And the Verdict Is...

I have been battling where to do my student teaching. The options are pretty much endless and having an endless amount of options overwhelms me a little bit. Since last spring semester, I have been trying to figure out where to go. I considered staying in the valley, I have considered leaving the state, I just didn't know what to do. Starting school was really hard because I felt like it was forcing me to make a decision and I wasn't ready to do that. After much careful consideration, I have decided where I am going to do my student teaching! From January until the end of February, I am going to student teach in Logan. I don't have my specific placement yet, but I am going to stay in the valley-this I know. From the end of February until the end of April, I am going to be doing my student teaching in...NEW ZEALAND!

During the summer, I noticed a poster advertising a study abroad program for student teaching in New Zealand. I thought about it, attended the informational meeting, thought about it some more and made a decision. The program begins 27 February and ends the 22 April. They are going to place us with families to live with and schools to teach in. We fly into Aukland and we'll spend a day there and then head off to Hamilton. With the exception of the first weekend and few excursions, I will be spending my time in Hamilton-that's on the North Island, just south of Aukland. I am very excited for this opportunity!

Home Sweet Home

Welcome to my new house! Let me show you around...

To the right side of the house and up the stairs is the entrance to my residence

If you look closely at the front door, you can see one of my favorite features of the house: an actual mail slot! We don't get to use it because the postal workers want everyone to have a mail box for safety reasons. Lame, but oh well. We love the slot!



As you enter the door, you head straight up the stairs. The doorway that leads to the hall has the awesome curtains. They block out some light, but if it is sound you're looking to block-you're outta luck. If you turn left at the top of the stairs...

...you enter the living/family room as well as the little office I created for myself. I found the desk for seven bucks at a yard sale. I felt good about the purchase.

If you turn right at the top of the stairs...



...you enter the dining room.



This is the window in the wall that I was talking about yesterday. We have had multiple people try to climb through and so far only one has been successful. You can watch the video on CoCo's blog.



Through the dining room, you enter our tiny kitchen. There's lots of storage space but hardly any counter space.



Another one of my favorite features of this house is the blinds. They roll up and down (like maps in classrooms at school). It's fun to me because I think it is such an old fashioned thing. The windows go up and down via a string and a pulley. It's pretty rockin' sweet. (Sorry about the towel, I had just gotten out of the shower)



Straight through the doorway, in the hall is the hall closet which is pretty full of stuff.



We all have a lot of stuff.



If you walk straight through the doorway at the top of the stairs, you enter the hallway. If you turn left in the hallway you enter...



...my bedroom.



The limited closet space is ridiculous. My clothes are jam packed. I tried to get rid of some clothes, but I wasn't very successful. I have to keep some clothes on my book shelf and my work clothes belong under my bed.



If you turn right down the hallway, you'll find...



...the bathroom.



My favorite feature in the bathroom is the doorknob. I think the lock is old fashioned and fancy. I love old/seemingly old things.



If you walk through the hallway and look at the ceiling, you'll see the entrance to the attic. This is where our bird friends live. We hear them peck and scratch at the door. Sometimes we hear them chirping. There have been a couple of times when I have been in the bathroom and I can hear them pecking at the fan. For a while, these noises would scare us because we couldn't figure out what was causing these noises. Then we saw a bird fly into a hole outside of our house and we put two and two together. Baker and CoCo decided to play with the attic entrance one Saturday. Check out CoCo's blog for the full story.



If you turn right down the hallway and venture to the end of the hall, you will enter...



CoCo's and Doomer's bedroom.

And that's my home. This is where I live now. We don't have our own washer or dryer. We don't have a dish washer. We don't have a canal running through our backyard. But we do have awesome green carpet and hard wood floors. We do have lots of built in shelf space. We do have plenty of room to park our cars. We do have lots of good times. Dorothy was right, there's no place like home.

I Know, I Know...

It has been a while since I last blogged. Over a month to be exact. I haven't had my own Internet connection until last Friday (we were borrowing from a kind soul who's connection wasn't password protected) but I've had access, so I can't use the excuse that I was Internetless. I am halfway through my fourth week of school and it really hasn't been all that busy, so I can't use the excuse that I've been busy with school. What it comes down to is this: I just haven't felt like blogging. So here's the latest...

My House:
I am really enjoying my new house. I miss all of the space in my house from last school year and I miss all of the "extras" (dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, etc.) from my summer house, but I'm likin' my new place, too. We have birds that reside in our attic and a little window through the wall that we have used multiple time for entertainment purposes. I'll have a more detailed blog on that one later.

Roommates:
I am living with CoCo and Doomer again and there's a new addition this year. Her name is Lindsey, but we call her Baker. She and Doomer work together at Kohl's and Baker needed a place to live. One thing led to another and BAM! we have a new roommate. It's kind of nice to have an even four instead of an odd three.

School:
I am taking twelve credits this semester (the fewest amount of credits I have taken in all of my college career) and I am really likin' the time on my hands. I don't really love any of my classes, but they're bearable and they all get me closer to graduation. This is my last semester of actual classes and studying and tests. I student teach next semester so instead of taking the tests and studying for them, I will be writing them and administering them. Awesome, eh?

Social Life (I have no love life, that's why this blurb is titled "social life"):
Hanging out. That's what we do, much to Elder Oaks' dismay. I have been to Island Park with the Mow Crew, I went to Peach Days with my roommates, I attended the Senior Kick-Off Party last week and I got my picture in the school paper. We still play football on Tuesday evenings and the Mow Crew tries to get together for dinner once a week. No progression here, much to MY dismay...

Work:
I am still working for Logan City. I put in a few hours on Monday and Friday mornings, a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, a few more hours a two or three nights a week when I lock bathrooms, and a few more hours when I open bathrooms on Saturday mornings. Still loving my job and wondering if that's what I should do with the rest of my life instead...I teach piano two days a week and I just acquired two more students today. I now have a grand total of five students and although some days are terribly frustrating, I enjoy the experience.

Spare Time:
I have been going to the driving range once a week to hit a half bucket of balls. I have actually invested in my own bag of tees so I will no longer need to be a "tee bum" and scrounge the ground in hopes of finding tees that haven't been broken by other golfers. Where did I get the clubs, you may wonder? They're the old, used ones that have been passed down from Dad, Justin, and Clark. They aren't quality clubs, but they meet the needs for my limited experience. Tomorrow I am going to attend a meeting that will hopefully schedule me to be a volunteer tutor of math and reading to some elementary students throughout the valley. I read a book here and there, do a few crossword puzzles, and chat with the roommies.

There you have it my friends; the exciting life of the Lone Loganer!