After China, Before Vegas

After my exciting life in China, I came home to Amreeca (courtesy Mr. Kholi from Bride and Prejudice the Bollywood musical). After Christmas, my rentals (Mom and Dad) helped me pack up and drive back down to my second home, Cedar City, Utah. When I was in China, one of my friends, Amy (not from the ILP group), told me that a lot of people go into shock when they go to grocery stores in America. I had been to a Wal-Mart (a.k.a. Hell) when I got back with my sisters, so I was all “I guess that won’t happen to me”. I was wrong. Dead wrong. After my rentals helped me move in, they took me to lunch, and then they made their merry way back to West Jordan and civilization while I made my not-so-merry way to Hell (a.k.a. Wal-Mart) to go grocery shopping. I do suffer from anxiety from time to time, and when I got to the store, I had an anxiety attack. I felt so alone, lost, and confused as I was trying to find the perishable groceries I needed, that I panicked, bought a few things, and rushed out of the store. Now, I know you’re probably wondering, “Well, what kind of parents leave their poor daughter alone to go to Wal-Mart?” It wasn’t their fault they weren’t there. They offered to stay and help me shop, but I was all, “No thanks, I can buy cereal”, which, unfortunately, I didn’t grab in my mad dash outta there. When I got back to my dorm, my other new roommate had left with her family for dinner, so it was just me. I called my mom and told her about my shopping mishap and she calmed me down. She called me a few more times that evening to make sure that I was alright.

As the days became weeks, weeks became months, and months became one semester, I had made a lot of new friends, aced the Block, and graduated Summa Cum Laude from Southern Utah University. The best part was when my friends and I managed to sit in the front row before the stage. Grandma and Grandpa Mariani came down for the graduation, and we all ate at IHOP because I wanted breakfast for lunch. Then my parents helped me move down to Henderson, Nevada where I was to complete my schooling as a student teacher at Fay Galloway Elementary School.

Student teaching from SUU requires us to do 60 days total: 30 days in a lower grade and 30 days in an upper grade. My schedule is all whacked-up, but I’m cool with it. I’m with my first placement for about 9ish weeks and my second one for 2 weeks and 2 days. I was supposed to switch this week, but my second placement class is going on track break next week, so I’m staying here. My first placement is with Mr. Bennion’s 3rd grade class. There is a lot of diversity in the class and it makes me happy. However, there are some students who do tend to cause drama; it’s not a surprise, though. He has 19 students: 4 boys and 15 girls. So where do you think the drama is coming from? My second placement teacher, Mrs. Buchanan, teaches 5th grade. Her class talks a lot. Track 5 (my third grade class) had to do math testing yesterday and today (Tuesday and Wednesday), so I spent the mornings observing the 5th graders. They talked so much today that they have to spend recess doing laps around the playground. The weird thing I’m finding here is that they only get 20 minutes of recess and that’s right before lunch; I have to watch them for the first 10 minutes. When we have inclimate weather (days where it is over 100F), the students don’t get any outside time. We had that happen 3 days last week. In about a week or so, we won’t be able to have outside P.E. or recess. The students spend ½ an hour before lunch with us in the classroom. I love my class though.