China, Gravity, Twilight

Long time no blog! You may be wondering what those three words have in common. Well, the only thing is that they have been on my mind recently!

CHINA - We had planned on living in China for a 5 months between graduation and medical school. As fall semester progressed, we anxiously waited to hear from med schools. In the meantime, we were assigned a school in China to teach at with an apartment, benefits, and classes. It was actually going to be at a college! We started to get nervous when we didn't hear anything from med schools. Eli contacted a school and told them of our situation which they responded to with "we conduct interviews through April." I kept holding onto the hope that we were still going to China and that things would work out. As finals week approached, China was put on hold until we heard from medical schools about interviews. A week after Christmas, Eli received two interviews from Wisconsin and Vermont which take place in February and March. So any hopes of going to China were thrown away which resulted in me being pretty bummed. This left us in search of jobs for just 7 months. It's hard to find temporary jobs that aren't just desk jobs or office assistant jobs, and neither of us wanted one of those now that we have degrees. So...

Eli was hired back at National Jewish Medical Center as a research assistant, but this time with a salary and benefits. Yay! I was planning on substitute teaching but realized after many phone calls and much waiting that, with a December graduation, my documents wouldn't be ready for a while. I still applied to a last minute 4th grade teaching position in Castle Rock which I had two interviews for. I was one of two finalists. The principal knew that I would only be able to teach for this school year as we would be moving in the fall. Still, she interviewed me. My hopes were up and then shattered when she told me that I was her top choice and would have hired me, but that the other 4th grade teachers wanted someone who was more long-term. I understood that, but it was still a bummer because she knew that. Again, it's hard to find a job temporarily! BUT, she did offer me a kindergarten teaching job while the normal teacher is gone on maternity leave for 3 months. I never thought I would teach kindergarten (2nd is about the lowest grade I like to teach!), but I decided, "what the heck!", I might as well get more experience teaching a different grade. At this point, I have now taught K, 2nd, 5th, and 6th grades! It's kind of like student
teaching again since I'm in another person's classroom, but at least I am able to teach regularly and not a different class everyday. This job will last for a few months and then I'll be looking for a new summer job...oh boy! I am extremely grateful that things worked out.

GRAVITY - I absolutely LOVE Sara Bareilles' song "Gravity." It's all I've been listening to lately and can't wait to learn it on the piano. Beautiful.

TWILIGHT - At the encouragement of many peers, I finally read the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. They are addicting! They aren't the best books I've ever read but I do like the love story of Bella and Edward. The only thing I don't like about the series is that Bella is 17...a little too young for this type of love. Still, the books are entertaining and I'm excited for the 4th!