scenery pictures on my drive to Las Vegas from Idaho

It goes from green, to flat desert, to rocky mountain desert, then stays. But it is still really pretty.

I am really starting to miss....

I am really starting to miss everybody. This blog thing is not the same as in person. -cry-

I started school!!

The Kids started school on Monday. Each day is different. The kids that get on my nerves one day don't the next and ones that didn't the day before get on my nerves today. There is a little black girl named Khaylah that keeps smiling at me the whole day. We have to be really strict at first but then we can ease back. but we are all warming up to each other day be day. I am getting nervous to actually teach. So pray for me. I hope all goes well. I have been testing and helping where I am needed. The students have figured out that I am a teacher too and will help and enforce rules too. They are really cute. We have 3 white kids, 1 asian, 10 or so mexicans, and 15 or so blacks. So it is wierd with the different cultures. I have never been in the minority before, but now they see that I am nice too. They are a lot of fun and say the funniest things. I am slowly learning to break things down so they understand.
There is one little black boy that can't read at all because he does not have any concept of sounds of letters and blending. So I am going to start to work on sight words with him on flash cards. I try to break things down for him. It is harder than I thought.

The city at night

On the way home we saw the strip with all the lights. I tried to get a picture, but I think that we needed to stop to get a good one. But it was really pretty, I have not seen anything like it. It is suprisingly quiet for living in a such a big city. This is the third thing that the singles have done in a week. I have not gotten bored yet. This place is a lot of fun. I am glad that I came here.

The BBQ

Then Saturday I went to a barbeque with my roommates. There were a bunch of singles that were not in my ward and some that were. We had ribs, they were so tender and juicy. This guy from Vegas made them and then hosted the party at his uncle's house. Look how cool his pool is. It has a rock slide, water falls that people were jumping off of and a hot tub. This house was huge, when I grow up and get rich, I am want a house with a pool like that in the back yard. Some people played this cup game and then made a tower out of them. I met a lot of new people, it was a lot of fun. I was really glad that I went. One guy introduced himself and then asked for my number so he could invite me to go boating and camping. He continued to talk to me. I was wearing a hat and he asked if he could see my hair and then he touched it. I was making me feel very flattered. So it is nice that boys are starting to notice me now, if they will ask me out then I am sure that I would have a lot of fun. We got invited to go to ice cream and movie afterwards but us college students don't have much money so we just went home. Maybe next time though. Oh I met a girl that went to school for culinary arts and she cooks pastries for banquets. I want to do that when I grow up too.

Sunburn ouch

So decided to go swimming at one of our pools at my apartment. I ended up staying 4 hours, reading my book and talking to some people in my ward. When I got back, my face, shoulders, legs, and back was red. Now that is the next day my shoulders are the only things that are red. the rest turned into a tan. So now my legs look better in my cute skirts. I know stupid me, I should have stayed only 2 hours. Lesson learned. The sun seems hotter here than in Idaho.

Dinner and movie

So on friday night my ward had dinner and a movie. We had quiche, cantalope, watermelon, strawberries, oranges, and grapes. Then we had ice cream, it was really good. Nobody really watched the movie, they just sat at the tables and talked. But that is the fun it, real interaction right? My ward is really nice.

classroom

So I finally got some pictures of my classroom and some things around the school. Today went even better than yesterday. My teacher is beginning to give me some responsibilities which is nice. Also we are becoming more comfortable with each other. Students came with their parents see where the classroom is and to meet the teachers today. Most of them were excited some to shy to say anything. My teacher introduced me as a teacher too. It made me feel nervous and confident. I think it is weird how the play grounds are covered, maybe so they don't get hot enough to burn the children. I don't know. But I really like my teacher, she is easy going but I can tell that she loves her job. I also got better acquainted with the special education teacher (Mrs. Jones). She is also really nice and excited to get us going. The students come on Monday, so that is when the real work begins. I think it is going to be great. :) The students are the fun part most of the time.

Oh I forgot

Gas prices are ten cents cheaper by my school than by my apartment. Interesting huh? Oh and I car pool with three of my neighbors which will be nice since it is 20 minutes away. We have a meeting tomorrow at 8 at a school that the teachers said is in even the rougher part of town. So they all nominated me to drive there since I have the oldest looking car. I think that they are jealous of my cool wheels. I guess that the junkier the car the less likely it is to be broken into eh? I had to laugh when they told me that. :)

Oh mom if you want to see any of the pictures from before scroll to the bottom and click on older posts and it will show you the rest of them.

My Placement

I forgot to take my camera today so I could take a picture of my school and classroom. I am doing my student teaching at Hal Smith Elementary school. It is in the lower economic part of town. School starts at 9 am and ends at 3:10 pm. I am doing my regular education part first with Miss April Daughtery. She teaches 2nd grade and says that she loves going to work every morning. She told me a rhyme to help me remember how to say her name. It is darty party, you say like party but with a "d". It took me all day to finally get it. She grew up in Las Vegas and got her degree at University of Phoenix. She is African American and has two little girls. Her husband and 3 year old little girl came in today for a little while. Her daughter is so cute, she is so spirited and loves to help. She helped me clean and set up the desks and sharpen pencils. Then she painted me a picture and I gave her some watermelon gum. She liked as much at Prestyn does and asked for more when it fell on the ground. Her mom gave her some but it was not as good as the one that Miss Hall gave her, so she tried to get some more out of me before she left. I think that April was afraid that she was getting on my nerves but I told her that it was quite the contrary, everything that her daughter said made me laugh. She was so polite and helpful. April said that I could practice my preschool skills on her anytime that I wanted. I bet she can be exhausting.
Dominoes provided lunch today, so it was pretty good. I found out that they serve cooked subs now. They were pretty good. All the teachers were really nice and excited have us. April had me do bulletin boards and clean and set up desks today. She is really soft spoken and laid back but I think that I am going to enjoy her class. She seemed pretty structured from her practice. She has been teaching for 7 years now. This school has a track system because there are to many students to do all at once. So there are 5 tracks and the teacher and her class get a 3 week break every 6 to 7 weeks, then they come back and start where they left off. I have never heard of it before but April says that she likes it because then she just plans her vacations around it and the kids and her don't get burned out to quickly. She also said that she has not had it any other way, so she is speaking from just her experience. I could not believe how tired I was after today of being on my feet all day. I had to take a little nap when I got home.
Oh the principal gave us a book to review that she also had all her teachers review. It is called "How Full is your Bucket?" Positive Strategies for Work and Life. By: Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton, PH.D. It only has about 150 pages with big print and it is really quite interesting so far. Mom I think that you would like it and I recommend it to anyone that is interested. It makes you look at life more positively and how to be more genuine and fill not only yourself but others around you. It gives statistics of how much positivity can prolong your life. Good read.
I will try not to gain to much weight or go over my budget while I am here, but if any of you come to see me then it will be an excuse spend a little. :)
I am excited and nervous to start my class on Monday, for now we are just going to meetings with our cooperating teachers. This is what I love to do and it will be what makes fun for me hear. I like being here already.

Winger's and My placement.

This is at Wingers the night before I left for Las Vegas. My mom paid and Angelee came. Look how good these pictures turned out? You can't even tell that we are related huh? We had a concrete pie with chocolate and caramel sauce on it. Also my mom and I got a steak with vegetables, mashed potatoes, and some wings. The steak was pretty good to my suprise. I told them medium rare and it was, that does not happen very often. I cried the next morning and got really scared but nothing that a long hug from my mom couldn't fix then I left.

I am loving my digital camera, it is so easy to put them on my computer and upload them on here. It is like scrapbooking, but better becuase it takes to cutting, gluing or creativity on my part.

Oh by the way I found out my placement today at 9 pm. I guess that I got the email at 5 pm, but I was on my little drive then. 3 of my neighbors are going to the same school, so we are going to car pool tomorrow morning. I am driving, it is only 20 minutes away. My neighbors said that it is in the getto, but you don't have to take the interstate. My school is called the Hal Smith Elementary school. The children don't come until monday and I we are suppose to report the the secretary and she will tell us what grade and teacher we have. Talk about being informative and prepared, but hey I guess whatever comes, comes.

I am starting to feel more at home here, it is hot but cold in the buildings becuase they turn the air conditioners so high. Even in my apartment my feet and hands get cold, but I am scared to turn it warmer becuase I don't want to bake like it is outside. At noon it turns into a big heat wave, but the evenings are about the right temperature for me. But I like to be warm, my roommates think that it is still too hot. I will take a picture of my school tomorrow. :) love you all and can't wait to talk to you or see you again.

Houses

So this is new to me too. All the housing complexes and apartments have walls around them and big gates to get in and out of them. Angelee corrected me and told me that they are called gated communities. I guess that it helps cut down on burglary. Some girls in my ward said that when she moved here to do her student teaching, she got here at 1 in the morning and unloaded only half of her car and when she came out in the morning lock was broken (she said it looked like they used a screw driver to break it) and some of her things were stolen. They must have jumped the wall. So guess the wall doesn't stop them. But then we got a security guard and there has not been any reported break ins since then. So that makes me feel a little safer in my little apartment. This town reminds of me of Salt Lake with how close everything is, but I think that it really might me easier to find things here. Also the drivers are little more considerate to let you in and not cut you off and speed so much.

The town

Today I got some guts and drove farther than across the street. I went down the street to Albertson's first. :) baby steps of course. I am kinda scared of this big city, but my GPS system is helping me tremendously, I found my church, institute building, target, and even a public library. I drove right to them, they were not more than a couple miles away. The library was amazing, it was huge, well for a public library anyway. I put my name on the waiting list for Stephanie Meyer's 4th book of the twilight series. I am number 431, but the librarian told me that they have 165 copies of it and that they circulate pretty fast. So I expect to have the book in the next month or so. I did check out "Messenger" by Lois Lowry, it is the third book to "The Giver". Everytime that I have tried to check it I have been put on a waiting list. But the pros to living in a big city is that there are a lot of copies for the a lot of people, so I finally get to read it. There is every kind of restaurant here, all I have to do is pick. There is french, asian, american, sushi, seafood, you name it. It is so different from the limited selection in Rexburg. Another plus is that all of these kinds of restuarants are within 5 miles of my apartment. I am going to have to try the sushi and seafood soon. Oh so that means that if any of you want to send me donations so I can try these cusiunes it would be greatly appreciated. I am really starting to like this town with how close everything is. Oh I forgot to mention that Wal-mart is a grocery store only here. They have a couple of super Wal-marts but mostly supercenters as they call them. Weird huh.

So I still don't have my placement

I went to my orientation meeting yesterday and there were only 4 people that did not have their placements yet and low and behold I was one of them. So I have been sitting around all day playing on my computer becuase I want to be in the schools now like my roommates. Look how cute my hair looks when I don't do it. :) I laughed every time I looked in mirror, and so did my roommates. They said that they will hopefully call me by Monday at the latest. I want it now. I guess I am a little demanding but they really should have had this done by now. grrrr

FHE Bunco

We played Bunco for Family Home Evening. I have never seen anything like it. There were three long tables of people playing and some still sitting on the stage waiting to get in. The rules were different and easier than I was taught but it was still fun. Some people really got into it and they were yelling. I even got a BUNCO once and I got really excited so that must have been what was happening to them. It was a good idea for getting to know everyone. The people in my ward seem really nice, a lot of them just came up and talked to me. I almost forgot how to be social, but I think it will come back to me.

This is my other roommate Melissa. She is doing Secondary Education in Health and Spanish. She went on her mission to Argentina. She is really nice and independent. Neither one of my roommates like seafood so I will have to find someone in my ward that does so we can go eat some really good seafood.

This is my roommate Anne Marie from Spokan, Washington. She is doing secondary education in Health and Spanish. She is really fun and outgoing. I think she is going to be fun to live with.

my living room

Look at my swade ( sorry don't know how ot spell it) couches. They are so soft and nice to sleep on if anyone wants to come visit me. :)

an organized room

I finally finished unpacking my things. Look how pretty my room is now? My roommates say that I have a lot of clothes. I think that I wear all of them so I justify it that way.

Look at my room after I unloaded my car. It is such a mess.

This is the only light in my room. I can't believe that they could not take the time to put in a ceiling light. So if I need much light I guess I will have to leave the blinds open.

But I do get my own room and bathroom. My roommates are nice so far and so is my apartment. The couches are soft and we have a washer and dryer that we do not have to pay for. Now all I have to do is get settled in and unpack my clothes.

So here I am after driving for 5 hours at a gas station the desert. There is nothing out here. Where are the mountains.

I wanted to show you the condition my car is in. This I did not do, someone hit me then it totaled my car and so they gave me what my car was worth which was not enough to fix it. So I really prayed that it would make it to Vegas.

My latest adventure

So I got my hair cut shorter than I ever have and yesterday was the first day that it turned out like I wanted so I took a picture of it. People tell me that I have the kind of face that looks good in all haircuts. I like to have my hair short becuase of it's low maintenance. I was doing my hair in a pony tail everyday when it was long, now it takes five minutes to do and I look cute everyday.
It is finally time to do my student teaching, the very last semester before I graduate. I am moving to Las Vegas to do it and I think it is going to be fun. I fixed my car and pray that it works for the 9 hour drive. Also i packed all of my stuff in my car and I can still see out of the back window. I was pretty proud of myself for that. I am leaving tomorrow and will return on thanksgiving. Now that I am 23 and 11 months old I have decided that I am now old enough to grow up and do something on my own. So first I dumped my boyfriend that i should have dumped a long time ago (but with that came a lot of mixed emotions). Now I can finally experience casually dating for the first time in my life. That I am excited about, freedom and no strings attatched. The next major decision was to drive to Las Vegas with company or without company. But you have to know that I have never driven on any interstates that have more than 2 lanes. So here is the milestone, I chose with no company so I don't get babied the whole way. So here I go, ready or not, bright and early tomorrow morning I am taking my 3 best friends (me, myself and I) to keep me company and to go get help if my car breaks down. I sure do feel better about having some company. So please pray for me!!