Personal Mission Statement (Guiding Values):

So, today is my birthday. I almost forgot about it. I don't think I'm at the point where I could truly forget totally, but my week at school was such that, literally, I had no conception of time outside of 'do I have my lesson ready for tomorrow'. I really didn't have a lot of time to plan any sort of party, but a week ago the ward announced that we were going to have a big bbq at the bishop's house as well as the Philadelphia Temple Groundbreaking on that day, so I thought I was good as far as parties. The bbq ended up being cancelled and the groundbreaking was a broadcast... so I ended up not really having a party or celebrating my birthday in traditional 'party' fashion... but hey, I decided precisely four years ago that, in an ideal world, birthdays should be a time to turn outward, not inward. So all I did that day was attend the broadcast, help someone move... and, one thing that--to me--really was a party. I cleaned my room. And organized it. In a radically different way.

Story.

The cleaning and new organization would not have been possible without the help of several people: My roommates Dan and Eric, a neighbor of our's, and God. I'll explain: I live in a room that is 7' by almost 9'. That's pretty small (it is actually a closet that happens to have a window), but I find it adequate, and I have it as my mission to save money while I'm paying for my master's degree (which is no small task in a city like Philadelphia, especially when it comes to housing). So I like my room, but it is small. SO, I bought myself a birthday present: a loft. It's a bunkbed without the bottom bunk. It puts my over 5' above the ground--saving all of that room my bed used to take up!! At least, that was my idea. The problem is that shipping here in Philly is a pain: they ship during the day and all of my roommates and I work during the day...if it doesn't fit in the mail slot (a bit thicker and wider than a VHS tape), you have to plan on picking it up. Problem is, my loft box is rather large, irregularly-shaped, and 100 pounds... and my not having a car here in Philly complicates things substantially. So, I knew it was going to be delivered on Friday, and, because of past delivery attempts, knew that I get home only about 35 minutes after it would be dropped off. So I thought I would risk it: I would leave a note for the FedEx guy to leave it at the door. I was told that leaving packages on your doorstep is not smart in Philly, but I thought the size and weight would make me safe--surely--for a mere 30 minutes until I arrived?

Well, I walk up to our row home, no package in sight.

I swallowed, and went inside, hoping that, by some chance happening, one of my roommates had come home and received it. No one home, no box anywhere in the house. I looked up the shipping info online and it said it had been delivered.
...
...
I frantically called FedEx to tell them what had happened, and they listened unsympathetically. I had bet and lost.
...or so I thought.
This morning, right before my roommate and I left for the groundbreaking, our neighbor knocks on our door and tells us that she has my package: some people saw it delivered and began loading it in their truck when she said that the package was hers, they just delivered it to the wrong house. Cluuuuuuuuuuutch! So, end of story: that was a huge load off my mind, and my roommates helped me set it up later that day (read: did all the work), and it was a grand birthday present after all: it roughly doubled the size of my room. God is sooooooooo good to me.

The end. Except that school is still really, really, hard. But I'm telling myself to focus on the good, and, funny enough, even though some things are outrageously ridiculous, there is plenty of good to find. :)

First Week of School 09/11/2011

The first week of school. It was only four days, including one shortened schedule day. But it felt like about a month of life was drained from my soul. I came to school the first day with a plan. I had a vision and a big goal for the year, I had a management plan, I had prepared procedures. The only thing I wasn't prepared for...was high school students. Looking back on it, I cognitively was aware that they would be radically different from the fourth graders that my summer teaching entailed... But it did really manifest itself in a concrete picture until the first day of school. And boy--what a manifestation! I can't describe it in words very readily... But picture me on my first day with a pep talk on goal-setting and elaborate, interactive get to know you games. I get past the administrative things like seat assignments and some expectations... I launch into the pep talk and then explain the first game to get to know everyone's name.
...
...
"i aint doin that"
"yeah, that's stupid. We're not kids, and we don't need to know everyone."
...
I was a little stunned for a moment, but I was undeterred. I explained that Spanish class was going to be interactive and would require 100% participation. That got a few people on board and they began to stand up… but the rest of the class—the majority—really had no inclination to do what I said… and I have come to feel (at least so far) that anything listening to the teacher and taking notes… they really won’t do anything without significant coaxing. But I think they will come around. But please, don't think that I am depressed or start feeling sorry for me. I have only excitement for the future. I am completely dedicated to improving and to finding the right ways to engage and relate to my students. I have complete hope in the prospect that things will get better, and complete faith that things will. One great—nay, excellent—thing about Teach for America is its network of support. I have, literally, dozens of people I can reach out to (and have) who are helping me and just filling me with practical solutions to this and specific content questions. I *know* I will get better at this, and several people are helping me do so every step of the way. This is the way to become a teacher.

First Day of School!!! 09/06/2011

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First day of school. Wow. The stuff of legend. The stuff of which books are written. The stuff that makes you want to go through 6 weeks of training, read multiple books on the subject, go to hundreds of hours of workshops, call and email every expert worth their spit, and compile it all into an extravagant, far-seeing plan…

…

Teaching, in my limited experience thusfar, is not a profession that “goes according to plan”. *Sigh*. It wasn’t terrible. It really wasn’t. I did a lot of good. I got to know names and faces, I set a tone for my expectations, and I didn’t back down when multiple kids tried testing me (I set the expectation that everyone will participate in my class—and some people went out of their way to tell me ‘how dumb’ what we were doing was). They know I will not pass them by, or give in to their whims (no bathroom unless it is an emergency—though I did lose that one once already—she played the “I’m eight months pregnant card”, what could I say to that?). But, on the other hand, they saw that I was not in control of everything—even a most basic thing like what is homeroom for, or even when does the next period start or end. It. Was. Chaos (literally, all day, I had no idea how long I would have that class—one class lasted 5 minutes, my last class lasted 60).

Don’t get me wrong, my school is great. It really is. These people care. But I just don’t know how to react when they send me off to what I thought was my first period class, and it turns out to be a homeroom that I was told nothing about, and lasts for an unspecified amount of time. Totally threw off my groove. But, tomorrow is another day.

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Teach for America's Boot Camp 08/10/2011

Though many things have happened since then, I feel that I can’t get to any of that until I explain where the month of July went. And there is a good explanation. A week ago, I finished what is known in Teach for America as “institute”—which was really odd to call at first considering how my church uses that word. It is an intense training period (read: boot camp J) where the goal is to become “basically proficient” in the core areas of the Teaching As Leadership rubric. If you really take the time to read said rubric, becoming proficient in any sense of that word in 5 weeks is a daunting task. But I was excited: this was one of the things I was looking forward to when I accepted Teach for America’s offer. The whispered rumors of the intensity of this experience was the stuff of legend: days so long that you have to count the hours by taking off your shoes, work so hard that the question is never “what am I going to be doing tonight” but rather, “how will I be able to do all of this tonight”, constant supervision and feedback, and—this was actually the most frequent warning when people who knew found out that I was doing TFA—a complete lack of sleep.

It lived up to its reputation in terms of difficulty.

Institute was the third most grueling time of my life (and I really like to think that I have tried to lead a pretty intense life). I woke up at 5:30AM every day and would often not get to bed until 1:30AM. And on what, you may ask, is all of this time spent? An average day would consist of waking, getting ready, rushing (literally, I ran every day) to the dining hall to grab breakfast and pack your lunch, riding the bus to school, going over announcements, prepping the classroom before the kids arrived, picking up the kids and sitting with them during breakfast, coteaching math and/or language arts, lead teaching a lesson in either of those areas, lesson planning for said teaching opportunities, and, by far the most time-consuming overall… sessions. Sessions were training meetings of various sorts. Workshops. Lectures mostly, but with a college “class” feel. The content was actually quite awesome. We covered topics such as effective lesson structure (Introducing new material with reinforced key points, guided practice, independent practice, etc.), scaffolding, establishing a long-term vision with aligned(hugely important concept) intermediate goals and short-term lesson objectives, effective testing (exposes the precise point at which gaps in knowledge occur), behavioral management (they taught us an amazing system by Lee Canter. Truly exceptional. Ask me about it sometime. This easily makes the top 5 list of take-aways from institute), building a classroom culture of achievement, diversity awareness, and many of the million other things that make up a successful teacher. We also had administrative info sessions and optional workshops and activities peppered throughout the evenings. In a few short weeks, I really do feel like I have a “new sight” as to what it means to teach effectively.

I am conflicted in describing my feelings toward what I have experienced during institute. On one hand, I am extremely fulfilled by the relationships I made, the substantial progress I was able to make as a teacher and in my 4^th grade classroom (man, I am going to miss those kids! I feel like I left just when I had a solid relationship with my kids and the progress was most palpable…), and the golden nuggets of knowledge imparted to me in the sessions and from the experience overall. But on the other hand, I am extremely relieved to be rid of the 20-hour days, burdensome workload, rigid lesson plan deadlines (another frustrating thing was that there would often be up to 5 assignments due—sometimes a week before they would actually be given—and they told me ‘no’ when I asked if I could have more time for the sake of a lesson I had to give the next day), and the sessions that were so extraneous as to make me feel like they amounted to little more than “seat time”—the very thing that Teach for America is fighting against. Don’t misunderstand me, I repeat that I learned a lot from institute and I consider it a valuable experience. What other method can boast that it bring someone from level zero to mostly confident and adequately equipped to handle a full classroom in five weeks? I simply lament that it did not leave us superiorly equipped and fully confident. In short, it did not live up to my conception of a world-class-intensely-rigorous-yet-always-relevant-and-worthwhile experience. It was more like a lots-of-people-with-good-intentions-trying-to-fulfil-a-plan-that-looks-great-on-paper-but-never-stopped-to-ask-themselves “how does our approach avoid the pitfall of burnout?” Sigh. Now, I’ll try not to commit the classic flaw of complaint without remedy. How would I change it?

First: don’t have us do anything that isn’t modeled first. (The first time a lesson like one we would teach to our students was modeled to us wasn’t until week 3). And focus on one part at a time, with time for practice on each piece. E.g., instead of having a week and a half of sessions—with each session presenting a new piece with the idea that we will have been exposed to all the most essential pieces of information before the first time we teach—have us learn one principle (that has been ideally modeled to us already), then practice it (yes, even before the kids get there—adults can pretend to be students very effectively) with feedback. It will be a slower pace, with the consequence that we will be in front of students before we will have even heard of some important concepts, but it was not uncommon to hear from other corps members, even long in to institute, that they have ‘no idea what they are doing’. And, speaking for myself, I would much rather be thrown in to a circumstance where I have a firm grasp on a few principles than a shaky grasp on a dozen. It was like trying to take a drink from a fire hose.

Second, cut the presentation time of the sessions in half—in an ideal world, by up to two thirds. I think doing so would force a focus on what is actually the most important. The people in Teach for America are smart. We know how to take notes and retain information. We lose focus, though, when you ask us to reflect for 15 minutes on something as self-evident as why you might have to make adjustments for special ed students or English language learners—we get the why, just give us the how. I would likewise say that much of the investment aspect itself can be trimmed—if you tell us it is important, we’ll believe you. You are the experts. We have no experience. We are eager to learn and follow what you say is best. But I think I speak for everyone when I say that we would much rather save the 20 minutes of class discussion on why aligning our lessons is important, and be given that time to actually work on aligning a lesson plan that is due that day. This is actually what happened later on at institute: we were given much more time to work—and that is an example of one of the qualities that makes Teach for America world class. I have never been in an organization that cared as much about gathering survey information, and then actually implementing it. On several occasions, a suggestion was made and the team leaders implemented the idea the same day. Truly exceptional, and it inspires my loyalty.

Third, be more prepared. I’m not talking about the logistical problems. Those are completely forgivable (and should always have our sympathy. I’ve tried to plan events like this—it is extremely daunting and my hat is off to anyone who can achieve just a semblance of smoothness). I’m talking the presentation of the sessions themselves. The presentations should be solid weeks before institute begins (on not a few occasions it was painfully obvious that the presenters had prepared the bulk of their lesson the night before—and it really made me suspicious that the ‘reflection’ time was really a way to ‘fill time’ because they couldn’t plan something more rigorous). Make a rule that you have to do a complete run-through to a senior adviser before you give it to the room full of 60 people or something. It will pay off hugely. If we dream of every child having an excellent education, it necessitates that every training minute be treated as sacred. In my case, unfortunately, it felt like a lot of my time was wasted.

Fourth, change the deadline schedule. This suggestion is less certain to help, depending on how the structure is changed. If we are given more time to work during sessions, for example, the idea that a lesson plan for next Tuesday be due on Wednesday might be an effective plan, but for me—as the structure was—, it was overload. I would have thrived on a system akin to something like, instead of 5 things due two or three times a week, 2 things were due every day: tomorrow’s final lesson, and the rough draft for two days in advance. I believe the system was set up to ease the burden of the ones giving feedback on our rough drafts, but it felt like a reverse-psychological ploy to keep us from planning all our lessons the night before because we couldn’t be trusted—especially when I was not granted an exception on a due date that was so far in advance.

Fifth, make the support system “go to the teacher” more. This is another one that perhaps does not need to be changed. My situation was probably just an exception. The support system is actually quite a strong point of Teach for America overall. They set up, literally, an entire K-12 library that corps members can go for materials and help from experienced teachers (I used it every day, and was probably the biggest reason that my successful lessons were effective). In addition, we have our session specialists that often offer extra help, and plenty of online resources that are actually quite helpful and easy to find. But in my case, our adviser took the attitude of “if you need help, ask me.” No, not effective. Asking for extra help should always be assumed, but there should be office hours that, in contrast to the mandatory observation debrief meetings (at least in my experience, basically a work performance critique with your adviser), are open, low-pressure times to ask for any sort of help you desire. Only once did my adviser offer such a time, and it was so far in to institute that we had already turned in several lesson plans (which offered no formal opportunity to be helped to write them—I literally felt told to build an ark with nothing in my arsenal but trees and a hammer). But that one on one session where I was able to ask such fundamental questions such as “could you show me how would you do this?” put me worlds ahead. It should be a central feature of the program, not a tertiary event (on the flipside, though, that is what the real world is like: if you don’t ask for help, you are a fool to think that someone will come to you—to make yet another counterpoint, I personally believe that is one reason why organizations are so inefficient).

Whew, enough about institute. In short, it was hard. And now you know why I haven’t written in over a month. And I want you to know that I was actually very calm and happy through it all: I honestly kept the mindset of “I am doing the best I can for the kids—there is a lot of pressure on me, and I know I can’t be perfect in keeping up with it all, but I am going to do what is most important. One day at a time.” And I made it through just fine. I just think it didn’t have to be so cumbersome.

Emlen Elementary, Where I taught 4th graders for a whole month! And actually made an impact!

My classroom!!

Sessions.

Best for last, our CLASS!! Oh, how awesome it was! We all grew to love their personalities. ... (faces have been removed... to protect the innocent :)

Best. Day. Yet. 06/28/2011

Today was my favorite day so far, by far. Woke up again at 5am, having won the battle over my bed for the second day in a row (disclaimer: I actually have a huge advantage… it isn’t that comfy, I don’t have a mattress pad, and it is THE creakiest bed I have slept on in my ENTIRE life including the two years I lived in a third world country). But I rode the bus with full energy and excited for a new day of learning. Today we learned about making a vision for our lesson. A lot of it seemed liked common sense at first, but when I thought about it… I probably wouldn’t be as deliberate about implementing the concepts if they weren’t specifically highlighted (and, looking back on the worst teachers that I have had, none of them had specific objectives or assessments that kept in mind things such as “Are my formative assessments designed such that I know exactly where any gaps of knowledge in the concepts are?”)

We got a chance to apply what we learned… and it was potentially very frustrating because it felt like the instructions and expectations were not very clear before they turned us loose, but… I surprised myself. I actually had learned from past frustrating experiences. I took a step back, asked exactly what they were expecting, and realized that this was only our second day they are not expecting perfection. As a result, I was able to clear my mind and be the only person in my group to actually finish the assignment. The thing that surprised me most was that it wasn’t because I was the smartest or the most hard working (everyone around me is waaaaay more accomplished than me in those and many other respects), rather, it was simply because I did not allow myself to become paralyzed and frustrated. For one of the first times in my life, I was able to detach my performance from my personal worth. I didn’t let outcomes (or fear of bad outcomes) keep my present hostage. I am learning so much here! Love it!

But that isn’t why it was my favorite. The reason it was my favorite day is because of what happened this evening. One of Teach for America’s core values is diversity (we had an entire session devoted to it on our second day of induction). I really didn’t think much of it at the time, though. Diversity, for me, is one of those words that gets used so much in the media and in other context that it has lost its meaning. Today, though, it regained a significant portion of meaning. You see, Teach for America set up affinity groups in order to connect with people with common backgrounds and experiences. At first, I only heard that they were going to have an LGBT and an African American group. But when I looked at the announcement board that said the room each affinity group would be meeting in, I was touched to find… that they had set up one especially for Latter-day Saints! I was able to connect with two other members who are here at institute. We swapped our mission and Teach for America stories, became friends, and have already arranged to go to church together. We even made friends with the general Christian affinity group later in the evening. They are just as supportive and amazing! I really feel like I am a part of a community again—one that wants to do other weekend activities outside of drinking J. Maybe together, we can think of something so fun, that my other awesome friends will join us! One step closer…

Notes, and the End of Induction 06/25/2011

The first week of my new life as a Teach for America corps member here in Philadelphia is now over. It has felt a lot like the MTC--Large group meetings, discussing the vision and mission and goals of the movement in order to get us pumped up to work hard, living in tight quarters with (at first) total strangers, and a hierarchy that permeates everything we do. I've loved it. It really has a mission feel. So hard, but so going-to-be-worth-it. My favorite part so far, as usual, is the people. They are all... AWESOME. They are driven. They are ambitious. They are smart (I've already had a conversation about philosophy, psychology, vocabulary, and--my favorite--TWO about grammar!!!). Totally my type of people. I have to admit, though, I do feel a bit like the odd man out as everybody's idea of a good time seems to consist solely of going to bars... how do I relate to that? How can I better take part in the social scene? No one seemed interested in my board game night idea, alas... will work on that.

Here are some notes from the meetings we've had, using my usual system (more *'s = more life-changing amazing):

Story of Ghandi and a mother coming to him with her son who ate too much sugar. His advice: Wait two weeks. Came back, Ghandi told him to not eat sugar, so he stops. Mom asks why:
"I felt I had to be the change I asked in your boy."

"The long arc of history bends toward justice." MLK Jr.

***Great students aren't made by teachers, they find it in themselves.

Step it up, step aside

June 22
Most Impprtant question: what can I do for my students?
Second most:how is it perpetuated?

TFA's theory on the cycle that perpetuates the achievement gap:
1 children in poverty face extra challenges
2 school systems lack the capacity to meet these extra needs
3 students don't perform well
4 prevailing beliefs haven't led to policies and investment needed to break the cycle.

What would it take to close the gap?
Attract Best Teachers
Change prestige of teachers
Kill tenure
Family, business, community investment--
teach Malleable vs fixed intelligence
Home issues. Value of edu

Don't want you to just 'go with the ideological flow':
****In the seeds of doubts are often the answers to the very questions we are trying to solve.

This entire work is about realizing your little successes

I'm doing good, and I need to do better.

Get granular.

*****Haven't you realized that the 'they' in 'They should really do something about that' is really you. Malcolm X
Don't engage in pointing the finger. It's your fault.

Our system is jacked up. Mike S. (VP of district of Philadelphia)

Advice:
1 ask for help
2 document everything. Excel.

Lori Shorr:
Competition between schools is needed. Didn't believe this 15 years ago (lifelong democrat).

Arrived at Teach for America Induction! 06/21/2011

I got aboard a red-eye flight from Salt Lake City at 11:35pm, arrived at JFK airport at 5:35am, and my life will never be the same again. It has officially happened. I am a part of Teach for America, a movement dedicated to the goal that one day, all children will have an excellent education. It was quite the trek to bring my 3 bags and backpack from JFK to our induction campus at Temple University in Philadelphia… though I saved about $150 by flying into JFK rather than Philly directly… I wondered how much it was really worth every time I had to carry those bags up a flight of stairs… but after a few subways, an Amway track, and a few trolly stops, I arrived safe and sound and everything intact (well, except the things I had to leave behind because I had to meet the 50-pound weight limit for my flight).

I didn’t really sleep at all on the flight, so I arrived at Temple quite exhausted. I unpacked and took a quick nap before our one activity of the day, our official welcome dinner. It was quite good, a lot of pep talks. One speaker spoke of how we all need to step it up—the age of living for ourselves is over. And, in order for great students to be made, we also need to remember to not just ‘step up’ our teaching, we need to also remember to ‘step aside’ as great students aren't made by teachers, rather, they find it in themselves. Another speaker talked about our long-term vision and how Americans have a mindset that the achievement gap is ‘just the way things are’ but that, in the words of Martin Luther King, “The long arc of history bends toward justice.” And the needed changes start with us--we need to be the change we seek in others..

My teacher 'team' at the welcome dinner. The entire room was made up of quite the diverse group. It was a sight to behold!

Weekly Notes, Catching up on some thoughts from a blog I'm following. 06/08/2011

I haven't been AS diligent in recording all of the nuggets of wisdom I have come across since coming back from my trip (I have to keep some reason for people to want to interact with me face to face :), but I have read the rest of the posts I wanted to from Raptitude.com. Here they are:

I didn’t realize it, but writing is something I’ve needed in my life for a long time. From here on in I will never not write. It helps me clarify my thoughts and my values. It helps me figure out who I am. In a brief half-year, my goals have become clear to me, and I have no ambivalence about what I want to do with my life.
http://www.raptitude.com/2009/09/whats-your-problem-and-why/

"Children have a precious talent. They become enamored so easily, and by anything. Take a walk through a park with a young child, and it doesn’t take long before he’s stopped, crouched on the side of the path, captivated by a red leaf or line of marching ants. Wide-eyed and oblivious to you and everything else, he just watches. He’s become enraptured by a curious sight that is — to him — a miracle.
"...most of us feel like we’ve lost most of our capacity for bewilderment, somewhere between childhood and high school.With a bit of attention, we can get it back... One eye-opening method is to incorporate the idea of ritual into your daily tasks.
"One thing that all rituals have in common is that they are performed with attention. The participants are fully absorbed in what they are doing, because they believe their actions are important.Essential to this idea is respect for the things and people involved. Throughout your rituals, recognize the value and usefulness of objects as you pick them up. Recognize the sensitivities and virtues of people as you interact with them. Carelessness and haste have no place here.The purpose of ritual is to remind you that what you are doing is significant simply because it is what you are doing right now. Rituals need not have any lofty spiritual or religious pretensions; we’re just trying to cultivate attention.The whole operation doesn’t take any more time than doing it absent-mindedly, and the experience will leave you grateful and mindful for the next part of your day. Those steps all have to be completed anyway, so what would be the benefit in letting your attention wander to something else? There is none that I can think of, but it’s what would happen if you didn’t make a point of doing it all deliberately, by ritualizing it."
http://www.raptitude.com/2009/03/how-to-improve-your-quality-of-life-by-up-to-90/

"Please don’t only do what’s comfortable! That’s a perfect recipe for mediocrity. The older you get, the greater will be the gulf between what you could be and what you are, and the more sorry you’ll be."
"When it comes to meeting people, it’s easy to avoid it because they’re only strangers then. You can always write off a stranger as irrelevant to your life, as you know it right now. But you don’t realize that that stranger could have been your best friend, your mentor, your key to a fantastic opportunity, or even your wife. Everyone you know now was a stranger once.A new person in your life can open a new chapter. They can lead to new lines of work, new passions, new insight about the world and a broader, more colorful identity for you.""What can you do instead [of working for someone else]? Do what your would-be boss is doing. Create something of value, and find the people who value it most. A service or a product that people value, and that others aren’t delivering as well, or at all.If you need help to produce it, you will certainly be able to find a lot of people willing to sell you their time for a flat rate. If you need a method, there are hundreds of established, tested models in the library, online (yes, online), and at the bookstore. Pick one that speaks to you and see what happens."
http://www.raptitude.com/2010/02/3-pieces-of-advice-id-give-my-18-year-old-self-if-i-could/

"The bottom line of almost all self-help, spiritual, or religious literature is that our ability to be happy is determined by our ability to stay in the present moment. The Buddhists, the Toltecs, the Bible, Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, Emerson, Thoreau — anyone at all who is known for having found a path to consistent, recurring joy — cites staying present as the essential teaching.
Only when we’re present do we see beauty, enjoy gratitude, and experience happiness. It’s the moments we’re present for that make life good, so it only stands to reason that being present is something we’d do well to get better at."http://www.raptitude.com/2010/03/how-to-make-mindfulness-a-habit-with-only-a-tiny-commitment/

This post was interesting,http://www.raptitude.com/2009/05/the-results-are-in-experiment-no-1-day-30/

But this one was my favorite:http://www.raptitude.com/2009/04/how-to-always-have-something-better-to-talk-about-than-the-weather/

Oh, and this was a great quote from the Times:

"Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly."http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Two Weeks in Denmark and Sweden! 05/16/2011

I’ve known since January that I would be dedicating my life to Teach for America and earning a Masters Degree at the University of Pennsylvania, so when one of my good friends asked if I was interested in joining him on a trip to Sweden and Denmark. Thinking it would make a fitting last vacation, I said yes, and awesomeness ensued.

Copenhagen Square!

These are the houses that line the famous Copenhagen canals.

The Church of Our Lady, with the original Christus Statue.

The pastries (and all breads) in Europe, totally surpass what we call pastries here.

Roskilde Cathedral, the Westminster Abbey of Denmark

We even ran in to the missionaries!

Niels Bohr is a Dane. The second-most famous one.

Perhaps the highlight of the trip, in Frederiksberg's castle, this room houses many of the most cherishes originals of Carl Bloch

Elsinore Castle, the setting for Hamlet (back in the day)

The Grave of Soren Kierkegaard!

Another surprise highlight, the Nobel Museum. It was awe-inspiring to hear some of the stories of the winners.

The Copenhagen Temple! It was originally a stake center.

Sweden Temple!

I couldn't resist

But the best part...

...was definitely the people we stayed with! My friend Chris had friends that not only let us stay with them, not only told us the best things to see and how, not only fed us, but also drove us! AMAZING!!