Yay! Yosemite!

August 3
OKAY. It's Monday and I am EXHAUSTED!!! I rushed home Friday afternoon, quickly threw everything I needed into my backpack, grabbed my tent and barely had enough time to double-check my items before my ride arrived. That was 5:45PM. After making a stop at Riverside, we took off. We passed through several state and national parks and oohed and ahhed over the scenery the whole drive to Yosemite, despite the fact that it was night time. Finally by 3AM, we arrived but we couldn't find a campsite that wasn't full. We drove around looking for an open one but finally pulled over at 6AM and rested for a bit, brushed our teeth at Mariposa Sequoia grove (a-mazing!) and finally found a camp by 9AM. Tiring! After setting up camp and barbecuing, we went to bathe in the Merced River while fish fry cleaned our toes, trekked the creek behind our site, and had a confrontation with a bear, YES!, a bear. The following day, we packed up and made our way back, stopping at Bishop to fish and bathe in the fast-flowing ICY river. The circulation in my legs actually slowed to a painful crawl after about 5 minutes standing in the melted run-off, but this was the funnest part. Some of us were brave enough to face the currents but we quickly learned not to underestimate nature when we were bounced painfully against several rocks. Then as we were driving back, we stopped at Manzanar, the detention camp that was set up in the 1940s for Japanese-Americans. It's definitely a beautiful, but desolate place. I can't even imagine what these people went through decades earlier, how they must have felt, even though they were citizens of the U.S. =(

We finally arrived home at 1AM. I should've taken today off!

July 30
Ever since I got home and decided that I'm going to go to Yosemite with family and friends, I've been on an adrenaline high. Wow, I can't believe that I'm feeling giddy and still feeling it 5 hours later. (Is it weird to feel like this about a camping trip?) I haven't been to the national park in 5 years and I can't wait 'til tomorrow! The drive there is going to be an experience because we're taking a 15-passenger van and we're just going to chill and laugh, and oh! the good times to come. I so want to be there already! Tomorrow, hurry up!

Great Reads...

Okay, I started and finished reading two books this weekend. One was Generation Dead, written by Daniel Waters and the other was Thirteen Reasons Why, written by Jay Asher.

Generation Dead--this book is kind of different than your average fantasy book. In brief, it's about a live girl who falls for a living-impaired boy (in other words, a zombie) and she has to face the prejudice the people in her town have on these living-impaired people. (B-)

Next! Thirteen Reasons Why. OMG. When I started reading this book, I thought it was a little bit slow, however, it quickly picked up speed. This book is about a girl who had committed suicide--Hannah Baker. Before everything happens, one of the main characters, the narrator, received a package in the mail. In that package are 7 cassette tapes and each side is labeled with a number, going from 1-13. It turns out that the tapes are recorded by the Hannah Baker. She starts the tape by explaining that whoever (13 people in all) receives the tapes in the mail are somehow responsible or associated with the reasons for her death. The first narrator is Clay Jensen. Clay has no idea why he's on Hannah's list. He would never want to harm her, she was his crush.
So throughout this book, Clay is learning more about the people who he goes to school with and finds that there are things about people he never knew about and would never find out about without the cassettes. While listening to the tapes, he finds out that he's delving into Hannah's mind and he goes through the events that are heart-wrenching, agonizing, frustrating, and sweet, along with what Hannah went through. (A) must read book!

So The HoneyMoon Period Is Over...

Ever had one of those days that tires you out so much you're drifting off to sleep when you're in your last class of the day? OR when you're riding in a public bus--even though you try to pinch yourself awake so you won't miss your stop? Try an entire week of those days. Yep, this is how my week went. I was physically tired since the end of last school year and it seems as if I've had a million parent conferences already; made 20X that amount of phone calls, AND just found out that I need to go to a mandatory school event on Saturday--that's right, Saturday (when I thought I could sleep in and relax before a weekend of grading).

Rest, peace, tranquility, VACATION--where art thou?!

Out With The Old, In With The New Kids...

Okay, so I was a little excited that the 2008-2009 school year came to an end. This meant that some of my less than savory students will be passed on to another history teacher to be responsible for. However, in the past 2 weeks of school, I would see my my former students and yearn for the past year--YES!, yearn! I feel a little nostalgic every time these newly-transformed 8th graders would call out my name, or when they would walk down the hall in a care-free, joyful, idealistic group--clearly eager to become the mature upperclassmen of LAAMS. **wistful sigh**

The New Kids. Ah. These brand new crop of kids are definitely sharp and have loads of energy to burn off. It's only been 2 weeks, but I am so tired. They are nothing like last year's kids as far as behavior is concerned, but these guys are so much more of a challenge. Let's just say they keep me on my toes...fingers crossed! I hope things will go great with these 7th graders and that I learn as much from them on how to be an effective teacher as they will learn from me on how to be historians.