Freeeeeeeeeeedom

Factoid: my favorite movie is Braveheart.

Visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary was a lot of fun. The architecture and design were revolutionary, and it was the world's first penitentiary (penitentiary, we learned, means a place where prisoners learn penitence, or have time to reflect on what they did in order to change their lives). Eastern State's early philosophy was to isolate prisoners into cell blocks and not allow them to talk. They could go out in their "exercise" room behind their cell for two half hours each day. Besides that, they never left their cell. Talking was not allowed, and guards even wore socks on top of their shoes to muffle the sound of walking! I couldn't take it.

Al Capone served his first sentence in prison at Eastern State, when cops pulled him over on his way to Chicago from Atlantic City with several loaded guns. We heard stories of escapes, riots, smuggling, sports, and daily life behind bars. It made me decide to never go to jail. I took a bunch of pictures. Check them out!

What made the trip even more timely is that Sarah and I had just watched the Shawshank Redemption less than a week ago. It's her favorite movie, and I really enjoyed it too. Watching that flick, then walking through an actual prison made both experiences much more memorable. A good reminder about how experiential learning can be so good for students!

Lights out

It got dark here at 5PM today. Now, I know that daylight savings time just changed over, but still....5PM??? I'm used to being on the westernmost part of the eastern time zone, and now I'm on the eastern side. More sunshine in the morning, but much less at night. Maybe it'll help me get to bed earlier.

Friday morning there was a gorgeous sunrise in Philly (red sky in morning, sailor take warning!). I walked out to my car and my jaw dropped! Here's a picture of what I saw. Just realize that my camera didn't do the scene justice:

AND! This will be the darkest Halloween for some time. Congress recently passed a huge energy bill with a clause that extended daylight savings time for four weeks, starting this spring. Daylight savings time will begin three weeks sooner in March and end one week later in November. Senators made the change in hopes of saving more energy and getting people outside more.

Sarah's birthday

This weekend Sarah turns 23! As a surprise, I worked with her best friend Lydia Riddell and her fiancee Walter Nelson to come visit for the weekend. We successfully surprised Sarah late Friday night. The only complication arose when Lydia missed her connecting flight due to delays out of Grand Rapids! So, instead of arriving at 10:30 in Philly, she came in via Newark at 3AM thanks to Walter driving out there to pick her up. I played the staller role, and did everything I could think of to keep Sarah busy...fortunately, we were out with Jefferson friends at a Halloween/birthday party until quite late. It has been awesome to see Lydia and Walter here, as they are my first visitors to Philadelphia!

Walter asked me to be in their wedding last night! That means that Sarah will be one of the bridesmaids, and I will be one of the groomsmen. What a treat!

The biggest event (besides going to Franklin Fountain again!) was touring Eastern State Penitentiary. It was a blast!!! The prison is located right in the heart of Philadelphia, and it was revolutionary in its technology and design when it was made in 1829. We were able to visit Al Capone's cell, sit in cells, and discuss the humanity of incarceration. Who'd of thought a prision could be so enjoyable?!?

For the Halloween/birthday party Friday, I dressed up as Mr. Rogers. Sarah was a "Podunk County Fair Queen". Pictures will be posted!!!

bedtime

I had hoped to have time to post tonight, but I got sucked up in working on a new format for my students to take quizzes online. (QuizStar, in case you're interested!) I hope to introduce other teachers to it and let them use computers as an incentive! In my informal tests where I had half the class take a quiz online and the other half on paper, my students do better on the computer. Here's hoping this format will give just a little more motivation and success to students.

It's bedtime.

Great resource for 2006 election info online

If you haven't done so already, download Google Earth. The graphics and satelight imagery are incredible.

Second, turn on the layer labeled election 2006. If you do so, check out your area and click on the patriotic flag near it. You'll have a listing of all the positions, and people running for them, images, news stories about them, etc!

As a responsible citizen, this is the easy way to get all your info quickly.

Read more about it here.

Weekend success and struggles

As I read my post from yesterday, I realized I committed a grivious error for any language arts minor: my subject line alluded to things not mentioned in my writing! Just don't tell mom.

I hope you take a minute to look at the pictures from this weekend. I also put up some from the wrestling match! Here they all are for quick reference:
Trail walk
Drexel service day
Franklin Fountain
Wrestling

One of the coolest parts of the wrestling event was seeing the people who were there. Sarah and I both enjoy people watching, and this was a great place for it! Perhaps our favorite was a girl who was sporting, as Sarah called it, a Mulfro. You guessed it: it was a combination of a mullet and an afro. Here's a pic:

The people in Philadelphia must be spending so much time wondering how the Tigers ever got to the World Series that they're neglecting to collect their change! Just yesterday I collected $0.39 in dimes and pennies while riding my bike! I did pass one or two ADDITIONAL coins in luew of traffic congestion. What opportunities await! It does make me wonder exactly how much money is on the pavement at any given time. Is there any way to measure such a thing?

15 of the cents were found on the way to church (Sarah, a Jefferson friend named Melonie, and I biked to church yesterday...just beautiful weather for it). I put it in the offering plate, since I thought that since I found so much on the way to church, God may have wanted me to give it back to Him. Reflecting on the situation brought to mind a recent struggle of mine: putting money in the offering plate. I struggle with wanting to put at least some form of money in the plate when it passes by. The size of the bill or number of them is of little importance; the issue is that I put SOMETHING in the plate. This is wrong, I believe, because my motivation is not to give money to God--it is to show the people around me that I am giving money.

If you haven't yet, I encourage you to go to Wendy's and purchase a Trick-or-Treat coupon book for $1. You get 10 junior frosty's with it--that's only 10 cents a delicious treat! You can even use TWO coupons for a small. What a deal! Especially good with the newer vanilla flavor. =)

Speaking of good deals, a gas station/convenience store in Philly called Wawa is giving away free hot drinks between 2 and 4PM every day! Very good hot chocolate.

Today I purchased auto insurance. Living in Philadelphia instead of Holland increased my rates by almost 100%. Wowzers.

Most of my day at school was spent problem solving computer issues. With all the classrooms wired, I'm trying to format all the computers and get them back on square one again. That takes some time when some of the equipment is missing and other parts don't work. Fortunately, I only had one class today (as will I have tomorrow, as this entire week is standardized testing for the state). God knows how to time these things, doesn't He?!?

Go Tigers! Let's hope they continue their winning ways on the road. John Hile (former roomie), cheer them on for us in St. Louis!!!

Seth and I are going to make nachos for dinner. What a way to end a Monday!

Hard-hittin', Tiger-watchin', leaf-changin', Frosty-eatin', compter-movin', penny-findin' weekend

What a weekend! I tried to capture some of the highlights in the title of the blog. I'll try to have some pictures fill in more. One of the best parts? It was all free.

As a teacher, you rarely want to come to school on the weekend. Sometimes, however, it can't be avoided. This Saturday, my school had over 40 students (freshmen, MBA, and alumni) come volunteer at our school. They painted a few classrooms, the school entrance (Hope colors, actually!), moved my classroom to the second floor, and wired every classroom with the Internet. They had several people who had backgrounds with computers, and they setup a wireless network throughout the school. The school had been wired in every classroom, but the switch they were connected to had never been hooked up to the Internet! Drexel's network guy spent the day running around and fixing little snaffoos, but the main work had been done for him ahead of time. Pictures!

Sarah and I walked through one of Philly's parks--something called the Forbidden Trail--yesterday. The leaves were changing colors, the river ran by, and the air had a nice chill to it. Here are some pictures from our hike.

Friday night I did something I had never done before: I attended a professional wrestling event! I snagged some free tickets from CraigsList, and Sarah and I went after we consumed a free dinner at her school. Almost surprisingly, we had a good time! It's not something I'd want to go to often, but we got excited about it and joined in the action. And it's all real, right? =)

Here are the pictures of Sarah, Seth, and me at Franklin Fountain Wednesday night.

I'm battling a sore throat and the sniffles now, so I'm going to call it a night. Check back soon for more pictures and details about the weekend.

Dogface

Seth's black lab, Murphy, and I are currently not on speaking terms. You see, he has broken into my room three times in the last 10 days to vandalize and send messages to me. I think he wants me out of the house. You'd think he would be a good Christian dog and confront me about it, but he's not. Instead, he's opted to be a mafia dog and use scare tactics. So far, he's tried to send me messages by destroying my stash of candy: black licorice-flavored/cinnamon bear shaped gummies, Mentos, Trident gum, York Peppermint Patties, Grandma Bushhouse's homemade hot chocolate, you name it. If that isn't clear enough, he's been depositing dog urine at specific places: my door, my laundry bag, and as of last night, my COMPUTER CASE! He managed to pee on it so it would infect my bag where my laptop goes AND my desktop. Unreal.
You probably now understand why I referred to him as Seth's dog and not mine. I'll try to get a mug shot of the vandal so you all can be on the lookout in case he starts scoping out my close friends and family.

In other news, Philadelphia was ranked as the 3rd worst sports city in America, thanks to its 20-year major sports championship drought and "alcoholic and ragaholic" fans. The worst city? Atlanta.

Sarah's exam is today on all kinds of drugs. By the grace of God, we discovered a way I can help her study! Sarah will tell me a list of drugs/categories that she needs to remember, and I will take core components of the words and generate random mnemonics out of them into stories. It's been funny and even enjoyable at times!

I'm off to pray with my fellow teachers before school starts. Happy Friday everyone!

Me, myself, and I

This has been a great week. It's not like I can blame one thing for it, but it's been a really good week. I guess it boils down to me feeling like I'm getting the hang of things, getting to know people, and they're getting to know me. Home group last night, for example, was awesome. Sarah said I was "in my element"--I felt like I made connections with people, shared some laughs, and contributed to the greater conversation. Community is formed when people are intentional and consistent, and I felt that this week. Praise God!!!

Tonight Seth, Sarah and I went to Franklin Fountain. Mmmmm. With that, I'm heading to bed. Maybe I'll post pictures tomorrow...

Celebration of thanks

Here are Sarah and me on top of the Independence Visitor's Center (that's Independence Mall in the background...you may recognize a scene from National Treasure).

And these guys dressed up as Kiss? Yep...those are the lead pastors at Liberti. The guy on the banjo is our lead pastor. Very creative, very well done night of celebration! Praise God for what He's doing in the lives of the people at Liberti!

A great day for Michigan sports

Does it get much better than this??? (besides the Cubs of course) The meazly Detroit Tigers playing in the World Series? Michigan beating Penn State away, then hearing Penn State say that UM is better than OSU and Notre Dame, who also beat them! Wow. Yesterday was a great day for Michigan sports. I watched the end of the Michigan game with some die-hard Penn State friends from Jefferson, and they weren't terribly happy. On the inside I was cheering hard, but on the outside I would only pipe in a random comment or two. (you gotta know the line...when to talk trash and have fun with it and when to sit back and let your team speak for themselves) It was fun though.

I found 85 cents on the street yesterday. If you enjoy picking money off the sidewalk, Philly is the place for you! I'm able to add to my already ginormous teaching salary nearly every day by finding a penny or something. The best I've done at one time is two quarters. Maybe I'll have to add a cent counter to my blog to keep track.

My church Liberti had its 3-year birthday party/celebration of thanks last night. It was held in the Independence Hall Visitor's Center. Beautiful facility! I took pictures, but they're on Sarah's camera. I'll try to upload them later today.

Google for Educators

Google just announced a new website for teachers: Google for Educators.  While the page doesn't have much content yet, the promise of more to come is exciting. 

The gentle art

Fundraising: the gentle art of helping people discover the joy of giving.

That is the definition I was given the past few days in Baltimore during the NCEA (National Catholic Educators Association) conference on developing the annual fund. I rode out to Orioles land with my vice principal, the head of spiritual life (who writes several grants), and a parishioner who runs a major nonprofit grant program in Philly. We were treated like royalty--everything from our own suites to wine and cheese to all kinds of wonderful food. I ate much too much, but I figure I should be growing in as many ways as possible. =)

Not a lot of schools were selected to attend, due to the cost of the conference. Superintendents were asked to hand pick schools that are in need of extra funding that have the leadership in place to be successful financially. There were parts of the conference that were above my head, as this is the first real experience I've had with this type of thing. Of the people who were there, I was the youngest by at least 10 years. (but I won a door prize for being the newest one to the job: a pale blue polo shirt) So, while I did feel a little out of my league at times, I also was thankful for such an opportunity.

The optimism that the presentor shared with us reminded me of my fellow Cubs fans: there is no such thing as a "no"...it's just a "not yet." For example, when asking for $1,000 and receiving a "no", simply respond, "we would love for you to be a part of this project/program/building...at what amount would you be able to participate?" See? Phrase the question not as a yes/no item, but as expecting a positive response. They also used the term "friendraising", and said that quite often, developers will grow good friendships with their high doners--mostly because of the shared vision of the organization they have in common.

Overall, our group had a good time together. A community was formed among the various schools that were there, which was neat to see. Networking with people from other schools was enjoyable as well. I'm glad I went! There's a follow-up conferences in March, so I might just have to go to round 2, too!

Random fact of the day: 51% of the entire state of Pennsylvania's welfare money goes to recipients in Philadelphia.

The Tigers just keep on winning! They're the White Sox of 2006--a manager that makes all the right moves with his gut, a team that plays together with many heros, four strong starting pitchers, and a fan base that is excited for the finish line. They've got a strong shot!


Tomorrow Liberti is having a celebration of thanks dinner at the Constitutional Convention Center. It's a fancy dinner along with a few pastor roasts for fun. I'm looking forward to it, although it will go into a good portion of the Michigan/Penn State game...

My Bushhouse grandparents sent me a package full of food today! It was well received. =)

Sarah has an exam this coming Friday, so this is extra study week/weekend for her. I do my best to support her through it, but there's only so much an elementary technology teacher can do with octasyllabic words describing pharimicudical solutions for bacteria! Anyway, go Tigers.

Google announcement

Today is exciting for a few reasons:
1. I leave for Baltimore as soon as my ride arrives at school here.

2. It's my half birthday today (when I mentioned it in 5th grade, I had kids guess that my birthday was tomorrow and in 30 days--nobody guessed 6 months away!).

3. Google acquired YouTube, currently the most popular online site for videos (in only 17 months of existance, they are the 10th most popular site on the entire internet). They bought them for 1.6 billion in stock. For a 67-person company!!! You could hire 16,500 people to work for you for a year and pay each of them $100,000!

4. Google also just made a watered down version of Word and Excel available online. For free. And you can publish your documents online for friends or anyone to visit. For free. And you can save the documents to your computer as Word or Excel files. All free. Have I mentioned how much this company facinates me?

5. The Tigers won last night. They beat the Yankees and are making a serious run at the World Series. All of Michigan is excited about them doing this. What's wrong with this picture? None of my students in Philly care. Well, I do.

Baltimore or bust

It all started out like a normal day. I woke up, greeted Murphy (Seth's dog), packed a lunch, and went to school. Partway into my first class, my principal came in and asked me if I would want to go to a conference on grant writing and marketing schools. I was stunned, especially since they're leaving TOMORROW for it! After some thought, I accepted the offer. Free food, free instruction, free transportation, free lodging, no need to write lesson plans while I'm gone...how could I go wrong?!? It seems like an excellent opportunity for me to do some professional development.

We leave tomorrow at 1PM and return Friday around dinner time. I'm going with a vice principal and a few other people from my catholic school district. Someone else is even driving us over! Baltimore is about 2.5 hours from Philly, which is about the same distance as Boston, NYC, and DC. As far as being centrally located in the East, Philadelphia is the way to go!

Here's a picture of me on my new bike. After my last one was stolen outside of Sarah's apartment at 5PM while I was inside for no more than 13 minutes, God provided this bike for a very good price. I found it on Craigslist. I've loved riding it even more than my last one. The situation has helped me be more grateful too, because now I thank God every time I return to my bike and it's still there!

My body is a little sore right now from playing ultimate frisbee this afternoon. Jefferson students and friends (we were 6 strong today) gather on a regular basis for friendly competition and the tossing of the disk. Sarah and I played well, although we would be the first to tell you there were much finer athletes on the field than us, and we both need to be in better shape in order to compete at a higher level. Perhaps this offseason we'll start a training regime. =)

Have you ever had pad thai? It's very good. I made some tonight with stir fry veggies and chicken. Mmmmmm...I can still taste it!

I'll see if I can post anything while I'm in Baltimore. Until then, go Tigers!

World's greatest ice cream store

Wow. That's what my taste buds and every ounce of my being was saying after visiting Franklin Fountain tonight. Someone from my Liberti's home group told me about their root beer floats, and I went tonight with Seth (roommate night on the town...we went out to SoHo Pizza as well). They have the oldest operating soda fountain in the country (circa 1904!), and make all their soda and ice cream from scratch. We ordered a rootbeer float and a apple pie milk shake. No joke: they took a regular slice of apple pie, put some of their ice cream with it, and blended it with milk. Delicious! One of the best things I think I've ever eaten for dessert, next to a Gardner dutch apple pie.

Two brothers own and operate it, and they and their employees dress like they would at the turn of the last century as they serve and converse with their guests. Seth and I talked with Ryan, one of the brothers, about the shop and their mission of old fashioned service. Ryan had mentioned a friend of his from Michigan, who provides them with Vernors when he goes home. As we were talking, his friend happened to walk in! After a short introduction, Ryan and I started conversing. We made quite a few connections in a short amount of time--jazz, Flint, Holland, the Pratt family, hiking, teaching, etc.! He gave me his contact info and said that he'd love to car pool with me back to MI if I'm intereseted. He was a neat guy to talk with and very laid back. He teaches in Camden, which is on the other side of the Delaware River in NJ. A delightful evening!

This weekend went well, too. I'll have to write more about the goings-on later this week. Until then, GO TIGERS!

Soul power

Tonight was one with several adventures. After school let out today, I dropped off my car at a local body shop (I was hit on the way to school one day. A Budget rent-a-truck decided to come into my lane while I was in it. Fortunately, his bumper was gentle, and I had nary a scratch or bruise as I turned 180 degrees on Girard Ave. God blessed me, because since Budget was responsible, their insurance company is more than willing to cover everything. I didn't have to file a claim with my insurance company, and I don't even have to pay a deductable! Fortunately, I've been able to drive my damaged car for the last two weeks).

Anyway, tonight I got a 2006 Chevy Aveo to drive around while they tinker with my car. Guess this is one of those situations where the background info is more news than the news itself! It's a compact car with really good gas milage, so I'm happy. =)

Sarah and I went to a free concert in University City this evening (another neighborhood in Philly...UC is on the West side of the Schuylkill river, which divides Philly in half from north to south). The concert was really cool--for the music, the feel, and the location. It reminded me of Hope! It was an entire football-sized green field that dipped much like the pine grove. The Campbell Brothers were on a stage with lighting and sweet sound. They were very Christian, and their music had deep feeling behind it. Perhaps why they call it soul... People of all ages, sizes, and colors were enjoying it. Very fun.

My roommate has a black lab named Murphy. When I took him for a walk tonight, we saw a bunch of police tape and neighbors gathered around an intersection about 6 blocks from my house. It turns out that a sinkhole swallowed a 2006 Ford Escape, which did everything BUT escape the large hole that opened up underneith it. Crazy!

I get to help lead children's church this week! I'm excited.

Fishtown photos

One thing that's neat about Philly is that the city is grouped by neighborhoods: Center City, Northern Liberties, West Philly, etc. The neighborhood I live in is called Fishtown, for reasons I have yet to learn. The neighborhood titles and concept is a neat idea, and it seems to add at least a small layer of community and connection between strangers.

My roommate, Seth Shimkonis, is a professional photographer. (see his website) He and I went out one evening and took some pictures of our neighborhood and a nearby cemetary. We had a great time, and I'm excited to learn some picture taking tips from him. Here are the pictures I took.

I have some more pictures of my house and room that I'll put up later.

Pics of Philly

I'll have more pictures available on a photo website soon. For now, here are a few of my school (my mother dramatically acting out its name), my house, and my front door.

A start

Hello! After much consideration, I have decided to hop on the blogwagon. While I am not going to make any promises as to my update rate, I do pledge to do my best to post updates, pictures, and news about my life in Philadelphia...the city of brotherly love.

Here it goes!