Well, here we are again. It's Friday and I've posted a grand total of two blogs. So much for getting back on track. In my defense, I've been really busy this week - I had a paper due yesterday on Friedrich Nietzsche, and I only understand about half of what Nietzsche writes. So that was fun. I'm also teaching a GRE class for Kaplan, which takes up a lot of time. I know, I know. No excuses - play like a champion. In order to make up for my slackery, I'm posting TWICE today. Can you contain your excitement?
Today I signed up to take the Praxis Exam, a test I need to take (and pass) in order to get my teacher's certificate. I'm taking it on March 12th, which happens to be the first Saturday of my spring break. I'm also taking ANOTHER teacher's exam the following Saturday - the last Saturday of spring break. This, obviously, is kind of a bummer. Luckily for me, I've planned for the most relaxing spring break possible.
My boyfriend is spending the week teaching a writing workshop at Utah Valley University's Field Station in Capitol Reef National Park. I'm tagging along for a week of camping, hiking, and now, it seems, studying. I couldn't be more excited. The field station is nestled within the National Park, about an hour North of the Arizona/Utah border. It really is some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen.
Over Christmas break we drove from Salt Lake City down to Tucson, a long but beautiful drive. We spent some time hiking in Zion National Park (southeast of Capitol Reef) and I absolutely fell in love. The landscape is even more beautiful than what I'm used to here in Arizona. It's full of canyons and mountains, but the plant and animal life seems much more vibrant. I can't wait to explore Capitol Reef. Studying for these tests will not be fun - but I can't really think of a better place to be studying!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
#18 - Riding through Tucson
Every morning Monday through Thursday I ride my bike from my boyfriend's house in South Tucson to campus - about a 3 mile ride. The ride to campus is mostly uphill, which isn't any fun, but the ride home is downhill, and absolutely lovely. It begins more or less on University Avenue, a street that can be found in some form on every college campus. There's a American Apparel, and an Urban Outfitters, and a Chipolte, and, at any given time, about one hundred sorority girls. It can be a little overwhelming.
From University, I turn onto Fourth Avenue, a street with an entirely different personality. Fourth Avenue is a college hipsters paradise, a long, sloping road lined with bars, restaurants of every imaginable ethnicity, tattoo parlors and smoke shops. The late afternoon/early evening hours when I ride home are ripe for hipster-spotting. They tend to congregate in two areas - one group smoking American Spirits and drinking fair trade coffee at Epic Cafe, and the other smoking American Spirits and drinking hemp beer at Sky Bar. In both cases, they make the landscape much more entertaining.
My favorite part of the ride, however, is on Fourth Avenue south of Congress Street, and the entrance to South Tucson. South Tucson has an entirely unique flavor. The majority of the people living in South Tucson have been in the Tucson are since before Arizona was Arizona. They are Hispanic, or Indian, or some combination of the two, and although in other cities this might mean a slightly-less favorable neighborhood, South Tucson is my favorite part of the city.
Part of the charm, undoubtedly, stems from the dogs.
The first time I went to my boyfriend's house in South Tucson, a chihuahua ran out in front of my car about three blocks from his (my boyfriend's) house. It wasn't wearing a collar, and seemed perfectly happy dashing down a side street after I swerved around it. I thought it seemed strange to see a stray chihuahua - and not a mutt, for example - but my boyfriend was completely unperturbed. There are stray dogs throughout South Tucson, he explained, and they usually roam in packs of two or three. Later that night we saw what I assumed was the same chihuahua trotting down the street with - I swear to God - a Shih Tzu. Or at least something that looked like a Shih Tzu. Ever since then, I've kept an eye out for the Dogs of South Tucson. This morning, on my way to school, a chihuahua chased me for no fewer than five blocks, seemingly for the pure joy of running. It made me laugh - a great way to start the day.
From University, I turn onto Fourth Avenue, a street with an entirely different personality. Fourth Avenue is a college hipsters paradise, a long, sloping road lined with bars, restaurants of every imaginable ethnicity, tattoo parlors and smoke shops. The late afternoon/early evening hours when I ride home are ripe for hipster-spotting. They tend to congregate in two areas - one group smoking American Spirits and drinking fair trade coffee at Epic Cafe, and the other smoking American Spirits and drinking hemp beer at Sky Bar. In both cases, they make the landscape much more entertaining.
My favorite part of the ride, however, is on Fourth Avenue south of Congress Street, and the entrance to South Tucson. South Tucson has an entirely unique flavor. The majority of the people living in South Tucson have been in the Tucson are since before Arizona was Arizona. They are Hispanic, or Indian, or some combination of the two, and although in other cities this might mean a slightly-less favorable neighborhood, South Tucson is my favorite part of the city.
Part of the charm, undoubtedly, stems from the dogs.
The first time I went to my boyfriend's house in South Tucson, a chihuahua ran out in front of my car about three blocks from his (my boyfriend's) house. It wasn't wearing a collar, and seemed perfectly happy dashing down a side street after I swerved around it. I thought it seemed strange to see a stray chihuahua - and not a mutt, for example - but my boyfriend was completely unperturbed. There are stray dogs throughout South Tucson, he explained, and they usually roam in packs of two or three. Later that night we saw what I assumed was the same chihuahua trotting down the street with - I swear to God - a Shih Tzu. Or at least something that looked like a Shih Tzu. Ever since then, I've kept an eye out for the Dogs of South Tucson. This morning, on my way to school, a chihuahua chased me for no fewer than five blocks, seemingly for the pure joy of running. It made me laugh - a great way to start the day.
Monday, February 7, 2011
#17 - New Beginnings
It's been almost 3 months since I updated this blog. Pathetic, I know. I really don't have an excuse. Yes, I've been busy, and yes, the holidays were distracting, but - as my father has told me numerous times - it only takes a minute or two to write a new post. So, dear readers, I apologize. I'm sure you have all been dying of boredom without The Happy Project. I promise to get back on track.
I can make that promise because today is a Monday, and Mondays are for starting over. Anytime I start a new regime - eating healthier, working out, doing all my homework, updating my silly blog - I find myself waiting for Mondays. I don't really know why I do this. It isn't really any easier to go to the gym every day for a week starting on Monday than it is starting on Wednesday. Sometimes it's more difficult, because really, who likes Mondays? And yet here I am, resolving to update this blog every day starting today - Monday. It's a new week, a fresh start, and that's comforting to me.
This semester is my last as an undergraduate. In June I am (most likely) moving to Phoenix to start my work with Teach for America. It will be one hell of a transition. For the first time in my life, I'll have a full-time job and won't be taking classes. I'm used to living far from my parents and siblings, but I'll be leaving the friends who have become family over the last three years. I'll be moving away from a man I've fallen very deeply in love with, a man I'm anticipating having very little time to visit. I'll be living and working in a city I don't know and don't even really particularly like. I'll be a real live adult. It's a daunting prospect, and honestly I'm terrified.
But, at the same time, the thought of a new beginning - the chance to reevaluate who I am and what I want - is thrilling. I have a life in Tucson, and I will miss it more than I can say. But moving to Phoenix will give me the opportunity to start a new chapter in my life, a chapter in which our heroine sets out on her own to conquer the Big City and change the lives of her students. I don't know what moving to Phoenix will mean for my career, relationship, or sanity. But I have faith in things unseen, and in myself. I know I can handle it.
As long as school starts on a Monday.
I can make that promise because today is a Monday, and Mondays are for starting over. Anytime I start a new regime - eating healthier, working out, doing all my homework, updating my silly blog - I find myself waiting for Mondays. I don't really know why I do this. It isn't really any easier to go to the gym every day for a week starting on Monday than it is starting on Wednesday. Sometimes it's more difficult, because really, who likes Mondays? And yet here I am, resolving to update this blog every day starting today - Monday. It's a new week, a fresh start, and that's comforting to me.
This semester is my last as an undergraduate. In June I am (most likely) moving to Phoenix to start my work with Teach for America. It will be one hell of a transition. For the first time in my life, I'll have a full-time job and won't be taking classes. I'm used to living far from my parents and siblings, but I'll be leaving the friends who have become family over the last three years. I'll be moving away from a man I've fallen very deeply in love with, a man I'm anticipating having very little time to visit. I'll be living and working in a city I don't know and don't even really particularly like. I'll be a real live adult. It's a daunting prospect, and honestly I'm terrified.
But, at the same time, the thought of a new beginning - the chance to reevaluate who I am and what I want - is thrilling. I have a life in Tucson, and I will miss it more than I can say. But moving to Phoenix will give me the opportunity to start a new chapter in my life, a chapter in which our heroine sets out on her own to conquer the Big City and change the lives of her students. I don't know what moving to Phoenix will mean for my career, relationship, or sanity. But I have faith in things unseen, and in myself. I know I can handle it.
As long as school starts on a Monday.
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