AWESOME!

I woke up this morning, got dressed, and found a 5 dollar bill in my pocket! AWESOME!!!

First Day of School

Tomorrow is the big day, the first day of school. I feel like I could use another week to get my feet more firmly planted in the ground, but alas, there isn't that time. I still can't believe that I'm qualified to do this :S. My classroom has really come together and I'm happy with the feel of the space. It's organized, but yet still inviting and fun. I'm pretty much ready for the first few days of school, but there are still some things I wish I had prepared. More time is something we could always use.

I can't say that I'm really nervous... of course I'm concerned for a few things, but all together, I feel pretty good. It's almost as if I'm a fifth grader again coming into school for the first time. The same questions are running through my mind... What should I wear? Will they like me? What if they don't and I have no friends? Did I remember my pencils?

Well.. it's time for sleep. If anything, I should be well rested for the day. Prayers are always welcome. Thank you for your love and support :)

I'll let you know how it goes. *exits with backpack slung over one shoulder and lunch pale in hand*

New Chapter

So it's been awhile since I've posted and a lot has changed! I accepted a contract for a 4th/5th grade position at Rehoboth Christian School in New Mexico and within a week and a half of accepting, I've moved to Gallup, New Mexico!! I was talking before about how I didn't have a plan, and this job sort of fell into my lap! I'm very excited for this new opportunity. I don't have pictures up yet, but I will, I PROMISE! Here's a written summary of what's happened so far.

1. The trip
Monday we drove through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and we spend the night in Oklahoma. We didn't encounter any problems except for the TORRENTIAL rain in Missouri. It was a little scary for awhile, but we made it through. Tuesday we drove through the rest of Oklahoma, Texas and entered New Mexico. We spent Tuesday night Albuquerque and had dinner in Old Town at a really good restaurant. We ate at a restaurant called Church St. Café, we sat on the patio under real grape vines and I had the best fajitas and sopapillas EVER. I've eaten more in the past two weeks than an entire month of the past semester. It's been great, but I think the hiking needs to be kicked up a notch. Anyways, Wednesday we made out way into Gallup just in time for more rain! Annnnd that's how we got to Gallup.

2. Accommodations
After coming to the school, I moved into the dorms on campus. It's about a stones throw away from the school and it's not so bad. The room is kinda small, but with my decorating skills, it has potential. They have a bed, a desk, and a few lamps for me to use. I'm going to pick up a new comforter tomorrow in Albuquerque which will bring it up a few notches. I don't yet if I'll stay here, but it's dirt cheap and would let me save. We will see!

3. The school
My classroom is so cute!! It used to be a lower elementary room so it has colored walls and is getting a new white board. It's small, but I don't need too much space. I picked up the curriculum books and have a lot of studying up to do. Luckily I'm familiar with some of it, but have some work to do.

4. New surroundings
Rehoboth is absolutely beautiful. The night sky is probably my favorite part. The sky is just bigger out here. There are so many more stars than there are in Michigan. I'm going hiking tomorrow night with one of the other 4th/5th grade teachers and I will post pictures later.

Remember to check out Flickr in the next few days! I'll update the blog a little bit later!

Update

Life update: I am working full time and applying for jobs.

How exciting is that?!

Goodbyes

"If it means a lot to you" A Day to Remember

After all of the excitement of graduation, it feels kind of nice to go back to work. I love my job so much, especially the people I work with, so the 40 hour week went by fast. This week wasn't filled with celebrations like the week before, instead it was filled with lots of goodbyes.

One of the hardest things about ending college is saying goodbye. People that you've built strong relationships with, maybe had a class together, maybe lived together, shared the same major, whatever it may be, all the sudden are gone. I hate the feeling of losing people, especially when it's not in my control. Leaving is the natural progression of how college works, you come, stay for 4 (or more) years and then leave. And even though you expect it all along, it doesn't make it any easier.

Graduation

As of May 22, 2010 I finished my college education. I can't believe it. It was a hard 4 years, academically, emotionally, and spiritually but it was such a growing experience. I am so content with the person I've become and I can't wait to see what the future has in store for me. I'm searching for jobs and will be applying my little heart out this summer.  Even though the job market it difficult I'm convinced that something will turn up.

I don't really feel old enough to be a college graduate, but I am and it feels amazing.

Complete

"Bleed" by Hot Chelle Rae

So, after my final presentation today, I am officially finished with college! All of the assignments and the tests, FINISHED. I can't believe it... it feels so amazing.

I am going to enjoy this feeling.

Finished

So that's it. I'm done. It was a tearful goodbye, for me and for the students. But it's done. What a wonderful experience this has been. I've learned so much about myself as a person and as a teacher. I feel infinitely wiser after these short 4 months.

Just a few papers and a presentation away from being done.

What a  crazy feeling.

Ending

"Fireflies" by Owl City

I know I've been talking about this time in my life being a beginning, and I really do think it is. But, this week, begins the end of an experience. I've been at The Potter's House for 4 months and this Thursday is my last day. It's been an amazing experience with lots of challenges, but a lot of amazing memories.

I think my favorite memory was from this week. I am the leader of a discipleship group of 4 boys. This week we did a service project at The Hope Network in Grand Rapids. We worked with mentally challenged adults and played basketball, ladder golf, and bean bag toss. The boys did great, they were nervous at first but with a  little encouragement, they were so understanding. On the way back, I had my iPod playing, and one of the students asked if I had the song "Fireflies" by Owl City on my iPod. Fortunately, I do, and I love that song. So, on the way back from Hope Network, with 3 ten year old boys, we all sang along to "Fireflies". The 21 year old and then ten year olds, all singing along. It was hilarious, and heart warming at the same time. Epic.

Newspapers

At the beginning of the semester I started a classroom newspaper. Because the semester has been so busy, I haven't been able to create a new one until now.

Take a look!

 

Letters

Today I found a letter on my desk from one of my students. It read as follows:

"Ms. DeVos
I will miss you when you leave. You are so beautiful and nice and generous. Everyone will miss you. Ms. DeVos, I hope you will be a great 4th grade teacher. I hope they are good. Thank you for coming to TPH.

Will Always Miss You,

Yuli"

It's going to be so hard to leave...

Beginning

"Everything" by The Classic Crime

I did it. I finished my resume and cover letter and it looks great! Now... just to use it. My supervising teacher is really enthusiastic about me handing in my resume, and she wants me to do it tomorrow. Oy vey, talk about pressure. But, it's finished and ready to hand in.

This week is going to be intense. Unit plan due Tuesday, plus a few other projects. But I have a few fun things this week too. Going to a concert of The Classic Crime, Medina Lake, Ivoryline and Don't Ever Tell. I'm pretty excited. Also, going to a banquet Thursday night to support TPH.

The end is in sight, and this is just the beginning.

Success

"Missing" by Flyleaf

So, I'm finished with my full time teaching at TPH and am sort of coasting till the end of the school year. I have been working almost exclusively with one student throughout the day, but it doesn't require any preparation on my part. It sounds fantastic, but, I have so much work due for Calvin that I have no idea how I'm going to get it done.

I find myself so exhausted after the school day that when I get home, working on homework sounds like the least appealing thing to do. When I do have energy, I don't want to be sitting at my desk, I want to be outside going for a walk , or just relaxing. In the back of my mind, I know I have a million things to get done, and I should put all of my effort into them, but I just don't want to. In all reality I do have time to get done the things that I need to, but there's something standing in the way. And that thing that seems to be standing in the way of my success is me. I've been thinking about this strange juxtaposition lately.

I want to succeed, I think everyone does, but yet sometimes we as people can be so detrimental to ourselves. Why is this? We are our own worst enemy when it comes to success. I could be healthier, if I went for a run instead of watching TV. I could have better grades, if I spent more time in studying. I could have these assignments already finished, if I had planned better. I could blame these problems on other things, but when it comes down to it, the main problem in all of these cases is me. It can even be small things, like getting to school on time in the morning... I've been getting up later and later. It used to be promptly at 5:40, and now it's 6... 6:15...6:30... then I feel embarassed when I get to school late. But yet, i don't change my ways, I savor that extra half an hour in bed. Do I not want to succeed?

Why do I seem to find ways to make myself fail?

Fights

"Airplanes" by B.o.B and Hayley Williams (click it, it's a link to the song)

This morning I had an awesome conference with my Professor after an observation of a lesson. In the middle of the meeting one of the other teachers at TPH came up and said "Are you her supervisor? I just want you to know, she's amazing" and just starting telling my Professor about the work I had been doing in the school and how much of a blessing I was. As you can imagine, after that I was feeling pretty good. The rest of the day went pretty well but I left school pretty tired. Coming home knowing that there was a long night of homework ahead, I was a little on edge. I went home for about 2 minutes to change and got into the stupidest fight with one of my friends and it really destroyed my good mood. I hate that one stupid fight can ruin my mood entirely.

On a different note, I think it's time for me to mend some bridges. I'm hoping my pride will step down for long enough to allow me to do so.

Changes

* EDIT * I'm going to try and put a song in each post I put up. The song for this post is:

"Give Until There's Nothing Left" by Relient K

Because of all the schoolwork I need to get done, I decided to take a break from Grand Rapids and visit a friend of mine that lives in Big Rapids. She graduated from college last year and is now an Art teacher here. Visiting her makes me really excited to live on my own and be completely independent; to have my own place, to decorate how I want to, to have my own space... I'm excited for that! But... I just don't know where I want to/where I need to go. Stay around Grand Rapids? Go where I know I'll have a job? Take a risk, and go somewhere completely new? Go where my heart wants to go?

I have been updating my resume and visiting Career Development to help me prepare a cover letter, but it's almost like I don't want to start applying because that makes this all real. This point in my life which I have seen my brother go through, and my sister, is now here for me and that just scares the crap out of me.

Through all these changes I just wish there was a constant. I feel like everything is about to change, what is going to keep me stable and stay constant through the changes?

Memories

It's been over a year since I was in Spain and lately the memories keep flooding my mind. About this time last year I had come back from Spring Break in London and Paris with my parents and sister and was beginning the end of the school year. After seeing my parents and having them visit the town I had been living in, I remember being so excited to go home. For the last couple weeks of the semester it was almost all I could think about. But when the time came to leave and we were packing the bus to go home, I can distinctly remember the feeling that exploded in my heart. My family, my town, everything that had been my everyday life was going to be over. I wanted to go home, but I didn't want to leave Denia. It was the strangest conflicting of feelings; I've never been so torn. I miss Denia. I miss being able to walk at night. I did that so frequently. I would just walk around the town, to the sea, and sit by the harbor at night. I remember feeling completely at peace. I have that so rarely lately. I think it's the nature I need to feel like that... back to the point. I'm glad that I use my Spanish, I speak everyday with a few girls in my class. It's really helped them to come out of their shells and has helped me to practice.

Anyways... I will be starting a new blog for my teaching and will post a link... here it is: msdevos.blogspot.com

Fallas!

I put up a bunch of pictures of Fallas!
Make sure to check out my link.

Granada and Cordoba

This week was an exciting week for all of us. We are almost halfway through our trip and the time is really starting to fly. We spent four days this past week in Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain. We spent our time in two major cities, Cordoba and Granada. Granada is about a 6 hour drive from Denia, a fairly normal amount for traveling in the United States, but a very long time for a Spaniard. For all of our trips so far, we have had awful weather. This time we had rain and wind. We tried to protect ourselves with umbrellas, but with the wind, most of the time our umbrellas would turn inside out, completely defeating their purpose.
Our first night in Granada we spent our time walking around the city to get the lay of the land. The first major site that we visited was the Capilla Real. This mausoleum, attached to a chapel, was built by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The mausoleum has the remains of Ferdinand, Isabella, their daughter, Juana, and her husband Felipe. The chapel and the Capilla Real are both amazing structures. The cathedral is huge with large pillars and an incredibly tall ceiling. The cathedral as an amazing organ decorated with gold and ornate trimmings.
After visiting the Capilla real, we spent our first night in Granada exploring the city and heading to bed early to be prepared for our early day at the Alhambra. We had to leave our hotel at around 7 AM to make sure that we could get into the Alhambra. We waited for a long time in the rain, but we eventually made it inside. There are many reasons why the Alhambra is the most visited site in Spain. It is situated on the top of a hill and was originally an entire city. Within the walls there were enough supplies to maintain an entire city. The walls of the Alhambra are covered with carvings in stucco of flowers, birds, and of course, writing from the Koran. The intricateness of the carvings and the details in the ceilings and arches is incredible. We were also able to visit the Generalife, which was the summer house for the king and queen when they wanted to spend some time away from the court. Despite the rain, the gardens, architecture, and carvings of the Alhambra are amazing.
In the afternoon we had some free time to spend in the city. Some students visited the arabic baths, while others visited a monastery and an old hospital.
The final day, we drove about 2 hours to a city called Cordoba to visit the Mezquita. For me, although I've seen pictures of the Mezquita in art history text books, it is incomparable to the real thing. I know I've over emphasized this point already, but it's an incredible monument. The red and white arches do look as if they go on for miles. There are so many things to look at at once, the arches, the columns, the ceilings, and the inscriptions on the wall. My eyes were continually jumping from one thing to another while my brain was registering the amazing things I was seeing. It is another worthwhile site to see.
Although we had very poor weather on our trip, overall we were able to see some fantastic things that made it all worth it.

Exciting things

1. We had a surprise birthday for my Yaya, she turned 70, it was exciting. It was all seafood, lobster, shrimp, calamari, salmon, etc. And they were all worried about me since Yaya announced to EVERYONE that I didn't like seafood. So every other minute someone was asking me if I liked the food or not. I did, and I ate enough.

2. I dyed my hair back to blonde, well kind of, it didn't go so well. It's kind of an odd color right now.

3. I had my first test this week, I think it went well.

4. I bought my ticket to go see my sister in York for spring break. AWESOME.

5. I am going to the opera in Valencia this weekend to see "Peter and the wolf", I am excited.

Whoopsie... dropped the ball.

Alright, so I totally have been dropping with this whole blog thing. It's been a crazy week starting classes and after a visit to Barcelona, it's been hard to find time to update. But, I will update now! 

Back up a week and a half, to Wednesday, January 28. We left after classes to go to Barcelona, it was a long, long bus ride with a bunch of high schoolers... they were students from a local high school and it definitely enforced my not wanting to teach high school, or go back to high school myself. They played dance music for the entire 6 hours and it was so annoying. But anyways, we got to Barcelona and at night we explored downtown Barcelona. I really like Barcelona by day, but at night, it's a little scary. I got offered drugs a couple times, and cat called, but I definitely did not like it.

On Thursday we went to many, many tourist sites. First we went to Gaudi's Casa Mila. It's a great building. The roof is definitely the best part of the structure. We spent more time than needed at the house, since there is only so much you can see in the one apartment. The roof gave you a great view of Barcelona and some of the other sites. With the extra time that we had, my friend and I visited some of the swanky boutiques that we could never afford. Stores like Chanel, Lois Vuitton, Hermes, etc., etc. It was fun just to look at the things that we couldn't afford.

Next we went to the Sagrada Familia and let me tell you... wow... it is awesome. The inside is really not visible since it's under such construction. But again, the roof is really the coolest part. You could pay to go up into the towers by elevator (they don't let you walk anymore because it's too dangerous to your health). They view is even better than the one of Casa Mila. It's an amazing structure that will be even cooler when it's done. But one side is very old and almost drippy looking, and the other is very square and block like. The contrast between the two sides is really cool, and they make for a really interesting structure.

The next thing that we did was go to Gaudi's park. If you like mosaic, this is the place the be. I took tons of pictures of the mosaics that are in the park. There are benches covered in mosaic and lizards covered in mosaic. And also tons of really cool rock structures and tunnels and what not. It was a cloudy day so it wasn't the best day for spending a day in the park. 

Finally, at night, we went to the National Museum of Catalonia. It was a huge museum and unfortunately we didn't get to see much of it. We only saw the parts that we were going to study in class. Which is kinda lame.... but anyways, we spend awhile there and then continued on.

The night activity was probably the best. We went to a soccer game between FC Barcelona, a huge team, and a smaller Barcelona team. The sports arena is amazing! I think it's the biggest in the world... or at least one. Even thought it was a smaller game, it was filled. It was kinda scary because there are so many people. But we kept together as a group and kept mostly safe. One of the guys in our group did get his wallet stolen...  but he was kinda stupid about where he put it. He lost a lot of money though, which isn't good.

The next day we had another day full of stuff. We first visited an old cathedral and then after that we went to the Palau de Musica. It was by far one of my favorite things that I've seen so far. It is a music hall that has like the most fantastic interior. It's full of mosaics and really interesting sculptures. With amazing acoustics, I would love to go to a concert there.

In the afternoon we went to Picasso's museum and just walked around the city. The Picasso museum is another thing that is on the must see list. It's full of his work from the beginning, more formal paintings, to his work in cubism, to the work that he did on stage sets. It was awesome.

Saturday was a day of wine tasting, at 11 in the morning and paid for by Calvin College. :D We spent another 6 hours in the bus and then home again. It was definitely good to be home. 

Finally! This past week was the first week of classes. It's been weird adjusting to classes. Yes, they are all in Spanish. The cool thing about this semester is that I really don't have classes on Friday. Which gives me many free weekends to do whatever I like! Good! Well that is enough for now, I will update more later!