Bad Ice Breaker

I just moved out of my dorm and into a new dorm for the summer. Penn undergraduates who take summer classes are all housed in one of the twelve college houses and it just so happens not to be the one that I live in September through May. No worries, though. This one rocks. Instead of my quaint, homely dorm room, I have a modern one-bedroom apartment in a high rise. Anyway, new dorm and new school term means new house staff to meet. Over the past couple of days I have become acquainted with 13 new, experienced residential advisors and no orientation would be complete without a couple of trust falls and icebreakers. I should say that I, for one, LOVE icebreakers. I'm cheesy like cheddar on swiss so any day when I can play two truths/one lie, or human bingo is a good day in my book.

This particular icebreaker entailed picking a card from this deck of conversation starters. All of my peers had really cool questions like, "what was your favorite meal growing up?" or "what was the last thing you downloaded?" I got, "When was the last time you cried?" WHAT?!?! This is not a conversation starter as much as a conversation stopper. Luckily I was able to make a joke out of the question and we've been laughing about it ever since. In fact, I think I'm going to ask that on my next first date just because after this experience I find it so funny. But in all seriousness, what conversation expert thought this would be a good way to start a conversation?

The Giver

I was working with a sixth grade student who was explaining the plot of The Giver to me. She said, "So it's like set in a time period where men are like more important than women. You know, like the 90s or something."

The Skype Interview: A Critical Analysis

Since I am looking internationally for teaching jobs, the interviews have been during all hours of the day. For instance, last night I had a skype interview at 11 PM. This had some advantages. I was able to appear all professional without having to wear uncomfortable shoes. I was all business from the waist up, you know, crisp button down with a sweater vest, and all pajamas from the waist down, complete with slippers. I also didn’t have the stress of finding a strange office and means of transportation. I love Philly Car Share, but I hate commuting. Plus, it always rains on the day of an interview. ALWAYS.

The disadvantage was finding an appropriate backdrop in my room. Finding a wall that didn’t look like a complete cesspool of dirty laundry and used coffee mugs was a bit of a challenge. Also, skype has that little screen in the corner of the video conference that casts your image in real time. Interviewing is hard enough but to see myself in the little “rearview” skype video giving responses is TOTALLY distracting.

Job versus Academics

Job searching during the last couple of weeks of class is just BRUTAL. It’s like the whole point of graduate studies and professional training is to get a job, but there is simply no time to conduct a job search while in school. My options are:

(1) do a kickass job at completing my assignments and earn a respectable GPA BUT be unemployed upon graduation;

(2) do a mediocre job of keeping up with my school work due to spend several hours a day looking for the perfect position; or

(3) try and adjust my sleep schedule to allow for only five or six hours of sleep a night, rid myself of any form of social life (with the exception of fifteen minute spurts of facebook and/or gchat), and attempt to find a job while doing a kickass job of completing my assignments.

I chose the third option which is why I am evolving from a usually upbeat, energetic, positive person, to a constantly whining, anti-social, unhygienic wimp. Well the end is near, with only a couple of classes left. While I am not the flowing fountain of positivity I once was, I can recognize I will probably benefit from these sleepless nights. I’ve found a number of wonderful networking groups and have been going on a number of interviews. Plus the work I’ve submitted to my brilliant and understanding professors hasn’t been all crap. I’ve received a couple of refrigerator worthy grades.

Wish me luck as I POWER THROUGH!

The Bane of my GA Existence

Spring Fling-

Like many a college tradition, Spring Fling is really just another excuse for undergrads (and underagers) to drink excessively. Akon and Guster will perform. Sororities will have dunk tanks. Fraternities will have jousting. And as if Penn paid off Mother Nature, the weather will be perfectly 70 degrees with a light spring breeze.

The only problem is that as a GA, my job will be to take alcohol to already boozed kids who might not be used to hearing "no". And all of the festivities take place in the quad, where I live. Last year there were people peeing off balconies, vandalizing my carefully crafted door signs, just all around debauchery. Ugh.

So, in an effort to prepare, protect, warn, comfort my residents, I wrote a poem and I stuck to a bag full of snack food. A survival kit if you will, complete with whistles with public safety contact information and condoms.

It’s been a long semester and you deserve a chance to let loose!
But, mentors, please be careful not to rely on illegal booze!
Have food in your stomach and love in your heart,
I know you will survive fling, you’re independent spirits, and incredibly smart!

Procrastination Station

Ugh. As much as I love reading about linguistics, it is hard to look forward to a weekend that involves little else. I've already started thinking about about other tasks I could do in order to prolong the hundreds of pages worth of empirical studies I must read.

For instance, I could hand write thank you notes to all of my residents. Maybe instead of simple thank you notes, I could express my gratitude for their service through couplet poems or a good ole quatrain. I could attach the card to a cellophane wrapped bag of freshly baked cookies. I should start researching recipes right now!

Why stop there? I have a lot of other correspondence to catch up on. At that top of that list, I am lucky to have two healthy grandmothers that have probably forgotten about my existence since I communicate so infrequent.

Or when I was younger, I used to like to write letters to politicians. Maybe I could to do that this weekend. President Obama needs to know how I really feel about forcing English language learners to take standardized, culturally biased tests.

Instead of writing letters, I could write my goals or even just positive thoughts on scraps of fabric and then weave them into a rug. Then, every time I come home, I'd be motivated/inspired to do my work and become a fearless and thoughtful teacher dedicated to urban education and inequality.

Or, I could just stop procrastinating through this blog and get to work. That way, I might actually finish before sunset on Sunday evening. Then, I could relax for like five minutes before Monday strikes again.

Philly Girls Roller Derby

Last weekend, I crawled out of my bulkpack and into the real world once again. I met a couple of friends at the Philly Girls Roller Derby. I guess I thought the scene would resemble a speed skating competition. You know, lots of shiny lycra outfits with fans that brought their own stop watch. I was dead wrong. There were two teams of really tough looking, yet sassy and stylish, women who were wearing roller blades with fishnet stockings. They basically attacked one another at rapid speeds for 90 mins. It was brutal! There were grunts, bruises, stocking rips, and blood. I left the roller derby feeling like a wimpy, nerdy grad student. I play kickball on the weekdays with people under four feet tall. Does that make me tough?