like monday

(At left: PHO)
I wish more days could be like Monday was.

8:30 am - Noon -- I was at a public elementary school doing research for my Master's Project, feeling very productive and praying that I'll finish by March 14.
12:00 pm - 2:30 -- I ran a few errands around Manhattan, and got in some exercising by walking rather than taking the subway. Found a cute new skirt at H&M. I love that place!
3:00 - 4:00 -- Did a bit of online research for my project and read for my Tuesday night class.
4:00 - 5:15 -- I met with my advisor about my project and read a sample project in her office.
5:30 - 6:45 -- Took the subway to 72nd street and met Sarah, from church, for coffee. Well, really I had a coke and she had dinner. Then I got back on the subway to go uptown.
7:00 - 8:45 -- Dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant, Saigon Grill at 90th & Amsterdam Ave., with Jen and Carol. It was Jen's first Vietnamese food experience. Mmmm... So good! We shared two types of spring rolls, and I had a steaming bowl of Pho.
9:00 -- I had to be back in my room for an important phone call. After the call I did more class work.

In addition to meeting one friend for coffee and two others for dinner, another friend also called and offered me one of his extra tickets for an opera that night! Geesh. Too bad my friends can't spread it around a bit so I have something fun to do every night!

more math

My math assignment is particularly difficult this week. It's a good thing I started early! Just how much do you remember about sets and intersections of sets and equivalent sets? Can you draw a venn diagram to represent the following? Cause I can't! (A n B) u (A n C) Or, use a venn diagram to determine if the following is true: A u (B n C) = (A u B) n C I admit I find myself asking the question kids so often ask: Why do we have to do this? Unfortunately, our professor isn't helping us remember how to do it - I did used to know, I'm sure. Also, it seems we aren't spending our class time on what we should be spending it on. Afterall, I'm in a program for curriculum development, not for math education! But, according to the following video, math classes these days are pretty screwed up all around! In this video, a parent who is also an atmospheric scientist demonstrates how multiplication and division problems are done with new-fangled math. Incredibly confusing stuff for a kid, done to avoid standard algorithms. She refers to the Everday Math program, which is what public schools in New York use, as well as what my school in Shanghai uses.



I followed links through some other teachers' blogs, and I came across this funny video about math, too. It's Ma & Pa Kettle!

frrrrrozen hot chocolate

Last night I met Tanya and Cody for dinner and the famous Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity3. Did you ever see the movie Serendipity? Yep, this restaurant and the drink are both in the movie. It's so popular that there is often a four hour wait to get in, and sometimes there's a one hour wait just to put your name on the list! The restaurant began as a basement coffee shop, and now it's housed in a brownstone. Check out the website for the history of the place at www.serendipity3.com Our opinion? It's an awful lot of hype about not too much! In order to make reservations ahead of time we had to commit to eating dinner there, and the food turned out to be less than impressive. We all three had overdone hamburgers. But the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate was scrumdidilyumpscious. And the company was even better. We caught up after not seeing each other for about a month, and there's was lots of laughing. Tanya returns to Ireland this Friday, so last night was probably our last shindig together. I'm definitely going to miss her!

God's will

I'm seeking God's will for my life, for where He wants me to live and teach next fall.

So...

Pray for me. I am sure that I have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. Pray that the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, will equip me with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in me what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Adapted from Hebrews13:18-21, NIV)

After all...

I've remembered the old days, gone over all He's done, pondered the ways He's worked, stretched out my hands to Him, as thirsty for Him as a desert thirsty for rain.

Hurry with your answer, God! I'm nearly at the end of my rope. Don't turn away; don't ignore me! That would be certain death. If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I'll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I'm all ears, all eyes before you. God, you're my only hope! Teach me how to live to please you, because you're my God. Lead me by your blessed Spirit into cleared and level pastureland. (Adapted from Psalm 143:5-10, The Message)

And Paul says...

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (Romans 12:1-2, The Message)

NOTE: If you are not familiar with the NIV version of these verses, I encourage you to take a look at that. The Message is loosely translated, but it spoke to me tonight! Check out http://www.biblegateway.com/ if you want to look up the verses online.

a tale of two cities

Or, in this case, two tales of a city.

I was supposed to meet Jared for dinner the other night. (He's started his internship at the Met and is apartment hunting before his wife joins him here.) I told him I would meet him in front of a store at a particular subway stop, and then, after waiting there for, oh, about 1.3 minutes, I realized how silly I had been. It was freeeeezing cold outside! So I went down into the subway stop, hoping I hadn't already missed him getting off and going upstairs. I waited patiently as two successive trains arrived, and Jerad did not. And, surprise of surprises, the station agent came out of his booth to ask worriedly, "Ma'am are you ok? Is everything ok?" How nice was that? I told him that, yes, indeed, I was ok and that I was just waiting to meet a friend. After two more trains arrived (mind you, I'd only been there about ten minutes), he came out again and offered to let me go onto the platform, via the emergency gate, without paying, so I could sit down to wait! New York is full of nice people! (And, yes, Jerad did arrive and we had dinner at a diner. I had some of the best chicken pot pie I've ever had. And, by the way, do the chicken pot pies you usually eat have cheese right under the crust? Because the two I've had in New York so far have. Odd, I think. But still good. Anyway, I digress...)

And the second tale? Alison, Diana, and I were seeking student rush tickets to Jersey Boys, but there were far too many people in line ahead of us, considering they only have 12 student tickets each day. So, instead we went to Dunkin' Donuts for hot chocolate to warm us up. As we were sitting there, an elderly lady asked if she could share our table since the others were full. "Of course!" we said. I was in the middle of telling a story, and I continued - now with an extra audience member who, as soon as I paused for a breath, spoke up and asked, "What are you talking about?" She proceeded to interject comments into our conversation, extolling the virtues of ballet in New York and telling us of her 80 year old friend who used to be a principal dancer and who now teaches or advises dancers at Lincoln Center. If you say so... And then, the conversation took an abrupt turn as she revealed (well, not exactly revealed) that she was only wearing a nightgown under her coat and scarf. She also told us that she cuts her own hair (In my opinion, she probably shouldn't do that.) and that she was planning to get a manicure later that day. Then she opened her mouth to show us that all of her front teeth were missing because she'd recently been mugged in front of her apartment just across the street. Of course, that brought on three more onslaughts of loquaciousness - one about how she made it to the precinct and that the police have someone in custody, one about how awful dentists are, and one about how we should never, ever put our purses down or go anywhere alone. "You, young lady, you should pick up your purse. I'm not going to snatch it or anything. But you never know." Hmm... skinny bare legs, unkempt hair, no teeth. It made me wonder if all her stories are true, or if she's just a very verbose story-teller. Did she need help? Or just a friend? Should we worry about her or be afraid of her? Either way, New York is full of odd people. Eventually, we managed to extricate ourselves from the somewhat uncomfortable conversation and move on. (No Broadway show for me, after all. I ended up coming back to school and working on my research project. Which is what I should be doing now!)

math

I'm just sitting down to do my math homework. Yep, I have to take a math curriculum class this semester, and we have real, honest-to-goodness math problems for homework! And quizzes and tests to boot! Challenge yourself along with me. Here's the "do now" problem from Thursday's class:

Carol bought some items at the deli. All the items she bought were the same price, and she bought as many of the items as the price of the item in cents. (For example, if the item cost two cents, she bought two of them for a total cost of $0.04. Or, if she chose an item costing eight cents, she would have bought eight of them.) Her bill was $2.25. How many items did she buy?

If you solve it (which I did), leave a comment with your answer and tell me what you did in order to find the solution! And send some good mathematical vibes my direction.

she's back

I returned to New York on Monday, and nothing terribly exciting has happened yet. I've been doing paperwork and job applications and trying to make decisions about what to do next fall. Please keep me in your prayers! Since I don't have any New York stories to tell, I'll give a quick Christmas run-down.

Spent Christmas holiday with family and friends in KS, CO, and NE. Saw relatives I hadn't seen in six years! First went to Greeley, CO. Spent Christmas eve day with mom's family at Granny's house, opening gifts, catching up, eating Christmas dinner. Christmas day went to one of my dad's sister's house (Aunt Dawns'), played games, caught up, ate another Christmas dinner. Then back to Granny's to play more games and eat third Christmas dinner. Morning after Christmas all woke up with stomach flu, so spent the day in pj's watching TV and drinking 7-Up. Sufficiently recovered in time to drive down to Denver the next day to see my sister and her husband and for shopping - though no buying. Next day flew back to KS. There discovered mom and dad had a broken pipe under the foundation of their new house, so spent one day moving everything in the basement and another day supervising as workers jackhammered the floor and replaced the pipe. Exciting, I tell you! New Year's brought more friends, food, and games and champagne with Angela and Brian. Next weekend drove to Omaha, NE to see dad's mom (Grandma) and Aunt Debbie and Uncle John. I made a quick run to Lincoln from Omaha to see Brian's apartment, workplace, and him, too. Back in Omaha Uncle John served delicious coconut-pecan encrusted mahi-mahi, rice with pineapple, and homemade cheesecake. Guess it counts as one more Christmas dinner since we opened gifts afterward! In between days were filled with hanging out with old friends, going out to favorite restaurants, visiting the Plaza, shopping with mom, going to The Queen's Pantry for tea, visiting my class from last year, going out with the girls I used to teach with, and re-packing!

And now... back in New York and ready for fun!

At Granny's House: Dad, Mom, Me, Sister Katie, Brother-in-Law Chris