I talked to the children's director for my church the other day. I'm essentially taking over the preschoolers for the summer. It's a pretty small program, so I'll only have between 10 and 20 kids 5 and under. My job is to take the curriculum (which is geared toward elementary) and adapt it down to preschool level and then write a program around it for about an hour-long service. I don't know how much I'll be teaching (I'd like to not miss all of church for the rest of summer) vs just doing the lesson planning and giving that out to the volunteers, but either way I'm excited. Janet, the children's director, took me around the preschool area so I got to poke around and see what my resources are. I'll be writing up the program for all of July and August. Since I'm going to be out of town this weekend and next, I'll just need to email her the program I write up for the first Sunday in July, and after that I'll be able to be more involved in the implementation of it. Naturally, I'll be in contact with her through the whole process. What will be nice is that I'll have my mom with me as well over this next week while I'm writing it up, so I can use her as a resource too (she's been teaching two-year-old Bible classes for over 20 years). This will definitely be a challenge for me, but I'm looking forward to doing it.
Tomorrow and Friday I have a final each day, and then Friday afternoon I leave for WI, so classes are wrapping up quickly here. As soon as I get back I'll start my internship. Yikes!
25 June 2008
23 June 2008
Just a little update
Yesterday some people at the church had a cookout. It was hosted by Danielle and Ergun. Danielle was the first person I met at the church, she's really friendly and fun, and it was neat to go over. I'd met Ergun a couple times at church, but I got to talk to him for a while there. Turns out he's Turkish, was born in Turkey and moved to Kenya when he was 15, then later came to the US (I don't remember at what age). He and I talked for a really long time, about Turkey, about international politics and happenings in general. It was really interesting. There's a reason my major is my major; I really enjoyed being able to hold an intelligent conversation with a random person on international issues. I also met a guy, Caleb, who is Haitian, so he and I practiced my French some, which was nice because I desperately need to work on it.
We managed to get together some 6-on-6 volleyball that we played for a few hours, which was really fun. I'm so bad at sports, so that part was really embarrassing. But it's a fun group of people, and it was just fun to hang out with people and chill and such things, do the kind of thing I do really get to do off campus. I'm really glad I found this church.
I have a meeting with our children's directer at 1 today to talk about me taking over the preschoolers for the remainder of the summer, so I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. :)
We managed to get together some 6-on-6 volleyball that we played for a few hours, which was really fun. I'm so bad at sports, so that part was really embarrassing. But it's a fun group of people, and it was just fun to hang out with people and chill and such things, do the kind of thing I do really get to do off campus. I'm really glad I found this church.
I have a meeting with our children's directer at 1 today to talk about me taking over the preschoolers for the remainder of the summer, so I'll let you know how that goes when I get back. :)
20 June 2008
I have an internship!
So, as expected, I'm bad at keeping this thing updated. I've been pretty busy with classes recently; last week was midterms, this week is papers, and next week is finals. The biggest thing that happened this week is that I had an interview for an internship, and I got it, which means I know where I'll be working for the second half of the summer. I'll be working at Consensus Building Institute, a nonprofit that works both domestically and internationally with governments, NGO's, corporations, and individuals on conflict resolution and negotiation. So, for instance, say there's an NGO in Kenya that's fighting with the government over something, CBI will come in and mediate and help resolve the issue. They work with the UN a lot too, which I think is really cool. It's a project-based organization, so I'll have some freedom as to what exactly I want to work on. It's also only a 15 minute bus ride from my apt, so it's nice not to have a huge long commute. And it's right on the edge of MIT (it was founded by an MIT professor), so it's in a pretty area too. Overall, I'm pretty excited about it. I start on the Monday after the fourth, so I'll have to let you guys know how it goes.
03 June 2008
Red Sox
So yesterday our program directer, Yolanta, sent out an email saying she'd received 19 Red Sox tickets to the game at Fenway tonight and for people to email her and let her know if we wanted one. So I did, which means I get to go see the Red Sox for free tonight! (Tickets are usually pretty expensive. At least $100, as far as we've seen.) So there's a group of us going and it should be a lot of fun. We're going to run to a sports store to get some Sox paraphernalia before the game. I have to at least have a shirt to wear. It's gonna be fun! Hopefully we'll win. :)
01 June 2008
I found a church!
My roommate and I visited Tremont Temple Baptist Church this morning, and I absolutely loved it! It's a slightly more traditional service than I have at home, with hymnals and the ministers in robes and whatnot. They have an organ that's absolutely gorgeous that they actually play, which I think is amazing. All throughout the sermon you could see the emphasis on prayer, the Bible, and missions. You could really just feel the love of God in that church, and you could sense the sincerity of the people there. They were extremely welcoming, with one or two practically running us down just to say hi to a couple unfamiliar faces. They have a gospel choir (!!) that was having a short practice after service that I was invited to, so I tagged along with that and sang with them and it was really cool. Within the church and the choir there's a whole mix of races and ages. I met a whole lot of people and felt really welcomed. I'm really excited to go back next week. :)
20 May 2008
Summer Apartment and Roommate
Well, I'm here in Boston. My flights went without any significant event. When I got here I had to wait for like an hour and a half before they'd let me in to my apartment, but my roommate had to wait like three hours, so I don't feel too bad. Just typical university inefficiency.
My apartment
The apartment is mostly just old, but it's not too bad. Kind of small and not very open. There are two bedrooms (kind of), but Rachel (my roommate) and I decided to move into one bedroom and then use the other one as a den/TV room. My desk is in there too. We have a tiny little bathroom that's only kind of gross (it is campus housing) and a fairly big kitchen, with a fairly big fridge. It's so nice to have a fridge and a stove and an oven and the means to make my own meals. We apparently don't have a microwave, so we're going to try and look for a cheap one. So overall the apartment's not spectacular, not too bad, probably about what you'd expect for a campus apartment.
My roommate
My roommate's name is Rachel and she's really really sweet. She's from NY, but spent a year in Boston, so she knows her way around a little bit. So far we've been getting along really well. We're both coming from stressful semesters and want to be able to enjoy Boston with as little stress as possible. We've found we complement each other nicely. She does all the decorating for the apartment, and I do the organizing. It's working out well so far. She's really easy to get along with. It should be a fun summer. :)
My apartment
The apartment is mostly just old, but it's not too bad. Kind of small and not very open. There are two bedrooms (kind of), but Rachel (my roommate) and I decided to move into one bedroom and then use the other one as a den/TV room. My desk is in there too. We have a tiny little bathroom that's only kind of gross (it is campus housing) and a fairly big kitchen, with a fairly big fridge. It's so nice to have a fridge and a stove and an oven and the means to make my own meals. We apparently don't have a microwave, so we're going to try and look for a cheap one. So overall the apartment's not spectacular, not too bad, probably about what you'd expect for a campus apartment.
My roommate
My roommate's name is Rachel and she's really really sweet. She's from NY, but spent a year in Boston, so she knows her way around a little bit. So far we've been getting along really well. We're both coming from stressful semesters and want to be able to enjoy Boston with as little stress as possible. We've found we complement each other nicely. She does all the decorating for the apartment, and I do the organizing. It's working out well so far. She's really easy to get along with. It should be a fun summer. :)
16 May 2008
Soon to be on my way!
Well, here I am, sitting in my room a mere three days before I'll be in Boston, MA. I know nothing of the city and no one there, but I'm actually excited to go. Considering how quickly it's all been thrown together (I was admitted into the program just 7 days ago; I just found out my rooming assignment yesterday), it's still kind of amazing to me that I'm going. I'm excited to be out on my own, without anyone or anything familiar, and taking care of myself. I'll be living in an apartment-style dorm, kind of. I'm not sure whether or not I'll have a roommate. But I'll have a kitchen and everything. It should be very exciting.
My host-dad from last summer actually went to MIT, which is just across the river from BU (I live like 300 yards from BU), and he sent me some tips on churches in the area, so I've been looking at those. So far I've looked at these three:
Ruggles Baptist Church
Tremont Temple Baptist Church
Park Street Church
Ruggles is literally about a 15 second walk from my apartment. The other two are a little farther away, but not terribly far. I've been looking at and analyzing their websites for a while now. Park Street seems like an awesome church, but it's got 2000 people that come every Sunday, and since I have a church similar to that at home (Summit), I think I want to try something different for a summer. Find a good, solid church that's not just a replica of Summit in a different place. So I think I've already ruled out Park St.
Just from the websites I can't decide between Ruggles and Tremont. And I was sitting here going back and forth about it in my head, and then I was like, wait, this is silly. You can't judge a church from it's website. A church is made up of it's people. Until I go to the church and see how it works and see how the people are, I can't know what the church is like, regardless of whether or not I agree with their beliefs and their 'personality' as set forth by their website. So at the moment my plan is to visit them both, and any others that I hear of that appeal to me, though I want to find a church and settle down pretty quickly, since I've only got a summer there. But there's no use in deciding now. I'll go and see the churches for myself, then decide. I promise I'll let you guys know how it turns out!
And thanks, Alan, for the advice.
My host-dad from last summer actually went to MIT, which is just across the river from BU (I live like 300 yards from BU), and he sent me some tips on churches in the area, so I've been looking at those. So far I've looked at these three:
Ruggles Baptist Church
Tremont Temple Baptist Church
Park Street Church
Ruggles is literally about a 15 second walk from my apartment. The other two are a little farther away, but not terribly far. I've been looking at and analyzing their websites for a while now. Park Street seems like an awesome church, but it's got 2000 people that come every Sunday, and since I have a church similar to that at home (Summit), I think I want to try something different for a summer. Find a good, solid church that's not just a replica of Summit in a different place. So I think I've already ruled out Park St.
Just from the websites I can't decide between Ruggles and Tremont. And I was sitting here going back and forth about it in my head, and then I was like, wait, this is silly. You can't judge a church from it's website. A church is made up of it's people. Until I go to the church and see how it works and see how the people are, I can't know what the church is like, regardless of whether or not I agree with their beliefs and their 'personality' as set forth by their website. So at the moment my plan is to visit them both, and any others that I hear of that appeal to me, though I want to find a church and settle down pretty quickly, since I've only got a summer there. But there's no use in deciding now. I'll go and see the churches for myself, then decide. I promise I'll let you guys know how it turns out!
And thanks, Alan, for the advice.
16 November 2007
La vie en France: les grèves
Last Tuesday, November 13, the students at the Université Paul-Valery, Montpellier III voted to officially go on strike in response to some reforms Président Sarkozy is making to the French university system. They held some general assemblies and then barricaded off the entrance gates and all of the building entrances with piles of tables and chairs. They then guard the entrances to ensure that no one gets on campus or into their classrooms. In response to this, as is traditional in strike situations, the president of the university cancelled all classes for a week to ensure that no one got hurt trying to get to class and to make sure that no property was damaged (aside from all the graffiti all over the place inspiring everyone in their strike efforts).
Usually, even when the University goes on strike (which happens about once every two years. If you've never gone on strike for something, you're not actually French. My friend's hostmom said when she was a kid her middle school went on strike. That's right, a bunch of 11-year-olds.), the IEFE, the international student program, still goes on as normal, because we're not actually involved in any of the politics of the strike. But the president decided to go ahead and shut us down too, for security reasons, I believe. Which would mean no class for a week.
So we had no class on Wednesday, which didn't affect me anyway, because I never have class on Wednesdays. But I got an email from one of my teachers saying that the situation had changed somewhat, and they were restarting up classes for us international students. Somewhat disappointed that we didn't get a week-long vacation like the regular French students, we went back to class on Thursday.
Friday morning (at 8.30 in the morning, no less), we got to campus to find out the police had barred it off and weren't letting anyone in. Apparently about 20 students were occupying campus and the president decided enough was enough, so he had the police come in to get them off campus, which is a big deal to everyone on strike, because it's like the police have now invaded their sacred ground. The police have evacuated the 20 students and shut down campus to try and avoid any backlash from other students. They don't want a riot. Normally I guess they just let the students have campus indefinitely (a few years ago they went on strike for most of the semester), but this time they decided they want to try and keep the students from taking over campus again. I'm not sure if this means whether they've dismantled all the barricades or not.
About 20 minutes later the directrice of my program called to make sure that we were okay and not stuck in the middle of anything on campus. She said now we're not sure what's going on with class. Some students may rebel against the police being on campus and things could get pretty serious, so the president may just decide to keep everyone off campus, or they could have us start classes back up this afternoon. We're not really sure what's going to happen. Hopefully not a riot though.
I figure I'll just stay away from campus and see what happens. Apparently these things occasionally get pretty ugly. This strike isn't supposed to last that long, and I don't think the movement is that strong, but the president of the university is taking a pretty strong stance, and Sarkozy has said he's not giving in about his reforms, so we'll just see.
The trains are also on strike, because of retirement reform, which means instead of it's thousands of daily trains, France has only hundreds. This Tuesday all of the civil servants are going to go on strike, which will affect trains, trams, buses, and any other government job, such as public pools, libraries, the post office, etc. Pretty much everything will be shut down. And a bunch of the pre-school teachers are going on strike next Tuesday, too. It's getting kind of crazy over here. Everyone is striking. Maybe I should find something to strike about. Maybe I'll go on strike over the strikes. ;)
Usually, even when the University goes on strike (which happens about once every two years. If you've never gone on strike for something, you're not actually French. My friend's hostmom said when she was a kid her middle school went on strike. That's right, a bunch of 11-year-olds.), the IEFE, the international student program, still goes on as normal, because we're not actually involved in any of the politics of the strike. But the president decided to go ahead and shut us down too, for security reasons, I believe. Which would mean no class for a week.
So we had no class on Wednesday, which didn't affect me anyway, because I never have class on Wednesdays. But I got an email from one of my teachers saying that the situation had changed somewhat, and they were restarting up classes for us international students. Somewhat disappointed that we didn't get a week-long vacation like the regular French students, we went back to class on Thursday.
Friday morning (at 8.30 in the morning, no less), we got to campus to find out the police had barred it off and weren't letting anyone in. Apparently about 20 students were occupying campus and the president decided enough was enough, so he had the police come in to get them off campus, which is a big deal to everyone on strike, because it's like the police have now invaded their sacred ground. The police have evacuated the 20 students and shut down campus to try and avoid any backlash from other students. They don't want a riot. Normally I guess they just let the students have campus indefinitely (a few years ago they went on strike for most of the semester), but this time they decided they want to try and keep the students from taking over campus again. I'm not sure if this means whether they've dismantled all the barricades or not.
About 20 minutes later the directrice of my program called to make sure that we were okay and not stuck in the middle of anything on campus. She said now we're not sure what's going on with class. Some students may rebel against the police being on campus and things could get pretty serious, so the president may just decide to keep everyone off campus, or they could have us start classes back up this afternoon. We're not really sure what's going to happen. Hopefully not a riot though.
I figure I'll just stay away from campus and see what happens. Apparently these things occasionally get pretty ugly. This strike isn't supposed to last that long, and I don't think the movement is that strong, but the president of the university is taking a pretty strong stance, and Sarkozy has said he's not giving in about his reforms, so we'll just see.
The trains are also on strike, because of retirement reform, which means instead of it's thousands of daily trains, France has only hundreds. This Tuesday all of the civil servants are going to go on strike, which will affect trains, trams, buses, and any other government job, such as public pools, libraries, the post office, etc. Pretty much everything will be shut down. And a bunch of the pre-school teachers are going on strike next Tuesday, too. It's getting kind of crazy over here. Everyone is striking. Maybe I should find something to strike about. Maybe I'll go on strike over the strikes. ;)
07 November 2007
Toussaints: Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Normandy
November 1, All Saint's Day, is a national holiday in France (but they don't celebrate Halloween), and my professor canceled class for that Friday, so my friend Heather and I left Tuesday night, Oct 30, for Berlin, then went to Hamburg, Paris, and Normandy, then got back Monday morning.
I loved Germany! Berlin is a beautiful city, and I love how full of history it is. We visited the largest section of remnants of the Berlin Wall, which they've turned into an art gallery by having a bunch of people paint things along it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Wall is actually two walls, one on the East side and one on the West, separated by a few hundred yards of empty space. Most of the Wall was destroyed, but they've marked in cobblestone where it used to be all around the city. Since the area in between the walls also started growing things and got somewhat overgrown right after Wall fell, the city is also endeavoring to turn all of that space into green space, with walking and biking paths and gardens, etc, all across the city. It's actually pretty cool.
Berlin is a gorgeous city, very clean. I liked it a lot. Heather and I did a lot of walking around, not really looking for anything specific. We went to the IMAX theater and saw the movie Trade (in English). I thought it was very well done. It's about sex trafficking in the United States. Definitely a very intense movie, and one I wouldn't take your children to see, but it brings up some of the hidden crimes in the States, the ones no one hears about but that are becoming more and more common.
We also went to the Berlin zoo, where I got to see lots of fun animals. It was very exciting.
Next we went to Hamburg, where we once again didn't really do much except walk around and look at it be pretty. We wanted our trip to be kind of leisurely and relaxing, not running from monument to monument or anything like that, so that's what we did.
Then we went to Paris, where we went to see a ballet at the Opéra Garnier. It was actualy two 40-minute ballets, both of them modern, and the first one was pretty good, but the second one was really cool. I love watching people dance. Ballet is easily my favorite form. It's so gorgeous, I nearly start drooling whenever I see a good ballet dancer. I was really glad I got to go see one in Paris. The Opéra Garnier is a gorgeous old opera house too. It looks like something out of a movie. We were in these little six-person boxes, all done up in red velvet and gilded everything. We had good seats too. It was awesome.
We then went to Normandy for a day and toured Pointe du Hoc, Omaha beach, the American museum, and the German and American cemeteries. It was really neat. Pointe du Hoc is still filled with craters from all the bombs and everything, and you can see the nearly-sheer cliffs the Rangers had to climb to get to the German cannons in an attempt to incapacitate them. Omaha beach is huge, five miles long, and at low tide you can still see where the Americans built an artificial port in the days right after D-day.
The cemeteries were crazy. The American one is the largest land-wise, with 9,000 graves, and it's very impressive. The German one actually affected me more though. It takes up less land, but it's got 21,000 people buried in it, two people for each cross, and being there was very sobering. At least in the American cemetery, you know that each of those people died fighting for freedom, fighting to defend all the people that were unable to defend themselves and were being brutally slaughtered. In the German cemetery, all I could think was that these thousands upon thousands of people died for nothing, fought for nothing. For some maybe it was voluntary, for some maybe they were brainwashed, but when it comes down to it, what were they fighting for? Political power for their homeland? The right to do whatever they wanted, even if it mean slaughtering millions of people they deemed "unworthy"? To prove the superiority of their own race over all others? It's all just vanity, and it took over an entire country. It's astounding, and it's so sad to think of the millions of people that were killed by it, both in the concentration camps and during the war, Allies and Germans.
Overall, the trip went really well, and we were glad we got to go. We loved Germany and northern France was gorgeous, even though it was starting to get kind of cold. It's our last big trip, so we're glad it was a good one!
I loved Germany! Berlin is a beautiful city, and I love how full of history it is. We visited the largest section of remnants of the Berlin Wall, which they've turned into an art gallery by having a bunch of people paint things along it. Contrary to popular opinion, the Wall is actually two walls, one on the East side and one on the West, separated by a few hundred yards of empty space. Most of the Wall was destroyed, but they've marked in cobblestone where it used to be all around the city. Since the area in between the walls also started growing things and got somewhat overgrown right after Wall fell, the city is also endeavoring to turn all of that space into green space, with walking and biking paths and gardens, etc, all across the city. It's actually pretty cool.
Berlin is a gorgeous city, very clean. I liked it a lot. Heather and I did a lot of walking around, not really looking for anything specific. We went to the IMAX theater and saw the movie Trade (in English). I thought it was very well done. It's about sex trafficking in the United States. Definitely a very intense movie, and one I wouldn't take your children to see, but it brings up some of the hidden crimes in the States, the ones no one hears about but that are becoming more and more common.
We also went to the Berlin zoo, where I got to see lots of fun animals. It was very exciting.
Next we went to Hamburg, where we once again didn't really do much except walk around and look at it be pretty. We wanted our trip to be kind of leisurely and relaxing, not running from monument to monument or anything like that, so that's what we did.
Then we went to Paris, where we went to see a ballet at the Opéra Garnier. It was actualy two 40-minute ballets, both of them modern, and the first one was pretty good, but the second one was really cool. I love watching people dance. Ballet is easily my favorite form. It's so gorgeous, I nearly start drooling whenever I see a good ballet dancer. I was really glad I got to go see one in Paris. The Opéra Garnier is a gorgeous old opera house too. It looks like something out of a movie. We were in these little six-person boxes, all done up in red velvet and gilded everything. We had good seats too. It was awesome.
We then went to Normandy for a day and toured Pointe du Hoc, Omaha beach, the American museum, and the German and American cemeteries. It was really neat. Pointe du Hoc is still filled with craters from all the bombs and everything, and you can see the nearly-sheer cliffs the Rangers had to climb to get to the German cannons in an attempt to incapacitate them. Omaha beach is huge, five miles long, and at low tide you can still see where the Americans built an artificial port in the days right after D-day.
The cemeteries were crazy. The American one is the largest land-wise, with 9,000 graves, and it's very impressive. The German one actually affected me more though. It takes up less land, but it's got 21,000 people buried in it, two people for each cross, and being there was very sobering. At least in the American cemetery, you know that each of those people died fighting for freedom, fighting to defend all the people that were unable to defend themselves and were being brutally slaughtered. In the German cemetery, all I could think was that these thousands upon thousands of people died for nothing, fought for nothing. For some maybe it was voluntary, for some maybe they were brainwashed, but when it comes down to it, what were they fighting for? Political power for their homeland? The right to do whatever they wanted, even if it mean slaughtering millions of people they deemed "unworthy"? To prove the superiority of their own race over all others? It's all just vanity, and it took over an entire country. It's astounding, and it's so sad to think of the millions of people that were killed by it, both in the concentration camps and during the war, Allies and Germans.
Overall, the trip went really well, and we were glad we got to go. We loved Germany and northern France was gorgeous, even though it was starting to get kind of cold. It's our last big trip, so we're glad it was a good one!
17 October 2007
London
This past weekend a group of us went to London for Saturday and Sunday. It was a lot of fun! We flew there Saturday morning, then checked in and ate lunch at our hostel/pub. I had to register for classes for next semester at 3.15 London time, so I found an internet cafe and got that out of the way. Then we just kind of wandered a while, figured out the Tube, went by Buckingham Palace, etc, then Caitlin and I had to head back to the hostel to get ready to go see LES MISERABLES that night. I was so excited!
Les Mis was awesome! I've read the book (multiple times) and know the music inside out, so it was great to finally see the play as it was meant to be seen. I tried not to cry too much. It was soooo good. Unfortunately, because of Les Mis, I had to miss the France-England rugby game (semi-finals of the World Cup, which is being hosted in France, and even partly in Montpellier). At intermission people were checking the score and France was winning, but when we got out of Les Mis we learned that we'd ended up losing, which was sad. Oh well.
Sunday we just wandered around and were tourists. Saw all the exciting things in London. We actually had good weather: partly cloudy, no rain, didn't even really need a jacket except late at night. Walking around and sightseeing is fun.
Monday morning we got up at 2am, caught a cab at 2.45, caught a bus at 3.30, got to the airport at 5, caught our plane at 6, and got back to France at 9. I had been planning on going to my classes that day, but by the time my hostdad picked us up at the airport at 9.30, we were all exhuasted and I just went home and slept til 6 that night. Also, my hostdad taught me the French phrase for cutting class. We had crepes for dinner. It was yummy.
Yay England!
Les Mis was awesome! I've read the book (multiple times) and know the music inside out, so it was great to finally see the play as it was meant to be seen. I tried not to cry too much. It was soooo good. Unfortunately, because of Les Mis, I had to miss the France-England rugby game (semi-finals of the World Cup, which is being hosted in France, and even partly in Montpellier). At intermission people were checking the score and France was winning, but when we got out of Les Mis we learned that we'd ended up losing, which was sad. Oh well.
Sunday we just wandered around and were tourists. Saw all the exciting things in London. We actually had good weather: partly cloudy, no rain, didn't even really need a jacket except late at night. Walking around and sightseeing is fun.
Monday morning we got up at 2am, caught a cab at 2.45, caught a bus at 3.30, got to the airport at 5, caught our plane at 6, and got back to France at 9. I had been planning on going to my classes that day, but by the time my hostdad picked us up at the airport at 9.30, we were all exhuasted and I just went home and slept til 6 that night. Also, my hostdad taught me the French phrase for cutting class. We had crepes for dinner. It was yummy.
Yay England!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)