I am currently on a bus back to Philadelphia from New York where I spent the weekend for Alicia's bachelorette party extravaganza. 'Twas quite a fun weekend. I was DRAGGING the entire time, but I think' TFA has instilled in me a great mindset which helped me though. They always say "Its all about the kids; How are the children? " During the week we have to remind ourselves this as we wake up at 5 am with 4 or 5 hours of sleep under our belt. So this weekend, despite the fact that I fell asleep during the intermission of "Mamma Mia!" I had to remind myself that "It's all about Alicia; How is my sister?" Thus, we made it til 4 in the morn partying at a place called Pranna and Willow. LOVE MY SIS!
Otherwise the weekend was another great break. I am starting to like NYC more and more. It's interesting how drawn I am to big cities. When I am in Wisconsin for too long, I become complacent. Chicago is near and I am sure there are plenty of other things to do and explore, but I just never have the drive or interest to seek them out. But being on the East Coast I am always looking for new places to go and things to experience. It doesn't hurt that public transportation is so much better here. For example, I paid $7 for this bus ride to Philly. Altogether it was a $18.50 round trip Philly-NYC. That's equivalent to a ONE WAY ticket from Madison to Waukesha. Round trip is $35... absurd. Aforementioned cheap transport is one of the things I love about cities, read on for more:
One of the things I LOVE about bigger cities is the ethnic diversity of the people. Introducing myself to others doesn't include the follow-up question of "What are you?," obviously desiring to elicit the response "Mexican," not caring whether or not that has anything to do with who I am or whether my ancestors also hail from other countries. They're "just curious" since I have such an "exotic look." That conversation doesn't happen too much in bigger cities. I love meeting people, knowing that their intention is not to immediately put me into a box with other people whose hair is as curly as mine and skin as brown.
On that same note, there are TONS of inter-ethnic couples. It's so comforting to see an Indian guy walking hand in hand with a white girl or a black guy with his arm around an Asian girl. I understand that the previous sentence would be rather strange if one were to read it out of context. But seeing inter-ethnic couples means again that there is a general understanding that American IS a culture and that anyone can be just as American as the next kid with blonde hair and blue eyes. In the end what it is, is intelligent people transcending dumb people. It's people understanding that brown does not make the person. It's people realizing that people are scared of the unfamiliar and it's smart people realizing that simple people like to categorize and group so that they can find their limits and stay within them.
Am I taking this too far?
Anyway:
On Friday night, I thought it would be SOOO funny to stop at a street food stand on our way back to the hotel and get a halal wiener to create a great bachelorette party photo-op for Alicia. I was ordering the wiener and heard the vendor talking to his friends behind the stall in what sounded like Arabic. I paused for a moment and asked "Excuse me sir, where are you from?" "I am Egyptian" he answered. So of course I blurb out "Masree?? Ana uhib misr!" which is an awful mix of fosha and 3amiyya masryya, but we ended up having a conversation consisting all the vital and basic phrases that I can remember. And as I was receiving the halal wiener I said to him "shokran jazeelan" at the exact same time as he said "shokran jazeelan" and then he gave me a free water! LOVE THE MASREES! people need to get to the middle east more often. these peeps is awesome.
So on to the main point of why I'm writing-- my first week as a teacher! Let me first start with saying that DAYUM, Teach for America runs a tight ship. For the last 4 years, I have been used to running my own life, doing things when I see fit, but at the same thing staying on top of my shit and getting a 4.0 throughout my senior year. That whole relaxed, do-things-as-you-can feeling doesn't really cut it with TFA. Actually let me say, doesn't cut it at ALL with TFA. Deadlines are strict. No one cares that you're sleep deprived. No one cares that you have a cold. No one cares that you haven't had any physical stimulation in days. Like I said earlier, it's all about the kids. Lesson planning, material creating, worksheet writing, theory learning and the like consumes my time from 5 am until 12 am just about every day. Last week I was able to sneak in 8 hours of sleep on Sunday and Thursday night due to the extra time allowed by the half-day on Monday, July 5.
The only way that I am able to keep waking up every day is because there is a huge team mindset that exists. We are all getting 3-5 hours of sleep on average. We all are loopy and out-of-it all day long. We are all doing it for the same reason (well most of us I assume). While it sucks to struggle through each day, only one other time have I been part of such a positive group of individuals. The people who are in TFA are extremely intelligent, lively and positive young people who are wholly dedicated and are "working relentlessly" to provide just an education for every child in the US just as strong and prestigious as they have received in the last 17 years.
I sometimes think about my participation with TFA in the larger picture as a service to the country. I think its extremely important for everyone to serve their country or community in one way or another. Seeing as how I would rather build up my own nation rather than breaking down that of others, I have chosen this path to public service over the US Military. If Americans are really interested with "spreading democracy" to the world, I believe we should start with our own country. Isn't a democracy a form of government in which the" supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system?" Or am I, and dictionary.com, mistaken? I really don't understand why more people across the country are not outraged at the current state of our own nation. Despite popular belief, we do not live in a true democracy. If anything, it could be called an oligarchy. What's changed since the inception of the United States of America and the rules that our friendly founding fathers put forth? I would argue not much. It is certainly more accurate to describe our nation as one ruled by a group of wealthy men with Judeo-Christian beliefs and Anglo-saxon heritage than a country in which the supreme power is vested in the people. While some of us live a worry-free live filled with vocational and educational opportunities up the wazoo and enough food in our kitchen pantry to feed the population of land-locked Lesotho, another overwhelming number of Americans never make it past high school because they're made to believe that they can't and that they shouldn't, and wind up in line for the community food pantry being judged by the rest of us who drive by in our Priuses and SUVs on our way to work.
Perhaps that is enough political rant for this Sunday afternoon. Until next time, friends.
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