Survival of the Sleep-Deprivingest

Well hi there! I hope all is well for everyone and that you're enjoying this absolutely GORGeous weather :) well, at least I hope it's gorgeous for you... it has been for me! I'm sorry to say that I am currently pictureless, BUT I'll just give you a quick checklist of the cool stuff happening in my life...

I am actually home for Spring Break right now, catching up on sleep and knocking out a very short (thank goodness!) to-do list. The week leading up to here was pretty rough, two all-nighters in a row and minimal sleep after that made for a fun week. But I got everything done that I needed to, and it's almost like my Spring Break is two weeks long... I say this because the Spokane school district's Spring Break is the week after mine, so my three field experiences are on hiatus :) Also, last week, I found out that my partner for my Behavior Intervention field placement came down with viral meningitis and was hospitalized (felt SO bad) so I had to change groups and am now at another Elementary school. It's actually much mo' better because the teacher is nicer to the students and to us Whitworth students as well. All in all it was a fairly stressful academic week, but I made it through! Now, for seeing friends and lying around time...

The big news as of now is actually the future. Plans are changing left and right! I will actually be going to Haiti this summer August 4-11 now that the organization has shifted their trips around, which is fine because it gives me a longer period of time to work consistently throughout the summer. Also, I'll be staying in Spokane this summer... I'm currently looking for and applying for summer work (I'll do anything, paint houses, work a register, I don't care!) and have a job starting the first week of April that will continue through August. I'll be tutoring a 7th grader who needs help with his science! During the summer I'll be moving out of my current house and into my new place. It's smaller, just four of us will be there, and a much better situation for all sorts of reasons! So that's exciting... then starts my last year! Probably the most exciting thing to happen recently has been my applying for my Intercultural Immersion experience. All education peeps at Whitworth, for the JanTerm of their senior year, spend a month teaching in a different cultural context than their own. Some go to the other side of Spokane (whomp), some travel across the state, some go to another state (or home for them), but most go outside of the country. I am one of those that can't justify staying in the country if I have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go elsewhere... so I've been looking at my options. I have always thought that I wanted to fulfill this experience in Africa, whether through the school or a program created by me, but through some searching I have had a change of heart. Whitworth has a faculty-led, 8 person trip to Tanzania, which is basically exactly what I thought I wanted... but instead, I am applying to go to Kazakhstan! I am very excited, it's really a big change but it feels so right!

I've also started thinking of life after Whitworth... Grad school at University of Oregon, teaching in Alaska, Oregon, Spokane, Africa, I don't know... life is the best kind of question mark right now. Life is good, and the future is bright :)

Anyway, that's a short little synopsis of my planning right now. I'm excited for a break, but I'm sure I'll be excited to go back to school too. Enjoy your week everyone!

With love,
Chels