Taste of Home

Before I get into my weekend, the article that was written about my roommates and I has finally been published! Here's the link to it: http://thefloridacatholic.org/iv/its_more_than_a_job?parent_cat_id=1903

Friday Sept. 16
Friday I woke up and finished my packing so we could leave for Orlando once I got back from school.  I had to sleep with one contact in because of the jalapeno incident from the night before.  I decided I should probably just go to school in my glasses so I burned my eye once again when I took the other one out.  I put my glasses on in the classroom and my students were so confused.  I told them to wait til after Mass for the story.  Mass is always my favorite part about Friday.  I wish they were able to have it more often but the priest is in Haiti sometimes so I'm not sure how often they are able to get the other priest to come over.  I read at Mass that morning which I enjoyed and miss doing at church sometimes.  After Mass, school went by pretty fast as normal.  I got through most everything that I wanted to.  My 3rd graders interviewed one another for grammar and they really enjoyed that.  One of my boys wanted to really get into the part so he started talking in an attempted British accent to me so I started talking in my fake accent back.   It definitely made me laugh just to have fun and be silly while they were still doing their activity.  Before school ended, we started making a contract between Mrs. Lopez, them, and myself.  We also talked about bullying and what to tell someone or do if you do not like how they are treating you.  It was an interesting conversation with them but we hadn't had that talk yet so I'm glad we did.  School finished and I went to start to clean the room as soon as I took the students to after-care.  Patricia and I left pretty close to 3:30 and got back to the apartment a little before 4.  The other two girls had to take care of some things and then we hit the road.  I got to Orlando around 8 and met Aunt Michelle at her hotel.  We hurried to put all my things in the room and then got on the bus to head to Universal.  We spent about 3 hours there total.  I got to go back to Harry Potter World again and got to walk through Dr. Suess World and take pictures with Cat in the Hat as well as Thing 1 and Thing 2.  After we rode a few more roller coasters, we caught the bus to head back to the hotel around 11:30.  We were both a little hungry though so we walked to a street that had a few restaurants and stopped to eat.  We finally got to bed around 1:30.

Saturday Sept. 17
Aunt Michelle had a few more sessions she wanted to go to so we had breakfast together and I went back up to the hotel room and laid around for a little bit longer before working on some lesson plans.  She got back a little after noon and we checked out of her room and waited in the lobby until her shuttle came to take her to the airport.  I gave her a big hug before she left.  It was so nice to see her and see someone from home.  It made me feel a little homesick when she left though because of all the conversations we had throughout the weekend.  Laura picked me up shortly after that and we went to watch her daughter Mackenzie cheer at a middle school football game.  It was neat to watch her squad cheer and I enjoyed watching a football game again even if it was middle school.  After sweating our way through that game, Laura, Mackenzie, and I went and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.  It was delicious, as always.  They always take dessert home so I got to order a piece of cheesecake and decided to get some tiramisu cheesecake for later.  We got back to their house and relaxed.  They put in the movie Rango and we ate our cheesecake.  It was so rich and creamy but completely delicious.  I am pretty sure I gained a few pounds off that one piece.  I fell asleep watching Rango though.  I don't think that I can stay awake during a movie anymore because I'm always falling asleep to movies at the apartment.  Laura woke me up and told me I could go to bed instead of staying on the couch.

Sunday Sept. 18
I had asked Laura on Saturday if she would take me to Mass or something to where I could go to Mass and she offered to go with me so her and Mackenize came to Mass with me this morning.  This was no easy task right away though.  We went to the first place I had written down for 8:30 Mass and discovered the address led us to a house.  Turns out that church has Mass at an elementary school so we went to the next closest church that had Mass at 9:15.  Well, that church has Polish Mass at that time.  I wasn't feeling all that confident about my faith or about Laura and Mackenzie going to a Polish Mass so we sat once again and tried to figure out where to try next.  Laura remembered that there was a very pretty shrine of Mary and church by Disney that her husband had mentioned before so we went to Mary, Queen of the Universe for Mass.  It was very pretty and I very much enjoyed Mass today.  It was the first time I really enjoyed Mass since moving here.  The priest's homily was great.  Reminding us that we lucky to have people that love us.  He also reminded me that it's not about us.  That even when we work harder than we are paid for, we shouldn't expect more in return or that someone else should get less.  We should work hard because we want to, not because we want to make more money.  It just made me think a lot about what I do at school and just teaching in general.  At the end of the day and sometimes back at the apartment when I'm still working on school things and my roommates are relaxing, I get selfish and think, I'm working outside school and we all receive the same amount.  I could have just been an assistant and told them I didn't want to teach and be doing the same things as them in the evening.  It put a lot into perspective for me.
We stopped in the gift shop at the shrine for a bit to look at crucifixes and then headed back to the house.  I started working on lesson plans and waited for Amanda to come pick me up because we were having company over tonight.  She didn't end up coming til around 3 so I was able to watch the Steelers pick up a win today.  It was a good game to watch.  I miss football oddly enough, even though ESU never won much.  Amanda and I booked it back to Miami because we were supposed to have alumni over at 5:00ish and it takes 3 hours to get back.  I did lesson plans the whole way back and knocked at least half of them out.  We got back and were able to relax finally.  We talked and had dinner with three of the alumni that live in the area and Sr. Florence, our site director.  It was nice to just relax and talk with others that have done this before.  It's very comforting to hear that all the stress will go away and that it will be rewarding at the end.  We had a nice dinner and some dessert and after much talking, they headed back to their own places.  We cleaned up and Amanda and I finished unpacking the car.  It seems like the days, or evenings at least, go faster and faster.  I'm not sure where the time is going.  I'm not really doing anything all that exciting to take up all the time.  Maybe this week I will leave the apartment for something that isn't school or grocery shopping.  Fingers crossed I also make time to work out a few times.  Goodness, my life is so exciting down here.

Well, those lesson plans won't finish themselves so I must get back to them! Time to tackle another week at school! Have a wonderful start to your week everyone!