SO BUSY!

I'm sorry for not keep up with this! I will be better now that I am SETTLED. I have found a routine which should help me stay focused.

Current update:

I am super sick. Fortunately I have a four day weekend due to Rosh Hashanah! It started out as just a small cold, but it has progressed into something painful. I have basically stayed in bed since Wednesday. Tonight (Friday) was my first night going out since becoming sick... all I did was go out to dinner and it completely wiped me out. I really want to feel better. MERRR.

One the plys side:

My college roommate is coming to visit! I haven't seen her since we graduated. I'm hoping that I will feel good enough to show her around Philly! It should be a good weekend.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm not dead!

City Living

I guess I've been here a full two weeks, but it feels like I've been here for months. I can't lie and say that I don't like it here... I love it here! I love that one minute I can be on the busiest street in the city and the next on a historic, cobblestone road. It's truly amazing.

I can say that I'm not homesick, but I do miss the comfort I got in Holland. At home I know where everything is, where to get the cheap food, how long/how far it would take me to get to school, and more. For my college roommates, they know that I wouldn't come back to the apartment (or dorm) until hours past midnight. I could study in the music building and then still feel safe as I walked home. I tuck my phone and keys into my back pocket and not worry about someone stealing them. Above all, I could leave my doors unlocked. Yeah... definitely not how it is here.

I know it's a good thing for me to be out of Holland and learning things on my own. This is not like moving to college-- this is like moving into a city. I've been lost a number of times and have even thought I lost the five keys to my apartment. Awesome.

The nights are loud on my street and I'm certain that my upstairs neighbors smoke pot about three times a week. It takes four keys to get into my apartment. I do have one key so I can unlock the bars on my windows from time to time.

It has been fairly rainy here. This last Tuesday I was supposed to go to a Phillies game... well, I went! It was freezing and I was tired. So I left. The game was supposed to start at seven. It didn't start until nine.

I did have my first week of student teaching. It was wonderful. I love the kids and I think we're going to have one fantastic semester. They call me Ms. A-C because Ashcroft is too hard for them to say regularly. It takes me an hour to walk to the school from my apartment. I could use public transportation, but it doesn't make sense yet. The walk is nice and once it's cooler it will be perfect.

I have a grocery store two blocks North from my apartment and a laundromat three blocks West. There is also a really cool thrift store about one block South. I got lucky incredibly lucky.

My apartment is a small little thing. It has one bedroom, a den (which turned into another bedroom), a small living room, a kitchen, and a small bathroom. It works... except for when it rains. We have a leak in our bathroom which I discovered at 6:00 A.M. when I couldn't figure out why our cute rug was sopping wet. We're hoping it doesn't rain much more because we haven't had it fixed yet.

Word that would describe the past two weeks? Exhausting (in a good way) I pretty much know my way around now. I've had a lot of information shoved into my brain-- I can't wait for the time where I don't have to think about where I'm going all the time. I can't wait to be used to the loud music early in the morning. I need a routine and I don't have it yet. Once I have a schedule I will be home. It just takes some time.

I have seen the LOVE park, the Libery Bell, and have been to Independence Hall. I am definitely not a tourist here... which feels great.

I have always wanted more than just a degree... I've wanted an education. Well, HELLO! I am totally getting it.

I have student teaching and a seminar throughout the week. I will keep posting. I know have reliable internet in my apartment.

This post was very fact-y and I will tell stories tomorrow. I just needed to get the basics down!!

I have to finish a journal and paper... so blogging is going to have to wait!!!

<3 <3 <3

The early bird gets the worm

Today started off quite early. I personally woke up at 6:00 A.M. for absolutely no reason. After tossing and turning in bed, I finally rolled over to see Faith wide awake. She reaches over to grab her phone and I think... she must be turning off her alarm, but no, she is playing SCRABBLE... at 6:30 in the morning. Holy moly. With a few words of agreement, we end up shutting off our alarms and heading down to breakfast. It was a great breakfast!

All of the interns had to be at the Philly program at 9:00 A.M. It was official-- we were going to start hunting for an apartment. We went on a long walk of the city with the program director and started checking out apartments. It was just like any other search: We found apartments in all shapes, sizes and costs. The girls I want to room with and I really want an apartment in Center City, but the closer to City Hall the more expensive. We didn't sign any leases today, but we HOPE & PRAY that tomorrow we will offically have an apartment. Who knows?!?!? I really want it to be great!

I also rode my first bus in the city today. I am now a trained SEPTA rider! YEAH! This was just before I had the largest slice of pizza in my life. It was from Lorenzo's and I highly recommend it.

Well, nothing really happened besides that. The few things we did today took a long time. We sign up for classes tomorrow. Everything is starting to fall into place and I am starting to get busy-ish.


Random fact of the day:

Faith stepped on a dead, squished bird while crossing the street.
I think this boy from the program and I have the same nose.

Let the hunting begin!!

Today was a wonderful beginning to the rest of the semester!! I woke up to a phone call from my supervisor-- she wanted to meet and show me my school! Of course, I couldn't wait and walked to the meeting place about 5 minutes early. She welcomed me to the city with a large soft pretzel and some chocolate pastry. I was told these two foods were part of the food group. I took a fifteen minute walk to the school and was able to get in. It was INCREDIBLE. I met the principal and all of the other important people to the school. I saw my classroom, the auditorium, and much more. I was excited to see that even Barack Obama came to the school last year to give a speech of academic praise. I can tell that this is going to be one great adventure.

The school is five stories high and is not air conditioned. It's super cute and looks like something that popped out of a movie. It kind of reminds me of Chilton, the school from Gilmore Girls. It is small considering the amount of students that attend, but they make it work. I was happy to hear that the parents are very involved with the student life and I should expect to be in touch with the parents throughout the semester. I cannot wait! The biggest surprise came when I was escorted up to the roof. My supervisor told me that after lunch the students get to go onto the roof for recess. I was shocked. Kids can go on the roof? I mean, Hope students always sneak around to the roof of Nykerk with the chance of getting a fine, but these kids can do it all the time. It blows my mind. I cannot wait to see a bunch of kids play basketball on the roof of their school. :)

I was also shown the teachers lounge-- this makes me feel pretty official. I am super pumped. After about an hour of looking through the school my supervisor and I left and we separated. Alas, my first time walking around the city alone. I did it! I am starting to know where I am... I think. I know the big streets and some of the little ones, but I am not quite 100% sure of everything. It's bizarre. I am so ready for the day when I can walk around without questioning every turn I make.

I met Faith and Anna, another girl I met through the program, and we headed to lunch. After a quick lunch we made the decision to find Philly Cupcake-- this awesome cupcake store that have raving reviews. This was one of the major highlights of the day. I ordered the Pink Lemonade Cupcake-- it was a lemon cupcake with pink lemonade buttercream frosting. It was delicious! This made my "come back and visit again" list.

Shortly after the cupcake store we had our first orientation meeting. It was great to meet the fellow students. We had a small presentation and then a small dinner consisting of hoagies and soda (<-- aka subs and pop to you Michiganders!) It was nice.

THEN... (this is the exciting part) I went to my first apartment open house!!! Let the apartment hunting begin! This first two apartments that I've seen could be it! I am looking at a few more tomorrow, but I will be choosing my apartment tomorrow. It's exciting.

Well, tonight has me strapped to the computer looking for cheap apartments on craigslist. I am going to find the best place to live! May the best wo/man win.


Side note:
The hotel does not have a thirteenth floor.
Philly is basically Hope College but on steroids.
William Penn was fat.

OHHH!! I am going it a Phillies game next Tuesday! Yay!

Surviving Hurricane Irene

So Faith and I ended up making it out of Washington D.C. (with about one hundred other people hoping to leave the city) before the hurricane. We were herded into the platform and just told to get on the train. Seriously, train officials never even checked our tickets. Once we boarded and the train left the station without any welcome or information about the hurricane, we started to question our location. We asked nearby passengers if they were on the same track as us. We found out everything was normal... until it started raining INSIDE the train. Poor Faith kept getting soaked! There were buckets and buckets of rain coming in from the door, but Faith kept getting dripped on from up above. We had our luggage in an overhead compartment and decided to bring everything down to stay dry with us. Our train ride took about an hour and a half-- we arrived thirty minutes early to our stop. That train was trying to race the bad weather ahead!! We got off the train and immediately looked for a cab. We were helped by a man to load our cab... he was nice! He even offered to take us out on the town! We're fairly sure he was 50 years old. He kept trying to give us his number-- I wanted to humor him and tell him that it would be fun to go out with him just as we were getting in the cab. He told us to come back... we know where he'll be!! It was so funny. Then we headed to the hotel!


Faith and I made it to our hotel (after getting lost with the cab driver) around 6:00 P.M. last night. By now, it was pouring rain and we were soaked. We get up to the front desk and ask for our keys, but we were delayed because we had to sign waivers saying we wouldn't smoke in the room... or we would be fined $200.00. We quickly gave our initials and headed up to the 14th floor of the building. It felt SO good to set our stuff down and relax for 2.5 seconds. We turn on the T.V. to check the news and see what we could learn about Irene. We found the news station and heard the mayor saying that he has put Philadelphia into a State of Emergency-- right after this our T.V. lost signal to the real world. Maybe the hurricane was a lot worse than we thought it was! (Faith and I really weren't sure what was going on.) We both decided to take showers and jump into our pajamas. We were SUPER hungry and didn't have any type of food... so we went to the sixth floor vending machines where they had a large selection of oatmeal raisin cookies and spicy chips. We needed something real to eat. We went to the front desk and asked if there were any restaurants nearby. At this, we get handed three little brochures: one for Chinese, one for gourmet pizza, and one for Pizza Palace. Chinese was out of the picture... and gourmet pizza was too expensive. We were excited for our options! We chose a 16" Stromboli, Garlic bread, and Cheesecake for dessert. Faith gets on the phone and calls Pizza Palace. We thought that with the pending hurricane nothing would be open. When she called she first asked if they were open and still delivering. The man on the other line said they were open. Faith started cracking up and the guy said, "Don't laugh." We placed our order and waited for 20 minutes.

While waiting we get a phone call from a girl saying that she and one other girl had made it to Philly! Four out of fifty students actually made it to the city!! HOLY MOLY! We HAD to meet. It was decided that we would head up immediately after eating. There is a knock at the door and our food was here! We ate it... but it wasn't very good-- except for the garlic bread. Then it was decided we needed a drink! We went to the vending machine and bought two Sierra Mists... then the machine gives us a THIRD! It was so cool. We got three sodas (I am now saying soda because pop isn't cool here) for $4. I love my life.

With that exciting event we head upstairs to meet Ame and Kritika. We spend an hour with them and decided that Hurricane Irene was fake. After our hour we came back to the room, played on the internet, and then fell asleep. Yes, we fell asleep through Hurricane Irene. We woke up to a knock at the door at 9:30 A.M. Ame and Kritika wanted to go to breakfast! We head down, grabbed some grub, came back up to the room and ate. I went back to sleep... but Faith stayed awake and read a book. It was a wonderful way to be stuck in a hotel.


We did venture out later this afternoon! We went and got our first Philly Cheese Steak. Nothing else too exciting... I am fairly certain that the craziness of the Hurricane is done for us. We really didn't feel anything. It was windy, but that's about it. Updates will probably not be a frequent because I won't be couped up in a small room with my computer.

Summary: We are safe and ready to begin! Orientation was postponed, but people are now starting to trickle into the hotel. Our roommates for the week are here! Time to mingle!!


Side Story:

Faith and I are in the elevator on our way back to our room when all of a sudden, this seven year girl with a 'tude joins us. She was cute and she looked a little nervous.

I asked her, "Are you excited for the Hurricane?"
Her response, "It already happened."
(At this point, I have no idea if this is true or not)
Faith asks, "Oh, how was it?"
Her response, "It was awful!"

Maybe this isn't that funny, but she put her hand to her forward and was so dramatic about the whole event. It was cute. Nice little cherry on top of the rest of our day.

Thanks, Hurricane Irene!

Hurricane Irene

Well, Faith and I are sitting in the Washington D.C. train station waiting for our next train. We are lucky because our train has not been cancelled due to the storm approaching the coast. There were twelve trains scheduled originally. So far... we've been doing well!

We boarded our first train yesterday around 6:00 P.M. and for about four hours we played Bananagrams and met two other music majors (who were also playing bananagrams) headed for Philly. Concerned family members and friends texted with weather updates and warnings, but we kept being told what trains were still in motion by our conductor. Their is definitely a sense of chaos right now. People are worried and are hoping to make it to their final destination without delay. Faith and I are not worried at all. We are just sitting around with our heavy bags trying to find something (anything) to do. I was a little nervous when we heard that Philly wasn't letting any mass transportation systems into the city, but mine is clear to go. We are one of the last trains to head into Philadelphia/New York for the weekend.

SO! Funny story... at the beginning of our last train ride Faith and I were trying to hook up our laptops to the internet. There were outlets next to our seats and we wanted to make good use of them. We were very disappointed when we discovered there would be no connecting to the internet while on this trip. Once we settled in the the D.C. train station we saw large signs telling us to join their wireless network. I haul out Marcell the Dell (my new computer) and try to connect... it doesn't work. Distraught, I keep trying to get on the internet. A man with a camera walks over and asks us if we are stranded because of Hurricane Irene. Right away, Faith and I noticed he was from a newspaper and he was looking for a story. We told him the truth-- our train has not been delayed and we don't expect any problems. He was slightly bummed, but decided to take our picture and interview us anyway! He says he's from the Washington Post, stuck his camera out and starts shooting. He took our names, gave us his business card, and told us to TEXT him when we get on the train; IF we get on the train. We put out a plug for Hope College and talked about our plans in Philly. It was a nice distraction-- and I am going to be in the Washington Post. YES!!! Oh, and the reason he came over was because we looked upset... he assumed it was because of the train delays, but in all actuality, it was because I couldn't update my facebook status. True story.


It has been an interesting day to say the least.

Faith says this is an accurate description of our trip thus far.
We do have a bird walking around inside with us-- he wants shelter from the storm :)

Change of plans-- our final flight was just cancelled so we have to stay in a hotel in the city. Also, orientation has officially been moved to Monday afternoon... so Faith and I are just going to see Philadelphia underwater! We are also the LAST train to leave D.C.

It's about time...

Well, I have been waiting for this week ALL summer long. It has been a productive summer full of work and play... but I am SO ready pick up my comfortable life and move the unknown.

I am leaving tomorrow at 2:00 P.M. for Chicago. Around 6:00 P.M. I will board a train to Washington D.C. where I will stay for three hours until my next train that will leave for Philadelphia. Once I am in Philly I will take another train to Exton where I will meet the Pennsylvania DeWitts!!! After a short night I will actually move into a hotel room in Philadelphia for one week. Hopefully, Hurricane Irene will play nicely as I try to make this transition... if not, I will have one heck of a story!

I am fortunate because I will not be alone during this TWENTY-TWO HOUR LONG train ride. Faith DeVries, a lovely friend, is tackling the East Coast with me. We are going to have blast. Orientation starts on Sunday and will continue for one week.

Here's just a quick starting itinerary:

8/27/11: Arrive in Philly
8/28/11: Orientation Week begins!
9/1/11: Meet with my cooperating teacher
9/6/11: Start working at the school

Well, that's about all I know. Yes, I do not have an apartment! The hunt is part of the experience-- slightly nerve racking.

I will be teaching music at the Julia Reynolds Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School (aka the Masterman School), grade 5-12.
For more information, check this out!
http://webgui.phila.k12.pa.us/schools/m/masterman

The program I am working through is the Philadelphia Center.
For more information, check this out!
http://www.tpc.edu

There you have it!! The beginning of my final semester at Hope College!!! Throughout the next few months I will post pictures and personal reflections to keep those I love updated!! Leaving will be bittersweet. I have a lot of wonderful people in my life and none of this would be happening if I didn't have their support.

I love you!

Sarah <3 <3