Sometimes I pretend I'm from Canada...

February 18, 2012

Things I love about Paris today...
-Tiny coffees (Are Americans really over caffeinated or over-supersized?)
-Macaroons! (Not like the ones for Passover.)
-Having an entire exchange at the bakery in French! I attempted this yesterday and almost succeeded until the cashier said "Have a nice day.")
-Saint Chapelle. Everything about it is amazing.
-The view from the top of Notre Dame. The stairs to get there...not so much. I feel the need to watch the Disney movie now.
-A perfectly Parisian moment...Walking across the Pont au Change and there was a man playing an accordion, a lovely French song, and a view of Notre Dame in the background. Perfectly Paris.
-An impromptu French concert/sing along in Luxembourg Gardens. A few musicians were playing and brought along song books for the crowd. Passers by joined in the festivities. It was all very lovely. French music just sounds so happy. The gardens in general were lovely. Next time I come, I'm renting a small toy boat to sail in the fountain.
-The Eiffel Tower at night.

Reaching the top of the stairs to the upper chapel in Saint Chapelle and getting a peek at the stained glass quite literally took my breath away. I said a very meaningful, "Holy..." but luckily I caught myself before I finished it off with a word you shouldn't say in church. Pictures (and words) just don't do it justice.

"Sometimes I pretend I'm from Canada..." We had dinner at a cafe off the Pont Neuf while waiting for our boat cruise. The couple to the right were British, the table to the far left was a group of obnoxiously loud American college students with gallon sized glasses of beer (Hello! We're in France. Order wine.), and the family that sat down to our left was an American couple with two small children, one with an obnoxious video game with the Mario Kart on full blast. The only person I heard speaking French was the waiter. It was disappointed to say the least. Our Seine River cruise came highly recommended and we were looking forward to seeing the sights at night. Until we realized that even more loud, obnoxious Americans were using this as a booze cruise. We heard very little that the tour guide said and after sinking into our chairs out of sheer embarrassment at even sharing a continent with these people, I got up and asked them to keep it down. I don't know if I could have lived with myself if I didn't. The family in front of me thanked me in Spanish. My response? "I apologize on behalf of America." I know you can't necessarily teach cultural competence in a classroom, but as a nation we have to figure something out before the rest of the world thinks we're nothing more than an extension of the cast of Jersey Shore.

Art History for Dummies

February 17, 2012

Things I love about Paris:
-How people walk down the street eating baguettes like candy bars
-How at an outdoor table for two, both chairs are next to each other and people sit next to each other not across the table
-How carousels are everywhere and it's okay for adults to ride too :)
-The crepe a day rule and finding a crepe stand close to our hotel
-How the Eiffel Tower can just sneak up on you
-Kelly Crowe's guide to Paris

At the Louvre...
I discovered that I don't really "get" art. I will be purchasing Art History for Dummies when I get home.

I was hoping for a serene museum going experience. No such luck. At the _____ (insert famous work of art here), there were no less than 4,000 people and two school groups also vying for the same experience. My dream of sharing a quiet moment with the Mona Lisa was shattered, but at least I got to say hi.

You know how some things look bigger on TV? The Arc de Triomphe is not one of those things. It's breathtakingly beautiful. And enormous.

I think you will find your happiness there...

February 16, 2012

9.5 hours later and I'm finally here! I was fortunate enough to have 3 seats to myself, but still didn't sleep well. Go figure. I did, however, manage to almost miss dinner due to a Tylenol PM induced stupor. Too bad that stuff doesn't work longer than two hours. New life goal: To be able to sleep on an airplane.

Whoever said that the French aren't friendly is wrong. Right as we got off the plane, there was an airline agent greeting everyone with a friendly "Bonjour!" Fifty feet away there was also an armed guard so I guess friendly is relative.

Maureen and I are staying at the Woodstock Hostel in Montmarte. We spent the afternoon tooling around the neighborhood, visiting the shops, cafes (crepes...yum!), and visiting Moulin Rouge.

At Sacre Couer, there was a sign that read, "Welcome Messes," but the idea of a church welcoming the messes was nice. I think if you are one of the messes that needs welcoming, church is as good a place as any to be.

We were walking by a patisserie, admiring all the delectable pastries. Here is the exchange that took place.
Mo: I don't even know what those are, but they look delicious.
French man then points to the pastries, then puffs out his cheeks and puts his hands on his belly as if to inform us that those delicious treats will in fact make you fat.
Me: That was sort of the plan.

Once upon a time I did number two in one of those self-cleaning public toilets and it didn't flush. I told the woman in line behind me that it didn't flush, hoping that she wouldn't go in. But she did. You're welcome.

"I think you will find your happiness there." -The woman working the front desk at the hostel.
She was referring to a street with lots of restaurants after we asked her about dinner options, but I'd like to think it was a little more philosophical than that. ")

Is enroute a French word?

February 15, 2012

Paris has been on my travel bucket list for as long as I can remember. I can't believe I will actually be there in a few short hours! Yesterday, Cydne stopped by my office and on my introductory activity "homepage" from the beginning of the year, under "Place I'd Most Like to Visit" was written "Paris, France." She pointed it out and said, "You'll be able to cross this off tomorrow!" That paper had been posted on my wall for months and I hadn't even noticed that Paris was there waiting for me all along. It feels good to be traveling, to be putting a stamp on my passport. After Semester at Sea, I made a promise to myself to visit a new country each year. While I wasn't able to do that last year, I'm excited to make good on my promise for 2012. Looking forward to the next 6 days and being able to cross the City of Lights off my bucket list!

Midwest Affirmation

I am currently reading And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City Students. In the book, Miles Corwin, a Los Angeles Times reporter, follows twelve students in an inner-city high school's gifted magnet program throughout their senior year. It has proved to be an interesting read, very though provoking, and inspiring. It is of particular interest because the students attend Crenshaw High School, a school members of my team served at during our second round AmeriCorps NCCC project last year in Los Angeles. Crenshaw is a place I have seen firsthand and experienced through the members of my team that spent countless hours there tutoring and mentoring students, just like those in the book.

The book follows gifted students who are graduating in 1997, a year before affirmative action in the state of California's public university systems is abolished. According to wikipedia, affirmative action, a policy in place since 1978 in the state of California, "refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination." (I can't believe I just cited wikipedia. Please don't tell any of my previous professors.)

In Chapter 9, Corwin cites several examples of "unofficial" affirmative action that have been discreetly (or not so discreetly as the case may be) happening in college admissions offices for generations and giving distinct advantages in the admissions process to legacies (children of alumni), athletes, the wealthy, the well-connected, friends of the dean, and students from underrepresented states (p. 132-133). Having discussed preferential treatment in the admissions process ad nauseum in graduate school, I wouldn't have given this list a second thought until they started listing underrepresented states: North Dakota and Nebraska. Bam. There it is. Being from Nebraska, an underrepresented state, could give an applicant a distinct advantage in applying for college. I never thought that being from Nebraska would have give me an advantage in the college admissions process. Colleges and universities want to establish a national presence and having students from underrepresented states, like Nebraska, helps them do just that. While I'd like to think that I'd gotten in to undergrad and graduate school entirely on my own merit, now I can't help but wonder.

For undergrad, I more than met the admissions qualifications, but for graduate school, now I'm wondering if my Midwestern roots somehow tipped me over the edge. I decided at the last minute that I wanted to abandon my law school plans to apply for higher education programs. I hadn't taken the GRE, wanted to be in a large metropolitan area, and waited until January to apply, so my list of potential schools was pretty short. NYU and Columbia. I didn't get in to NYU so the decision was made for me. While I often chastised my graduate program for not being the "touchy-feely" student affairs program I thought I'd applied for, now I've found that I learned more about the things that could actually help impart change in the education system, the things that I'm actually passionate about, than I would have at another graduate program.So for that I am grateful.

Now that I am a graduate of Auburn and Columbia Universities, if my future children decide to apply, then they could very well be given preferential treatment. So who knew that being from Nebraska could have helped not only me, but my children that don't even exist yet.

Resolve to Be Resolute

I looked up the word resolution in the dictionary and found a lot of what I expected to find. According to dictionary.com, resolution means  "a formal expression of opinion or intention made, a resolve or determination." The part of the definition that really stuck with me is "the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose." I also really like the definition of the word resolute, "admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering." I like that even better than the word resolution. So instead of making resolutions, let's resolve to be resolute shall we?

Like I said in my last post, to make a resolution to blog every day or even go to the gym half as often is silly and just plain naive. I know I wouldn't be fooling anyone if I made such sweeping general resolutions. So I'm choosing not to. I've looked at the coming of 2012 (and hopefully not the coming of the end of the world as Hollywood and Harold Camping might have us believe...fingers crossed) as more of a time for reflection. On the nightly news the other day, they listed a whole slew of reasons why we should be happy that 2011 is on the outs and that we can wash our hands of the whole thing. Sure the economy stinks, people were occupying every which way, and terrible tragedies happened in the world. But I'd like to argue that there was a lot of good stuff too. Many of my friends and family celebrated weddings and babies, new houses and new jobs. I'm sure they are all thrilled with 2011 as a result. 

While I didn't celebrate any of those life events, I was able to look back on some pretty incredible things and, overall, am pretty happy with 2011. As far as years go, it was a good one. So instead of spouting out a list of all of the wonderful things I may (or may not, come on let's be honest) do, I'm going to use this coming of a new year as an opportunity to reflect and celebrate some of the amazing things I did do. 

Here's the top 11 of 2011 (in no particular order).

1. Moved to California. Visited Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. 43 states down, 7 to go. I imagine the illusive North Dakota is going to be a challenge...  
2. Fell in love with 30 third graders while tutoring in inner city Los Angeles. 
3. Survived a literal shit storm. Also in Los Angeles. (I've heard people use the term shit storm to describe other things.  If you want to know what it's like to survive an actual shit storm, let me know.)
4. Stuck my toes in the Pacific Ocean. Many times. 
5. Learned more about organic farming than I ever thought I would learn from two of the coolest farmers ever. 
6. Decided not to go to Mississippi, but applied again and was accepted to Teach for America. This time to teach early childhood education in Baltimore. Quite literally a dream come true. 
7. Spent the summer working as a camp counselor for children, teens, and adults with physical and cognitive disabilities. While the initial thought of it made me more nervous than I'd like to admit, it was by far the most challenging, rewarding, hilarious, and humbling job I will ever have. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat. 
8. Drove the Pacific Coastal Highway. Well part of it anyway. Still counts. 
9. Selected for Fire Management Team to be certified as a wild land firefighter. I slightly regretted not applying last year and after being out of the boys club/military life for so long, I wondered if I could do it. Turns out, I still can. I may or may not have been pretty impressed with myself for finishing the pack test (3 mile power walk with a 40 pound pack on, a requirement for all Forest Service firefighters), thinking to myself (Or saying out loud. Whatever.), "Look! I can still be a bad ass!" It was quite an exciting moment. I'd like to think I'm more of a bad ass now than I ever was during those days. 
10. Bought a plane ticket to Paris for the big birthday. This hasn't actually happened yet, but the ticket has been purchased which makes it pretty much official. 
11. Spent 10 months (with a little overlap into 2010, but who's counting) with 10 of the most incredible human beings that I've ever had the pleasure to meet. Serving as a Support Team Leader with AmeriCorps NCCC this year, I have the chance to reflect on my experience as a Field Team Leader daily. Every time a Field Team Leader asks me, "Did you ever run into...?" or "How did you handle...?" I am able to think back on my experience. How did I handle that? Would I do it differently this time around? Are my Corps Members better for the things I did or didn't do? I am very fortunate that so much reflection for last year is built into my job this year. I know I wasn't the perfect Team Leader and we were by no means the perfect team (sorry to burst your bubble, Blue 3). Nothing about the experience was perfect (nothing is), but it was perfect for me. Perfect for us. It was the perfect experience to learn, to grow, to challenge my own beliefs, to challenge my own fears and prejudices, to do things I never imagined I could do or would ever have to do. But I did them and I'm a better person for it. And I'd like to think that my team is better for it too. I saw each of them grow in ways they probably don't even realize yet. And I'll be excited for them when those realizations happen. I just hope, in some small way, that I get to be a part of it. I know that I may get a team this year be it a composite team or otherwise and as I told one of my teammates just yesterday, "You guys were a difficult act to follow so this year really didn't stand a chance." True story.

So while the general consensus seems to be that 2011 couldn't leave soon enough, I'd like to offer a counter opinion and say, "Thanks 2011. It's been real."

Resolutions

I know it's not quite New Year's Eve, but I don't think it's ever a bad time to think about resolutions, things you'd like to evaluate, things you'd like to change. I don't think it has to be some big grand gesture, but a small effort to change can mean big things. I'm not going to sit here and make some grand resolution to keep up with my blog because based on my previous track record, I'm not convinced that is going to happen. But I would like to focus for a minute on the idea behind this blog. Wanderlust like you mean it. I started this blog to document moving to Alaska, this big grand adventure and arguably one of the craziest things I've ever done. I also had good intentions of keeping up with this blog during Semester at Sea, but that never happened. I'd like to think I was too busy out there living life to take the time to write about it. And then AmeriCorps NCCC last year, which was a completely different kind of adventure. This year I am still with NCCC, but in a significantly less exciting capacity. I do enjoy my job, but I have definitely found myself in a rather lame routine. Get up, go to work, come home. Do it again the next day. I did this in Alaska too, but it was exciting because I was in Alaska. I could have just sat there and watched paint dry and it would have been cool because I was in Alaska. Doing the same thing in say suburban Sacramento is not nearly as exciting. In an effort to keep up with my post-Semester at Sea goal to travel to a new country each year (I still have a few weeks left in 2011, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen), I purchased a plane ticket to Paris for my birthday. I feel like I have a better than average sense of adventure...when it comes to the big stuff. Move to New York for grad school, go to Dublin on a whim, move to Alaska, travel the world by boat, lead 10 folks in a service-related adventure throughout the Pacific Northwest, buy a plane ticket to France for the big 3-0. But it's the smaller, less costly sense of adventure that I feel like I lost somewhere along the way. Somehow I've gotten complacent in the routine of the 9-5. Adventures aren't just to be had 6 months down the road. They can happen each and every day. So my December 10 resolution is to make a bucket list of suburban Sacramento things to do and to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to me while I'm here, to live in the moment, and not be so focused on the big adventures, but to take time to enjoy the small ones as well. And to not be so lame.