Eastward Bound: Again!

This little fish is back!
Just detailing day-to-day student life got a little dry, hence my long hiatus. Plus I pretty well eat, sleep, and breathe school. While I'm sure you all are dying to know about my most recent discoveries into the world of Paradise Lost or know what the English Club is up to this month, well, I'm betting you don't.

My return to the bloggersphere is due to a most exciting letter I received about a month ago. This spring I will be boarding the plane once again. This time, destination: Ede, Netherlands.

Over the summer I applied to the Consortium of Overseas Teaching (COST) program, offered by Kent State (Auburn is a cooperating school through their program) and after many months of nail biting, I got a placement. Let me elaborate: as an English/Language Arts Education major (a major that will henceforth be referred to only as English Ed because typing out the real name is obnoxious), my last semester of school is a teaching internship where I will be in a classroom full time, observing and teaching. Essentially a real teacher, but with a safety net. I can't even tell you how I stumbled upon Auburn's affiliation with the  COST program, but last fall, I decided to go for it. After months of editing personal statements - for the record I almost never edit or revise anything so having seventeen drafts of a piece of writing was quite the new experience for me - I submitted my application. I was able to rank my top four countries that I wanted to be placed in - Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, or Greece. More of a horizontal ranking, I didn't care where I was going just as long as I was going. Then I just sat back and waited (which looked far more like anxious pacing and barely concealed crazy while explaining to people that I, in fact, did not know what I was doing the next semester, did not have a lease for spring, and would just figure it out when I got there).
Two other COST students got their placements before me, so needless to say, my crazy eyes were at full force by the end of September until:
Standing in line, waiting for my coffee with two fellow survivors of the previous semester's History of the English Language. Briefly checking my phone, I notice a new email in my inbox. Expecting one of the usual eighty million pieces of spam (dang it freshman Caitlin, you do not need to sign up at every email list on War Eagle Day!) I open my email.
Voice shrill and eyes about to pop out of my head: "Jordan, my letter, my letter." and after a few moments, every head turned as I jumped up and down, backpack still on, shrieking "I'm going to the Netherlands, I get to leave!!!" Sorry I'm not sorry, Starbucks.

There's the condensed version. In the meantime, research has been done, placement coordinator has been contacted, paperwork has been started. I'll be teaching at Marnix College, which is a bilingual school for 6th-12th grade, from January 14th through April 4th, and my coordinator is working on finding me a host family to stay with. People have been coming out of the woodwork with helpful tips and contacts for me in Amsterdam - something that has been much appreciated.
Others have offered...less... helpful advice. For instance, my coordinator warned me that I may want to kick my coffee habit because "The coffee is very different at Marnix". Which is probably a good idea regardless, given that without caffeine I am a monster and that really does not make for a great first impression. After sharing with peers that I am working on kicking the habit over Christmas break, no less than three people have suggested that I bring a kurieg with me in my suitcase.... helpful.
I shouldn't roll my eyes, honestly one day they'll probably get stuck. :)

I'm going to try to keep this blog updated with any news and eventually will turn it into my travel blog. For now it's just paperwork and tying up loose ends here at Auburn. T-minus two months until my biggest adventure yet, finishing up school work should be a breeze, right?

C.Sher

Did you know that Pandora has comedian channels? Because they do. Thanks to a friend with excellent taste in comedy I have recently discovered the joy of strolling to class while being entertained with endless jokes. My favorite part of this process is that I am horrible at stifling laughter. Horrible. So, if there is a particularly amusing joke, I bust out laughing at a joke no one else can hear. People of Auburn, do not be alarmed at the girl laughing to herself standing at the crosswalk.

How many weeks has it been since I last wrote? Two? Three? Yikes. Let's play catch up.

I. Chicago
A most excellent adventure. Visited with the good people of DePaul University to chat grad school. (I'm not totally sure about if I want to go to grad school or not. We'll see how that goes) Saw Charlie Brown and some hatching baby chicks at the Museum of Science and Industry, visited Pawnee at the Field Museum of Natural History, and popped into Russian Tea Time for a spot of afternoon tea.
But before you get away with thinking that I am so scholarly for going to all these high class venues, there was also a very intense crash course in trash television, instructed by my cousin/weekend host, Dan. Good times all around.

II. Sherlock Holmes Reading Event
After three weeks of tearing my hair out, the English Club's reading event finally came and went. Nobody died (namely, I didn't die) so I'd call it a success.

III. Altar Your Life
This past weekend was a weekend retreat put on by my home church. I went back and was a group leader for the 11th grade girls. I've had many of these nuggets in bible studies and whatnot since they were in the eighth grade. Needless to say, lot of love but no respect. We had a grand time though catching up and hanging out with Jesus.

So there's the past few weeks in a nutshell. I'm hoping to have more writing samples to put up soon, those are more fun to do than life recaps. Fingers crossed that we'll have a good prompt in class sometime soon!

peace and blessins

C.

Has anyone noticed that I've been a little sparse on adventure stories? Because I've noticed. Whomp whomp. Never fear though, I'm headed to the Windy City this weekend for grad school visits and tourist shenanigans. In the meantime I've decided to supply you with some other bits and pieces from this old noodle.
So, I'm in this class. "Curriculum and Teaching I". I'm not really sure what goes on in this class except that the teacher just kind of meanders through our reading assignments with an unclear mental thread. Needless to say I have some flippin' sweet doodles in my notebook thus far. But, before my professor begins her hour and a half "lecture" (if you can even call it that) we do an hour of free writing. Scoreee. It's supposed to help us learn to write like teachers of writing. But I'm just going to take what I can get and be glad to have some structured time for putting words to paper; writing is my favorite.
Anyhoo, this week we read the poem "Power" about some kids who plant a dummy on some train tracks to try and get the train to stop. Long story short, the train runs over the dummy, train driver freaks out (thinking that he had just hit a kid) and everybody loses. From this we are instructed to: "write a poem that is a remembered scene when things didn't turn out as expected and the voice of the poem is one of someone who wasn't ready for what happened."
First we hear about the death of one girl's grandfather, then the loss of innocence of a girl exposed to a PCB spring break far too young, and then I whip out this number. Enjoy.

Snap. Crackle. Pop. 

Snap. Crackle. Pop. 

White foam crests over the top of my bubbling Rice Krispies. 

Ears gobble up the soft chatter as the mouth waters with anticipation 

of the sweet crunch and sugary milk. 

"Darling, come here just a minute" interrupts my cereal's song.

Eyes steal a wistful glance at my bowl. 

Food isn't allowed in the living room, 

not since the red stain on the white carpet. 

Whoops. 

I scamper into the next room. 

Charlie Brown's teacher tells me something important 

"Wah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah" 

Her voice drones on as I think of the crisp, crunchy delight 

waiting for me in the next room. 

How I long to hear the chorus whisper, 

"Snap. Crackle. Pop." into my hungry ear.

"Alright then?" broke my reverie. 

"Yes, yes, alright. Am I excused?" 

"Go on." 

The words have barely escaped her lips before I am back in the kitchen.

Leaning close, I crane my ear. 

The bowl is silent. 

Scooping a large spoonful toward my mouth 

the anticipation of that airy, crunch filling my my stomach with delight 

almost too much to contain. 

Splat. 

Soggy, mush falls flat on my tongue. 

Tears leap to my eyes. 

No snap. No crackle. No pop. 

Someday my teachers are going to stop calling me "clever" and start calling me "smart a$$", but hopefully not any time soon.