Thursday, June 30, 2011

Makes Sense to Me


Log this one in the "People Are Insane" file!

Last year, my mentee (as in, the young teacher I mentor.  Guide with my infinite wisdom.  Turn into a fine, upstanding teacher.) had a parent/teacher conference.  The mother brought a cat to the conference.

She brought a cat.

To a conference.

This poor young teacher is severely allergic to cats.  The mother let the cat crawl all over the table, and then let it roam around the room.  Being young, and afraid, the teacher didn't have the nerve to tell the woman she was allergic to cats.  By the time the conference was over, my poor mentee had puffy eyes, a rash, and was itching all over.  I had to go in and clean off all the surfaces in her room afterward.

Do you want to know why she brought a cat?

And I quote, "Well, if I left it in the car, it might climb into the dashboard."

Duh.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Barthhhelona part DOS

I'm currently in the Twin Cities for a hellatious (sp?) family reunion with my grandmother. It's been non-stop since I've been here. And I don't just mean the schedule, I mean non-stop torture.

Anyway, I have some down time. My only two options at this time are 1) to stalk a friend at work and scare him to death or 2) upload more trip photos! In the interest of retaining a good friendship, I will share photos with you instead!

This is part two of my trip to Barcelona. On the last day, we decided to tackle this giant, gorgeous park called Montjuic. It is quite large and high, so you can see all of Barcelona below. We started there with sunshine and gorgeous views. However, as you will see, the day wasn't all sunshine and roses...

The castell overlooking Barcelona and the Mediterranean Sea

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The view was pretty fantastic.

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It was so kind of them to put a sculpture of me in front of the sea, but really, couldn't I have been clothed?

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We then began the long descent down the hill. My friend, who might be visually and directionally challenged (love her anyway!), insisted on going a certain way to get to the Museum of National Art of Catalunya. It became quite rural (read - devoid of human life, just two dummies wandering through the forest all alone) and we had no choice but to talk and walk and walk.

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FIFTEEN MILES later (my friend had a pedometer), when we got to the Olympic Stadium and the flame, I said "ENOUGH!! WE ARE TAKING A TAXI!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and I eventually found one and hailed it. We took it to the museum.

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Looking down from the museum at the Magic Fountains, government offices, and the city.

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Eventually, we limped back to the hotel, but not before adding a few more miles onto our already quite large walk. My friend wanted to go to the beach, I did not. I stayed in the hotel lobby and drank some drink that I have no idea what it was. It was strong, and the lobby was air conditioned. I was DYING to get back to good old England!

Friday, June 24, 2011

Have Patience

Traveling isn't always easy, especially with family members. Particularly with short, cranky, old grandmothers. On this particular trip, I have this song in my head the entire time.

I could only find this song with this little puppet show, sorry.

Did any of you ever know Music Machine?

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Crack kills, even in Spain

And yes, I really took these pictures.

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Barthhhhhelona

I am literally packing as we speak, headed off to the great white north. I feel like I just unpacked...oh wait, I did!!  Anyway, I wanted to share some pictures before I left.  I'll keep it brief, because seriously, sometimes looking at other's vacation pictures is as fun as a root canal hahaha.

Here, we have Barcelona!  I was super excited about going there, but then it didn't live up to all the hype I had heard.  It was nice, and in all fairness to Barcelona, we had terrible weather for pretty much the entire time we were there, but overall I found their weirdo time schedule odd, everywhere we went the grates smelled like sewage, and I got kind of tired of ham.  Also, I found it very odd that many of the people I encountered did not speak Spanish!

BUT, I found Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia to be incredible.  I thought it would be tacky and irreverent, but in reality it was incredibly gorgeous and spiritual.  Truly.  Pictures do not do it justice, at all.  In fact, I think that it was the highlight of my entire trip.  I found myself overcome with emotion and in tears over the beauty and meaning in the cathedral.

Enjoy!

Torre Agbar, very close to our hotel
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Old Barcelona.  You can see the Mediterranean Sea at the end of each street!


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Gaudi's "La Sagrada Familia"


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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

School is over and I have had to say goodbye to many students that I love.  This was a great school year.  I had 120 students and I only felt like murdering two of them.  Talk about a success rate!  One of the teacher's in my school had all of the students create a book for me about their school year.  I won't share all of their notes, but hopefully you'll get a kick out of some of the notes I choose to share.  I will type them exactly as they were written.  I will also be teaching younger children next year, as you may infer from some of the comments.



  • There are some things that I realy like about you yow whernt Just some old teacher.  No afence to all the other 5th grad teacher;s you where the coolest teacher I have ever had.  (From a special needs student)
  • In the beginning of the year I didn't think much of you as a teacher, I just really liked your name.  Now though, your probably the best teacher I've ever had!  My mom even knows how awesome you are I tell her every day basicly.  
  • Even though you sometimes had to be strict I still love you.  I couldn't wait to get to your class every day.  I loved listening to the Beatles as we worked.
  • I think it's funny how you absolutely hate texting words so...y do u hate txting wrds?  LOL
  • In August when I first met you I thought you were crazy but, now I realize that your just AWSOME!  Your my favorit teacher in the world but sometimes you get cranky from the class befor us and your still cool.
  • From the beginning of the year I was terrible, at the middle I was better.  Now I'm bad again.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Single Woman Saturday

Just because you're single doesn't mean you need to try ANYTHING to change that...



Thursday, June 9, 2011

Can You Feel the Love? Part 1

School is over and I have had to say goodbye to many students that I love.  This was a great school year.  I had 120 students and I only felt like murdering two of them.  Talk about a success rate!  One of the teacher's in my school had all of the students create a book for me about their school year.  I won't share all of their notes, but hopefully you'll get a kick out of some of the notes I choose to share.  I will type them exactly as they were written.  I will also be teaching younger children next year, as you may infer from some of the comments.



  • You are a nutt ball, just like me!
  • So now I here that your going to England this summer, so while your there please relax so that you aren't tense.
  • I really hope that you can handel those 3rd graders.  Let me tell you something, some of those children are animals.  What did you get yourself in to.
  • Okay, let's get this straight.  Your the best social studies teacher in, like, the entire world.  You turn every lesson into something fun even if it is possibly the most boring subject ever.
  • One of the resons that I am going to miss you is because of your niceness and all of the time and money you spend on us.  That is really nice of you.
  • I wish you good luck with the third graders.  Your going to need it.  I think the third graders will enjoy you as there teacher.  Just don't pay attention to them when they pick there nose!

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