The biggest problem with New York City is that as soon as you think to yourself, "Hey, I know what I'm doing," someone bumps into you and you spill your coffee and turn around so that your bag whacks a woman in the face. Okay, so that's an exaggeration (I didn't actually spill my coffee, but I did have problems keeping my bag from knocking into people), but seriously, this place is like an amoeba.
Today we drove around with Maggie and Betsy to our school placements. The schools are in three different neighborhoods: The Lower East Side, Washington Heights, and Jackson Heights. I'm going to be working at the one in the Lower East Side. Somehow I felt more comfortable being chauffeured by experienced New York drivers in bumper to bumper traffic than being a passenger on the bus this morning with a student driver who had difficulty making right turns. My school will be a mix of progressive and traditional education. I have really good feelings about the environment it provides for the students.
Soon, this blog will stop being all about me and my subway mishaps. I will probably give the kids pseudonyms and talk about my day to day life with them. They're in a fifth grade classroom with a wonderful teacher who has hosted a lot of UES students(another reason for why I'm so happy with my placement.) The kids always make experiences like this worthwhile, especially when they come highly praised by teachers who have been at the same school for twenty years (true story.)
Side story: I went to see the play "Madama Butterfly" this past Monday night. It was incredible!!! Free seating outside the Lincoln Square Theatre with a projection of the opera on a huge (nearly half the size of a movie screen) HDTV. This is a new initiative that started this summer, and it was the last show of the season. Kayla and I picnicked on the lovely New York sidewalk and watched an incredible performance for zero US dollars.
More info later. Thursday can't come soon enough!
(Or maybe I want to postpone it a little longer.)
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