No MATCH kids, no TMX... what've I got?!

So... I have no students left at the MATCH school. They all have left either on their own accord or by force (Marie and her violent tendencies was expelled.) *sigh* It was a little disappointing to hear, but Jamal said that he's in all advanced classes at his new school and that's HUGE!

This wasn't my only disappointment of the day. I couldn't find the Tickle Me Elmo TMX. Granted, I didn't look too hard, but I missed my chance at getting rich for the day. Shucks.

Magic Tricks, a popular Chinese Girl, and an Unpopular Japanese Girl

Perhaps its a bit cheesy, but I needed some sort of an ice breaker for me and my mentees. I bought us each a magic trick and we randomly picked one out of a bag to learn and master. We will then demonstrate the magic trick for everyone at our next meeting. This gives me something interesting and out of the ordinary to inquire about during the week when I see them. YAY! I'm sure I could have made this challenge waaaaaay deeper and meaningful and perhaps found some way for them to HAVE to come and talk to me, but I'm just starting out, what are you going to do? They seemed semi-enthusiastic about it. I guess we'll see how it goes. They are also happy with the array of international snacks that they have received. We'll see if I end up being a helpful mentor or not.

Run-Down of Tricks (hahaha... if this was a blog from last year, that would have a TOTALLY different meaning)

K.N. - Cup and Ball (oooh... again, sounds a little nasty)

C.A. - Magic Rings (oooh... that could be dirty too... or have I perused too many sex toy shops?)

C.C. - Disappearing Ball (shrinkage?)

J.C. - something with Rope? I forget

Me - ESP Cards

Whew... magic is kinky...

On a more wholesome note, Tzu-Ning came today. Straight from Taiwan. She's a really sweet and friendly girl. I wish my Chinese didn't stink. If only I could tote my dictionary around with me and just scribble pinyin. Haha... I'm so lame. I need to take Chinese class again. I've never wanted to know Korean and Japanese so badly in my whole life. Why didn't I seize the opportunity back in the elementary school when everyone was in ESL. *tear*

Anyway... I think I had somewhat of a breakthrough today. Remember Hinako? Anorexic girl who's only friend is Takashi? She came into the "Cozy Corner" (just a corner of the 2nd floor where the oldest girls reside) and was talking to another student about SATs. As she was leaving, I decided to exchange a few words with her and find out what was up. Turns out she didn't do too well on the SATs. Eureka! I've tutored the SATs before. I don't know how great of an SAT coach I was or will be, but if I can help Hinako in being a more pleasant human being while boosting her SAT score to at least average, I would be thrilled.

Hmm... what else? I had my first East Coast Jamba. Its about a mile from my apartment in a Whole Foods. I had a Coldbuster. It was quite tasty. It helps bring me back to San Diego. *sigh*

Oooh... I also found a store called Cakelove recently. I haven't partaken, but I will keep you posted.

reviews on my driving

"Ms. HT almost KILLED us!!!!" - K.N.

"Does Ms. HT have some issues with driving? She seemed really stressed out."
-B.G.

"AHHHHHHHHH!!!!" - various children

Missing Entry from September 13

Go ahead and add minivan driver to my resume. Today I spent the evening shuttling back and forth between the school and the metro. Heaps of fun, I tell you. Sadly, it’s a much smoother ride than the car I drive, so I don’t mind it terribly. It’s just getting around those turns.

I took Ruslan and Takashi back to their dorm at Trinity today with a brief stop at 7-11 just to show them where it is. It’s a bit of a trek from their dorm, so I’m not sure why I even bothered. Oh right… it started out with a wrong direction. Coming out of the 7-11 parking lot I was waiting for all these cars to pass before I turned onto the road. I knew that I could not make that turn without hitting other cars in the process, so I waited. Behind me someone grew impatient and honked at me and thus Ruslan came to the conclusion that when the person behind me honks, that is when I know I can go. “Person behind make beep beep, you go.” Those Russians catch on quick!

I volunteered to take Ruslan to show him how to use the metro, or at least how to get to Pentagon City. There are many things he needs to buy and nobody ever tells him about the trips. He wasn’t pleased with Target, but loves the name 7-11. Who is looking out for them on my days off?! *sigh*

Oh! Another funny Russian anecdote for the day: Ruslan was telling us about two girls he met at his dorm and said “They are black… one is this form *gestures to show a big person* and the other is normal.”

So much talk of the Russian and you’re probably wondering, where is Takashi? He was practicing in the studio for most of the time and I finally had to hunt him down and make him eat dinner so that they could go back to Trinity. Takashi didn’t seem very friendly today. When we were talking to him, he started repeating something over and over in Japanese. Then Hinako, a Japanese girl who is reputed to be quite the prima donna, came and told us he wanted to practice longer. He came to dinner shortly after, but the whole situation made me feel weird. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been as weird if it was Kiyota or Kirena translating for him instead of Hinako. Hinako hasn’t been nasty to me yet, but today was the first day I saw her. I think I’ve heard rumors that she’s anorexic… and so it begins.

Oh, those Russians

So, Ruslan's English is VERY limited, but yesterday when he was describing someone he used the adjective "brittanic." Fascinating what they are teaching them over there, eh? When was the last time you used the word "brittanic"?

Back in VA

So, I just wanted to get a break from the unfamiliarity of DC/Maryland for the evening. I'm home for the night to do some laundry... eat... go to Wal-Mart... get gas?
I'm not sure if I'm ever going to get used to working. Yeah... its only been a few days and I still have some kids' names to get straight, but it still feels strange. Today just did not feel like a Monday. Working from 3-11 is just so weird.
Today, my two foreign boys made friends. They sat and chatted with different people at dinner. I think that they are slowly making a niche for themselves. Ruslan hung out with Taylor and Simon. Takashi hung out with Kiyota and the Korean boys. They won't need to be under my wing for long. Now, I've been focusing on the middle schoolers. They are so adorable. Little nerdy Angie and Kirena. They aren't as interesting as the foreigners. *sigh*
I think some of the new students are also finding their way as well. This leaves me so bored at work. No one to talk to... just walking down the hallways and then bed checks when the time comes. I need to start driving the minivans and learning my way around. Ugh... Its all a learning experience, I suppose. Let's just hope I can save some money throughout this experience and get the rest of my life in order.

Chances are if you don't speak English...

I will love hanging out with you. Two of my favorite students at the ballet academy are non-English speaking international students. Takashi is from Japan and Ruslan is from Russia. Takashi is about 5'6, soft-spoken mild-mannered. He has a pixie cut, if that makes sense? Ruslan is 6'3 with shoulder-length blonde hair and a bright smile. His face turns red quite easily. Yesterday he told us a funny story about how he had to have someone help him when he was filling out a form on the airplane. He didn't know what "male" and "female" meant and it was a mortifying experience for him.
The highlight of my day is just having simplistic chats with them. I feel like our interactions are so much more real than some of my conversations with other people because there is no time for a facade. We just have to share what we can with one another. I feel so sorry for them because the other kids are more interested in talking and hanging out with people that they can communicate more effectively with. They are often just standing around looking lost or extremely bored and smiling or waving when people greet them.
Takashi and I talked about music briefly the other night and I found out that he likes Mariah Carey and the Beatles. Some of his favorite songs are "All I Want for Christmas" and "Yesterday".
Its so rewarding to learn about them because everything verbally communicated is a struggle. Does that make sense?
I worked an overnight shift last night... I don't know when my brain will be functional again. Sorry.

Quitting...

I won't be able to work part-time at the Beacon House because it won't work with my full-time job at the Kirov Academy.

Alexis, a third grader who I met on Tuesday came up to me and told me she would be in my class. I then had to tell her that I wouldn't be working there anymore. Later in the day she came up to me and held my hand and asked "Why won't you be working here?" *tear*

I read with Armonte and Marquis, sixth and seventh grade brothers, sons of Keema (ex-co-worker). First of all, Armonte is the cutest little boy ever and just so sweet and all smiles. He is also very bright. Marquis was a great kid too. They were both so willing and eager to read with me while their mom was working. When we were cleaning up after Back to School Night Armonte came and helped. He loves me.

As I was leaving, Ms. Parker, an older lady who was setting up snacks for back to school night, told me to be careful and to keep my keys in my hand. It just really made me feel like a part of a community, part of a family. I just feel like all the walls were already down, that they had already made a place for this strange, conservatively dressed Chinese girl.

Yeah, so I cried twice today... oh wait, right now makes three times. The first time was with my supervisors at the ballet academy and the second time was when I had to tell the director at the Beacon House that I had to quit. Its hard because I know I made it seem like I didn't have the heart for the ballet academy and I know I do. I am at training on the verge of tears because I know that these children I encounter are on the verge of greatness. There is so much beauty and struggle in their lives and I feel privileged to be in their presence.

I just put my finger on an aspect of my sadness about quitting at the Beacon House. When Franny started working at LJCDS she expressed a feeling of selling out. Perhaps it is just hard for some of us to accept being paid a salary. Wait... noooooo, I am worth waaaay more than the ballet academy is paying me. Perhaps we struggle with the fact that we aren't serving the disadvantaged. I guess we just have to keep in mind that we are still serving children, the future - helping to mold these young minds. Ultimately, I think that it is children that we love. The lives that we touch are still precious and we can still build great relationships and foundations with them. Yeah... I'm helping to make ballerinas! Yeah... something like that.

Blogging Machine!

3 posts in one day... I'm crazy, I tell you!

I left out quite a gem from yesterday. I got home early between 3-4, frittered for a bit and then between 5-6 decided that I should go get something from the grocery store. I found the closest Giant and had a lovely walk over there. I decided to buy some frozen dinners because 1) they were on sale, 50% off Stouffer's "nothing comes closer to home..." 2) we have roaches in the kitchen and the less time I spend in there the better!

So, I buy my eight frozen dinners and am off on my merry way. On my walk home I thought to myself... "do they even have a microwave... hahaha, what a silly thought... of course they do!"

They don't!

What to do... what to do...

Around 8 o'clock it became time to make some sort of decision. I could put it in the oven which would take like... 3 days. Not a good option. And once I walked in the kitchen and saw a roach... uh uh... I am not doing ANYTHING in there. So, what was I to do?

It was time to make some friends in my building. I went out into the hallway and was going to knock on the door of our next door neighbor when I heard some voices from the one across from them. Aha! They will be my new friends, that is if they have a microwave...

What do you know... they have one! And I used it. I also met them and that was lovely. They are a nice little reprieve from the ordinary. They are just a bunch of Navy boys or something. *shrug* We only chat for about 10 minutes at time. They are good at sharing and things of that nature and I in turn have shown them how to utilize space in their refrigerator. At least that is what has occurred so far. Ian, Aalani (Manny?), Nate, Joey, Deleon. Deleon doesn't live there, only the other four. They are nice and someone is always home so I think our relationship will be splendid. Joey told me that I had some balls to just come over there. What can I say... I'm a hungry girl. Joey keeps all his things in a hall closet and has a futon in the living room. He is Italian. He even speaks it. He is obsessed with Italy and New York. They have a two bedroom place. Kinda crazy... those boys aren't hooking up too often. hahaha... Like me, they don't have real beds either. Ahh... kindred spirits. Perhaps I'm a Navy guy at heart or should have been... *shrug* Aalani is from Hawaii. He lived in San Diego for awhile and we talked about different places that we hung out. He went to Bar Dynamite a lot. Nate is from CA too... I forget the name of the place though. I don't remember where Ian is from. Maybe CA as well. *shrug* Nice bunch. I'll be seeing them on a somewhat regular basis.

Today

Today... no rain. YES! I get to work with minimal delay. I'm sure of myself, sure of my route... well, as sure as I can be Day Two.

Everything is going going fine UNTIL we get out schedules. Horrible... not only do I have the shift where I won't be able to work at my part-time job, but I work Friday AND Saturday night and I don't have consecutive days off! The situation was looking bleak, so bleak that I considered just quitting right then and there and moving home to start the job search all over. This of course would not happen because although you can count on me to do the unpredictable or outrageous... I am not stupid and definitely not independently wealthy. As much as I would have liked to address the problem then and there, I had somewhere to be and quite frankly, I did not have my wits about me because I just went into stress/panic mode.

So, I left to head over to the Beacon House. Yeah, got a little lost and didn't know where to park, but things were ok UNTIL I had to work with someone putting together bookbags with school supplies with someone who can't read and can't count. We had to put together 20 bookbags of supplies. How many piles of supplies did he have set up? 24. How many did he think we had to have set up? 30. I'm glad I figured that out somewhat early. After that I knew that poor Rafael could not be in charge of this task. I asked him how many black pens each pile needed. Pause. "How many black pens?" Pause. *sigh* Finally, I just grab the sheet from Rafael since all he can do is stare at it and find that each set of supplies needs six pens. Six times 20 = 120 pens. So, I ask Rafael to go find some more pens. And I hear him talking to one of the ladies there. Well, the lady was doing most of the talking. She asked him how many he needed. No answer. Much too difficult a question.

Once we start packing the bags, Rafael picks up a box of pencils and says that they were left out of one of the bags. Hmm... funny. He thought I left it out of one of the bags I packed. I found that quite odd seeing as how I just pick up the whole stack of supplies and put it in the bag, but I don't say this. Come to find out Rafael left it out of the bag. Shocking, I know. He would take item by item to put into the bag. Ludicrous! By the time he packed one bag, I had already done three! I have serious issues with inefficiency, more so when it comes to a group effort. Ugh.

When I am beginning to clean up and put supplies away I notice that we have a lot of colored pencils which weren't on the list, but wouldn't it be nice if the kids got colored pencils? So I ask Rafael to count to see if we had 20 packs of colored pencils. Turns out we don't have enough, but we can just give two kids markers instead. Nice compromise. Then I put him in charge of putting them in the bags. Generous, I know. After he is finished there are two packs of colored pencils still left on the table. Huh? Rafael strikes again!

Yeah, so I am light years ahead of Rafael in terms of counting ability. Perhaps he's a genius in some obscure area. Its too soon to tell. He's a nice guy, but I think he gave me a headache today.
The favorite part of everyone's day... driving home. Ha! I got lost. DC streets I tell you... I never know if I'm coming or going, north or south, east or west. Well, I somehow made it on North Capitol St. though I have to admit I was going in the wrong direction for a little bit. *sigh* North Capitol St. turns into Blair Rd. And today Blair and Butternut was where I was pulled over by the police.

I didn't even know that I did something wrong! I heard the little whir of his siren and I thought maybe he had somewhere to go and wanted to pass by. Nope... He wanted me to pull over! *sadface* Apparently, I ran a redlight. I didn't see the redlight, which is probably how I ran it. He asked me if there was a reason. *sigh* If he only knew. I wanted to cry, but he already said I was only getting warning. I'm glad he gave me a break, but honestly, who wouldn't? I had to hand him a CA Drivers License and the registration for a car from VA. I was a fish out of water. That debacle left me a bit frazzled, but I finally made it home to compose some lovely emails to my bosses with my fingers crossed that I will have my schedule changed. Here's to hoping!

I have decided...

So, driving into my apartment complex this evening after work, I decided that I need to blog. I have such fascinating anecdotes that are at times unbelievable that I too often forget... I'll start with this past Thursday.

I found myself walking around Dupont Circle wearing a green jumpsuit passing out Excedrin!! These are the things that I do to boost my income.

"Did you get your free sample of Excedrin?"

"Free Excedrin!"

These were the things that I was shouting out to people in broad daylight! I wonder if people thought that Excedrin was someone that needed to be freed. Why were homeless people the only ones that lunged at the opportunity to get some free drugs? Why don't these passerby understand that the sooner I distribute my 1000 samples, the sooner I can go home?! *sigh*

Now a proud moment... I moved to Silver Spring without anyone else's assistance. I woke up Monday morning, packed up the car and made my way to Summit Hills and it only took me six trips from the car to the apartment to move in all my things. Phenomenal, I know. This move is only for a month, so I tried to only bring necessities. My bed is inflatable, easy to pack up at the end of the month, but I'm ok with that for the moment.

I was dead tired, but I still had to try to find my route to work. So... I ended up lost in DC for a good hour or so despite the fact that I only work 5 miles from my apartment complex. The roads are all over the place and let's not forget the fact that I am not quite the most seasoned driver. I made a lot of U-turns and got a lot of honks. I seriously considered getting a taxi for work the next day. The rest of that day, I was completely out of it. I went to my friend's going away/Labor Day dinner and could hardly put together complete sentences, but somehow I got through the evening and it is only at this moment that I realize that one of my closest friends is now in the Dominican Republic until Christmas. I'm glad I got to say goodbye before all this ruckus with work started up.

Whew... now yesterday. My first day of work, not quite real work yet, but training. I wake up to find rain rain rain. Its coming down really heavy and my desire to get a taxi increases. So I get the yellowpages and start calling. Nobody is picking up. When someone finally does, I ask for a taxi and she tells me that they won't be able to get me one. Then when I call another place the guy tells me they are slammed. So I had to take my chances driving in an unfamiliar place AND in the pouring rain... AND did I tell you that I've only been really driving for a few days?!

Well, I got to work ok. Everything was fine except my training ran over so I wasn't able to make it to my part-time job. I would have gotten lost anyway, oh wait... I did get lost, but I found a CVS and bought some toilet paper because I get really nervous when it runs low. I finally found my way home at some point as well, though I had to pull into a gas station and call my mom to ask her how to get the windshield to stop fogging up. I mean... I could have assumed I had to push the button with the square and the squiggly lines, but how was I to know for sure? So, I got home and called my part-time job. Turns out they didn't really care too much that I didn't show up. And today, I realized why...