Jackson Hole

On Friday afternoon after school got out, SJ, Joe, Ruthie and I drove to Jackson, Wyoming. It took about 9 hours between the rush hour traffic we hit coming out of Denver and the out of nowhere squall we drove through in Wyoming about 3 hours into the drive. All of the sudden snow was blowing directly at us and we couldn't see anything. Ruthie was driving though, and she got us through it. We also got pulled over for speeding by a Wyoming cop who was the nicest cop I've ever encountered and let SJ get away with a warning.
We got to Jackson at 2:30 in the morning and went to Ruthie's brother's house where we slept on couches and the floor. In the morning I walked outside to a freezing but beautiful morning. The mountains out there are absolutely breath taking. We met up with Ruthie's brother and got to the mountain around 10am. It was Ruthie and my first time skiing, so Oliver (Ruthie's brother) agreed to hang out with us and teach us while Joe went out by himself for the first part of the day. We got our rentals for free (well, for a pizza and beer for the rental guys) and our lift tickets for half off, because Ollie works at the mountain and knows everyone there. I was told that this is the ski mountain of all ski mountains in the U.S. and that if I could ski this mountain I could ski anything. That didn't make me feel too confident. Once we got all outfitted, Ollie took us to the lift line. I thought we would take baby steps and do some lift-less bunny hill, but no. Skiing was a lot easier than I thought it would be though, and I made it down the trail without falling, and it was fun! Throughout the day I probably went down 8 times, and had a blast. Joe and Ollie went off to bigger and better trails, while Ruthie and I perfected the lowest trail. At the end of the day, all four of us went up to the very top of the mountain in a tram that held 100 people. My ears were popping the whole way up (about 10,000 feet in addition to the 7,000 or so we were already at). Ollie convinced Ruthie to ski back down, but I knew it wasn't a good idea for my "level" and took the tram back down. It turned out to be a good thing, because Ruthie ended up coming down in a sled after she was too slow coming down, according to the ski patrol. I was proud of her for trying though, I was way too scared.On Saturday night we went to a local hockey game where people get really drunk and roudy. The Jackson Moose beat whoever they were playing 8-3.
On Sunday we drove around Grand Teton National Park and saw the Elk Refuge, which was really cool. We also ate at Bubba's Barbecue for breakfast, which was pretty tasty. We made it back to Denver in about 9 hours again, because we hit the worst fog I have ever seen (again while Ruthie was driving), but we persevered once again. We also saw a moose on the way home, which was one of my life goals! It was awesome. I am really glad we went...it was an incredible experience. I definitely recommend Jackson to anyone.

Here is a link to some of the pictures I took while I was there:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028642&id=10300564&l=71d73

El dia de cien

So the 100th day is a pretty big deal in elementary school. I don't remember anything about a 100th day, but both my kindergarten and first grade classes had big celebrations for it. In kindergarten, the class had a contract with the teacher that if each of them could count from "uno hasta cien" (one to one hundred), the teacher would buy them pizza. Each kid came up to the front of the class to the number chart and counted all the way from one to one hundred, and sure enough, at the end of the day they got their pizza party. A lot of them brought in projects they had made at home out of 100 things. My favorite was a box a boy named Kevin made that had "mi 100 cosas recicables para un mundo mas verde" on it, which translates to "my 100 recyclable things for a greener world". It was a cardboard box with soda cans and paper and plastic forks taped to it. It was pretty cute.

a poem

So I have a lot to write about and I need to get to that, but for now I wanted to post this poem that a third grader in the school I'm working at wrote. He's not in either of my classes, but he's in one of my afterschool clubs. He's a really rambunctious crazy loud kid, and when I saw this poem he had written I was surprised because it is so tranquil and beautiful. here it is:

The Angels by Erik

When it snows,
I think the angels feathers are
falling
off
the
sky.

When the snow melts,
the feathers go back
to heaven.
The feathers of the angels,
grow back.
All the angels are happy again.

FIeld Trip

On Friday the first through fifth grades went to the stock show in Denver for a field trip. I chaperoned with my first grade class. About half of the boys in the class were dressed in their best jeans, shirts, cowboy hats, and boots for the stock show. It was really adorable. We took busses there, which was an adventure in itself. My class had to split up on two busses, which meant that I was put in charge of ten first graders. Luckily my class is pretty well behaved, so it wasn't too hard except for trying to herd them all in one direction and not get them mixed up with other classes.
Once we got in, there was an arena where they were doing horse obstacle things where the horse has to go over a series of jumps. I have no idea what that is called (clearly). After that we walked all around through different buildings and saw a lot of animals including horses, cows, llamas, el pacas, pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, etc etc. We saw sheep being sheered which was pretty interesting. We also saw llamas getting bathed and blow dried. The kids in my class loved it. I loved it as well but I was also pretty allergic to the whole event, so I was sneezing my way through all the indoor parts. There was also a petting zoo part where the kids got to walk through a hay filled section full of the above mentioned animals (minus the horses and cows).

I put a link to the pictures I took below. The ones of the kids are pretty cute : )

Today we had off of school for Martin Luther King day and went to a march in Denver (the second largest MLK day parade in the country/world). It was awesome. I will post pictures of that soon. Tomorrow it's back to school!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2028091&l=33235&id=10300564

Ding, Round 2

I haven't written in a long time...because nothing has really happened. Until now. We started our second project, which is at a Denver elementary school. The school is in the bottom four schools in the district for literacy. They failed the literacy component of their last CSAP--Colorado standardized test, and if they don't raise their scores by the next time they take them, in March, the school will most likely be shut down. Our job is to work in different classrooms with students one on one helping them with their reading and writing.
The school is 95% Latino and has kindergarten through second grade classes that are entirely taught in Spanish. Above that, most classes are taught in English with assistance in Spanish. In the morning I am in a kindergarten class and in the afternoon I am in a first grade class. Both of my classes are completely taught in Spanish and all of the students are first language Spanish speakers. The kids are ADORABLE. It's kind of fun because they are learning to read and write in Spanish and are at a level right around where I am, maybe a little lower, in learning those things. When there is reading or writing time in a class I walk around and help whoever needs help, working one on one with spelling and punctuation. At the end of the day in my first grade class there is an English lesson, where the kids usually have to practice writing in English. Yesterday the teacher told the class they were all going to write something and they just sat there. Then she said "in English" and they all groaned. It was pretty cute.
Today was a half day for the kids because there was teacher training, but we came in the first half of they day and unpacked computers for a computer lab they are setting up in the library. We set up 24 new computers. The teachers and librarian were really happy that we did it because they haven't had computers in the school yet that work. We also get to go to recess with the kids, which is fun. Today I helped kids make a snowman and played four square for a while. It was pretty fun.

I think it's going to be a good project. We are running after school programs starting January 26th, which should also be fun. I will write more when something eventful happens, which it is bound to : )

Wrapping it up in Austin

We ended our work at the JFO in Austin. I don't think any of us were sad to see that office for the last time. Our supervisors gave us the entire weekend off, Saturday AND Sunday, which was amazing. On Saturday we played another Denver team in frisbee and won. Afterwards we went to the Cathedral of Junk in Austin, which is this huge structure a guy has made in his back yard out of random junk he collects. I will put a link up to pictures once I upload them. It was pretty incredible.
On Sunday the team went to San Antonion to see what we could see there. It is a pretty interesting (and very touristy) city. We saw the Alamo and walked along the man-made river where there are a lot of shops and restaurants. Sunday night we went out to the Spider House (where we go a couple times a week) and hung out with friends, including one of my friends from high school, Amihan, who is home in Austin on her Christmas break.
On Monday we had to go into work to pack up our desks and get out processed. Our supervisors gave us Christmas goody bags and were sad to see us go. Monday afternoon a few of us went downtown to explore and eat at this delicious restaurant called the Kerby Lane Cafe. Afterwards I came back and slept for an hour or two and then our entire team went out to dinner. At the end of every project we get money to go out to dinner as a team, so we got a free and delicious meal. We did Secret Santa gifts when we got back to the hotel. I had Dani and got her a little texas cook book and a texas cookie cutter, both of which I purchased at the Alamo gift shop. Joe had me and gave me an assortment of fruits and vegetables which I think he got at Walmart. It was pretty cute. After that we went back to Spider House with some friends who came up from Galveston on their way back to Denver.
Today (Tuesday) we volunteered with Habitat for Humanity doing demolition. We spent most of the day ripping sheet rock off the walls and ceiling and tearing out insulation. We found a couple geckos that were hibernating in the walls and were pretty sleepy looking. I put one of them in my sweatshirt pocket to warm him up because I felt bad for taking away his hibernating place. Once he was warm he got pretty active and started crawling around. My friend asked to hold him so I picked him up by his tail to give him to her. Apparently geckos have the ability to detach themselves from their tails, which is what this gecko did. I had both it's moving tail and moving body stuck to my pants which totally freaked me out. It was a pretty traumatizing experience.

Tonight it's packing up and tomorrow we drive to Amarillo and then to Denver on Thursday. I can't believe this first round is actually over. We found out that our next project will be local. Only two teams from Americorps stay local. We will most likely be in either Denver or Boulder, but we could be anywhere in Colorado. I will write more when I find out what our actual project is.

surprise!

This past weekend a team from Galveston came up to visit us. One of my favorite friends in Americorps, Adrienne, is on that team, as well as a lot of other fun people. They stayed in our room Friday and Saturday nights, which made a total of about 8 people sleeping in the hotel room, which was snug. It was really amazing to see familiar faces, especially such fun ones. We took them out Friday night and on Saturday we all walked around down town and went to a cool cafe and the Austin Museum of Art. It was a really amazing surprise.
On Sunday four members of my team woke up at 7 to go volunteer in the woods for the day. The other 5 members of the team dropped out last minute, so it was a small (but mighty) part of Fire 6 that showed up to meet a man named George and help him clear trails. We spent 8 to 9 hours sawing down branches and clearing brush, which was exhausting but a refreshing change from office work. During the first hour though, I got a call from my dad saying that my great uncle Holmes died, which was unexpected by me. He was a really great guy and I can't thank him enough for providing me with my high school education which completely changed my life. Each project that we do has a final portfolio, including a dedication to someone, and my team is going to dedicate this project to my uncle.
Monday our team drove down to Galveston and saw some of the destruction affecting the people we are calling every day. It didn't feel that bad to be after having worked in New Orleans after Katrina....It seemed like a lot less houses were damaged. There were a lot of really bad looking buildings and houses though that were hit really hard. We left Austin around 7, got there at 11, then left Galveston around 4 and got back to Austin around 9. It was a long day, but it was cool to see what it was like down there as well as seeing more friends who are stationed down there.
Tuesday I had the day off and just relaxed, and then Wednesday until today I've been working. Work has pretty much been the same. We're working on getting the queue down, but the last 200 cases or so are all really difficult ones. The queue has been the same for the past week or so because we keep getting about 50 out a day, but then that same number is also coming in every day, so that is frustrating.

I am going to put links to some pictures I've taken over the past couple weeks here below.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026912&l=1537b&id=10300564

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026935&l=438df&id=10300564

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2026957&l=59354&id=10300564