The end of the school year is approaching and once I again I am uncertain as to what I want my next step to be. At this point I plan on returning to my teaching job this fall, but the thought of that makes me want to poke my eyes out. I’m teaching until mid-June, then headed to graduate school for the summer, so there is time to contemplate my next move.
Any ideas?
It’s cold this weekend, and it wouldn’t be too terrible except that we had a bit of warmer temperatures earlier this month. What a tease, this weather. I’m loving the more mild winters of New Jersey, but anxiously awaiting spring. The trees need their leaves, the grass needs to green, and the flowers need to blossom. I think I need some spring in my own life, too. I’ve been in my new place for more than a month but haven’t decorated or made it home yet. It’s time to think about curtains and pictures and vases and other decorations. I don’t know if I’ll be here for the fall, but I feel like I need to make my home more welcoming to me, even for the time being.
I’m getting back into shape, after a terrible year-long hiatus. It is never a good idea to take such a long break, but now that I’m getting back into things I feel much better. Happier. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. Suddenly working full-time, paying bills and taking care of my life like a grown-up isn’t as dreadful as I had thought. Sure, I have moments where I want to scream, and then there are the weekly thoughts of a career-change, but in general I’m happy with my life.
So this spring I plan to take better care of my body, make my home more welcoming and stop trying to avoid adulthood. Then come summer, I’ll be able to spend some time enjoying life away from work and routine and everyday life. I’m looking forward to creating more balance.
I’ve been here for three weeks now, and I have to say there’s nothing wrong with the place as I had feared. But I can’t say there is anything fantastic about New Jersey, either. It’s winter, so the ocean is not appealing. I actually wouldn’t go in the water in the summer either, but most people would probably consider me neurotic about that (um, just so you know NJ is known as a toxic dump). Maybe there is something redeeming with the ocean in the winter, but someone may have to point it out to me because I’m not finding it on my own. We’ve had a few snow storms, but the snow only stays around for a day or two. I’m looking for things to do, like hike and places to meet people, but I haven’t really found anything that I like. I haven’t felt this alone since the year I lived in Bad Salzuflen with all of the old Germans, but at least then I was in Deutschland I lived across from a park with tons of hiking trails to explore, and in a town with lots of German Kuchen to sample. And I made some great friends that year, but it did take a little time.
Working has been going well. There are a lot of great teachers in both of my schools, the students are great for the most part, and I’m liking it so far. We’ll see if it works out to return in the fall. I still have to give the area a chance, and I have a little over four months to figure it out. Right now I spend time at work and time at home. I need to expand my circle, so I’m thinking of adding kickboxing and found a place not too far from my apartment. Most people know that I love my alone time: time to reflect, contemplate, plan, organize, but I do need the balance of a social group to spend time with on a regular basis so that I have time to be goofy and laugh and socialize. My current social groups happen to be in Minnesota, Lancaster County, and Munich. It hasn’t been difficult for me to make friends easily, but I feel I’m walking into a suburban-like area, with everyone already in their little niches. There is room for me somewhere, I am sure of this, I just can’t seem to find it. Maybe getting older makes it harder, or maybe it just means I need to try some new things.
One new thing, as of late, has been eHarmony. I’m not against online dating, as I’ve used it before, but I’ve never had much luck with it. I may just be a bad judge of someone based on his profile, but the guys I’m meeting have not been good matches. I don’t need to meet my Big Love, but it would be nice to find someone, or several someones, to go on casual dates with, especially to get to know the area and to get to know more people. I’ve been trying to communicate with guys I wouldn’t normally be drawn to, to see if I’m being too choosy or narrow, but these matches have also been disappointing. I’ll continue with it until my subscription runs out next month, but it’s not looking promising.
Life in New Jersey, is not so bad. Moving to a new place in the middle of winter, a little daunting, but I’m optimistic about the possibilities.
I was able to catch this flick a few weeks ago, before the Oscar nominations came out, and let’s just say I’m not surprised it was skipped over for nominations in any of the big categories. This movie is over-hyped. The chemistry between Kate and Leo is there, as many have commented, but the characters are annoying and not very well-developed. More specifically their relationship is hard to believe: one night of pseudo-witty conversation at a party does not equal enough foundation to believe that they were really destined to be a great couple (or individuals) as they were portrayed to be. So during most of the film when they are complaining about their ordinary lives, I found it hard to empathize with them and instead wanted them to get over themselves and the film to end.
I will say I found Kate Winslet did a great job in her role; I just found the character annoying. Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t terrible, but without Kate I think he may have been worse. The film is good enough to recommend, if even just for the costuming and set design, but not something everyone should run to the theater to see, especially with some great movies out there.
Today I met with human resources in my new district to go over all of the nitty-gritty details of my new position. As it turns out, teaching in New Jersey is well-compensated and it’s the third highest-paying state for teachers in the country. Minnesota is somewhere in the middle, so this is a large increase for my bank account. Some argue that the cost of living is higher so it should even out, but without doing any fancy-schmancy mathematical equations, I do think that I will have more expendable income as a result of my new position.
Some other bonuses: three personal days per year, which is an increase from my previous one day; free health insurance for my family (currently non-existant) after three years of service; and observing Yom Kippur as a holiday.
Now there are a few drawbacks in comparison to Minnesota: only 10 sick days in comparison to MN’s 15, 180 student contact days in comparison to 175, and substitute teachers only receive $70 per day in comparison to MN’s $100. I’m starting as a substitute on January 29thand will be considered a sub until my state teaching certificate is issued. I’ll then be paid retroactively for the monthmy certificate is issued, which should be sometime in February, so I’ll only receive the sub pay for two or three days in January. Without any official numbers from Minnesota in front of me, it also seems to me that the pay differential for teachers with master’s degrees in New Jersey is not as generous as Minnesota, thus rendering my eventual master’s degree as not much of a good investment, financially.
My three years and offer of tenure in Minnesota will count as two years on the new payscale and I’ll have to teach with the district for three years to receive tenure in New Jersey. I’m a little disappointed that I can’t have that reduced to one year, but it doesn’t really mean too much.
My new district teaches with the normal schedule, eight forty-three minute periods. After the teaching the dreaded block schedule in Minnesota, this is a huge bonus for me. We also get a full 43 minutes for a lunch period, which is an increase of 13 minutes!
Something new: a 43-minute duty period for all teachers. This includes lunch duty, welcome desk duty, hall monitoring, and maybe bus duty? All I can say is… babysitting for full-time pay? Ok. My school day is also shorter by ten minutes, starting at 7:20 and ending at 1:40. When I began teaching in Minnesota I thought our 2:00 P.M. dismissal was early!
All-in-all I am excited for the changes and hope that I can enjoy the second semester with my new district. If all goes well I plan to stay with them in the fall, otherwise it’s back to the job search this spring and summer.
After seeing Anne Hathaway in “Bride Wars”, it was a shock to see her do a complete turn around into Kym, a girl with many, many emotional issues and chemical dependency problems. I think Hathaway did a great job and I would be excited for her to receive an Oscar nomination, as is the current feeling of many people.
The movie is dark and depressing, and her family’s issues are too complex for me to analyze. But I will say that I was often annoyed with Kym, not quite able to understand her either. I’ve always thought my family had issues, but this family takes the cake. I ended up sympathizing with Rachel, and at the very end of the film you can see why.
There is a terrible tragedy that happened to the family, and the details are slowly revealed throughout the film. The one question I kept asking myself throughout the film was finally asked by Kym at her mother’s house. That scene was overwhelming and also saddening, but it made sense.
The one thing that I did not like was the shaky camera used throughout the entire movie. Viewing this on a large screen made me nauseous at points, and I rarely have this problem. It was probably fitting, as Kym is running around in the film and you start to wish everything would sit still, but for her it can’t, and you have to continue running around with her.
Though the film is dark, there are many complex issues and themes interwoven throughout the film that make it very interesting and entertaining in a contemplative sense. I’d recommend it, but if you are sensitive to motion sickness, wait for the DVD and view it on a smaller screen.
If you told me a year ago that I would be living in New Jersey, about to begin a teaching job in the middle of the school year, I would have laughed in your face and commented on how little you knew about me. If you added to that prediction that I would also be driving a pick-up truck, I would have probably started rolling on the floor in laughter. But here I sit, in the beach house I am renting for the remainder of the winter, a block from the Jersey Shore and my brother’s pick-up truck parked in the lot next to my house. I start my job next week, but this week I’m busy with a German proficiency test, fingerprinting, paperwork, TB testing, and cleaning my new place and finding my way around the area. I’m actually excited for my job and very thankful to have found employment, even if it means living in New Jersey.
My little house looks beautiful on the outside, but the inside leaves something to be desired. It’s old, not well-maintained and has a musty smell of a house that hasn’t been lived in probably since Labor Day weekend. The town is cute, but it’s too cold to explore and I’m not walking on the beach until it’s a little warmer. It doesn’t seem to me that there are many people around, but that would make sense as the Jersey Shore is not a winter destination. Yesterday I drove to a Target, to buy some desperately needed cleaning supplies for my house, and it seems like the area is filled with a lot of little towns linked together by shopping centers and strip malls, much like suburbia. It was Saturday, so I hope that the heavy traffic was just a weekend thing, as I did not like driving the big truck in unfamiliar territory. The highlight of my outing was discovering the biggest, nicest Target I have ever seen. Coming from Minnesota, the Land of Target, I was not expecting this. Sad is it to me though, that I take comfort from a store.
The best part about my new location is the walking distance to the train station that will take me right into Manhattan. I can go in for a day and not have it be a big production. I love NYC and hope to take advantage of my proximity. I’m already trying to find the first day that I can make it and thinking of my favorite places to visit.
But for today, with the cold spell, I will stay inside, under my own covers and read, watch movies in French, and scrub everything in the house one more time. I’d love to open all of the windows to air the place out a little, but it’s too cold today. I’m trying to be excited for the next few months and am hoping that my stay in New Jersey is a good one, and hoping for warmer weather so I can get out and explore.
On a side note, I did manage to see Rachel Getting Married and Revolutionary Road. Reviews to come. I was hoping to see more movies before leaving Philly, but time did not allow. I’ll be searching for the closest theaters here in Jersey…
I’m adding a new category to my blog: Movie Reviews. I’ve been watching a lot of films lately and am wanting to see so many films in the theaters at the moment. I was counting down the days for “Bride Wars” because I absolutely love me a good chick flick. And no, I’m not ashamed to admit to it. I’m also enjoying my last few weeks of unemployment before I move to New Jersey to start my new job, so I should catch up on movies before I’m back to the daily grind.
“Bride Wars” is not the best chick flick I’ve ever seen, but it was worth the excitement I had in anticipation for it. I read the reviews and was sad to find that all of the critics were giving it such poor grades. It was never meant to be an Oscar-worthy film, and I think most people going to see it are ok with this. The characters were a little flat, and their relationships were not very inspiring, but it was cute, made me laugh and cry, and also made me miss my best friend. Anne Hathaway’s character was more believable than Kate Hudson’s, but maybe I’m biased because Hathaway’s character was a teacher. Both were unrealistic, but one should expect stereotypes for such a film. I give it three stars out of four, but only in the Chick Flick category. You probably can wait for it to come to Netflix, unless you were counting down the days like me.
Ok, so I’m not so great at movie reviews, but Bride Wars doesn’t have much depth. I’m planning to see The Reader, which is based on a German book I actually read in undergrad. I’m also wanting to see the newly-hyped film Slumdog Millionaire. Philly has some great little independent movie theaters that are showing a lot of movies on my list. Tomorrow I’m going to check out Rachel Getting Married.
Last night I said goodbye to 2008 and was very excited to do so. It wasn’t the greatest year for me, but I do realize it could have been much worse and I am thankful for many things that happened throughout the year. But I’m also thankful for the promise that 2009 brings, not just for me personally, but for everyone. My dad says that my grandfather used to say something like, “things are bad and then it gets worse.” Lucky for me, I didn’t inherit that pessimism. I’ve had a few “off years” or “off seasons” in my life and I’ve always managed to get through them and I know with a lot of work and determination, I’ll do better at making 2009 a great year.
There are still a lot of things that I need to figure out, including employment, getting into a routine, meeting new people in my new city, finding activities/groups and other things that come along with relocating. I have a job offer that will take me away from Philly for five months, and am currently going through all of the paperwork and praying that it will work out (I’m going CRAZY not working!). But it’s not a guarantee at this point, as the position needs to be approved (which I didn’t know until AFTER I’d interviewed, long story), I need to be officially approved (I was chosen by the interviewer, but the board has to approve my appointment), and I need to get a license for the state. It’s a lot of paperwork (and fees!) for a temporary job, a big headache, but I am thankful for the promise of employment. And should the position go well, it could lead to longer-term employment. Plus, I’m hoping to rent a beach house for the rest of the winter, which sounds like fun!
I’m hoping to continue my graduate studies this summer. It’s a matter of time and cost and whether or not the first six months of this year go smoothly. If I were to have to skip this summer it wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would mean delaying my graduation until 2012, which just seems too far away. Last year it was decided about three weeks before the start of the session that I was able to work it out and make it, so it could come down to the last minute. But oh, how I love Middlebury. It was one of the bright highlights of my 2008. It’s stressful and a lot of work, but it is so much fun!
Then in the fall I hope to have a full-time teaching job, my own apartment, and a sense of once again being independent. The hardest part since returning from France has been the dependency I’ve had on my family. They’ve been wonderful and supportive, but I just want to support myself as soon as I am able.
So today I’ll make a list of goals for the year, something I do every January 1st, and think about what I want to accomplish and what my dreams are for the future. I’ll make some resolutions and will only keep some of them and only some of the time, but 2009 will be, god-willing, just a small part of my life, and I want to enjoy it as much as possible. Time flies!
Here’s wishing you and yours a very healthy and happy 2009!!!
On Thursday of this past week, the weatherman mentioned that a cold front would be arriving this weekend in Philadelphia. It’s winter, so I don’t find it surprising or disappointing that the weather is turning colder. We haven’t had any snow yet in Philly and the daily temperatures have been in the 40s, sometimes low-50s. I think this is normal for the area, but seeing as I spent seven years in Minnesota, my definition of “cold” is not the same as it used to be, growing up southeastern PA. I haven’t found it to be particularly cold this year, except in my apartment because the heater just isn’t working well.
So I looked at the weather forecast online to see what this cold front translated to temperature-wise. It turns out that 34 degrees is a cold front in Philly. (During the winter in Minnesota 30+ degrees is a heat wave.) People were bundled up on the streets, but I found it pleasantly brisk. It’s cold enough that you need a thick winter coat and gloves and scarves, but it’s not dangerously freezing your nose or eyeballs. This, my friends, is one of the main reasons I left Minnesota. There will be a few cold spells here this winter, but it won’t compare to anything I experienced in Minnesota. Looking ahead to this week the temperatures are supposed to reach the low 50s, which would not happen until April in Minnesota.
It’s great to be experiencing a more mild form of winter, but I’ll be missing a white Christmas since those are rare in PA.
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