Anime Fan Since • 1996 Favorite Anime • The funny ones. Goals • Learn a third language, Live in another country for a few months Hobbies • Painting, Drawing, Writing, Bumming Talents • Resistance.
myOtaku.com: visualkei
Welcome to my site archives. 10 posts are listed per page.
I graduated in May. From college!
Okay, so I've graduated. It felt really good having the whole family there at the graduation ceremony. It was my dad's first time to attend any of his children's graduation ceremonies, and I heard he was still yelling out my name way after I appeared on stage. =].
Oh yes, what's even sweeter is that I feel like I extra-prepared myself to get a job. Did lots of homework to prepare me for interviews. I got a job. The school district and grade level I wanted. I feel so thankful. For now. =P
After that, I felt like a great weight was lifted off my shoulders, and I could happily graduate and go to summer school. I feel good. On graduation day I announced to everyone that I'd accepted a job, and I think my parents were relieved that one child is finally out of school. Right after my graduation lunch, we went back to my apartment and packed like hell to leave for Houston.
Next day, we went to Splashtown for the 12th year in a row, I believe. I had no idea we’ve kept up this tradition for that long until Thai mentioned it!
Around this time, I gave up the room in my house to a cousin from Boston. He was sooooo different from us. His family was thinking about moving here, and he was deliberating whether he would be here for a while until he found a permanent home in Houston. After about two weeks, he decided Houston wasn’t the place for his family, and he left. It’s awful to say, but I was happy. I missed having my own room!
For the rest of May, I basically was a bum. I’ve been planning how I wanted to spend my paychecks already! And graduate school... haha. I can’t help it. Sat around and figured out how I wanted to organize my classroom, and made the kids helped me organize the hundreds of books I was able to collect. It was so tiring! Through handling the books one by one, it became even more apparent what a wonderful collection I had. By the way, I bought most of the books without even knowing what I was getting.
So, due to an agreement, I'm back in school to take a summer class to prepare me for an extra teaching certification.
Lately I've been scoping the web for good deals on things to furnish my classroom with. So far I've bought a cute chair for $5 and got a free bookshelf. I'm still looking for some big pillows, beanbags, and another cheap comfortable chair. Teachers shell out so much money and work just to have a decent classroom.
In two weeks I'll be out of school for good. Woo-hoo! But it seems that school shopping will never end.
The last day of apprentice teaching was yesterday.
Wow. So much happened.
I brought donuts and cinnamon rolls in the morning for their snack time. When I said I’ll call out the quiet tables to get snacks first, it suddenly became dead silent in the room and all the children sat upright with their hands folded on their desks. You could hear the crickets churping in the background. It was both eerie and humorous at the same time.
We had a learning celebration and my going-away party. About 1/3 or ½ of the parents showed up. The children and parents were in groups where they read aloud their historical fiction writing. They’re fabulous writers. Then we had an awesome cake! Lots of sweets Friday.
It turned out that everyone chipped in to get me a huge basket of classroom supplies which was carried in by two people! Then I received a book filled with the students’ letters. OK, I couldn’t read it then and there, though they insisted, because when I flipped it open to read one page, I nearly welled up, so I closed it, and decided to read it later when I returned home. The parents were so nice, and had some personal conversations with me. One told me that she and her son were moving back to Mexico City, and gave me their address and contact information in case I needed a place to stay if I were to drop by!
Afterwards, we had lunch and recess. I sat and watched one last game of kickball. I love watching them play kickball, because there’s something to laugh about or be excited every other minute. I try to restrain myself from showing which team I favored. =P.
At the end of the day, I gave a short speech on their greatness =) and handed everyone a letter. Each kid received a class letter and individual letter from me with rants about how wonderful they are. Then everyone got in a line, and hugged me before dismissal.
Later I found out that one of the students took $3 out of his personal bank to donate to my gift. $3 is a lot for a 4th grader! Think about it. When I read his letter to me, he asked me to stay to be his 5th grade teacher, and he was willing to give me $100. How sweet. =*]. All the letters were simply heartwarming, and I’ll keep them forever.
I’m going to miss them so much. I’m skeptical that there could be a class more adorable and sweeter than the class I worked with this school year. I feel so fortunate to have worked with this particular group of children. It was more than memorable.
In 4 years they will be in high school. 8 years, college. I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things they will do.
My pace was steady. Left, right, left, right. Round, round, round.
The biking calmed me. It gave me an emancipated feeling; away from the people, away from their vigilance.
Finally, I arrived at the beach. The mountains gave the impression that it surrounded the setting sun. Tall still coconut trees hovered above. The boats floated on the peaceful cool water. Were there people in there? I couldn’t tell. The sand of this beach was dark, and so the water was murky. It was dirty-beautiful.
It was quiet. The stillness calmed me. Nobody seemed to care, and I was thankful.
The time to return came, and I headed back. The clouds sprinkled subtly, so I quickened the cycling.
Distracted by some cows grazing, I made a stop. “Will the cows hurt you if you touched them?” I asked my cousin days ago. He replied, “No,” but he must’ve thought, “No, dummy.”
My initiation was to just stand close to the calf, and let it come to me. What if I get hurt? What if the mother cow charged at me? No, it won’t do that. Look at it, so cute.
It came up to me, and I reached out my hand. “Bite her hand!” screamed some guy driving by. Please don’t bite. It licked me. With one finger, I grazed the fur on its nose. I felt happy.
Satisfied, and realizing it was going to rain any minute, I hopped back on, and pedaled towards the city. The sprinkles transformed into raindrops. Should I stop somewhere? No, I’ll go straight home.
Through the city, and over the bridge. Slowly over the bridge. Humungous bridge. At the midpoint I finally let go of the pedals, and let the momentum carry me down, down.
Almost home. All wet, but refreshed. Before turning into our street, I had to make one more stop at the volleyball court. Dad was still there, and playing in the rain. Satisfied, I biked back.
Relieved of the damp clothes, but not relieved of the coldness. I splashed myself with the chilly water.
The rain was relentless, and I couldn’t bike anymore. It finally stopped the morning I left.
I'm exhausted. Exhausted. Stayed up all night practicing for an interview that I had a slim chance of getting.
Went to a job fair, and my shoes didn't fit me, so I was quite uncomfortable walking on pebbles/cobblestone sidewalks to get there.
Then when I arrived, all the HR people didn't even seemed interested in me, kind of wanted to give away their things and make you move along.
I thought I had a good resume, too. Well, I've been told by some supervisors that it was good.
Basically, Human Resources from all the districts there were on the outlook for teachers that could teach secondary. And I'm interested in an elementary position.
Wish I could've presented myself better, like prepared a better speech when I met a representative.
Highlight of the job fair was when I met my 6th grade teacher who is now a representative for HR from the district I graduated. I regretted being so stunned and delighted to see her, I didn't spend any time really selling myself.
Relieved to return home. Tired. Finally, FINALLY, it's been weeks since I could just go home, make a mess, eat junk, surf the net, and watch tv without worrying about lesson plans and fairs. Until Sunday.
Next week I have to drive all the way down to my hometown to attend a local job fair. Hopefully I could impress a few principals. Though, judging from the needs they've listed on their webpages, they don't really need anybody, but it's worth a try.
I was driving on campus during the weekend, and what did I see? A score of animal patterned balloons floating in the street. You know I had to have it so I stepped on the gas, slowed down and the balloons hit my windshield. My wrists crept through the crack of my window to snatch the balloons, and they're mine.
My quest for books is over. I've exceeded my goal. I hit the jackpot on Saturday when I went to San Antonio to pick up the Motherlord of books. Yes, I drove, I didn't want the USPS to take this from me, too =P. Thank God it's over. Ebay was consuming me, and now I can take a break. =D
I told my cooperating teacher that last Friday, when I got to substitute for her class, I lost my temper and yelled at the kids. It wasn't so terrible as you might imagine, it was just a screaming, "STOP!" I felt guilty about it, and confessed. She told me that I had to do it once in a while to show the kids who's boss, but really, I hate to lose my cool. I felt awful right afterwards, regretting that I didn't use another alternative. Feeling like I had to address that, I brought it up at the end-of-week class meeting Friday afternoon. I didn't get my point across, instead I felt like I came off as excusing myself, saying that I felt like no one in class was listening.
Right after I tell my cooperating teacher that, we had a parent conference. The mother was nice, she, a teacher too, parent to a brilliant kid. She told us how much her son talks about school, and his teachers. How they would pass around a stick during dinner to indicate who's turn it is to talk about their day. Then she said something I felt was directed towards me. One day her kid commented that the teachers do so much for them. That they're learning from us, even when we don't think they're really listening.
Now, I could take that the "bad" way, but I feel that what she said was encouraging, and it made me feel pretty good.
USPS sux so much ass!
That's right, United States Postal Service, YOU. You suck so much ass, and I know you're reading this because you have something against me and every person who knows you guys are out to mess with our mail.
Alright, so I'm collecting books for my future classroom. I started out with a goal of 1000, but it's dwindled down to 500 books now that I'm being more realistic. I just want a wide variety of books so that my students are able to check out more books if I provide them in my class library, and so they'll get a better education. Plus, it'll make my classroom more of a learning environment.
I won this auction off of Ebay for 107 different Science and Nature books for children. I want them to have lots of nonfiction reading, too. =]. I was really excited about this lot, and I was able to get a good deal. I opted for insurance because I knew that I could never trust the USPS, especially the one in Austin. Don't even get me started on the shitty customer service.
I wasn't home the day that they supposedly delivered my package, so I had to go pick it up during the weekend. The worker handed me a box. It was ripped open on one side. I'm not talking about just ripped open, but cut open on three of the edges so that it flaps open. Inside was 8 small books, a piece of newspaper, and pictures of people. Can you believe they thought this was acceptable to even "deliver" to a customer? What the fuck? I assumed the pictures belonged in some other package they ransacked, and decided to throw the remainders into my box. I was speechless, and was like, well what am I supposed to do? (Thinking back, I should've had a tantrum, and embarassed everybody, but I was too stupid to think about that at the time.) The worker told me to contact the person who bought the insurance, which was the sender, and for them to file a claim.
Now, I'm the one filing the claim, but first I gotta wait for the sender to mail me my receipt and a receipt of the insurance.
...
Yesterday when I woke up, I checked my email. I saw 3 identical spam emails from somebody with an anonymous name "asdfgh" or something like that, and was just about to deleeeeeeeeeeeeete it when... I decided, why not read it. I wanted to see what spammer would send me so many of the same emails.
I opened it. It was in Vietnamese. For a moment, I thought, no, it couldn't be. I scanned the Vietnamese, not really comprehending it, and I thought that perhaps it was from one of my Vietnamese foreign exchange friends in the U.S. who used my email for spam... or something. Then I read the email carefully. I know to read a little Vietnamese. I read it again. Now, the third time looking through it, it made sense.
This email was from someone I met in Viet Nam! The person said something about me being in the U.S. They've sent me a previous email that I hadn't responded to, asked me to respond to this one, and had lots of warm wishes for me. I held my breath, because I was really hopeful. I only remember giving away my email address to one person.
Before I left VN I was in Saigon. I met a fellow that night, and he took me around the city. I enjoyed his company, and found him to be intriguing. Very different from guys I've met before. He asked me once, did I use the internet for emails and chatting, I said "sometimes," and he told me that he didn't know how to use that sort of stuff. The next morning, though, his mum asked for my net information for her son, and I left an email address.
OK. I confess, I thought of this guy ever since I've been back in the states. I left so suddenly, I was too shy to say much when he dropped me off at my hotel, then I barely got to say a word to him when I saw him in the morning because our parents were around, you know. I thought he was supposed to be at work, so I was pleasantly surprised he was there to see me off.
So when I got this email I was in so much shock. He didn't leave a name, and I replied asking for the name of the sender and where have we met, just to make sure I didn't mistaken this sender.
Today I got a reply, and boy did I feel sheepish. It turned out that I actually gave my email address to one other person: my cousin. He'd sent me those emails.
The last day of apprentice teaching was yesterday. 
Word Therapy. 
Job Fair 
USPS sux so much ass! 
Viet Nam Trip Part 2 
Viet Nam Trip: Part 1 
