Germans, Phantom, Shrimp and Casio Keyboards.... only in New York!

Matt's school has an exchange program with a school in Germany (near Cologne). The American students went to visit them during the February break, and the German students are here in the US now. Among other things, such as going to classes and hanging out with students, they have been doing a lot of travel so that they could see as much as possible while they are here.

Yesterday was no exception. Matt was asked to chaperone the trip at the last minute and was luckily invited to have me come along as a "guest" chaperone as well. So we headed into the city for the day with 20 American students, 20 German students, 3 German teachers, the President (of the school) and his wife, and a partridge in a pear tree. ;)

Our first stop was Grant's Tomb. I hadn't been there in years! We weren't there long, but it was nice to see again. I wish we had been able to take the students to Riverside Church, which is right across the street. It is a beautiful place, and I've been in the belltower!! Unfortunately, people are no longer allowed in the Carillon. So sad.

Our next stop was to the USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum. Again, I was there when I was very young, but it has been completely refurbished, even leaving New York Harbor in order to do so! We were there for only about an hour, but it has whetted our appetites to return, and so we will!

After that, we went into Times Square, where the kids were allowed to wander a little bit in order to see the sights and have a quick lunch before a matinee. Teachers all ended up eating at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company on a very tight schedule. It was a fun experience-type of place, and the food was pretty good, too. We sat by the window and were able to see the goings on in times square, which is always entertaining!!

After lunch, we all met the students in front of the Majestic Theater... to catch a matinee of The Phantom Of The Opera. It's not a personal favorite, but still - I take theater experiences when I can get them. The story is a bit creepy in my book, but I suppose that it's a "classic Broadway experience" for German students.

Once the show was over, we headed down to Chinatown for some quick shopping, then walked over to Little Italy (which is right around the corner, for those of you not as familiar with NYC) to eat in a place called Puglia Restaurant on Hester Street. It was amazingly crowded with other large groups but we feasted and sang along with Jorge, the resident musician. He is such a lounge lizard with a dinky Casio Keyboard... but it's all in good fun! Matt, Jens (one of the German teachers) and the school's president all got up on chairs and danced!

This is not our group, but it's a hint of what he gets people to do with his "Napkin Song" (which you can get on iTunes if you're interested!!)

Once our meal was finished, we all headed back to the bus and home again. It was a very full day, and I was appreciative of the opportunity to tag along. It was fun to play tourist for the day!

Matt's class pet

Meet Horacio. He's a bearded dragon that Matt has "adopted" as his classroom pet. To be honest, I didn't think I'd like him very much, but as a girl in one of Matt's classes mentioned, "He's cuddly!" He likes warm things and will snuggle into your hand when you hold him, and is very alert. I just hope he doesn't get big and ugly like the bearded dragon I saw at the Travel Show a few weeks ago (oh - need to post about that sometime... tres fun!) He is only 21 cm right now but will probably grow to be about 24 inches or so when he's full grown. Yikes! But at least he seems friendly and very laid back... good things for a classroom pet! :)

Why is he named Horacio? Well, two reasons... Matt chose this because of both Hamlet and CSI: Miami. Horacio in CSI was named after Horacio in Hamlet, who was the first CSI! (See if you can't figure it out!) Since Matt teaches Forensic Science, he thought it was a good choice. Let's just hope that Horacio doesn't turn out to be a girl!! :) (It's to hard to tell just yet!)

I heart flip-flips and I've got skills.

Two conversations from the past two days. They both made me laugh.



In the car the other night...

Me: I'm a goody two-shoes.
Matt: Oh, you have more than two shoes!
Me: Yeah, I have more than two... and an army of flip-flops.
Matt: You do have lots of flip-flops.
Me: I heart flip-flops!



Today, a conversation with a second grader at lunchtime...

Girl: You were playing the piano this morning.
Me: Yes, I was.
Girl: You play really good... cause you got skills.
Me: Thank you.
Girl: And you didn't choose the piano... the piano chose you.

Just in Case You Need To Know....

A work colleague of mine told me a story today that needed to be shared. Some of her students wanted to know about her personal life - is she married, etc. She said no, she was not married, and no, was not getting married in May (supposedly this was "what they'd heard."). When they found out that she was currently single, they wanted to set her up with the gym teacher... also single. (And buff, according to the 5th grade girls).

One boy decided to tell her "HOW TO GET A GUY TO MARRY YOU."
I thought that this was information that is necessary to share with all of the single girls out there.

Here it is:

A choco taco and four dollars. (as a tip.)Obviously, getting a guy to marry you does NOT involve love. And why is he being given a $4 tip?

ROCK ON, little friend!

The other week, I bought myself a pair of earrings in one of those teeny-bopper accessory stores. They made me laugh and seemed like something I could totally get away with wearing at work.

Today was the first day I wore them, and oh... they were a huge hit! But the best part was when a third grader came up to me and said, "Those are Les Paul guitar earrings!"

Oh, obviously devoted Guitar Hero player, yes they are! Little does he know that my Guitar Hero band's lead singer plays a sunburst. These earrings don't look quite like that one, though - they are pink and sparkly. ;) This new Les Paul Goddess model is pretty cool, I must say. If I ever learn to play the guitar well, then maybe I can someday rock out with something like this!

Do you know where I put my.......?

I've been losing work things lately. People tell me this is a sign of stress. (no, really?)
I lost a CD at school. I lost another CD at another school. I lost a teaching mag/CD that I bought with my own money.

And so, I stress about it. I looked into how much it would cost to get a replacement magazine... $30 plus shipping, which isn't as bad as I thought. The one CD I lost can't be replaced without a big big hassle... so I will have to burn a new copy of it if I can't find it. The other CD costs about $45, I think. (It's an accompaniment CD and those are tres expensive.) All in all, stressworthy, I think. I could potentially be out $75+ out of pocket and miss out on things that I could do with the stuff while I don't have it.

I've actually had a full night of anxiety dreams about the magazine, and last night I found myself dreaming about one of the CDs and potential places it could be. So I dug through a pile of stuff at school and found a CD... not the one I was looking for, but another I didn't need right now. But what was underneath it? The CD I lost. Relief! I don't need to spend $45!

So then I had a doctor's appointment today and had a few minutes in the waiting room... so I looked through her magazines. There was my magazine!! (I thought I left it there last week, but when I called them and asked them to look, they said it wasn't around.) Yay! I was worried someone walked off with it if they realized what it was. But it was happily sitting in a pile, intact.
So happy I don't have to replace what is already mine!

Now if I can just find the un-replaceable CD I'll be golden - in terms of work, anyway.
...until I lose something else.
It's the curse of the moving-around type of job. Things have a way of vanishing.


... too much stuff to try to keep together. Both at work and school. Most of the time I am just hanging on by my fingernails! Ahh!

Yes or No?

Things like this are the sunshine on a grumbly day, telling you that your job has its moments of brilliance.

Backstory: If a student misses chorus, I send them a little note. Students and parents know that if the kid is unexcused for three rehearsals they will not remain in chorus. I stress the importance of notes from home. One girl wasn't able to go to chorus yesterday. She came to me and told me, and I reminded her to bring me a note today. She remembered to bring it to me today. I decided to post it here, as it was written, with names changed to protect the innocent. ;)


March 18, 2008 Note For Miss President

Dear Miss President,

I'm sorry that I miss chorus on March 18, 2008 because my cousin wanted to go home, and my mom was outside. And my mom want me to go home too!

I hope you don't take Petunia out of chorus?

yes OR no

Sorry,

Petunia Smith
(Mom's signature below)

Blech.

1. I love air conditioning.
2. I hate humidity.
3. Working at a job with no air conditioning completely bites.


One bright spot in a soggy day:
I have had a lot of students noticing that I have a new haircut... but one girl today took the cake. She told me I looked like a rockstar.


... I desperately needed that today.

AHHHHHH

I am buried under mountains of to-do lists and my head is fuzzy from all of the faces and places and paperwork and whatnot - some of which I still have yet to experience! You might not hear from me for a while... so much to do and the remnants of a summer mindset to internally argue with. Ah, September rears her ugly head.

Don't get me wrong, my job is good once everything settles down. It's just the chaos until then that makes me a little batty!

Weekend Work and a POTD

It is so hard to be doing work on such a lovely day. But I need to be good. I have a long weekend (Oh, joy of joys!) and I will be heading down to the shore later today for some Memorial Day Rambustification. That makes for some great motivation, leaving right now to be a time to be productive so that I don't have to stress about it later. Even though school stops for a couple of days, lesson plans still need to be in place to show my principal on Tuesday.

But even though I am sitting outside enjoying the warm air and gentile breeze, it's still work! Blah.  Must....... keep......... going........  must............... stop............ procrastinating............!!!

But something to make you smile... a POTD! I found this quote in Penn Station the last time I went into the city. Enjoy and have a wonderful weekend! :)

Meh.

You know that something is wrong with your head when a seven-year-old tells you:

"Your hair looks frizzy!"

...and you actually think about it.

Lunchless days, free books and gambling

This past weekend I went to the NJEA convention in Atlantic City. I've never gone before, so I decided this was the year to initiate myself. What an overwhelming experience!

Got to the convention on Thursday morning after too few hours of sleep. Went to three workshops that day, which meant that I was not going to have time for lunch. Bah. Luckily, I had a "special helper" who was kind enough to bring me food, considering the union doesn't like the convention food vendors and therefore there was no food at the convention - nor time to get some, with only a half-hour between sessions and a handful of places within walking distance.
After the sessions were over that day, some downtime was needed (so many people, so much noise, so much confusion!) and then food. Dinner was finally acquired at Johnny Rockets (yay for vanilla cokes and apple pie!) and we visited a few casinos - the Sands was about to close that weekend, so we stopped in for a look. I then blew a whopping $10 on the penny and nickel slots (woo hoo - big spender!) and then went to bed.
Friday I ended up doing only two sessions - at that point, I'd had enough of sitting for two hour segments! It was a good thing I did that, though- when back in the exhibits again, I visited the booth of the people who publish the textbooks I use. The guy started up a conversation, and then, since the exhibit floor was soon getting ready to close, he gave me five teacher edition textbooks for my series! Now I have almost a complete set of them to keep at home! :) Yay!
Saturday we went to Point Pleasant and played skeeball and arcade games before heading home. It was a good weekend, but hectic and tiring and involving a lot of stuff. But I am glad I went, saw, and conquered. And experienced.

Next time I go, I know I really need to plan ahead. I ended up only being able to acquire a room at a chain hotel that is normally fine for just sleeping, but in this case was not quite so nice. I know now to plan enough in advance and stay at one of the many casino hotels, aiming for the ones closest to the convention center. I know it means more planning and more money, but it will be worth it. Atlantic City, on the whole, is not the greatest place to be, so it is best to be in an environment where there are lots of lights and security people. Also, I will know that it might be a good idea to have dinner reservations made in advance if you want to eat anywhere nice, and also know the phone numbers of local take-out places in terms of getting lunch at the convention. I wonder if places would deliver if you asked them to? Hmmm....