day 267

I'm home for the summer! Well, for the first part of the summer anyway :) I'll be home until June 27, which is when I start working back in Maryland. I can't decide if this pile of bags is way too much stuff for only 4 weeks, or if I should be proud for how much I pared my stuff down for 4 whole weeks. Either way, this is what I've got :) It's so great to be home!

day 266

We got a new couch in Knox 210! It's huge and comfy and much needed in our living room! And the best part - it only cost $40! After a little moving of furniture and a new slipcover, it'll be perfect in there!

day 265

Katlyn graduated from the College of Education today with her bachelor's degree in Special Ed :) We went to cheer her on...anddd we got a taste of what the College of Ed graduation will look like for us next year! We were sort of in shock realizing that in only a year, we'll be walking across that same stage. Crazy!

day 264

Tonight I went to the Orioles game! As an SHH fundraiser, we sold tickets to the game for $18, and we made $5 from each ticket. They played the Yankees and got sort of crushed...the score was 11-0 when we left after the 7th inning. But it was still really fun! Camden Yard is beautiful, and I was with great friends :) I'll definitely be making some return trips there this summer!

day 263

I breathed a big, fat sigh of relief today after handing this baby in....my FINAL assignment of the semester! Whew! Let summertime begin!

day 262

I got a picture of all of my Orange Room kiddies today :) I'm gonna miss them when I leave!

day 261

Today I realized I had a ton of points left to spend at the dining halls, and not many days before they closed for the semester! So I spent $40 dollars on my lunch, some vegetables for dinner, tons of fruit, and a salad for lunch tomorrow! Walking home with all of these boxes was interesting to say the least..

day 260

I spent alllll day in my favorite study locale - Jason's Deli! Studying isn't so bad in their cute study lounge, and with the all-you-can-eat salad bar at my disposal for the day! (Oh, and the free ice cream is pretty nice too!)

day 259

I worked another double at Chevys today, but it was made 10x better when my friends came to visit for some post-finals margaritas and dinner :)

day 258

Tonight I saw the new Fast&theFurious movie, Fast Five! I always say I'm not into movies like that, but I think I'm just making that up, because every time I see one I always end up really liking it! I'd definitely recommend it! (ps, I forgot my camera, hence the google image...is that cheating? oops!)

day 257

mag and I went to ritas today :)

Ice.Custard.Happiness - truer words have never been spoken

day 256

Today was our "Intern Placement Fair," aka Student Teacher Speed Dating. All of the prospective student teachers met here at Paint Branch Elementary and spend 10-15 minutes talking to representatives from each of the 5 potential elementary schools that we could be student teaching at next year! We took notes on them, they took notes on us, and then we find out where we've been placed sometime in June!

I can't believe that Junior year is over and that we'll all be in classrooms next year. Time is flying! I can't wait to start student teaching :)

day 255

Today was the official last day of classes! Somehow I still have a million and one things to do before the semester is over, but it still feels good to be finished with the actual going to class part of the semester!

My favorite class this semester was definitely my Principles & Methods of Teaching class with Dr. Bote. I'm so excited to have her again next semester! Anyway, the last slide that she left us with on her powerpoint said (in case you can't read it on this terrible picture)..

"I'm on the road to becoming a teacher who..."

We all had to go around and finish that statement.

Aren't you dying to know my answer?? Some people took my ideas before she got to me, so my final response was:

"I'm on the road to becoming a teacher who students remember for the rest of their lives."

day 254

Tonight I went to a dinner hosted by Jim DeGeorge, the director of Advocates for Children (the Scholars program I was in). Since this is the last year of Advocates, he had a "farewell dinner" for everyone who has ever been in the program. There was dinner, music, a picture slideshow, and a bunch of great friends...what could be better? Have I ever mentioned how grateful I am to have been in College Park Scholars? Oh that's right...I have!....(click here!)

day 253

Today I got to drive up to Annapolis for my baby cousin Brennan's christening. I'm so glad I went - I got to see lots of family (including my momma on mother's day!), hold that cute baby, get away from campus on a beautiful day, andd go to the b-e-a-u-tiful church in the picture up there. It's called St. Mary's in Annapolis and it's one of the prettiest churches I've ever been to. My cousin Erin got married there last August, and I was so happy to go back!

day 251

Nelly performed at Maryland tonight! It was SO much fun - I'll admit that I was a little bit skeptical when I heard that Nelly was the performer (because I couldn't really think of anything he's done since I was in 6th grade), but I was completely wrong. There are so many good songs that I just never realized he had, plus he's great in concert. I was so glad I went!

day 250

Today was Chevys biggest fiesta of the year - cinco de mayo!! It was packed from the second I got there until after 11, and everyone was loving the drink and food specials. Half of the parking lot was blocked off and there was a dj and bar outside, plus regular seating inside. It was such a fun night - next year I want to be celebrating at Chevys instead of working!

(the people in the picture are some of my chevys friends =] )

day 249

Today was our last SHH meeting of the semester :( Sam brought us some sparkling apple-grape cider and we all toasted to our favorite SHH moment of the semester. It was hard to choose, but I settled with the bake sale where we raised $160!

day 248

Today I spent a majority of my time working on a final project for my "Principles and Methods of Teaching" class. It's a "digital evidence" assignment, which will sometime in the near future become a part of my "digital portfolio" that I use to showcase my work when I apply for jobs! (eeek! did I really just say that?)

Anyway, I made a website for this project...check it out if you want to!

www.misslevine.weebly.com

day 247

Some pretty big stuff went down last night - President Obama announced that a team of Navy Seals performed an operation that killed the top most wanted terrorist in the world - Osama bin Laden.

The hardcore partiers in Knox and Hartwick Towers, always looking for an excuse to rage, immediately started drinking, blaring "Born in the U.S.A." and "Proud to be an American," and chanting USA while waving American flags out their windows. Celebrations continued into the early hours of the morning, when this front page of the Diamondback hit the newspaper stands.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Obviously this was something that needed to be done, and it brings a sense of closure and healing to the gaping wound that America was left with after September 11th. At the same time, it feels weird to celebrate someone's death to me - even someone as terrible as bin Laden was. It also feels like killing bin Laden could be the spark that ignites a flame inside of all of the terrorists out there in the world. Sure, bin Laden was their leader, but that doesn't mean they can't still do terrible things without him. And it seems like killing someone's leader is a surefire way to get them to hate you even more than they already do...

At the same time, it gives me a renewed faith in America and what the military and government can do - and I can't lie...I listened to a playlist of patriotic songs for the next few days :) clearly I'm a little bit confused.

In my history class, my professor raised the question of why has the assassination of Osama bin Laden has sparked such celebration for college students in particular. We discussed it in class, but that same day this article was the headline on CNN.com. It made the whole "celebrating in the street" thing seem a little bit more justified to me.

okay, I think that was enough rambling from me...

day 246

Today I got to meet my newest baby cousin Julian!

(I think he might actually be like my third cousin forty-two times removed or something weird like that...but since I never really understood how those labels worked, we'll just stick with cousin!)

How cute is he?? It was so great to spend the morning with him...and his parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle too! I'm hoping to get to spend a lot more time with him this summer :)

day 245

So today I worked ANOTHER double shift at Chevys. They're semi-painful, to say the least. And on this particular day, it was a very slow morning. All of the servers were just staring at each other complaining about how bored we were. So, the elementary teacher/camp counselor in me came out, and I decided to make the morning a little more interesting. I made a BINGO board, and in each square was either a menu item or an event. If that event happened at one of your tables, or if one of those menu items was ordered, you got to cross off that square. Everyone put in $1, and the first person to get 4 in a row won all of the money!

I didn't have my camera with me at work, so this is a phone picture...here's what some of the squares said in case you can't tell from this photo:

- someone asking "do you have to-go cups?" (you would be surprised how often this happens. no sir, we do not have to-go cups, and do you really need to take your 4th free refill of raspberry iced tea home with you?)

- someone ordering the pomegranate margarita, shrimp ceviche salad, or a "guac-my-way"

- someone telling us it's their birthday (even though, chances are it isn't actually their birthday, they just want the free dessert and sombrero)

- someone mispronouncing the crispy chicken flautas. (ma'm, the vowel blend "au" says "ow" or "aw", if they were pronounced crispy chicken flootas, we'd spell it that way.)

I was only one pomegranate lemonade away from winning! Oh well, maybe next time :)

day 244

Tonight was our second SHH fundraiser of the week, and our second attempt at taking a party bus into a club in D.C.

The "redemption ride," as we called it, was a success and we all had a great time at FUR nightclub downtown!

day 243

I really wouldn't mind working at Chevy's if it weren't for this dumb job we have at the end of every shift - rolling silverware. Seriously - it takes for-ev-er, and the last thing I want to do at the end of the night is sit around and roll 70 knives and forks into napkins! Oh welllll!

day 242

Tonight SHH had one of our most unique fundraisers yet - it was called "Queens for Dreams" and it was a drag queen show! I'd never been to one before, and it was definitely a fun (outrageous) experience. We partnered up with the Towson chapter of SHH to put the event on, and even though we had a much smaller turn out than we had hoped for, we still made $200 to put toward our fundraising goal!

I didn't get a good picture of either of the queens, but this is a picture of the frat guys that Towson recruited to take off their shirts and walk around with donation buckets to collect money. We definitely wouldn't have raised as much money as we did had they not been there!

day 241

I realized I didn't have a picture at the end of today, so I walked around my apartment trying to find something to snap with my camera. This is what you get! The three pictures hanging in our kitchen....I took them in Spain and got them printed into 8x10's!

day 240

is it weird that whenever I buy bananas, I read all of the stickers to see which ones are from Honduras? (that was a hypothetical question by the way...)

I think it has something to do with working all week at Las Flores, deep in the banana fields. Every day on our drive in, we saw huge bunches of bananas hanging from the trees in the fields. Here's a fun fact....while the banana's are growing, they put these special bags around the bunches. That way, when they're ripe and ready to fall off of the tree, they're already contained in a bag and animals can't eat them!

day 239

The Easter Bunny came to Mexico! My momma surprised me with a chocolate bunny and my favorite chocolate eggs on Easter morning before we headed out to the airport :)

day 238

at the resort, there was a whole "entertainment team" who walked around all day getting people involved in activities (like pilates, water aerobics, pool games, salsa dances, etc...) They were so fun! These were two of our favorites...Amir and Alfredo!

day 237

is this perfect, or what?

day 236

On my first full day in Mexico, Maddie and I went swimming with dolphins! I've always always wanted to do this, and now I can check it off of my bucket list! These are pictures my mom took from the sidelines...we also got suckered into buying the professional photos they took at the place, but I don't have those here to show you.

ps. in this picture, two dolphins are pushing my feet up to make me fly like that! you lay flat on your stomach with your knees locked and they swim up behind you, put their noses into the flat part of your feet, and swim away!

day 235

Today was the start of a mini vacation....spring break part 2, I guess you could say! My family went to Riviera Maya for their Spring Break, and even though it technically wasn't my Spring Break, I was lucky enough to meet them there for the Wednesday - Sunday portion of the trip!

This is the resort we stayed at! Dreams Puerto Aventuras :)

day 234

Two CYC kiddies and Miss Lewandowski (aka Kristen) found this GIANT bug outside of the Orange Room today. One of the kids came running over to tell me about the "spider" they found, but upon further examination we decided that it wasn't a spider because it had little wings. Then, in true CYC fashion, we got out an insect book and flipped through the pages and investigate to see which type of bug it could be. While all of this crazy excitement was happening, I learned a lesson. Don't talk about killing things to preschoolers - not even bugs.

One of my favorite little girls asked, "What are we going to do with it?! We don't have a net to catch it with!"

Without thinking, I non-chalantly answered, "Maybe there's a fly swatter inside the classroom."

G: What's a fly slotter?

Me: Oh it's just something you use to kill flies or other bugs...

G: KILL IT!? I don't want to kill it Miss Levine! Bugs are God's creatures too!!

oops....sorry G -maybe we can keep this beautiful creature as a pet...(ew.)

for the record, my future children will a) know what a fly swatter is and b) have no problem killing bugs....mainly so that they can kill them for me when I'm too afraid!

day 233

Just another pretty picture of the sunset when I was crossing the mall today :) It looked a lot cooler in person... further proving that I really need (well, want...) a new camera!

day 232

A new season means another Chevy's project! This time it's the Baja Fresh menu and an advertisement for our Cinco de Mayo Fiesta! (and another free Chevy's meal for this girl!)

ps. See those two cute little dancing shrimp on the beach? Well when my manager asked me to do this board, he said "You can draw whatever you want, but maybe you could draw some dancing shrimp? Or maybe some drunken shrimp fishing on a boat?"

Oh sure Wayne, I'm an expert at drawing small cartoon crustaceans drinking margaritas, let me get right on that for you.

Thank God for Christine's artistic ability, or this board would have been severely shrimp-less, which would have made for a not-so-happy manager!