apparently after 7 months, I've slipped back into the habit of driving

Tonight was the Townie Street Party to kick off the Ann Arbor Art Fairs (have I mentioned how much I love the fact that there's always something going on in Ann Arbor? because I do), so various local businesses/services had booths set up. At the Ann Arbor Transit Authority (AATA) booth, the woman asked me, "So are you a mass transit user?"

Yes, ironically, since my car died yesterday when I was up in Lakeview for the Behrenwald reunion and it's going to be up there at least throughout this week so it can be fixed. I'm going to be dependent on my bike and the bus system (which fortunately is doable in A2). It's just sort of annoying, although better that my car die in Lakeview than on a major freeway between here and Lakeview. I biked home from work today (Mom having dropped me off this morning on her way home, as she had driven me down here last night so I could be to work today), and found it to be mighty tiring. I think I'll just plan to bike to the bus stop on the other side of Central Campus that goes past my work, bus up there and back, and then bike home.

The woman was giving out buttons that read "Dump the Pump--RIDE TRANSIT," so I took one. Maybe I'll even wear it this week.

Sigh...

"He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat"

Warning: mild rant ahead.

I went to the Ann Arbor 4th of July parade this morning, primarily because it seemed like something moderately interesting to do. I'm sure I didn't find it nearly as cool as all the little kids around me did, but it was fun to see an American parade again (Balaklia did lots of holiday celebrations, but I don't remember any parades). The floats were very generous with their candy and other goodies; even as an adult, I ended up with a few Tootsie Rolls, a bag of baby carrots (from some health-food float), and a packet of Forget-Me-Not seeds from a political candidate, which amused me.

The floats were varied and random--everything from fire engines to preschools to old-fashioned bicycles to "Save the Monarch Butterflies". And a LOT of political candidates. You could tell that it was an election year, and the various candidates gave out candy in such copious amounts it was as if they expected the toddlers to vote. However, when the Washtenaw County Republican float came out (most of the Democratic candidates had their own separate floats, but Republicans appear to be enough of a minority that they consolidated), the people around me started to boo. I heard a parent tell her child, "We don't want any of John McCain's candy." And I came away from the parade with a bad taste in my mouth that had nothing to do with candy.

Now first off, let me say that I'm a political independent and don't feel that I align up completely with either party. I think that there are areas where both major parties do a good job, and areas where they fail miserably. If I apply my understanding of the Bible to current political issues, I can't come up with a completely Republican or completely Democratic platform. I think that both presidential candidates this year are decent options, and although I've got some preferences, I'm still undecided who I'll vote for in November (plus I hate jumping on anyone's bandwagon too early, because you never know what new information will come out later, making you look really stupid if you decide to switch sides). And if I'd been at a parade where the people watching were conservatives and were booing a Democratic float and refusing to accept candy handed out by Obama supporters, I'd have been just as annoyed.

All of that said, I was disgusted at the people around me at the parade. I understand that people have strong political feelings, and that's legitimate. However, I thought that their behavior set a poor example for the children that were there. If you don't like a float that goes by, it's perfectly acceptable not to clap. But to boo them is in bad taste. Do we want our children to grow up thinking that it's okay to badmouth people we disagree with? And while the politicians are handing out candy to get their name out and get parents to vote for them, it's not going to make a kid turn Republican just because he accepted candy from a McCain supporter. Honestly, if they wanted to help the Democratic cause, those people should have gotten more candy from the Republicans, because then there would have been less of it for the politicians to give to those undecided people who might be swayed by it. :) (Yes, I am my father's daughter, and this is how my mind works.)

So, a happy 4th of July to all my readers, and a wish for a country where people can disagree respectfully and set a good example for small children. Herein endeth the rant.

summer vacation

Apparently going on vacation for a week is good for me. After spending a week with Tif in North Carolina, I got back last night. This morning, I woke up bright and fairly chipper, went for a bike ride, and have since been working at cleaning my apartment, as a) it needed it and b) Liz, Cary, and Jeff are coming over on Sunday for food before outdoor Shakespeare in the Arb. I haven't been this productive in a while (outside of work, that is, as I spent 7 weeks being productive at work and doing not-so-much when I got home). I have about a week and a half left before I go back for summer semester, and between hanging out with multiple friends in the greater Ann Arbor and Lansing, perhaps starting up again on scrapbooking, and going up home for a few days, it's going to go very quickly, I suspect.

Oh, and I realized today that the Ann Arbor Summer Festival is going on, and there are free concerts every night. Yay!

North Carolina was a lot of fun, even though Fayetteville itself seems to primarily be composed of sand, pine trees, and strip malls. Apparently George Washington went through the area once and commented that he was unimpressed, or something like that. But the downtown is nice, and we drove up to the Raleigh-Durham area via rural highways one day and went to the beach at Fort Fisher another day. It was fun and relaxing.

from the mouths of little children...

Yeah, I'm not that good about doing regular updates. Part of it is that my life just doesn't seem that exciting to me right now, and also, moving to Ann Arbor has been more of an adjustment than I realized it would be (it seems like the last six months or so have been nothing but major adjustments...this is wearying). I like my job a lot, but moving to a city where I don't know a lot of people (however, *wave* to Cary!) and I won't be here long enough to build long-term friendships has been challenging. But I have Ukrainian conversation time with Svitlana, think I may have found a church (two, actually) for the summer, and generally run up my phone bill. So I'm hanging in there.

And as I said, I really enjoy my job. The kids say the funniest things. Kay, one of my 4-year-olds, has a very stubborn streak to her...as well as a misunderstanding of reflexive pronouns. Last week, we were learning about feelings, and she said, "I angry." "Why are you angry?" I asked. "I angry because Daddy help me on monkey bars and I do it yourself!!!" She's very big on the phrase "I do it yourself."

Also from Ryan in the same class: "Who that?" (looking at the mailbox for a child who hadn't yet joined the class). "That's Mia," I said. "She's going to be the new girl." "Why we need new girl?" he asked.

My kids really are what keep me going some days. No matter how tired or drained or lonely I get, teaching them cheers me up!

oops, getting behind on posting

Oh, wow...it's been a week already since my last post! Let's see...what is there of note to mention?

* As of tonight, I officially have my apartment furnished, as Nikki and I hauled the futon upstairs and the couch downstairs. Forget "Two Men and a Truck"--two petite females proved that they're tougher than they look! I now hope to sort of get my living room put together and decorated. My chairs are fascinating and varied--a wooden folding chair, a very nice computer chair, a wooden stool, and a lopsided wicker chair I rescued off of the sidewalk this past weekend.

* I have a library card for the Ann Arbor Library. Besides books and movies, apparently you can check out art prints for a month or two. Maybe I should look into that for decorating.

* Reina, the little girl who just screamed and screamed the first few times in class, is fine now. Today she came in smiling, said "Hello," waved to her mom and said, "Bye-bye," and settled down to her art project. Her mom said that she gets all excited about coming to class. Yay!

* UMBC sent me a letter this week to tell me that I was accepted to the Bilingual Ed/ESOL MA program. I emailed them back in March to say I was withdrawing my application, but apparently some wires got crossed there. However, they apparently weren't going to give me any funding other than loans, so I think I'm much better off at MSU.

* After some emailing around, I have a Ukrainian conversation partner/tutor for the summer! Her name is Svitlana, and she's a student at Eastern Michigan who was originally from Ternopilska Oblast (not far from Celeste, actually). We met for the first time last night, and it was so much fun to be speaking Ukrainian again. With a job transcribing videos of Ukrainian classrooms this fall, I wanted to keep up with my language skills, so this seemed like a great opportunity.

the toughest job you'll ever love (no, not preschool)

I've taken to going for a walk most evenings, now that I've moved to Ann Arbor, a combination of wanting to get in better shape and become more familiar with the city. It's a beautiful place to be, especially in the spring. I walked for about 40 minutes tonight (partly because I wasn't quite sure where I was in relation to other things, as I kept finding intersections where both streets were labeled "South Something-or-other."

U of M's campus is lovely, especially the older buildings, many of which are Gothic in style. It reminds me a bit of my (quite possibly erroneous) conception of Oxford as an undergraduate fond of the works of Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis, although I'm under the impression that Oxford has less "green space".

As I was walking by the Michigan Union tonight, I happened to notice a tall, thin, rectangular monument in the corner of a flower bed. Going over to read it, I found out that it commemorated the speech that John F. Kennedy made on the steps of the Michigan Union in 1960, campaigning for President, where he first mentioned the idea for the Peace Corps.

How many of you who are going to be doctors, are willing to spend your days in Ghana? Technicians or engineers, how many of you are willing to work in the Foreign Service and spend your lives traveling around the world? On your willingness to do that, not merely to serve one year or two years in the service, but on your willingness to contribute part of your life to this country, I think will depend the answer whether a free society can compete. I think it can! And I think Americans are willing to contribute. But the effort must be far greater than we have ever made in the past.

home sweet apartment

I think the last post should have ended, "And when my life gets sort of settled, I'll try and start blogging again more regularly." As it turned out, I spent close to a week and a half (minus the weekend) living in a motel before moving into my apartment for the summer on Wednesday. Wednesday was also my first actual teaching day, with four classes; as well, I had horrible allergies. I basically managed to get the bed made and call Mom and Tif before falling asleep.

My apartment is great. It's part of a huge old brick house that's been turned into a bunch of apartments, largely populated by grad and law students. It's a little shabby in a good sort of way, with wood floors and detail around the doorways. The apartment itself is pretty small. It's got the same amount of rooms as my place in Ukraine--living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom, but the rooms are smaller. But it's big enough for me (although sorely lacking in counter space in the kitchen). The girl I'm subletting from left me her furniture (which I can keep after I move out), and I'm inheiriting several other items from the guy upstairs who's moving out, so it should be pretty cozy once I get things organized.

This was originally going to be a much longer post including a section on teaching, but since both Tif and Melissa called me during the composition, I think it's time to close for now.