The Kitten Shot Out of the Garbage

Hi Everyone,

Have you ever heard the poem "The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven" by Jack Prelutsky? Well, as I was getting out of class about 15 minutes ago, I heard a rustling noise in the garbage can. Now in Seattle, that means there's a squirrel in the trash, or possibly a rat or a crow. I approached this Oakland trash can quietly, stealthily. I've seen one squirrel on campus here, but that was it, so I didn't think it was a squirrel. Maybe a raccoon? No. It COULD have been a skunk, we've had a few on campus, but I'm sure I would have smelled it before I heard it. As I got closer, a kitten hurled itself out of the trash can and sprinted off into the bushes. I tried to look for it, but it was gone so quickly that it didn't leave a trace. Bummer. I wanted to pet it! The animals that I see the most around here are birds, the majority are humming birds, which is kinda cool. I also saw one of those teeny tiny lizards today. So cute!

Cheers!
Chelsea

ETA: I thought you'd all like the read the poem. It's pretty awesome.

The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven
By Jack Prelutsky
From It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky

The turkey shot out of the oven
and rocketed into the air,
it knocked every plate off the table
and partly demolished a chair.
It ricocheted into a corner
and burst with a deafening boom,
then splattered all over the kitchen,
completely obscuring the room.
It stuck to the walls and the windows,
it totally coated the floor,
there was turkey attached to the ceiling,
where there’d never been turkey before.
It blanketed every appliance,
it smeared every saucer and bowl,
there wasn’t a way I could stop it,
that turkey was out of control.
I scraped and I scrubbed with displeasure,
and thought with chagrin as I mopped,
that I’d never again stuff a turkey
with popcorn that hadn’t been popped.

So Far...

Hi Everyone,
I hadn't realized that it had been so long since I posted last. So, life here is still pretty boring, but I have been a little more adventurous. I've become friends with another student in my classes. Her name is Tammy, she's from Chicago, and she's the only other person in my group who is not from this area. I was getting so bored and antsy last week that I decided to email her and see if she wanted to hang out. She was very excited because, like me, she isn't from the area and didn't know anybody. She is living with a family across the freeway from the school so just going to her house was an adventure from what I had been doing before. I got to meet Angie, the daughter of the family she is living with, as well as their parrot, cat, and dog. Their dog, Nova, is just about the cutest thing ever. I'll try to take a picture of her so that you can all appreciate her awesomeness. Last Saturday, Angie was nice enough to take us on the bus to the Lake Merritt Farmer's Market where I got a delicious gyro. We walked along the shores of Lake Merritt near the bird sanctuary and then hopped a bus for Piedmont, which is one of the rich areas near Oakland. We bought some ice cream at Fenton's, which was amazing, and ate it on the front lawn of the Piedmont School. If you've ever seen the movie Up, the main characters share an ice cream at the end. The place they're at is Fenton's! On Sunday, we had coffee at Cafe Galleria, which is next to the Safeway that I always go to. I've spent the majority of my time since then reading and working on my homework.

Lake Merrit

I'm not particularly pleased with my time here. I've been here for a month and I feel like I've hardly learned  a thing. The school is isolated and not really set up for grad students from out of state. They were not very clear about some of the information that really should have been on their website and their organizational skills are somewhat lacking. While I just had to deal with their extremely sluggish work ethic and their lack of communication, Tammy and some others have had a seriously hellish time getting into the system. I'm excluding Marion and Wendell from my list of people/things who have made this transition stagnate. I just hope they're enough to redeem this experience.

Oakland/San Francisco in the Fog

And on a happier note, the city sometimes looks really cool in fog or at sunset. Here it looks like the shining city of Oz off in the distance...except it's not green. In case you're wondering, that floating bit in the middle is not a UFO or even an airplane. It's the Hangar Vodka blimp that often comes to visit. Yes, it totally makes me want to purchase their alcoholic beverage. Not.

First Day!

Hi Everyone,

On Thursday, I had my first night of classes. When I say night, I mean I went to the Educational Therapy Meet and Greet at 3:30 and my second of two classes ended at 10:30. It was exhausting. I think everyone came to class with tons of energy and left feeling completely drained and overwhelmed. However, the program looks like it is really good and all of the people in my class are friendly and ask great questions.

I have two classes, Education 261, Intro to Mild/Moderate Disabilities and Education 264, Assessment of Learning Disabilities. Normally 261 goes from 4:30 to 7:30 and 264 goes from 7:30 to 10:30, but we had an Educational Therapy Meet and Greet at 3:30 beforehand so the whole evening ended up being 7 hours long. We got to meet Marion Marshall, the educational therapy coordinator, who was very nice and she gave us a tour of the school even though I knew where most of the places on campus were already. Then we met the person in charge of the education department in general, Kim Mayfield, who was very nice. Then, we started class. Most of the first half was spent on introductions, so I don't feel like we've learned a ton yet, but my first instructor, Professor Fields, was really great. She is funny and upbeat, which makes listening to her all the more interesting.

My second class is going to be way more difficult. Professor Kosmos is very nice and a great speaker, but she also goes over everything very quickly and speaks in acronyms, some that I know and some that I don't, so it's harder to follow her. It's also super late in the evening and everyone's brains were totally fried. She told us the story of her own struggles with learning disabilities and how she went on to get her masters at Harvard and her doctorate at some other school, so she's pretty hardcore. One of the things that I'm really excited about it learning about different kinds of learning disabilities and then being able to apply that knowledge to students that I've already worked with. I keep expecting to have "ah ha" moments (thanks Oprah), where I can say, "So, THAT'S why he was so needy/clingy/spacey/insert-appropriate-adjective-here". I got my first "ah ha" moment in class already, when she was describing types of Autism. It was pretty exciting!

I only have classes on Thursdays, every other week. I was worried that I'd have a lot of time on my hands, but there is actually a ton of work to be done and once the semester gets going, I don't think I'll have much free time at all! One of my upcoming assignment will be to do some case studies on famous people, past or present, with learning disabilities. I've already started looking up the information for that assignment So, wish me luck as I embark on a very exciting new adventure and I'll post more about what I learn as I go!

Cheers,
Chelsea

A Few Fun Things

Hi Everyone,

I'm still waiting for school to start, but I've done a few interesting things since I last posted. On Sunday evening Rachel's friend Hillary, who lives in Pacifica (just south of San Francisco), her husband Johannes, and their daughter Melanie picked me up and took me out to dinner, which was a lot of fun. We went to a really good German restaurant in Alameda. Johannes is from Germany, so he said that they are always looking for German restaurants to try out. It was really great to get out off campus and see the area, but it was also nice to spend some time with people that I know. Hillary and Johannes are so nice and we had a really great time. In fact, everyone else at the restaurant had a great time being entertained by Melanie, who is 19 months old and super cute.

Everyone had labor day off, of course. Not like I needed a day off, but whatever. The only downside to that was that the sports teams and GA's also had the day off and they were up really late on Sunday night being extremely loud. I bought some wine at the Safeway a few days ago and was going to have some, but the bottle broke. I have a hard tile floor in my dorm room, and even though I didn't drop it, I have learned not to set anything on the floor because it just tipped over and shattered! I mopped up the wine and swept the glass, and even though I have left my window open, my room still reeks of sour grapes. Awesome.

Today, I went down to the bookstore to see if one of my other textbooks has come in yet, and I discovered that they were holding a blood drive. I haven't given blood in awhile so I decided, what the heck, I'll do it. Now I have an awesome red bandage to prove it. I've never had a problem with needles or blood, so I'm usually a little surprised when other people get light-headed or feel sick after donating just because it's never happened to me. One of the people who works on campus was donating blood in the bed thingy across from me and started feeling dizzy so he had to lie back and put a cool rag on his forehead. He told me that I was a champ and asked if I donated blood a lot. I told him that this was only my second time, and he was very surprised. It was quite funny. I ate lunch out in St. Francis courtyard, which was really beautiful. I think I'm going to do that more often!

Hope everyone had a fabulous Labor Day Weekend!

Chelsea