Please Redirect Yourself (to My Other Blog)

For the last few months now, I have been keeping up two blogs -- this one and another one hosted by Wordpress. Exactly the same content, but just hosted two different places. That's mostly because I'm lazy and haven't taken the time to figure out how to automatically route this site to that site.

Of course, that laziness there just means that on this end, I've had to upload all my pictures and material twice. So really more work in the long run. Go figure.

Well, now that my internet access is limited (wont get it at home for another week and am currently parked outside a storefront on Main Street, sweating off my body weight in water just to get internet), I don't have the patience/time/energy/desire to upkeep two.

So, my friends, I give you this link: www.virginiafrommontana.com.

Please follow it through to my other site and bookmark that one. And someday (hopefully soon), I'll get virginiafilms.blogspot.com to automatically reroute to virginiafrommontana.com.

Until then, I apologize, but you'll have to do the work.

All My Love,
Virginia From Montana

Things I Never Thought I'd Say -- #2

"I slept in an antebellum mansion the other night."

I did.

For realz.

A few of the corps members are renting a legit Antebellum mansion in Eutaw (about 20 or 30 minutes away), and I spent the night there once last week when I had to be Greensboro really early in the morning (before I had moved into my home).

Just another of the many reasons I'm excited to be living in the deep South for a couple years.

The original doorbell.

Math Praxis in Tuscaloosa

Last Saturday, before our week of Teach For America Orientation in Birmingham (getting ready for the school year), I had to take the Secondary Math Praxis in Tuscaloosa. Joy.

If you remember before, the Social Studies Praxis may or may not have been an extremely painful experience for me this spring (i.e. I fell asleep while taking it during Spring Break and studied too hard for it in April). I finally passed it though, and congratulated myself on at least being done with that phase of TFA stuff.

False.

When I started Induction in June, I was told that there weren’t enough Social Studies positions hiring, so I chose to also interview for math. I got a math job. Which means I’d have to take the math Praxis.

This is the building where I took my Praxis last Saturday. Crazy fancy building for the University of Alabama business college.

And I thought the OU business college was nice.

This is how we felt after the test.

It was a painful experience.

After the test, to make us feel better, a few of us walked around the University of Alabama campus for a while. Since quite a few of the BamaCorps members went to school there, we’d been hearing lots about the place over the summer. It was fun to finally check it out.

Definitely a beautiful campus. Very southern.

Oh, and after the test we all got breakfast at this super cute breakfast spot called Wayside Restaurant. While I’m biased and personally think nothing will ever stack up to The Diner in Norman, this was a preeeeetty close second.

It’s basically a little red house that they converted into a breakfast diner, where there are about 16 tables and a plethora of Alabama doodads covering all available wall space.

A perfect end to a not-so-awesome morning.

Officially Moved In

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am now an official resident of Greensboro, Alabama. I have a house and a bed and a mailing address. I have a school and a classroom and a principal.

I live in the quaintest place imaginable, and right now, I'm having a hard time believing I'll ever get sick of this place. Never. It's toooooo precious (pictures to come soon).

Love,
Virginia from Montana (currently living/teaching in Alabama)

Out of Service

I was about to blog to warn everyone that they wouldn't be hearing from me for a while because I'll be without internet for the weekend, and then I remembered that you really haven't been hearing much from me anyway, regardless of whether I have internet or not.

Whoops.

That's going to change though. I'm going to get better. I hope. This teaching thing is really hard and I'm going to need all my resources to survive the next two years, and since blogging has always been my coping strategy in the past, I think I'll use it for this go-around.

Get excited. The next time you hear from me, I'll have a house and a job and all those fun thing that mean "grown-up."

Until then, let's pray I don't get lost in rural Alabama again. This no GPS thing is stressing me out.

Officially Hired

I have a job! Hallelujah!

I will be teaching eighth grade Pre-Algebra in the fall, and I couldn't be more excited.

I am a teacher. Life is crazy. Wish me luck!

Po' Monkey

I keep finding all these pictures from the summer that I never posted (and blog ideas that never made it up). Institute will do that to you, I guess. But now I have a relatively clear week, so I can get around to putting up all the pictures I've taken recently.

The first of these are pictures from my excursion to Po' Monkey during the FIRST weeks of Institute.

Po' Monkey, really Poor Monkey (gotta love that charming Southern slang), is a place unlike any other. Established in 1961, it is considered to be one of the last juke joints in the south.

We'd heard about it because it was one of those "places to see" while in the Delta. A last true remnant of juke joints? Yes please. A no-brainer.

Refreshed and Renewed

Oklahoma has been good to me. Since deciding to go to school there four years ago, it has become my home, full of amazing memories and people I love (and miss dearly). So last week, when someone in BamaCorps mentioned that they were driving to Oklahoma for the week break between Institute and Orientation, I almost died of happiness. Would I like to come with her? Hell yes, I want to come with you!

So blessing of blessings, I got to stay in Oklahoma for almost a week, soaking up the sun, sleeping a bit more than before, and seeing all my friends one more time before the craziness of teaching starts for realz.

There's nothing like a little R&R with friends. Nowhere to go and nothing to do. Well, sure I studied for the Praxis (Khan Academy = the best thing that ever happened to zee interwebs), but that's it. Nothing more than that. And it was loooooooovely. Absolute bliss. The break was good for my soul.

But all good things must come to an end eventually. The week sped by way too quickly, and early Friday morning my TFA friend was at my door, ready to take me back down south. Seeing the new lives that my friends are creating for themselves, I'm so sad to leave and maybe miss out on some of that.

But I am also excited about the new life that I am creating here. The week showed me that, while my friends will always be a part of my life, it's time to start letting go of Oklahoma. I'm with a new state now, and it's only fair to start that new relationship with a whole heart (and no pieces left behind). Can't be emotionally cheating now, can I?

So no need to worry, Alabama. I'm here 100%.

At least for the next two years.

Khan Academy = Lifesaver

Spent all day today studying for the Secondary Math Praxis that I have to pass on Saturday. Gross.

Cramming and trying to remember everything I learned in high school is sooooo much harder than I thought it'd be. Thank god Khan Academy exists. I've spent so much time on that site today watching tutorial videos. So much time, in fact, that I finally signed up for an account so I can get points for each video I watch. Not sure what happens when I get however many points I'm supposed to get, but it sure is fun to watch that number tick up during each movie. Keeps me entertained during these boring, boring times.

. . .

“Greatness is not in where we stand, but in what direction we are moving.  We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but sail we must and not drift, nor lie at anchor”

– Oliver Wendell Holmes