It's been awhile...

So in order to quiet any thoughts that I'm falling too far behind on blogging my life to ever return, here is my update.  Where do I start?  We'll do this thematically.

Training:

It's been going as good as can be expected.  Classes aren't conceptually difficult but the workload is definitely challenging.  I'm taking 2 classes right now, one for my college and one for the program.  Both have different schedules, books, and workloads, so it's really difficult to coordinate things and stay on top of everything.

Tomorrow I'm going to the school that I'll be student teaching at.  I'm not officially supposed to go until Thursday, but other people (including advisors and other people of authority) have said that we needed to be there today (which I didn't do).  There are so many conflicting directions... everyone tells us to do something different.  So I'm going to go just in case, to be safe.  However... this means I have to leave my house at 6:45 am.  Haven't seen that time of day in a million years (or so it feels).  Then I won't get home until a little after 7pm.  Then I have to write a paper due on Thursday.  And do it all again on Thursday.  And this is EASY compared to what next week looks like in my planner.  Welcome to my life.

Social life:

I feel so lucky that my group for school is so amazing... the people are truly great.  So this past weekend I went out with a few of them and we had so much fun.  I know I'm going to be with these people for the next two years so I'm really relieved that they're cool and fun to be around.  Other than going out maaaaybe once per weekend, I can't see myself having much of a social life this year.  Which makes me not so sad, but you gotta do what you gotta do I guess.  When I get home I just want to make dinner and relax and *attempt* to do my work that's due tomorrow.

Misc.:

• Don't confuse "hip-hop culture" with being poor.  So many people I encounter every day are people that you'd consider "ghetto"... but they're ghetto with their Gucci bag and iPhone.  Never assume anything about people in New York... they'll trick you every time.
• NYC public transportation is a necessary evil.  I'm so thankful that you can get basically anywhere via bus and subway, but they're SOOO annoying.  The busses are crowded, there's traffic on the streets, but the subways don't always run late nights/weekends, and sometimes they run express past stops or just randomly stop in the middle of the line.  Necessary, but evil.
• IKEA is also annoying.  Enough on that.
• I feel like I need about 7 bookshelves for my room, but I have no idea where to put them.  I definitely need to get more organized somehow though.  Especially teaching special ed, the paper work is ENDLESS and you need to keep record of everything.  So I need to get organized fast.
• The only thing I shop for (in terms of clothes) are work appropriate clothes.  Any new clothes I buy will be business casual.  How depressing.
• I am terrified of teaching.  There, I said it.  I most likely will get my wish of working in a classroom with children with autism, which sounds all well and good, but I have NO idea what to expect.  I really hope to get this experience in my field training, because I have no idea even what kids with autism are like.  I feel so unprepared, but I still know that my love for these kids and genuine want to help them will prepare me enough.  Very weird feeling.  
• There was a sociopath in my class but luckily she got kicked out of the program.  It scares me that she could have ever been around children.  I'm sad that she slipped through the cracks in terms of the interview process but glad that action was taken against her before she got in the classroom.  
• I hope I didn't just bore everyone with this long laundry list of randomness.
• Ugh laundry... that's a whole different story.

I hope everyone who's reading today is having a great day and that all of my family and friends reading know how much I miss them!