Living in Nashville: Weeks SIX and SEVEN

It's official, I've passed PST and will be recommended into the classroom this Fall.
I have accepted a position at New Vision Academy as a teacher of science for 5th and 6th grade.

I'm very excited about all of the above.

It's going to be a really challenging year, but I'm ready to put the work in and fortunately I'll have a really great support system through my school, Nashville Teaching Fellows and at home. I'll be starting "Gear Up," next week, which is an additional week of training that prepares you for creating unit plans, and objectives aligned with the curriculum. It will be a lot less time-intensive which is a relief, but the beginning of the school year is creeping up very, very quickly so there is no time to waste.

Cameron and I went out with some friends last night to celebrate, we experienced our first Nashville mini bar hop. We ended up at a pretty interesting Karaoke bar, but no one was feeling up for the hour and a half wait to sing (maybe next time). Cameron and I did ask if they had "If It Means A Lot To You," so we could sing a duet, alas, they did not.

Our 4th of July was spent watching Independence Day, a variety of other television shows and napping. Despite being able to openly purchase fireworks here, we didn't. It's been very stormy all day so it wasn't prime firework watching weather, and we really wanted to do was be lazy today. So we did.

Oh, and for my birthday Cameron and I went to a place called Arrington Vineyards, not too far from us. Apparently it's owned by one of the singers in Brooks and Dunn, there's 100% free wine tasting, live music and places to picnic. Needless to say, we both enjoyed the atmosphere more than the wine but it was really fun nonetheless.

We're missing everyone quite a lot, I wish I knew when I was going to be able to make a trip to Cali, but I don't think it's likely to be in the near future. Cameron will be out there at the end of the month for a day or two, but i'm not sure how much time he'll really have to spend with people.

I've been listening to this today, missing all my loves in Carlsbad.

Hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day!

Living in Nashville: Weeks THREE, FOUR and FIVE

I know i'm super behind in updating this, but I've barely had time to breathe.

The last three weeks have been the most intense and stressful weeks of my life, but a completely irreplaceable experience. Nashville Teaching Fellows pre-service training is to learn how to be a teacher in 5 weeks. It's no joke, it's incredibly rigorous and it makes me want to sleep for 3 days straight.
Pretty much my days have been starting at 5:15am and ending at 11:00pm with little to no breaks. Our lunch break is literally our drive between teaching class and taking class, which means I might eat some chocolate chips and drinkable applesauce during the day. It's a lot of writing lesson plans, practicing teaching techniques, crying, and when all else fails- laughing at absolutely everything.

Now that we're getting close to the end our days are getting easier, thankfully.

Overall, teaching is really hard. Dealing with behaviors is exhausting, writing and preparing for lesson plans is exhausting. It's not nearly as glorious as I imagined, but it's twice as rewarding. When I get one kid to light up because he finally understands something he thought he couldn't, it's a highlight of my day. If I can get a kid who has a lot of behaviors to actually sit in his chair for an hour, it's an absolute miracle. I'm definitely taking the time to celebrate the successes, even if they're small, because some days that's all I got to feel good about.

I had one interview yesterday with a public charter school, it's a really serious academic model with about 200 students and 20 staff total. We'll see how it pans out, but i'm crossing my fingers that i'll have a job lined up by the end of the week.

Speaking of jobs, Cameron has been hired at Pollo Tropical, a mexican food restaurant here. He's doing a lot of prep work and putting meals together. He seems to like it, but he's looking forward to the possibility of being promoted to a managerial position at their new location which is opening soon. I'm really stoked for him and hope that opportunity works out.

Some other exciting things that we've done:

1. Saw our first fireflies!
    We went to a happy hour with some friends from NTF and they gave us a lesson in lighting bugs.  We both looked like children, it was a really exciting moment for us.


2. We went downtown, ate dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and then walked around the Country Music Hall of Fame, doing the tourist thing.

3. Went for a walk on a trail in Antioch. We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time outdoors so we wanted to check out some local trails.

It's really getting hot and humid here. The forecast this week is lighting storms and 90 degree weather. It is cool to get the random showers throughout the week, i'm pretty sure it's rained more here this month than in Carlsbad this who last year.

We're still finding unfamiliar bugs in and around out apartment. Cameron is pretty sure he killed a Brown Recluse spider right outside our front door, which makes it really easy to sleep at night.
I also saw my first live cockroach in a bathroom at school. It was HUGE, I had to battle it so I could get  out of the door. I also screamed and yelled at it to move.


I think it's getting to the point where i've been away long enough that the homesickness is in full swing. Cameron is keeping me sane though, he's happy here so that keeps me happy.
I do miss the Carlsbad summer feeling, Vinaka, the Del Mar Fair, Vital, familiarity, and of course all our friends and family.
Despite all the homesickness, we're both doing well. We're not packing up our bags to come home quite yet.

We miss you guys!

Living in Nashville: Week TWO

We've been quite lazy this week, finished an entire season of Face Off, Grey's Anatomy and the last half of Criminal Minds season 5, along with a few movies.

However, in spite of laziness, Cameron has applied for a couple jobs, he went by some theaters to chat with the managers. No one is hiring at the moment, but he also applied for Game Stop so we'll see how it goes.

I've been doing some cooking and made a delicious homemade margherita pizza (if i do say so myself). 

I also have orientation tomorrow! I'm feeling pretty nervous, but excited. I'll be starting my pre-service training next week so i'll have no more time for laziness, i guess i'll have to take full advantage of these last few days. :P

As far as the weather goes, it's been pretty warm every day but we have had several thunder storms over the past week.

Nothing terribly exciting to report this week, but we're both doing well. We miss you guys!

Living in Nashville: Week ONE

We have been in Nashville a week and we don't despise it, or each other...yet.

Some interesting things we've discovered in our first week:

1. You can't make U-turns at any stop light, ever.
     (we looked this one up after already having made one)

2. The carpool lane is only a carpool lane during certain hours.
     (It could be like this elsewhere and I just never noticed)

3. Public bathrooms RARELY have seat covers.
     (This makes me sad)

4. Having rocking chairs on the front porch is not just a stereotype.
     (It's a fact)

5. There are a crazy amount of pincher bugs that like to come into our apartment.
     (Cameron killed at least 5 within an hour last night)

6. These creepy things are creepy!

Click HERE to see a video of Cameron's attempt to catch it. Ultimately the battle ended by stabbing it with a lightsaber.

   

7. People smoke inside.
      (nuff said)
8. Carls Jr. is "Hardee's" and has a different menu.

9. You have to give up your out of state license to get a TN one.
     (we're officially Tennessee residents!)

10. We saw our first southern mullet.
        (pretty awesome)

We've gotten almost everything we need, a few miscellaneous things we're still getting around to but we're good on all the necessities.

I made us a menu yesterday!
  (thanks, Pinterest, for the idea)

 I managed to get myself a poorly working car yesterday, it's an Nissan Altima that likes to do magic tricks when you try to speed up too quickly (my bad). Hopefully it will get me through these first six months or  so, at least until we both have stable jobs, then i'll invest in something a little more reliable.

Finally, click HERE to see a video of our apartment as it is...Enjoy!

We miss everybody and hope ya'll are doing well!









<3

Getting To Nashville -- Day Five: Nashville, TN

We made it! We've gotten semi-settled in and are now, finally, going to bed. We'll post a video of the apartment tomorrow pending Internet connection.

We're missing everyone!

Getting To Nashville -- Day Four: Little Rock, AR

Cameron and I are spending our last night of the trip in Little Rock, AR.

The drive through Oklahoma and Arkansas was crazy beautiful, super green, trees and fields the whole way here. 

We did see this...

and had a minor freak out that it was a meteor. Nope, just plain old aircrafts. Still looked really cool though.

We drove through Carrie Underwood's home town of Checotah, and this song made much more sense. 

We made it into Arkansas...

and continued to have some really gorgeous sight-seeing.

(with the exception of all the dead armadillos)

We'll be in Nashville tomorrow!

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Oklahoma City, OK --> Little Rock, AR

342 Miles

5.5 Hours

Getting To Nashville -- Day Three: Oklahoma City, OK

Cameron and I have gotten to Oklahoma City. 

We crossed into Texas and stopped in Amarillo for some lunch, also lost another hour.

The most interesting things we saw on the drive in Texas were this...

and then about a mile down the road we saw this...

Scary!

Other than that, Texas pretty much looks like this...

Lots of fields and churches. 

We got to Oklahoma, which is the flattest place i've ever seen. Miles and miles of complete flatland. 

We did see some really pretty fields. 

Not much to report today, long day of driving, not much happened. We have one more stop in Arkansas tomorrow and then we'll finally be in Nashville. Can't wait!

---------------------------

Albuquerque, NM --> Oklahoma City, OK

541 Miles

10.5 Hours (including stops)