Rachel K. Standardized Testing

I continue to be the busiest person on earth, but in a totally wonderful way.

First and foremost : GRE - CHECK. DONE. VANQUISHED!!!!

The GRE is finally over and I have a majority of my life back! WahooOOoooo! After a week of hardcore crunching for the math and verbal sections and a quickie crash course in the writing sections, I took the test. I borrowed my grandfather's trusty vehicle and drove (the hell) up to Montlake Terrace where the test was held at some strange computer testing center. It was hella sketchy. The testing people made me empty my pockets and they checked up my pant legs for CHEATING STRATEGEMS (maybe). Anyway it hadn't occurred to me to hide answers up my pant legs, so I was allowed in and took the test.

Nothing more interesting about it really, but it's over and my score was about 140 points over what I wanted it to be, which is turbo awesome. I'll have to wait and see about my essay scores, but at this point I just don't have the energy left to care. I'm done and that's all there is to it!

Having my life back, I rejoined society spent some time with the roommate, the boyfriend and my roommate's new kitten, Yogurt. Yogurt is a wonderful distraction to all the things I should be doing. I could be studying for my up-and-coming teacher exams (the WEST-E and WEST-B exams for Washington State), but there's a KITTEN now and instead I can just wiggle a string in front of her for hours and hours. And I do.

Now it's crunch time for iD Tech Camps, where I'm assistant directing all summer long. I'm in San Francisco currently for camp training at UC Berkeley and am visiting with friends Natanya and Amy (former JET members like me) while I'm down in California. I had an online meeting for admin stuff today and I feel really good about the position; I think it'll have enough responsibilities to keep me busy, but it's a job I'm very qualified for. It feels nice to be counted on once in awhile, especially because I'm waiting to hear back from my UCDS job interview and the more I have to wait, the more I assume I don't have the job and start to panic.

I just have to keep a cool head about all this. If I don't get the job, it will be crummy. I'll have to find some other source of income for next year, which won't be easy and I really don't want to have to take a bunch of steps backwards and work somewhere at a coffee shop or retail store again; but if that's what it comes to, I guess I'll have to swallow my pride. Anyway I can't do anything about it until I hear back, and I haven't heard back so that's that for now.

I've heard from one person on my craigs list ad for private tutoring, which I'm trying to fill up my Saturdays with before climbing. I figured if I charge $25 an hour I can make some quick money doing something I like doing and have a bit of experience doing! We'll see if this works out, but I am hoping to hone in on this skill that I have been practicing since I was hired at Kumon last summer.

[ooh they're playing Soulja Boy on the radio! San Francisco coffee shops have earned new respect from me]

Other than that there's still the matter of getting my UW application together since that's due in mid-September and I'd best finish up most of it as quickly as I can. I still need a second letter of recommendation, which is proving arduous since none of my RIT professors are getting back to me... boo. I will persevere! I also have to investigate where and when to take these multiple pre-requisite courses like lab science, math, US history and early child development... that might actually end up being a lot easier if I DON'T get the UCDS job, which would really be the only good thing to come out of that.

For now, I'm going back to enjoy my time in San Francisco. Today I went to the Asian Art Museum downtown and saw some beautiful government buildings and sculptures. Tomorrow -- Golden Gate Park with Amy? I should also mention that I'm staying with Natanya and her wonderful parents who have a beautiful blue home in Daly City! San Francisco does not shy away from color. I thought Seattle was crazy!

Stay tuned for the next entry:

UCDS Spells Success OR Job Rejection Leads to Jumping from Golden Gate Bridge

Rachel K. Crunch

It's crunch time.

Lately I've been feeling overwhelmed with everything that I need to finish and underwhelmed with how I've been living my life lately.

I've been bouncing around the country every two weeks for awhile now. Spending time in Los Angeles visiting my friend Tristyn and my sister, Laura with Kevin was a blast! We saw Nickelodeon studios, where my sister just finished an intern position. Then, last week I joined my family in Boston for the Emerson College graduation ceremony and saw my sister and all of her friends in the beautiful sunshine.  On June first I'm heading south to San Francisco to hang out with fellow former-JETs Amy and Natanya in the foggy city! I'm hoping to be a little bit more relaxed then than I am now since the GRE will be over by that time and I'll be studying for tests that are less pointless.

So right now I'm in the middle of my most stressful week. On Monday I flew back on a disgustingly early flight from Boston to Seattle and immediately felt under the weather. The next day I had my 3 hour teaching interview at UCDS, where I taught a quickie lesson on algebraic concepts (fancier sounding than it was in actuality) and got to know some of the 4th and 5th graders and teachers in the block. UCDS is an amazing school right off the bat. It's beautiful, well-lit, well-designed, and it looks like the Disneyland of elementary schools. It's a stark contrast to the peeling paint on the walls of the public school I volunteer at. Those kids need pencils, these kids have macbooks and smart boards (the Ferrari of chalkboards). I'm not sure how the interview went, but I can say for sure that I really liked working with the teachers (Diane, Meg and another person whose name I've forgotten). The kids were fantastic and I hope that they ask me to join their staff! I'll hear back on the first week of June for better or for worse.

Other than that, it's crunch time for the GRE. I'm trying to cram all those principles of triangles, geometry, binomials, probability, vocabulary, grammar, and everything else into my brain. It's not fitting, and I'm pretty certain that I won't do spectacularly on the test. However, I have no plans in the near future to submit a GRE score to anyone, so I guess at this point I should just keep swimming and hope for the best.

After the GRE is over and done with, my life will be all about iD Tech Camps and preparing for the training seminar in San Francisco, which by the way is the main reason I'm going down there in the first place.

It's amazing how being busy with all the things you don't want to do makes you realize all the things you'd rather be doing. I miss going climbing and working out and drawing and studying Japanese and getting up to the market more than once every two weeks. At least I'm squeezing in lots of mad men watching while I take practice exams. Surely that's conducive to learning.

Stay tuned for the next entry:

Standardized Victory

or

You can't spell Egregious without "GRE"