The End of My Vacation

This vacation was most definitely too short.

Today, I woke up early to go out to breakfast with my two of my best friends, Mina and Julie. I miss Ann Arbor so much! After that, Julie and I drove up to East Lansing to visit friends and her rabbit, Bandit. After that, we went to Panera, which is something that I have missed very much since moving to Miami. After that, we were supposed to get together with a few other people to make Christmas cookies, but I had to decline when I realized that I have not actually spent that much time with my family this weekend. Now I am home, trying to find a way to go seven months without seeing them. : (

-Aly

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you all got a chance to spend time with you family and loved ones - I know I did!

Yesterday I flew from the Fort Lauderdale airport into Detroit, and arrived at about 1:00 p. m. I couldn't believe how cold it was when I first got here! Dinner was at my house this year, and my aunt, uncle, cousin, and their three dogs had dinner with us as well. Being a vegetarian, I don't usually feast on Thanksgiving, but this year we had "tofurkey". I didn't not think I was going to like it at all, but it was actually delicious!

Today, I am spending more time with my real family, and some time also with my "family" family (my sorority sisters). It feels so good to be home.

Happy Black Friday for all of you out shopping today!

-Aly

601.5 Hrs.

I am so excited to be going home tomorrow!

Today was a really easy working day. For some reason or other, most of my classes and tutor session were canceled or shortened. In addition, it was Wednesday, so school was dismissed at 2:00, and J. A. was canceled as well.

-Aly

583.5 Hrs.

Things are still going really well here in Miami. The children were relatively well-behaved today, and it was an easy day since we only run BBL every other week, and this week was not one of those weeks. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I was actually able to wake up on time and start off my day relaxed rather than rushed, so that also helped my to have a good day. That, and also the fact that I only have to work two more days this week. ; ) One unfortunate thing, though, was that we had a team member out sick today, so we had to worry about covering all of his classes.

J. A. was great, and so was Starfish Corps. The kids are totally getting into P. T., and today we created Starfish Corps teams. My team named themselves "The Cool Kids".

-Aly

574.25 Hrs.

Miami weather is beautiful once again. I think that 80 degrees may be the average for today. Even though I am loving the sun and the warm weather, I am hoping that I see at least a little snow when I go back to Michigan this coming weekend.

Nothing much has been happening with me in the past few days. Things have been running smoothly at the school. The BBL that I planned for this week went over really well, too. The kids have also been absolutely LOVING Starfish Corps, and the lesson that I got to plan for Thursday seemed to be a big hit. On Friday, part of the day was a service day, so I spent my morning painting the outside of a building that is on its way to becoming a school. The cool part of the morning was that my commute to the service site was only five minutes! That is a huge difference from the two hour commute I normally have to take.

On Friday afternoon, we had a college fair/life after City Year fair, the result of which is that I am now seriously considering joining the Peace Corps after I graduate from college. We'll see what happens in the next couple of years, though.

Yesterday, I attended Team Leader orientation for Young Heroes. Young Heroes is the Middle School version of City Year. Last week, I applied and was accepted for a Team Leader position, so yesterday was my orientation day. Starting in January, every Saturday I will be spending my day leading a group of Middle School students in this awesome program.

-Aly

541.25 Hrs.

For some reason, I really had a short temper today and didn't really want to take anything ridiculous from anyone. It definitely didn't help my short temper that the kids were particularly crazy today. I know it seems like I say ever day that it was a crazier-than-normal day, but somehow the continue to surprise me with how wild they can be. The day seemed to go by quickly, though, which was a blessing.

Only eight more days until the break. Yay for that!

-Aly

532.25 Hrs.

As I may have alluded to before, the people I meet in Miami tend to be very odd. For example: today was a cooler day in Miami - the high temperature was at about 75 degrees. The wind, however, made it feel five to ten degrees colder. I thought that this was wonderful weather, especially for the end of November, but apparently, no one else in Miami felt that way. Most of the people I saw today were walking around in mittens, hats, and heavy winter jackets! How funny.

Today was most definitely a Monday. None of the kids I work with seemed like there were ready to settle into school for the week yet. For my first class of the day, I actually had to end up just having the kids sit silently with their heads on their desks. The rest of the day wasn't much better, other than for a couple exceptions. My second first grade group that is usually my worst group of the day did not cause my any headache today. The reason for this is that I took them out to work with each of them individually instead of trying to control all of them at once and by myself. Also, J. A. was awesome today; we ran our second Starfish session, and the kids absolutely loved it.

On the other hand, however, my team's closing circle was filled with complaints and negativity; that kind of ended my day on an unhappy note.

-Aly