"hot": capable of giving a sensation of heat or of burning, searing, or scalding
Merriam-Webster defined this word perfectly. And it's definitely how it felt Monday in LA, when we experienced the hottest temperature on record for the city at 113 degrees. It was completely insane being out on the playground in it. The kids kept going though, playing kickball and football. They're champs. To top off the day, the power went out a couple times during the day too.
Thanks for the warm welcome, LA!
Here's an entertaining article about the weather and the National Weather Service's thermometer that broke as a result of the temps: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-hottest-ever-20100928,0,329968.story
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Highlights of the Past Week
We just got back from a sun filled, gorgeous weekend in San Diego (Joe, you seriously need to move there so I'll have an excuse to keep going there!) to hang out with some of Dana's college friends and experience San Diego. As San Diegans would say, it was chill.
I'm using my precious internet time right now to research grad school programs (right now the School Counseling program at USD is looking pretty awesome), so I'll be writing more later, but some pictures until then:
{LA Greek Fest 2010, hosted by Tom and Rita Hanks!}
I'm using my precious internet time right now to research grad school programs (right now the School Counseling program at USD is looking pretty awesome), so I'll be writing more later, but some pictures until then:
{free tickets to the Chivas professional soccer game - 1st row!}
{awesome Mexican style cheering section}
{LA Greek Fest 2010, hosted by Tom and Rita Hanks!}
{Greek Orthodox Cathedral inside}
{outside}
{me, Greg, and Dana}
{a DMS donor donated his luxury suite at Dodgers stadium to the teachers for a game. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.}
{my date for the night}
{view from the box}
p.s.: please say some prayers for those affected by the shooting in Boyle Heights over the weekend.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Oh yah, we are close to Hollywood!
Waiting outside the Ellen Degeneres Show/VMAs taping. It was a 10ish hour trip, but totally worth it considering the guests of the show were Lady Gaga (in her meat costume!), Usher, Justin Timberlake, Justin Beiber (!!!!), Katy Perry, Jaden Smith, and the guy from the Old Spice commercial (random...).
{Colleen, Greg, me, and Dana}
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Fr. G!
{Fr. Greg Boyle}
{not to brag, but I see this amazing mural everyday on my bike ride to work... pretty inspirational}
ps- if anyone wants to come visit, I will definitely take you to Homegirl Cafe - an amazing restaurant where all the employees are former gang members or people closely intertwined with the gang culture. And, right now, all the artwork in the Cafe is the work of the DM secretary, Espie Munoz, and her partner. Sweet!
{LA JVs and Fr. G! btw, notice my highlighter pink shorts!}
{Images via: Fr. G, Homeboy mural, last one-Colleen- thanks!}
Saturday, September 11, 2010
September Already?
I finished my second full week of school! Yay!!
Backtracking though, a reflection on my first full week:
The kids are absolutely awesome. I'm struggling still with many of names, since they are 230 kids and, while I see them each twice a day at recesses, I only have each class in PE once a week.
On Thursday of last week, we had Parents Welcome Night, so all the parents and some of the students came to meet the teachers, hear about their students' classes, get tours of the school. I had a couple of parents come and talk to me after their kids excitedly dragged them over to me. The most awkward though was a monolingual Spanish-speaking mom who came over (which was really exciting considering most parents who were fluent in English avoided talking to me) and, with her 6th grade daughter translating, told me that I need to work her daughter hard in PE because she is getting too fat (her words, not mine). I felt terrible for this girl. There's enough pressure for girls to fit in in middle school without their moms telling them they are inadequate. I responded that our main focus is to help each child find a game or sport which they enjoy participating in and to make exercise fun. I hope that was the right response! I was kind of caught off guard. It was awesome to see all the parents though and see the kids in other clothes than their uniforms.
Our first all school mass was the next day, so all of the students came to school in their formal uniforms - boys in navy slacks, black shoes, white oxfords, and navy ties; girls in dark green and navy plaid skirts/jumpers, white oxfords, navy criss-cross ties, knee high socks, and black mary janes. They looked so cute, especially the boys with their hair all slicked back and combed perfectly into place. I sat with the kinder (in CA for some reason they are too cool for the whole word, so kindergarten is shortened to "kinder") students because there are 30 of them in one class(!!!) and they still are working on learning how to sit still. They were quite the wiggle worms! One of the little boys sitting next to me hadn't ever been to mass before, I don't think, because throughout the mass, he kept asking me if they were almost done. He also didn't understand what was in the bowl during Communion, so he asked me and I replied that it was bread that had become Jesus - hard to explain quietly during Church to a non-Catholic 5 year old - and he asked if he could have some because he was hungry. I said it wasn't that kind of bread and that he needed to wait until he was older. That must not have set too well with him because when I went up for Communion, he followed me. One of the other teachers pulled him back into the row (not soon enough though, because everyone else saw and was giggling, including Fr. Scott) and when I returned to my seat, he said that he had just wanted to peek in the bowl and see if there was anymore of Jesus for him. That's a quote for the books.
We then had a half day and a faculty meeting consisting of business stuff (we adopted a new discipline plan this year) and a Ignatius reflection. It was really inspiring and moving to sit in a room quietly with the rest of the staff and be led by Fr. Scott in a spiritual exercise. We listened a reading and reflection and then shared moments of our summers during which we were most at peace and during which we were most distant from the person we wanted to be. It was an amazing way to connect with the other teachers and learn about their values and the people they cherish, as well as have an opportunity to be completely vulnerable with each other. ...but hearing all kinds of stories about families and thinking about summer made me super homesick, which was the first major wave I've felt since being here. The honeymoon phase is starting to wear off a bit. I still love it here though, it's just a hard transition.
Backtracking though, a reflection on my first full week:
The kids are absolutely awesome. I'm struggling still with many of names, since they are 230 kids and, while I see them each twice a day at recesses, I only have each class in PE once a week.
On Thursday of last week, we had Parents Welcome Night, so all the parents and some of the students came to meet the teachers, hear about their students' classes, get tours of the school. I had a couple of parents come and talk to me after their kids excitedly dragged them over to me. The most awkward though was a monolingual Spanish-speaking mom who came over (which was really exciting considering most parents who were fluent in English avoided talking to me) and, with her 6th grade daughter translating, told me that I need to work her daughter hard in PE because she is getting too fat (her words, not mine). I felt terrible for this girl. There's enough pressure for girls to fit in in middle school without their moms telling them they are inadequate. I responded that our main focus is to help each child find a game or sport which they enjoy participating in and to make exercise fun. I hope that was the right response! I was kind of caught off guard. It was awesome to see all the parents though and see the kids in other clothes than their uniforms.
Our first all school mass was the next day, so all of the students came to school in their formal uniforms - boys in navy slacks, black shoes, white oxfords, and navy ties; girls in dark green and navy plaid skirts/jumpers, white oxfords, navy criss-cross ties, knee high socks, and black mary janes. They looked so cute, especially the boys with their hair all slicked back and combed perfectly into place. I sat with the kinder (in CA for some reason they are too cool for the whole word, so kindergarten is shortened to "kinder") students because there are 30 of them in one class(!!!) and they still are working on learning how to sit still. They were quite the wiggle worms! One of the little boys sitting next to me hadn't ever been to mass before, I don't think, because throughout the mass, he kept asking me if they were almost done. He also didn't understand what was in the bowl during Communion, so he asked me and I replied that it was bread that had become Jesus - hard to explain quietly during Church to a non-Catholic 5 year old - and he asked if he could have some because he was hungry. I said it wasn't that kind of bread and that he needed to wait until he was older. That must not have set too well with him because when I went up for Communion, he followed me. One of the other teachers pulled him back into the row (not soon enough though, because everyone else saw and was giggling, including Fr. Scott) and when I returned to my seat, he said that he had just wanted to peek in the bowl and see if there was anymore of Jesus for him. That's a quote for the books.
We then had a half day and a faculty meeting consisting of business stuff (we adopted a new discipline plan this year) and a Ignatius reflection. It was really inspiring and moving to sit in a room quietly with the rest of the staff and be led by Fr. Scott in a spiritual exercise. We listened a reading and reflection and then shared moments of our summers during which we were most at peace and during which we were most distant from the person we wanted to be. It was an amazing way to connect with the other teachers and learn about their values and the people they cherish, as well as have an opportunity to be completely vulnerable with each other. ...but hearing all kinds of stories about families and thinking about summer made me super homesick, which was the first major wave I've felt since being here. The honeymoon phase is starting to wear off a bit. I still love it here though, it's just a hard transition.
Friday, September 3, 2010
LA Love
In case you were wondering, there are a lot of us in LA -24 to be exact - with our house in ELA; Casa Dorothy Kazel, "DK" in South LA (5 JVs); Casa Maura Clark in Santa Monica (7 JVs); and Casa Jean Donovan, "JD" in Koreatown (7 JVs). This is all of us, hanging out at DK a couple of weekends ago. I'm in the second row, next to Emily who drove Jen and me from the airport to Orientation (she is amazing!). Next to Emily is Dana and next to her is Paula. Colleen is on the opposite side of the 2nd row in the green shorts, and Greg is in the top row, 3rd from the right. Yay for LA!!
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