Monday, August 27, 2007

is it still August?

Having grown up in Minnesota, where school never starts before Labor Day, I find it extremely strange to be in my third week of teaching while it is still August. The plus side is that next week is a short week because of Labor Day! Curt and I will be camping at a place called Dead Horse Ranch State Park. It is near Jerome, Arizona which is supposed to be an artsy little town. Also, since we are heading north by two hours it should be significantly cooler. This weekend it got down into the high 90's, and what a difference that made. It didn't even feel hot outside.

Things are going well at work. I'm starting to get a grip on things and slowly learning the ins and outs of the school, and of teaching music to 700 kids.

Saturday I was supposed to go to a West African dance class with a coworker, Laurie. She came to pick me up with her sister Brooke and friend Randi (they all live together and work at my school). Laurie forgot to look up where the place was, so we spent our time instead at Jamba Juice and my new favorite store, Last Chance. I started rebuilding my wardrobe - very frugally!

Oh, I almost forgot. Friday night, Curt and I went to the Diamondbacks game downtown. They played the Cubs. You wouldn't believe how many Cubs fans there are in Phoenix. They definitely outnumbered the D-backs fans. The D-backs lost, too, which was unfortunate. It was fun to see the stadium though. It has a retractable roof, but it was closed because of the heat.

It's time for dinner so I'm out for now, but let me know if you're still reading!

Love,
Nik

Sunday, August 19, 2007

weekend

I am writing from my computer at home! Hooray! We just got the Internet going today.

It was a good weekend...Friday night we checked out a club called e4 in Scottsdale. It was good but not quite the club we're looking for. I think there are a lot of other places in Scottsdale but not sure if any of those are right either...we'll keep trying.

Saturday I got some planning done at this coffeehouse in the neighborhood, Willo House. It really is in a house, and there are several different rooms with art on the walls and little Mexican trinkets for sale. I will definitely be going back there.

Saturday night we went to see the movie Ratatouille, which was really cute. :) We saw Happy Feet last weekend, which was even better and I would highly reccommend it.

Today we were extremely productive. We went to Ikea and got a kitchen table, a bookshelf (for movies), two poster frames, a shoe rack and a thing to put kitchen utensils in, for $150! Part of it was paid for by a wedding gift card (thank you!). We put everything together this afternoon - our apartment is finally coming together.

Tonight there was a 'family dinner' for other teachers from Sullivan. It was pretty informal, everyone just brought some food and drinks and hung out. Curt came too and met some people which was nice.

He is currently in the living room reading through the Sunday classifieds for jobs. He had an interview with Wells Fargo last Monday but didn't hear back from them so he's going to start looking again.

I need to do some more planning so I'd best be going. I was going to take some pictures but my camera needs new batteries. Soon, I promise!

Love,
Nicole

Monday, August 13, 2007

first day

The students start today.

I have 675 kids.

Wish me luck.

Nik

Monday, August 6, 2007

school stuff

Hi Everyone!

It feels like forever since I've been online. We don't have it in our apartment yet, nor do I have a login name for my school account so I am almost completely disconnected.

I have made it through my first week of work. Last week was mainly spent listening to people speak - about teaching ELL (English Language Learners), about Special Education, how to find a substitute, pretty much anything related to teaching.

My room is in a corner of the gym and has a lot of instruments in it. I have West African drums, rhythm instruments, ten guitars, all kinds of stuff. I will be teaching all of the grades (K-8) so I will have between 25-30 classes of students per week. Any ideas for learning names? The students start next Monday.

Shirley and Justin arrived on Saturday and we unloaded the entire U-Haul that night. Thanks to everyone in Minneapolis who helped to load it up!!! We really appreciate it. Sunday we all went tubing down the Salt River, which was fun. Last night we saw the Bourne Ultimatum, which was awesome.

The weather is actually 'cool' here but it is supposed to be 110* by next weekend.

I really should get to work. I'm running out of time to get my classroom and lessons ready! The first week should be "easy" because it will just be going over procedures and things like that - with every single class.

Hope all is well with you, wherever you are.

Love,
Nicole

P.S. Shirley, Curt and Justin are in a helicopter over the Grand Canyon right now! How awesome.