Been a while since I’ve been able to blog to you all and give you an update. Today is yet another busy day here in NYC, but my time here at a chess tournament in Brooklyn (Bed-Stuy to be exact) thankfully provides me with time to think and write you all. Obviously, April and May were busy, but I’ll break them down for you.
Well, all I really remember now from April is my long Spring/Easter Break. The schools combined it here due to the Jewish and Christian holidays. That meant that we got a 12-day holiday. HALLELUJAH!!! I had planned on going to Canada and Philly, but I stayed here and took in several sites in four out of the five boroughs. Many places have free or donation entrance fees which let me take in loads of sites for a fabulous grand total of $5. Pictures of the places I visited are in my album titled NYC Spring Break Tour (April 2009). Check them out and ask any questions you like; I’ll get back with answers asap (granted that may not be soon though).
April led into May, an extreme month of MADNESS!!! It was seriously packed before it even arrived especially the week of my 29th birthday. May was mad not only because it was completely busy but also because it was really horrible at work. The kids here go to school until the end of June, and early in May the hormones of puberty started kicking in along with really lovely days. That, in a nutshell, meant the kids gradually became increasingly more bizerk.
The kids here are already rough to teach. However, students started doing everything from calling me a racist, a liar, and shout other unrepeatable words at me to banging on the walls and shoving chairs and tables around the room. They failed time and time again to simply admit that they were wrong and making poor choices and chose instead to blame me and really hardcore hate on and disrespect me. We also had a lot of subs at school because of curriculum and standards planning for next year which meant that I became sacrificial lamb at my school for whatever reason. I also found out about two weeks ago that I will be losing my job because of lingering issues with my certification, budget cuts, and being the last one hired at my school. This greatly affects whether or not I get into a dual teacher certification and graduate school program called TeacherU.
All in all, May was also about spiritual maturation. These nine months have definitely been a firery crucible time for me. This last month, my Abba was gracious with me and opened my eyes to some big things. My eyes were opened to see how God’s priorities for my life here align with me living (hopefully soon) in the East Village. I don’t know much about the Village, but I know it is known for diversity and homosexuality. I would love to heavily invest and pour my heart into this community because it has been sculpted into a loving vessel that wants to befriend diverse individuals and homosexuals. I also had to come to a very tough decision to part ways with a close friend for an indefinite time until I am emotionally healed and gain wisdom on what a healthy male-female friendship looks like. This too is part of my spiritual growing up.
The month wasn’t all negative. There were however several positive highlights for May. The first was getting to prayer walk in Queens for the freedom of those in sexual slavery. It is so underground (brothels look like normal houses) and rampant here via JFK Airport as a major entry point. Second was volunteering for the New York City AIDS Walk; I got to set up and break down the course and cheer on several thousands of diverse walkers. I was filled with joy at seeing all of the diversity and lover amongst the thousands of walkers. Third, I was MASSIVELY shown the love from friends and family on my birthday!!! (I look forward to formally celebrating it in July with a combined beach picnic and minor league baseball game.) My final highlight was my therapeutic and rousing adventure last weekend at Coney Island filled with a front seat ride down the 75 year old Cyclone roller coaster, a freezing dip in the ocean, dinner on beach, and sunset train ride back to East New York, Brooklyn.
Well, the tournament is over. I am tired and needing some quiet down time now. Au revoir everyone!
