Yay! I'm legal!!!

Well, I got exciting news today.

My OPT (Optional Practical Training) Visa came in today. This is my work authorization for the next year. I can legally work in the United States from Jan. 4, 2010 until Jan. 3, 2011.

This is extremely exciting for me because a) I start at Walt Disney World Jan. 6 and I needed to be legal and b) this was my second time around applying for the visa, which is...a story on it's own.

And here's the story.

I originally applied for my visa in August. I got all the forms and pictures and letters of recommendation I needed together and handed it in to the International Students office at BYU-Idaho for them to send it in.

Content knowing I had taken care of that, I continued on to Vegas for my student teaching.

A couple of weeks later, I received an email letting me know that my paperwork had been received and my visa should follow shortly.

And so I waited.

And waited...

And waited...

But I didn't worry about it because I was just waiting for the visa and they might be backed up a bit.

Well, Nov. 1st I received an urgent email asking me to call the Int'l Office immediately about my OPT.

As it turns out, I was too efficient for the U.S. Government to handle.

My application had been denied because it had been submitted before the 90 days prior to graduation limit...19 days before.

The International office suggests you put in your application 3-5 months early because the visa people are usually behind quite a bit....

Well, apparently they caught up.

So, I was denied a visa and I had already accepted a job for January and those two don't go well together.

Fortunately, Bro. Oswald in the International office is awesome and he helped me get things together to re-apply. He even worked it out with the Financial Aid office so I wouldn't have to pay the $340 fee again. And when I messed up the redo of my application, he made a new for me.

So, needless to say I have been a little anxious these last couple of weeks waiting for my visa to come in...I have a flight to Orlando booked for Dec. 31 and I wasn't sure if I would have a work visa to cross the border with.

But, now I can relax and enjoy this wonderful Christmas season and pick up my visa from Fed-Ex in a couple of days.

I am so grateful for the wonderful faculty and employees in the International Office at BYU-Idaho for helping me as much as they do. They did whatever they could to make this process as simple as possible and helped me understand the process better too.

Yay!! Merry Christmas to all! I got the best present ever today!

Sa-wheet!

Taylor Swift on SNL....perhaps the best thing that's happen to that show in a long, long time...

..Not to Glee

And this is why.

Sorry, Glee...you had your chance to redeem yourself.

To Glee or not to Glee? That is the question...

I would just like to start by saying I am not one of the people who thought the TV show Glee was amazing from the pilot alone.

It didn't feel right.

Some thing was missing or off about the whole thing and I just wasn't doing it for me.

Maybe it was the fact that I didn't have anything remotely resembling glee club in high school or just the story lines themselves.

What ever it was, I wasn't hooked on the show. I would watch it casually to keep up so I could make an informed judgment, but I wasn't loving it.

That is, until this week's episode.

This week, called Throwdown, was different for me.

Well, I'll admit I wasn't diggin' it too much until the end. That's what really brought it together.

In the last five or so minutes of the episode, I was finally able to see what others have been raving about this show.

If nothing else, the closing number nearly brought me to tears. It is amazing the power of music and the emotions it can invoke.

I won't be raving that "the show is absolutely amazing and everyone has to watch it!" But I will say, if anything else, watch it for the songs and the power that music has to move you and help you express and recognize what you are feeling.

That is one thing this show does have.

Oh dear...

So, I've completed Week 4 of my student teaching...thank the stars in the heavens!!!

The result so far: BYU-Idaho doesn't not prepare the Theatre/Speech Ed majors well enough for teaching...

This last week I took control of teaching both the Film Studies class and both Theatre I classes...let's just leave it at the fact that as a result, my cooperating teacher is taking back the Theatre I classes for a week...

I created lesson plans as I had been taught in my ONE practicum..and apparently lesson plans for reading comprehension don't prepare you in the least bit for teaching a beginning theatre class.

Hell is a good way to describe it. The students were bored, I was panicky because I had not planned for students getting bored so quickly and my cooperating teacher couldn't figure out why I was planning such inadequate lessons...

PLEASE don't get me wrong. I have a fantastic cooperating teacher and I love BYU-I. I just feel that the university doesn't require enough practicum experience for the Theatre Ed teachers. All of my other Ed classmates seemed to be in the classroom from pretty much their first year and, as a Theatre/Speech Ed major, we weren't required to even be in contact with the high school classroom until the semester before student teaching.

If I had had to take a teaching in the classroom practicum my second or third year at school, I would have changed my major in a heart beat. Some people simply cannot handle the classroom. I am one of those people.

Teaching is a calling. It takes a certain kind of person to do it so that it is beneficial to the student.

My cooperating teacher is one of these people. She is an amazing teacher who can create wonderful and meaningful lessons seemingly on the spot. I am grateful to have her as a cooperating teacher because she has been a major help to me in this student teaching process thus far.

I do feel bad though, as she is having to teach me how to teach as well as teach the students. I hope I am not too much of a burden on her. But the wonderful thing is that she is willing to do so. She is willing to help me.

I hope I don't let her down.

Two months left...eight weeks...62 days.

A Learning Experience...Literally.

I'm here.

For the last (nearly) two weeks, I have been a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada.

I do believe this is where the inhabitants of the Bad Place go to cool down...

Just kidding...kind of.

I have begun my student teaching at Basic High School in Henderson. Classes start at 7:10 a.m. I have to be there at 6:50...I didn't know there was a 5:30 in the morning...
Two days in class with students and so far, so good.

I don't really know how I feel about being here. I kind of feel like it's all just a dream...that might be from the waking up so early...

I am teaching Theatre as well as Journalism...I definitely have a better feel for the Journalism. I think it's a bit more of a linear subject which makes it easier to teach. Well, for me anyway.

Both of my cooperating teachers are fantastic. They are both pumped about the topic and their enthusiasm shows in their teaching.

I'm still terrified of teaching. But, with a little practice and preparation, I think I will survive the next 3 months... 12 and a half weeks...86 days...not that I'm counting down or anything...

What now?...

I haven't really written anything substantial lately merely because I've had to keep up about five other blogs for my classes this semester. But, with only four days left I have some ponderings I'd like to share.

I feel like I can't really get going on my life after university until I get back to Florida. I don't know why this is. I just feel this incredible need to get back to Orlando because there is something there that is part of my future.

It's the strangest thing.

I've been trying to think of alternate plans for a backup in case I don't get on the college program, but I'm at a loss.

I have a year I can work in the states after school and I don't know what to do with it. I suppose I could just apply for a job in the Orlando area even if I don't get the CP. I feel weird.

Everything about going back to Orlando feels right. The only problem is I won't know anything until recruiting opens back up this fall.

Where will I end up? I have no idea. But, I do know that the Lord has a plan for me and I will follow his promptings to direct me where ever I need to go. Even if it's not Orlando.

It's so close...

Less than three weeks til I'm done and out of here!!!!!

...

46 days...

Mama, who bore me...

I love my mom...

She's adorable and creative,

and she finds good things about everything in life.

yay.

Is that?...Can it be?...It is!

Well, it's finally here...

I'm about to start my final semester at Brigham Young University-Idaho...

Mind you, I still have student teaching this fall, but in approximately 96 days I will no longer have to take any classes, hand in any real homework or buy any mores expensive text books.

It's going to be awesome!

...well, the finishing part, we'll have to see how the actual semester goes.

For the time being, I'm excited. The end is near! I can see the light at the end of that proverbial tunnel!

Huzzah!

Well, the pipes are singin' and the kilts are swingin'...

I rediscovered highland dancing this week.

I haven't highland dance in around ten years and one of the last times I did it I sprained all of the ligaments in the bottom of my right foot.

So, when my friend Golden asked be to be one of the co-hosts at this years Celtic Tales I was tenative to agree to dance.

I'm so glad I did!

I had forgotten how much fun highland dancing can be and the joy of wearing a kilt again.

It's also an intense workout that is fairly quick.

I love dancing and this whole experience has been great fun.

Now just to keep it up!

L is for the way you look at me...

To all the single peoples out there, Happy Candy and Commercialism Day!

To all those who are attached, Happy Valentines Day!

Either way, have a good day and much love to you all!

(I don't know why the heart is blue, it was red when I copied it...)

Rexburg, M.D.

Houston, we have a problem...

So...not only do I feel like I do not belong in Rexburg, I find I am also having health issues in Idaho...

I am finding it difficult to get rested in the 'burg. I wake up, even after 8+ hours of sleep and feel just as tired as I went to bed, maybe even more so. At first it was the altitude that was getting me but now that I've adjusted to that, I still don't feel refreshed and ready to go...It's a little frustrating.

Also I feel like I may be shedding more so here than in Florida...I'm not sure if this is a result of the dryness that is another health issue for me or what it is...also not cool...

Third, I am allergic to Rexburg water...I have been since I moved here. I don't know if it's because of the amount of chlorine they put in the water or what it is, but it does not like me. I get physically sick from it. It is very painful and I am not a big fan...

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer, but these things are just more of an assurance of something I already knew...

It's time to say goodbye to Rexburg...

Ugh....

One of these things just doesn't belong...

So, I have a problem...

I don't feel like I belong in Rexburg anymore...

This is probably a symptom of Senioritis and if so, PLEASE help me avoid it at all costs!

I really feel like I belong in Florida or really just somewhere else right now. What is it about Orlando that does that to you?

Anyway, the lack of sunlight in my life is really bringing me down so hopefully, I'll be able to get back to functioning properly soon. I have applied for student teaching so the end is in sight! Yay!!

Now to get through the rest of this year...