last month summary
The past few weekends have been busy (but fun). February 16th - 19th I spent in Connecticut and Boston with Ann Marie. Got to have dinner with a bunch of alumni, and visit Olin. Seeing alumni felt more like Olin than Olin did... it was weird, although I guess not unexpected. I miss you guys. On the day that I left, Ann Marie, Will and I went to Cambridge to visit the One Laptop Per Child project. The office was pretty quiet (it was Presidents' Day) but Ivan and another guy whose name I can't remember spent about two hours with us, telling us all about the project and answering our questions. There were cute little green laptops in various stages of being disassembled and tested, and we got to see the laptop in action (although since the office was pretty empty, we didn't get to see the networking capabilities, which would have been cool). All of the people we met seemed really enthusiastic about the project--it would be a great place to work. And... they're hiring interns for the summer. Ivan said that it's easy for him to find smart people, but harder to find smart people who really *get* the project. So Olin people--you should read up on the project (laptop.org and the wiki) and then send your resumes to Ivan. He knows of Olin and strongly encouraged us to pass on the information to any Olin students who might be interested. I asked if they had specific needs (hardware, software, content), and he said to tell him what you do, and he'll find something for you. Note: I can't find Ivan's email on the wiki, so I'm not sure if I should post it, but contact me if you want it.
The weekend after Boston, I spent all of Saturday in an interview for DC Teaching Fellows. There were group interviews and individual interviews, and everybody had to teach a 5-minute interactive lesson with a clear beginning, middle, and end (this seems like a lot to ask of a 5-minute lesson). It all went fine, except--I don't know what the hell I was thinking--I wore jeans to the interview. They were decently nice jeans, and I had a nice sweater and stuff, but I was *definitely* the only person dressed so casually. Yeah. I really can't account for the thought process that led to my wardrobe choice.
Last weekend, Joelle and I took a Chinatown bus up to New York and met up with Ann Marie and Kathy. The Chinatown bus is such a good deal--$35 round trip, and getting less sketchy every time I've used it. My only complaint on this trip would be some of the other passengers. There was a large group of girls a few years younger than us who thought it would be really cool and fun to get drunk on their way to New York, and they did seem to be having a lot of fun, with their ever-escalating voices. At some point a few hours into the trip, the group of young Spanish-speaking tourists directly behind my seat decided to try to drown out the girls. I appreciated the sentiment, but sometimes the cure is worse than the disease... they were playing a game where one person would say a word and then everyone else would have to try to be the first to think of a song with lyrics that contained the word (and then, obviously, they all had to sing the song together). I found this type of noise preferable to the drunk girls, but then, horrors: they joined forces. One of the drunk girls loudly interrupted the singing, "Wait wait wait guys, no, stop, you have to sing a song that we know so we can all sing along!" This was followed by a few stunted but loud attempts at La Cucaracha, La Bamba, and Besame Mucho, and a round of Cumpleaños Feliz. It all seemed a little surreal.
Saturday and Sunday were great--the weather was in the 40s and 50s; perfect for walking around New York. We shopped some, but didn't buy much. Mostly we walked and talked and ate about five meals per day (this is why all of the pictures that I took in New York look pretty much the same: some subset of the four of us sitting around a table at an unidentifiable restaurant).
I got home around midnight on Sunday, checked my email, and... I got accepted to the teaching program. So I have about 2 more weeks to make my decision. I'm in information-gathering mode, so if anyone has contacts who did Teach for America or some other program where non-teachers are thrown into struggling schools for two years while they learn to be teachers, I'd love to talk to them about their experiences. If I decide to do this, I want to make sure that I won't end up quitting a few months into the program.
And then, this weekend, Kathy is in DC with Cornell people. Because some lucky people still get Spring break. So it's been a pretty damn good month or so.
The weekend after Boston, I spent all of Saturday in an interview for DC Teaching Fellows. There were group interviews and individual interviews, and everybody had to teach a 5-minute interactive lesson with a clear beginning, middle, and end (this seems like a lot to ask of a 5-minute lesson). It all went fine, except--I don't know what the hell I was thinking--I wore jeans to the interview. They were decently nice jeans, and I had a nice sweater and stuff, but I was *definitely* the only person dressed so casually. Yeah. I really can't account for the thought process that led to my wardrobe choice.
Last weekend, Joelle and I took a Chinatown bus up to New York and met up with Ann Marie and Kathy. The Chinatown bus is such a good deal--$35 round trip, and getting less sketchy every time I've used it. My only complaint on this trip would be some of the other passengers. There was a large group of girls a few years younger than us who thought it would be really cool and fun to get drunk on their way to New York, and they did seem to be having a lot of fun, with their ever-escalating voices. At some point a few hours into the trip, the group of young Spanish-speaking tourists directly behind my seat decided to try to drown out the girls. I appreciated the sentiment, but sometimes the cure is worse than the disease... they were playing a game where one person would say a word and then everyone else would have to try to be the first to think of a song with lyrics that contained the word (and then, obviously, they all had to sing the song together). I found this type of noise preferable to the drunk girls, but then, horrors: they joined forces. One of the drunk girls loudly interrupted the singing, "Wait wait wait guys, no, stop, you have to sing a song that we know so we can all sing along!" This was followed by a few stunted but loud attempts at La Cucaracha, La Bamba, and Besame Mucho, and a round of Cumpleaños Feliz. It all seemed a little surreal.
Saturday and Sunday were great--the weather was in the 40s and 50s; perfect for walking around New York. We shopped some, but didn't buy much. Mostly we walked and talked and ate about five meals per day (this is why all of the pictures that I took in New York look pretty much the same: some subset of the four of us sitting around a table at an unidentifiable restaurant).
I got home around midnight on Sunday, checked my email, and... I got accepted to the teaching program. So I have about 2 more weeks to make my decision. I'm in information-gathering mode, so if anyone has contacts who did Teach for America or some other program where non-teachers are thrown into struggling schools for two years while they learn to be teachers, I'd love to talk to them about their experiences. If I decide to do this, I want to make sure that I won't end up quitting a few months into the program.
And then, this weekend, Kathy is in DC with Cornell people. Because some lucky people still get Spring break. So it's been a pretty damn good month or so.
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-kim