Day 220: Thoughts and Random Pictures

Today's reflection revolves around a quotation I just found.  "I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world." — Mary Anne Radmacher

I am in love with the message in these words.  It is an interesting thing because as I read it I feel I know exactly what it means (at least to me), but to try to describe the meaning seems more challenging.  It is as though my mind has a greater vocabulary than the English I can share here in the blog.  I suppose it is similar to some languages trying to translate into other languages; there just aren't words for everything.  If I were to do a two minute free write on this quote, it would look like this:


moon is the same on both sides of the world, but perspective is different, grass greener on other side, change, eyes truly open, moving scenes, place=time, surroundings, environment, moments in Venice, notice life in new ways, observant in free thought of travel, distractors removed when you are removed from that setting, absorb, reflect, take in life, apply

Today's pictures really don't relate to these thoughts, but they do relate to the fun I had today.  Today was pool day, the final one of the year.  After soaking up some sun, Crystal and I enjoyed some more wine and the movie: P.S. I Love You.  We were being silly and took some pictures.  The first shows a picture Crystal brought (after a year) of me with one of my favorite cover band members.  The second shows our sunny faces.  The final shows me trying to hide my Rudolf nose.  

Day 219: The Power of Pesto

Another productive day for me.  I planned out the first week of school with a friend which has really helped me see what we are going to do.  We were so productive that I forgot to eat lunch.  As you can imagine, I was quite hungry when I got home, so I decided it was pesto time.  I had such amazing pesto in the Cinque Terre and I have wanted to try to make it again ever since.  I think the key is pine nuts.  When I made it before, I used either cashews or walnuts and it is just not the same.  Let's just say that this recipe was delicious.  Just the right balance of basil, garlic, and parmesan.  I have leftovers for about 7 meals which is going to come in handy.

Part of me is kind of glad that school will be starting up soon.  I am in need of some human interactions.  I have been hanging with friends lately, but I need to meet some new people and get some insights from some other minds.  I don't think I used to value people this much.  I suppose it all depends on who you surround yourself with.

Day 218: Neglect

I would like to apologize for my lack of effort and reflection with my blog the past couple of weeks.  I have been writing very minimally and taking pictures the very last minute.  I think the reason for this is lack of time and feeling more of a priority with catching up from my trip.  So now that I am aware of my neglect, I am going to start fixing it.  I have really enjoyed tracking my life each day and I need to remember the original purpose.  It is time to hone back in on those moments that make my day and not just a filler to say I took a picture each day.  Here we go.

I felt pretty lazy today.  I slept till 9:30 which is not like me at all.  I've been sleeping later and I need to just snap out of it.  The weather has turned for the better, so I knew I needed to get outside.  I decided to head into the city and see what it had to offer.  I thought about going to a festival in Edgewater, then I thought about going to Old Town.  I did neither and ended up in Lincoln Park.  I found a free parking spot (at least I think it was) and went walking.  I circled some blocks after realizing I didn't pay attention to where I parked.  Then I noticed that I was close to Lincoln Park Zoo and took advantage of some free entertainment.  I have never been before and it was quite a treat.

The primates are my favorite, especially the gorillas.  They are just so humanistic, or maybe we are more primatistic (made up my own word there).  I think you can read so much into their emotions and I feel like I can relate.  I have mixed feelings about zoos.  They can do good and can help educate people, but it is sad to see these poor creatures in captivity.  They probably have longer lives in this safe environment, but what kind of life would it be?  But I go anyway.

I rode around the city a bit after lunch.  Lollapalooza was going on so the city was buzzing.  It is nice to have the city close by, but it sure isn't a Paris or Venice.  I wonder which city in the US has the nicest people.  I bet that it isn't Chicago.  I will smile at someone if I make eye contact and I find that I rarely get smiled back at in the city.  Chicago can be a scary place.  I remember hearing on the news that Chicago is deadlier than Afghanistan.  They said that the number of Chicagoans murdered is two and a half times the amount of U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan since 2001.  

On our trip we discussed how violent crime is just unheard of in Europe.  I wish that was the case here.  I was reading a section on women traveling independently and it talks about how here we worry about assault whereas in Europe you most just have to worry about unwanted advances and theft.  Not feeling safe is one of the scariest sensations because you have little control.

Enjoy the pictures!

Day 217: Making Plans

 I spent a good portion of the day pondering about my next trip.  I plan on going back to Europe next summer and I want to stay for a minimum of a month.  So far the plan is to fly into Prague and stay there for a couple of days, then pick up the Rick Steves My Way Tour of Italy and then pick up the Rick Steves My Way Tour of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.  The My Way tours are less expensive and offer more freedom.  The only concern I have about these tours is not being able to bond with the other group members as much since we are more independent.  I'm sure I would still build some relationships though.  The other day I went to the bank to switch my Swiss Francs into dollars, but I did not have the minimum balance.  I take this to mean that I should hold onto them because I will be paragliding in the alps soon.  On these tours I would see some similar sights, but they are all places I want to go back to and there is enough new sites that I think it would work out just fine.  So that is the tentative plan.  We will see what happens.

I spent the rest of my day enjoying the rain and captain and diet.  I had to take a picture of our receipts.  Who drank all of that captain? 

Day 216: Classroom Update

So I went into my classroom again today to work.  I met with Kelli to do some planning for the first two days.  Things are really coming along.  I am so happy that I feel so welcomed and the energy is really positive in this school.  People have been stopping down at my room to say hi and compliment my curtains (which I will probably have to take down).  I think I am one big fire hazard.  It is so nice to feel comfortable in this new environment.  It is one less thing to worry about when it comes to teaching.  I came across a quotation the other day that I really liked.  It said that "Worry is a misuse of the imagination." (Dan Zadra)  How true.  I need to stop misusing it so much.

Later in the evening I joined up with Ashley for some drinks with her past principal's celebration of earning his doctorate.  Incidentally, I know him from an interview with another district in which I didn't get the position.  It wasn't awkward, which is nice.  Later we went to downtown Naperville to enjoy the evening outdoors.  




In today's pictures you see Gina which has been with me since the beginning of teaching.  I think you can tell by looking at her that we have had our good and bad days.  She now knows to wear safety goggles in the science classroom after her tragic eye loss.  The second shows a bulletin board that is going to be awesome.  I won't give away the details now, but be prepared to be amazed.  The third is something I'm really excited about.  I am going to attach strings and pins to the places that I have been to and they are going to come out from the map to show pictures.  All of my students will be able to bring in pictures so we can show what we have seen. 

Day 215: The Good and the Bad

I went into my classroom today and worked on setting up some more.  The ideas are really starting to flow now.  I just have to print off about a million things and I'll be ready to put up some more.


That was the good, unfortunately there is bad too.  I was on my laptop earlier when I seemed to have downloaded a virus.  There is this software that says it is antivirus, but I am pretty sure it is a phony.  It is blocking me from doing anything.  Now I have to take it in :(.  I have some files I don't want to lose, but mostly I don't want to spend money on repairing it or buying a new laptop.  Hopefully they can fix it.  It is kind of sad how dependent we are on our technology.  We save so many memories and important files.  We access our lives on the internet.  As soon as this happened today, I tore apart my apartment to find my hard drive so I could back up my photos on my desktop.  If I ever lost my photos, I may not recover.  It would be like losing a family member.  On a side note, did you ever notice that the word apart is in apartment?  I just did.  I guess that explains a lot.

Day 214: Home Away From Home

My classroom is starting to look more homey.  I've got curtains and color.  Now that the bones are in place, it is time to add the meat.  I'm thinking these kiddos are going to have a pretty sweet teacher this year.  Bring on the learning.