on the other hand, was kept entertained by one of the lively aids. For those of you who have seen Steel Magnolias, she is Clairee to the T! She isn't so high society and well-to-do so to speak, but she is constantly cracking jokes with everyone, even herself. Many of her friends kid around with her and tell her people are going to start suspecting her happiness for something else. She doesn't seem to mind one bit!

Well getting to the whole "it's a small world after all" bit... This morning before we began the workshops a couple of new faces were there and began asking me about my background and that sort of thing. One of the educational assistants (Side note- which they have WAY more of than we do in our schools) mentioned she spent her holiday traveling throughout the states. She named off several places she had been such as Seattle, Los Angeles, Dallas, and then New Orleans. I asked when she visited New Orleans and it turns out it was during the BCS Championship. She was so excited to meet someone from "the winning team"... "Oh what's that you guys say, something like tide rolling!" I giggled and corrected her immediately and she gave me a big "Roll Tide!" She also commented on how "heinous" LSU's color combination was. I think she and I are definitely going to hit it off.

Today I began doing more work with my mentoring teacher "Melody." Melody is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to what she does and has a very likable personality. After talking with her for a bit, it turns out she hosted a COST student about two years ago from Tuscaloosa. She even came to visit her during her break and low and behold guess where they went out to- Innisfree Irish Pub of course! I knew when she said she went to an Irish pub that it had to be us. Melody mentioned that every guy wanted to buy her a drink just to hear her Aussie accent. Needless to say, I think she had a great time going out. Currently, Melody has a roommate who went to Georgia and moved here after completing her internship. Melody also went to visit her during the Auburn/Georgia game two years ago and made the trip to that other school in Alabama... She couldn't fathom the thought of how wasteful those Boogers were for rolling Toomer's Corner. I assured her that they were the enemy...

After school, Melody dropped me off at Whoolworth's Shopping Center to meet Janette. I had a little time to myself to explore the mall a bit. It is quite strange, people push buggies around as if it was a grocery store, which they have two of in the center. Janette got quite a laugh when I referred to the shopping cart as a "buggy." Here in Australia, they refer to them as "trolley's." She thinks the word buggies is so cute that she said she may start using it! Once we got home, I went on a nice run at the park right beside my home. It is absolutely beautiful and sits right across the river. There also is a nice sand bar where people take their dogs for a swim and play fetch. It made me miss my little Andy man so much!

Tomorrow is our last day of professional development before the students come back. I have never been in a school on the first day back from summer break as a teacher. I am very excited and a bit nervous, 10 weeks of summer break should be interesting!