R.O.U.S.s

Well, so much for posting more frequently on the blog. I guess 2 weeks is better than 4 months in between posts. Progress, right? I have been quite busy trying to get my life in control. Most of you probably know that I got hired for a part-time English teaching position at Walter Johnson HS in Bethesda. I started teaching on the Friday of the second week of school. I've been hard pressed to get all of my students, that I inherited from about 6 different teachers, onto one schedule. Somehow, with much juggling and praying, everyone is on the same page. All of my classes are reading The Catcher in the Rye and we're almost finished. We'll finish the book up this week and start our literary analysis papers. Fun, fun, fun. :) Then, onto speech and The Odyssey.

I'm finally getting to know my way around the area...basically how to get to my house, my two jobs, and the grocery store. I can also find the temple and my way to Sarah's house. Other than that, I'm dependent on the GPS I borrowed from Sarah (thanks again!!!!!). My weekly schedule is a little like this:

• Monday - Friday, I teach in the mornings at the high school, then I get a few hours break before I go to my other job. I'm there until about 7 or 8 at night, then I come home and lesson plan/procrastinate and go to bed.
  
• Saturday, I go to my tutoring job in the morning until about 1. The rest of the weekend is free.

It's kind of a strange schedule because I have the middle of the day free while everyone else is working. But, it's nice. It's also strange because I'm done teaching at the high school by 11 am, which in Utah time is really 9 am. Weird.

Other weird things - having an opossum as big as a fox run through our yard. Sick, sick, sick, sick. Honestly, I miss the lizards and scorpions of St. George. Pests are grosser when they are warm-blooded for some reason.

P.S. I have a mattress now, and I painted a dresser that will be in my room as soon as I clean a space for it. Standard of living is definitely increasing. :)