I'm bad at keeping a blog.

Ok, it's been a really really really long time since I have posted.  But I've been busy!!!  The fall quarter started almost 4 weeks ago, and since then, I've had 4 hours of school and 3 hours of class each day, plus reading and writing assignments.  But now I have 30 minutes to kill until class starts and I don't have any other homework in my bag that I can start.  So here goes...catching you up on nearly 2 months of my life.  Probably just gonna make a bulleted list of both the semi-serious and completely random things I keep thinking that I should write about... (sorry about that preposition.)

• I saw a "Duck Crossing" sign when I drove past a pond the other day.  I'd never seen one, but it was pretty cute.  It just had a picture of a mama duck and a duckling.
• It's a very interesting experience to have almost every aspect of your life hanging out under one umbrella, as it were.  I felt like I was constantly busy in undergrad, and I'm constantly busy now, but the two situations create busyness in different ways.  In undergrad, I had decent-sized loads of largely unrelated courses, Dance Marathon responsibilities, AGD responsibilities, friends from lots of different circles...you get the picture.  While the disconnect made that overwhelming, it was nice to spread out my energy in different ways.  Now, all the things that keep me busy are almost completely overlapping.  Part-time internship (basically), class, friends, love life (for anyone who I haven't talked to in awhile, I am happy to elaborate upon in private if you'd like to know more... :-D )...it's all connected through my program.  It helps me to focus and really internalize the things I'm learning, but it can also make it hard to escape when I get overwhelmed.
• I got a road bike.  It's red and shiny and lightweight and fast.  And there are lots of pretty places to bike around here.  It's kinda fascinating how you don't have to go far from this highly residential community before you're basically out in the country.  I took some pictures but I haven't put them on my computer yet.  Apparently a lot of people ride horses around here. 
• On a related note, an 8- or 9-foot long eucalyptus branch came within inches of falling on my head while I was biking last Saturday.  It just broke off for no apparent reason.  It was scary.  It landed across the middle of the road, and then the cars didn't know what to do, so I ended up dragging it off the road.
• I went to Muir Woods and saw Dawes last Friday.  Nothing fills me with joy more than being in nature and listening to epic live music.  I'm not even sure that I have words to explain how I feel when I watch Taylor Goldsmith (the lead singer/guitarist of Dawes) pour himself 150% into making music.

Class starts in 5 minutes.  This is all I can write at the moment.

Occupational hazards

Paper cuts.  Oh man.  I really should be more careful when making copies...which I do several times a day...because I started my student teaching placement last week!!

(I don't have many occupational hazards, and nothing else in this post has anything to do with them.)

I am now assisting with teaching a 9th grade biology class!  It is delightful.  My cooperating teacher (CT) is very insightful and easy to work with, and I'm having fun getting to know the kids.  I get excited when I arrive at school in the morning and see all the exciting things happening around the campus (which, by the way, looks like a botanical garden...Midwestern friends, did you know that high schools in California have lots of outdoor hallways/courtyards?)  Last Friday, the school's student improv troupe was performing during lunch to encourage students to join.  The school is also putting on a good musical this fall and starting a show choir.  I know that some of my students are in band, and I really hope I'll have the opportunity to hear them play!

So far, we've been teaching an introductory unit to biology/science.  On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, we're taking the students on a nature walk!  We're also going to be looking at some water samples under the microscope on Friday...hopefully they are full of protists.  I.  LOVE.  BIOLOGY.

Speaking of which...Today, Hank Green (who is one-half of the brotherly duo whose video blogs I follow) posted this lovely, quirky video about butterflies:

Which also reminds me that I got a new issue of Mental_Floss in the mail today.  There's an amusing article in it about what various historical artists and thinkers did to get inspired or motivated.  Apparently when Greek orator Demosthenes felt distracted, he would shave off half his hair...that way, he felt like he looked too ridiculous to leave the house and would then stay inside working for weeks.  Regardless of whether this anecdote is true, I find it hilarious.

I realize that this post was somewhat rambling.  Such are the inner workings of my mind.  That is all for now...I now have a strict teacher bedtime to which I must adhere.

A pink convertible and an old film

I've been thinking that I should have a "You know you live in California when..." feature on this blog.

In this edition: You know you live in California when you see a pink convertible driving around campus with the top down.

Since my last post, I have spent my time enjoying my mornings, taking a class that requires minimal work, and socializing.  I did have to go to the orthopedic surgeon last week for a check up, which ultimately left me feeling blessed that I am not more damaged.  There were some people there with some pretty grisly wounds, as well as a lady who, while we were waiting to get x-rays, decided to share her entire life story of all the tragedies that have befallen her skeleton (most recently, she broke 6 ribs when a suitcase fell out of an overhead bin and onto her.)  I could not feel more fortunate.  I do hope her ribs heal okay...it sounded like she was pretty bummed about not being able to do Pilates anymore.

This weekend has been filled with fantastic shenanigans, among which were Thursday night bowling, watching Planet Earth with nerdy friends, attending a friend's choir concert, eating ice cream at an adorable diner, and seeing an old film in the theater.  I am choosing to focus on the latter, as it was a cinematic experience that almost rivals midnight Harry Potter in epicness.  There is a movie theater in downtown Palo Alto that only shows old movies, and I went with a friend to watch the Audrey Hepburn film Sabrina there earlier this evening.  We had both seen the movie before, but we discovered that the experience of watching old movies is immensely improved by sitting in a theater full of guffawing old people.  Everything that I had previously found chucklesome in that movie suddenly seemed hilarious.  And, when the movie ends, the curtain falls, people applaud, and an old-fashioned organ rises from the floor with an adorable little man playing happy music!!  That is icing on the cake, my friends.  Can't wait until they show Bringing Up Baby in September...

Time for a break! (Sorta.)

First of all, before I say anything else: not having class on Friday afternoon is AMAZING.
 
Today was the last day of our summer school placement!  It's crazy to think that it's already been 6 weeks since I started at Stanford (I can't believe it's almost August).  It's also crazy how much I'm going to miss the kiddos I've been teaching for the past 5 weeks.  They made presentations on climate change for their final project, and I was so proud of the amazing things they created!  For instance, I spent a lot of time helping two boys with their poster -- even though we were a little worried about how much they would (or wouldn't) accomplish, since they are friends, they worked extremely hard and made a great poster.  I'm really enjoyed getting to know these kids over the summer, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had working with middle school students. 

Now, we have a semi-break.  There's a new class starting next week, but I have my mornings free until my actual year-long placement starts in mid- to late-August.  Next Wednesday, I will find out the high school teacher with whom I'll be placed, and then I'll know when exactly I start.  So, for the next week, I don't have to worry about waking up at 6 a.m...sleeping-in shall be glorious!!

So, since I wrote my last post, I have thought about a couple of other things I ought to mention.  I've been going to the gym and biking every other day for the benefit of my broken leg (doctor's orders).  It has been fantastic to start exercising again, though I wish I had a real bike and could go on rides outside in the lovely California weather.  Oh well...I'll be getting one in the next couple months (as an aside, I am super-jealous of people who are riding RAGBRAI right now).  My leg is healing pretty well.  It's kind of swollen and slightly achy still, and I have some pretty sweet scars, but walking isn't giving me too much trouble.  One of my free mornings next week will be spent getting new x-rays and having a new doctor check it out.  Whoo hoo. 

Also, something about the Stanford campus makes people dumb about 4-way stops (which are numerous).  There are so many clueless bikers and bad drivers on this campus...slightly terrifying.

I've recently developed a thing for the Mumford & Sons song "The Cave".  So much banjo-y goodness.  If you are not familiar with this song, I highly recommend checking it out!! (It's attached below.  You have no excuse.)

Cape trending.

Harry Potter was SO GOOD.  Three-and-a-half hours of sleep?  Manageable, but only with a gratuitous quantity of coffee.  Now I have a homework assignment due at noon tomorrow and I am sluggishly working on it alone in my apartment...blaaaahhhh.  I guess that's not entirely accurate as long as I'm writing this post.  Anyway, I'm hoping to finish it early enough tonight that I can watch a relaxing movie or sleep or something. 

But let's ignore homework for right now and talk about more important things.  Like how AWESOME capes are.  I should provide you with a little bit of context.  One of the girls in my program was planning to attend the midnight movie with me and agreed to dress in costume, but she wasn't sure what to wear.  While we were hanging out with a couple of other girls at a barbeque last night (one of the enjoyable things about my apartment complex is the Thursday night barbeques), one of them mentioned that she owns a velvet Renaissance Fair cape.  Naturally, this became part of my friend's costume. 

When you have an hour and a half to kill in the movie theater, the conversation wanders to random and pointless subjects.  Like capes.  And how they should totally be in style.  No article of clothing can provide such efficient warmth and make a person feel so powerful.  If you argue that capes are dorky and that cape-wearing should be limited to the realm of costumes, I counter your argument with the following:

If it was good enough for Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn, it's good enough for anybody.  Besides, how awesome is this?

If I could dress like that everyday, I would feel so much more prepared to face the world.  It needs to become a thing.  That being said, if you are willing to contribute to this fashion movement (which my friend termed "cape trending" in a moment of 3 a.m. loopiness), please avoid wearing capes in moronic ways.

I (sort-of) apologize for that image.  I couldn't resist...I just love Monty Python's Flying Circus so much and this sketch is one of my favorites.  Disclaimer: I do not recommend this unless you are generally amused by things that are slightly crude and make absolutely no sense.

Singin' our song, all day long...

At HOOOOOOGWARTS!

(If you've never seen "The Mysterious Ticking Noise", your life is incomplete and you must watch this before continuing to read:)

As I'm sure you all know, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 will hit theaters first thing Friday morning, i.e. I have some very important plans tomorrow night.  I'm going to be busy tomorrow, so I figured I should post this now.  Unlike my friend Katy who is far better at costumes than me and found a giant lion head thing in her attic that (I hope) she is working on converting into Luna Lovegood's infamous hat, I will be donning my Professor McGonagall costume once again.  Before I started at Stanford, I was a little concerned that no one else would be dorky enough to join me in this endeavor, which was extremely silly of me.  We've got a decent-sized group going to a midnight-ish showing, and at least one other girl will be dressing up.  I'm pretty jazzed about it.  The only thing that bums me out is that all my Midwestern friends will be done watching the movie right about the time that I start...so you should all just keep your thoughts in the Central Time Zone until the sun rises on Friday.  K Thanks!

As I mentioned in my last post, I started a new class on Monday.  It's called Literacies, and my work in this class primarily involves facilitating discussions on a reading with a small group of middle school students (we are currently observing and assisting in summer school courses at a middle school).  I have to write up what I've observed/learned so far about the students in my group, and we talked today about how it's important to write as many quotations and direct observations about their behavior as possible.  No unsubstantiated hypotheses allowed -- if you're making guesses about them by reading too far into their behavior and don't have anything to support your thoughts, you shouldn't write it down.  All I could think about was how well Alpha Gamma Delta prepared me to complete this task, and that's all I'm going to say about it.

Finally, here are some other thoughts I had about California that slipped my mind in my last post:

- Californians frequently refer to highways with the word "the."  As in, "You need to take the 101 to get to Sunnyvale."  I don't understand it.
- Stanford has a lot of eucalyptus trees and they smell reeeeally good.  Sometimes, the eucalyptus trees are my sole motivation for driving around with my windows down.
- Stanford also has lots Red-Tailed Hawks, Spotted Towhees (that's right, I brought my bird field guide out here), and Western Scrub-Jays.
- Squirrels come in every color out here.  Black squirrels kind of freak me out and I'm not sure why.  I think I remember learning something about the genetics of squirrel fur color once upon a time, but I don't remember what was interesting about it.  Is it an incomplete dominance thing?  Do any of my biology nerd friends know?  I don't feel like Googling it right now and I'll probably forget to do it later.

And here are the trees that surround my apartment complex.  I'm fairly certain that these are the same trees that grew all over the place in Valencia.  If anyone can tell me what they're called, you get major brownie points with me.  It's something else I've been meaning to Google, but I probably won't get around to it either.  Note the complete lack of clouds in the sky.  It looks like that almost every single day.

Oh man, I have a blog now.

I've been thinking for awhile about starting a blog.  Since I don't have any homework tonight (I'm starting a new class tomorrow), this seemed as good a time as any.  So here it is!

First of all, it was kind of hard for me to name my blog.  I named it "In My Life" because
A) I am a die-hard Beatles fan and
B) I have a postcard above my desk from a John Lennon art exhibit I went to in Wayzata, MN that says "In My Life" in very large, very bold, very green letters.  I was too tired to put more thought into it.

However, the URL tag "inmylife" was taken, so I chose the words "Learn how to be you in time" for the URL.  These are words from the Beatles song "All You Need Is Love"...I find the words fitting, as I have recently begun my new adventure as a graduate student in education at Stanford University, and I'm realizing how intense it is to discover the "teacher version" of myself. 

Studying education causes me to rethink my life everyday; I'm having to think harder than I ever have before about how I learned things, how I explain things, and how the way I learned things isn't necessarily the way I should teach them.  It's going to be an incredible growth process, and I invite you to follow along for the next 12 months while I learn to be a science teacher!

That's enough of that for the time being.  Recap.  I'm at Stanford.  For any of my friends in the Midwest who don't know exactly where Stanford is, it's kind of near San Francisco.  Yes, I drove here from Minnesota.  No, it was not an especially interesting drive. So far, I have learned that while California does not have lightning bugs (isn't that CRAZY??), this area does have:

1. Lots of hills and ridiculous winding roads to go with them.
2. More than enough Trader Joe's locations.
3. Relentlessly glorious weather.
4. Schools where the "hallways" are outdoors (see #3).
5. Many palm trees (see #3).
6. Really cool trees with purple flowers (see #3).  Also, I will post a picture of these.

It occurs to me that it is past midnight and I have to get up at 6 a.m.  More to come!