Well, today I got news about my transfer back to the Bay.

Of course, it couldn't just be easy. Apparently the new organizational policy says that if you transfer you basically start TFA all over again. I would sort of be considered an '04 corps member instead of '03 and I would have to start my two year commitment over again.

Now I have to decide if I am willing to teach for two more years. Hmmm...  ¶ 5:46 PM

  Last night I tried to have fun in Rocky Mount. It didn't really work.

I keep trying to figure out what makes this small city such a black-hole. It is like it just has really bad luck...or really lame people or something. I have lived in small towns before that weren't so devoid of anything fun to do. I lived in Bend Oregon and there were cool coffee shops there and little bars and hiking and things. Even Bakersfield California, where I grew up, sort of had okay things to do...well, at least you could drive around and look at stuff.

But Rocky Mount really doesn't have anything to do. There are corporate restaurants. There is a mall (with hardly anything in it). There are big box stores, like Wal-mart and K-mart and all the marts you can handle. There may be little bars somewhere, but I have never seen them. It is really depressing.

So, last night, my roomate had a visitor from New York City and she asked me to "go out" with them. I struggled momentarily (it is very hard to get me out of my depressed station on the couch drooling at the television once I have sunk into it) but eventually decided to go.

We went to this kind of cool looking place that is a Mexican restaurant in a power station. It is right next to an okay little park. Much potential. We decided to sit outside because it was a nice day. The outside tables over look a little river. Sounds lovely, no?

No. There were weird nasty bugs flying everywhere. The quaint little river smelled strongly like garbage. And to top off the ambiance, the tables overlook a freeway, also. And I think this restaurant may be one of the "coolest" places in town.

Ugh. So when I woke up this morning, my mind turned to where to go next. I hate this feeling on a Saturday where I almost dread the weekend. I have hours of this weekend to go and there is nothing to do.

I think I may apply to work at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in August. I don't know what I will do before that when school ends. It is nice to know I will still be getting a paycheck through the summer.

Enough with my rants.  ¶ 9:21 AM

  Teaching is all about the little ups and downs, I suppose. There are moments of excitement when I feel like my kids have really "gotten it" and then, sometimes, that illusion comes crashing down on my head like a ton of bricks.

Not very long ago, I was shocked and appalled to find that my kids neither knew what the Holocaust was, nor did they have any idea who the Jews are. Well, they also had no idea where Germany was, or what World War II was about. So I did about a month of lessons on WWII, Germany, the Holocaust, and Anne Frank. I was so proud at the end because the kids really seemed to, not only understand the details of that time, but have compassion, too.

Yesterday, I took my kids to the school book fair in the library. As they were rifling through the overpriced goodies, one student complained about the prices and tried to bargain. I told her, "This isn't a flea market, you can't bargain, here!" The librarian laughed and said, "Yes, children, there is no Jew room here!"

I've never even heard that expression, but it is clearly offensive. This was coming from a woman who had only moments before said something terribly offensive about Mexicans, so I wasn't shocked. But the student who had been trying to bargain stopped in her tracks when she heard this.

"That's mean to say!" she told the librarian indignantly. My heart swelled with righteous pride and I thought that everything that I had worked for was about to come to full bloom. "Don't you know that all the Jews died from Iraq?"

????

The librarian laughed at her and shook her head. I just stood there, stunned. I have no idea what she was talking about. She has it all wrong. I wonder if they all do. How frustrating is it to teach something and have them pass the tests and everything but know that they really have no idea what I was talking about?

But off I go to teach more things that will become warped in their little maleable heads.  ¶ 6:17 AM

  Here is a quote from one of the college essays my kids wrote last week:

"If I go to college it would be surprising to my parents, because that would make them proud because they didn't go to college that's why my mom be so hard on us about school because they want us to make something in our life they don't want us to be like them and I pray to God that I study hard and I succeed Mrs. R will help me."

Ikea, age 13

A run-on sentence, yes, but what a sentence!  ¶ 8:48 AM

  The First Sign of the Day that I have Become a Teacher:

1. It is 7:23am and I just cut out the phrase "THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT!" in construction paper bubble letters. As I put it up on my corkboard, I thought to myself, "Now that looks nice!"  ¶ 7:24 AM