OMG!

Soooooo yeah. A lot has happened! Like.....we met Brian Lopez!! It was extremely awkward and funny at the same time! We were acting like 13-year-old girls meeting their idol hahaha. Here's our amazing picture with him!
(Jen, Me, Erin, Bribri)
Oh yeah and in the picture, we are wearing our new Tucson dresses! We decided we should look more Tucson so we went dress shopping on 4th ave!
But..that was like 2 weekends ago.
Last weekend was Erin's birthday party and we got to meet the Presbyterian volunteers (Young Adult Volunteers aka YAVers)! They met us for the first time as we were having a dance party in our living room, so that was fun! We were dancing to Poker Face hahaha.
Yesterday we met up with them again and some of the MVSers (Mennonite volunteers) at La Placita where they show free movies! Last night's movie was The Princess Bride, which was of course AMAZING! We're going hiking early tomorrow morning (6am woo!) with the YAVers and some of the MVSers! Then later on we are going to a BBQ with some of the teachers from Santa Cruz. And Sunday, we are going to a new church, then were invited to a Wine and Cheese Night with the ACErs and the teachers. So, it should be a good! I'm really enjoying our weekends!! My roommates are so fun!
We have also decided to get more involved in the community and plan things during the week. On Wednesday we went over to the Casa Mariposa Restoration Project. I'm not 100% sure what they do, I need to look more into that, but they offered us a free (veg) meal and the people were all really nice! On their facebook page, it says "Nourished and empowered by the Spirit, the Restoration Project seeks to live in right relationship with one another, the community, and the earth through hospitality, simple and sustainable living, playful spirituality, and peaceful, prophetic action." So, yeah it's pretty awesome. They have their own garden and the meal we ate was mostly (if not all) local and organic, some from their own garden!
As far as work goes, I'm having a great time! My main troubles come from the kids being too loud as I try to explain things to the class. That, and the technology issues with the computers. But, I'm enjoying teaching so far! Sister says we got a grant for technology related stuff, so I think we will get some software (Mavis Beacon!) and headphones. That should be good!
I'm really starting to get used to life here. Even though the high tomorrow will be 99, I'm not worried. I do miss Santa Clara and Portland, but there are some good things here too!

Brian Lopez and Tucson Weirdness

Last weekend was really fun! And we were introduced to Brian Lopez! (I'll explain!)

So, on Friday we went out for some pizza (our first time going out for food!) at Brooklyn Pizza, which is connected to Sky Bar and this lady in a sparkly shirt came up to us and was like "You can't sit here, we are going to set up for the fire show" And we were like whhaaa??? But yep, they had a fire show with ladies throwing fire in the air and eating it....weird. We have decided that Tucson is very strange!!

The fire looked really cool on my camera after I changed the shutter speed haha. Ok so Saturday we drove up to the top of Mount Lemmon to go hiking. We stopped in the town of Summerhaven and got out, ate PB+J sandwiches while walking to the trail, and then hiked! It was really fun! It's also weird up there because once you get to the point where the cacti end, it almost looks like a forest. For about 10 minutes it almost reminded me of Oregon! But then we kept going and saw dead trees and I was like "Yep, back in Arizona!"

Jeff, Erin, and Jen hiking in front of me with the dead trees in the background!All four of us on the hike!

Saturday night, we went to PLUSH, where they have live concerts. Ted (Music/Art teacher from Santa Cruz) invited us to come see Brian Lopez because it was only $5 and Brian was really good! Well, Jen and Erin (and me to a lesser extent) fell in love with Brian! Jen even decided if (when) she marries Brian, her name will be Jennifer Lopez! So, of course we now call her JLo haha. I thought his music was ok, but he was a great performer. And he made all of us like Tucson better. Tucson is just a very strange city. Downtown has 3 big buildings and that's it. We are in the middle of a desert and everyone's house is one story, it's really spread out and....just weird! So unlike Portland or San Francisco, except 4th ave. which is probably the coolest area around here. This is Brian Lopez and his band! We are going to see him again today at a music festival with other local bands. There is supposedly a midnight dance party as well, so it should be interesting!

On Sunday, Jen and I drove to Nogales, Mexico with Mr. and Mrs. Chavez and their children. We stopped by the Mexican Walmart to get supplies and food, then dropped everything off an orphanage for boys. We got to look around a bit and meet the children! So cute! Maria, Mr. and Mrs. Chavez's adopted daughter from Mexico had a hard time letting go of one of the little boys and started crying because she remembered what it was like to be in an orphanage in Mexico. But at other times she was cracking jokes about how they make kids work in Mexico and how Jen and I should find boyfriends there. The whole day was pretty fun!

On Labor day, we woke up REALLY early to do that run I was talking about. We drove to the Quigley's house and Mr. Quigley drove us to the race from there. He was doing the 8 mile and we did the 5k. It was great! I hadn't been running because of the heat, but it felt ok! I ran with Erin until the end when I lost her for the last half mile or so. Ended up getting 26.48ish mins. Not terrible! I do need to start running more tho! It's just too hot later in the day and I'm too lazy to wake up at 5:30 before work in the mornings! But I ran this morning so hah! After the race, we grabbed lotsa free gear (and got free massages! woo!) then went back the Quigley's house where they had a big breakfast for us with homemade biscuits! ahhh!

The workweek went pretty well. On Tuesday, Mrs. Chavez asked me to watch her 1st grade class for the last 45 mins of the day because she had to go to the doctor. It was great! The 1st graders are soo funny. I read them a story about apples and they loved it! I was like "what colors are the apples?" and they screamed out "yellow! green! red!" haha. They also thought they had to tell me every little thing in their lives. When I took them to a bathroom break, one of the little boys was like "Two boys just dared me to stick my head in the toilet." I wasn't so sure how to respond to that, but oh well! I had him tell me their names and I said I'll tell his teacher (of course I forgot their names, but at least he felt heard;)

On Thursday, I taught the kindergartners for the first time! They are adorable!! I got them to turn on the computers and play with Paint for a while. they mastered the click and drag! I was so proud. Once they could determine which side was left and how to hold down the clicker with the mouse, they were golden! When I asked the class why we should be careful with computers, one of the little boys raised his hand and was like "I lost my tooth!" I was like.."ok!" haha.

So, yeah I'm liking work--but also glad it's the weekend! A little rest and relaxation before another week with the kiddos!

Starting To Get It

Now that we've been here for 3 whole weeks, I've started to get into at least a little bit of a routine. It doesn't kill me to wake up at 6:15am Monday thru Friday like it felt the first week. I've finally got a set schedule at school of which classes I teach when (I start teaching the Kindergartners beginning next Thursday!) The kids are starting to recognize me at school saying "Hey Miss Devlin" or "Bye Miss Devlin" at the end of the day. The teachers are apparently going to Happy Hour after the faculty meeting today, so maybe I'll go to that!

It's a long weekend because of Labor Day, so I'm excited. On Sunday, I might go to an orphanage in Nogales, Mexico if it works out with some of the other teachers. We'll see! And on Labor Day, we're planning on running a 5K in Saguaro National Park. We didn't actually sign up for the race, we just want to participate (for free;)

So, it's going pretty well. I had the realization sometime maybe last week that this isn't just a trip to Arizona, I'm actually going to be here for a year (I mean, I knew that but it still kinda felt like a trip!) I started to miss family and friends and it is also strange that I'm not going back to college. I know I went through that whole graduation thing, but now I guess I'm in real life? But yeah, I'm getting more used to it as time goes on!