If you haven't heard already, a candidate for governor for the state of Idaho made a comment at a Republican rally earlier this week about hunting Obama. When asked to follow up, he stated "Anyone who understands the law, knows I was just joking, because Idaho has no jurisdiction to issue hunting tags in Washington, D.C."
Though he says it was a joke, and hopefully (though not obviously) he won't be literally "hunting" Obama, could this comment have been in poorer taste? From a state whose school children chant "assassinate Obama" on the school bus? Gee, I wonder where they get that from...
In an article in today's paper, Rammell, the aforementioned "long-shot" candidate, expressed his opinion that while the publicity is negative, it's publicity and it will help him in his campaign. And in a state like Idaho, it will probably win him more than a few voters.
Lucky for all of us, there are more than a few people leaving comments on this on-line article who say the "hunting Obama" comment was made because Rammell is a Mormon - a white supremacist who believes black people are inferior to himself. Oh joy.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/27/rex-rammell-idaho-goper-j_n_270751.html
Us
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Vacation Day 16: Saturday Daycation
(Caution: Long post with lots of pictures and several videos.)
Well, Saturday has been marked up on our calendar for weeks now. Mom called me a few weeks ago to tell me that my Uncle Tom was going to be the Grand Marshal in the Chubbuck Days parade and we had to go and take pictures.
Then I saw a commercial for Zoofari, and I decided we were definitely going to that since we were going to be in Pocatello anyway.
Then our friends told us about the Duck Race and other festivities that were going on in Idaho Falls.
So I made out a schedule for the day to make sure we didn't miss anything. Let the good times roll!!
7:00 am - We were up bright and early to get ready to go to the Chubbuck Days Parade.
8:15 am - We were on the road on our way to Pocatello! It was pretty chilly and cloudy, and once we hit Blackfoot, it started to rain, so we were worried that it might be cancelled.
9:20-ish am - We pull into Chubbuck, and easily find the mall whose parking lot was being used to line up the parade people. When we drove by, we saw Aunt Karen and Uncle Tom standing around at the front of the line. We went and parked, and then walked over to say hi. It was drizzling and actually cold! (Chad was happy I made him bring a sweatshirt.) They showed us the car they got to drive in, and boy was it fancy! Mercedes-Benz convertible with heated AND cooled seats. (Not at the same time... though I wouldn't be surprised if it could do that too!) It was a $100,000.00+ car, and they had a lot of admirers checking it out before the parade started. (See the video!)
10:00 am - We walked down the parade route a little ways and found a place to scope out the parade.
10:30 am - By now it was pretty much raining. The parade finally started.
I have never seen people throw out so much candy! I was telling Chad though, maybe it was because we were relatively close to the top of the parade route, and it was not the nicest weather, so attendance was probably down. But we were showered with candy by pretty much every float. There was a little girl (maybe 6?) on one of the floats who looked at me (cuz I waved to her), zeroed in on me, and chucked a piece of taffy at my head with all her 6-year-old strength. You can see her in the video! She's riding in the little cars painted like animals.
Anyways - there was so much candy these boys stuffed each other's pockets.
What am I protecting from the rain? A baby? A puppy?
Nope! 2 rolls of free toilet paper from CostCo with attached one day passes to CostCo!!
I had to protect that toilet paper! We all know it's no good if it gets wet prior to use!
11:00 am - After the (short) parade, we found our way to Office Max because I had a coupon that got me Sharpie markers for a penny each, and it expired that day. After much deliberation, I picked out my Sharpies and they only cost me 3 cents and I have the receipt to prove it!!!
11:30-ish am - We stop at WalMart because Chad wants a snack, and we both have to use the bathroom. We make another amazing find at WalMart, but we're saving it for Christmas, so we can't tell you what it was.
12:00 pm - On the road to Idaho Falls for the festivities there.
12:30 pm - We get to Idaho Falls and find a table selling ducks for the upcoming duck race. We bought a duck for $5 and crossed our fingers that we would win something in the duck race at 3:45.
We walked around the greenbelt and watched some speedboats drag race on the river, and checked out the car show. (The pictures are mainly for you dad...)
2:00 pm - The Tug-of-War across the river. They got local football teams to participate, strung a rope across the river, and played tug-of-war.
Our team: The Shelley Russets
The other team on the other side of the river:
They had the police boat in the water to start the race - it went something like this:
(To our side of the river) Are you guys ready?
We're ready!
(To the other side of the river)
Are you guys ready?
Ready!
3-2-1 GO!!!
(3 seconds later) SNAP! and everyone falls over and the tug-of-war was over.
They took yellow nylon rope, tied two pieces together, and as soon as there was that much weight pulling on either side, it snapped right where it was tied and nobody won. ... Nobody saw that coming except us? Oh well - it was entertaining nonetheless.
2:10 pm - We set out in search of food that doesn't cost as much as carnival food. We call Mollie and find out that there is a Subway in the WalMart a couple of blocks away. We begin walking.
2:45 pm - We finally find WalMart and its Subway and order sandwiches. I have a flashback to being in Washington, D.C. when I was little and waiting hours for McDonald's hamburgers. Guess it runs in the family. But we did only spend $10.00.
3:15 pm - We find our way back to the Greenbelt because there's supposed to be a "Duck Egg Drop". We didn't know what this was and the description online wasn't that clear.
Watch the video below to see for yourself. (Egg Drop and Duck Race are the same video)
Yes, it ended up being a helicopter hovering overhead a big crowd of people and dropping thousands of ping-pong balls. Most were white, but some were red and all got you a prize. If you had more than one red, you had to give them away because the red balls got you better prizes. We gathered some white ping pong balls off of the ground after the general crowd had dispersed. We found out from the prizes that this was generally a children's activity - the prizes were snack size packs of skittles or oreos, and the red balls got you foam arrow shooters or bubbles. After finding this out, we didn't feel so bad about not getting any red balls. We planned to give away our white balls, but all the little kids seem to have their own fair share, so we kept them for souvenirs instead.
Just after the duck egg drop, we were waiting for the duck race to begin at 3:45. We saw that there was a firetruck parked in front of the duck race area, and they were letting little kids spray the fire hose at a wood cut out of a burning house. Now, how often do you get to spray a fire hose?!! I got in line with the little kids, and waited my turn for 15-20 minutes. Chad wandered over to the river at some point to make sure he got pictures of the duck race starting. (They drop the ducks out of the air.) Just like the circus, my little heart beat with anticipation at the excitement of spraying a fire hose. Every step got me one step closer to everyone's childhood dream come true! I keep looking at Chad because I'm not sure when the ducks are going to drop, and I'm getting closer and closer to the front of the line. Finally the kid in front of me is done, and it's my turn! The EMT controlling the fire hose was an older guy and he says "Who's next?!" And looks up at me. I say "Can big kids try it too?" He looks at me, looks at the next kid in line, and says "Come on up! Give it a try."
HE TOTALLY IGNORED ME! And I look behind me, and there were only two little boys behind me, and besides that, THERE WASN'T EVEN A LINE! I wanted to try it!
I waited for a second, with the thought that I would ask again after the two little boys were done - maybe he just didn't hear me - but I decided not to lest I be ignored a second time. And I didn't have a mom there to say "Uh, excuse me, my daughter was next. She's been waiting in line."
And unlike the let-down of the circus where I was a big girl, I may have shed a few girlish tears over the destruction of all my hopes and dreams when I didn't get to spray the fire hose. If he had said "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just for the little guys" I wouldn't have cared but to just completely ignore me?!! Jeese!
And in waiting to get my picture spraying the fire hose and trying to get a picture of the duck race beginning, Chad got neither. The pictures of the duck race beginning are off the internet. Neither of us was very happy.
We watched the duck race and cheered on our duck. The first duck over the falls won a Toyota Yaris.
Here I am with the car we won!!!
No... we didn't actually win it. But I sure wish we did!
4:30-ish pm - Got back on the road to go to Pocatello Zoofari.
5:30 pm - Arrive at Zoofari.
Now - let me tell you about Zoofari. We saw a commercial for the event on TV and decided we had to go. It boasted free ice cream, an entertainer, and face painting at the Pocatello Zoo for $6.00 a person. Now, as we drove there, we contemplated all the ways they could make it more lame than the commercial made it sound. Free ice cream only for kids - free ice cream as long as you only want vanilla - free ice cream as long as you waited in line for an hour at a time.
But - I give a million points to Zoofari. It met and exceeded all our expectations and made all of our dreams come true! You don't understand - I have been waiting for Zoofari since I first saw the commercial about a month ago. And today was the day!!
The zoo is a fenced off part of a park. It had buffalo,
coyotes, bears, lynxes, donkeys and cows, a petting zoo with goats.
and this little guy.
Chad (Charlie) with Charlie the bear who is 85 in human years and has arthritis.
It didn't have that much to see - but the admission wasn't that much. (It's usually $4.75/adult.)
View from the top of the zoo.
Now. We walk up to the gate, and they have two tables set up there for people to take your money. We pay our 12 bucks, and Chad says "Now, where do we find the ice cream?" Who are we fooling - we're here for the ice cream. The guy points up the walk (It's all on the side of a giant hill/mountain). We head straight to the first ice cream table. Pistachio or Butter Pecan. Whoa - are you serious?! Those are actually good flavors!!! But they were renamed to zoo-ish things like those pictured below.
There were several ice cream tables set up throughout the zoo (which was very small, so you only had to walk about 100 ft to get to the next table) with two flavors each. In all, there were 18 flavors of Dreyer's ice cream bliss, and two sundae tables. AND IT WAS ALL "FREE". (we did have to pay admission) Naturally we ate as much as we could without throwing up.
#1: Butter Pecan
#2 - don't remember
#3
Not sure
Raspberry Sorbet
#4
Raspberry Sorbet
Bubblegum
#5
Bubblegum - trying to chew the frozen gumballs
Rocky Road
#6
Rocky Road
Strawberry Shortcake
I topped out with 6, but Chad went on for a seventh.
#7
Mint Chocolate Chip
As we were enjoying our ice cream and scoping out the animals, we came to the coyote den.
I don't know if you can read this sign in this picture - but take note of what the title says:
We overheard the following conversation -
Mom: No _______, they're coyotes!
8-10 yr. old Girl: It says right there "A Living Paradox"
Mom: They're coyotes - there's no such thing as a paradox!
I guess the zoo people should be more careful about their signs!
Watch out for bears and paradoxes!
Here I am on the slide of the treehouse at the zoo. Letting my inner child out, thank you very much.
Anyways - so there you have it. We were only at Zoofari from 5:30-7:30 and it went till 8:30 but I couldn't convince Chad to stay and try to force down some more ice cream for another hour.
8:45 pm - arrived back in Rexburg.
10:00 pm - went over to the school auditorium to meet up with some friends and retrieve a book they bought us for ward choir the next day. (Thanks guys!) Final performance of the Idaho International Folk Dance Festival.
Home for bed.
It was a great day. Wish you could've been here!
Well, Saturday has been marked up on our calendar for weeks now. Mom called me a few weeks ago to tell me that my Uncle Tom was going to be the Grand Marshal in the Chubbuck Days parade and we had to go and take pictures.
Then I saw a commercial for Zoofari, and I decided we were definitely going to that since we were going to be in Pocatello anyway.
Then our friends told us about the Duck Race and other festivities that were going on in Idaho Falls.
So I made out a schedule for the day to make sure we didn't miss anything. Let the good times roll!!
7:00 am - We were up bright and early to get ready to go to the Chubbuck Days Parade.
8:15 am - We were on the road on our way to Pocatello! It was pretty chilly and cloudy, and once we hit Blackfoot, it started to rain, so we were worried that it might be cancelled.
9:20-ish am - We pull into Chubbuck, and easily find the mall whose parking lot was being used to line up the parade people. When we drove by, we saw Aunt Karen and Uncle Tom standing around at the front of the line. We went and parked, and then walked over to say hi. It was drizzling and actually cold! (Chad was happy I made him bring a sweatshirt.) They showed us the car they got to drive in, and boy was it fancy! Mercedes-Benz convertible with heated AND cooled seats. (Not at the same time... though I wouldn't be surprised if it could do that too!) It was a $100,000.00+ car, and they had a lot of admirers checking it out before the parade started. (See the video!)
10:00 am - We walked down the parade route a little ways and found a place to scope out the parade.
10:30 am - By now it was pretty much raining. The parade finally started.
I have never seen people throw out so much candy! I was telling Chad though, maybe it was because we were relatively close to the top of the parade route, and it was not the nicest weather, so attendance was probably down. But we were showered with candy by pretty much every float. There was a little girl (maybe 6?) on one of the floats who looked at me (cuz I waved to her), zeroed in on me, and chucked a piece of taffy at my head with all her 6-year-old strength. You can see her in the video! She's riding in the little cars painted like animals.
Anyways - there was so much candy these boys stuffed each other's pockets.
What am I protecting from the rain? A baby? A puppy?
Nope! 2 rolls of free toilet paper from CostCo with attached one day passes to CostCo!!
I had to protect that toilet paper! We all know it's no good if it gets wet prior to use!
11:00 am - After the (short) parade, we found our way to Office Max because I had a coupon that got me Sharpie markers for a penny each, and it expired that day. After much deliberation, I picked out my Sharpies and they only cost me 3 cents and I have the receipt to prove it!!!
11:30-ish am - We stop at WalMart because Chad wants a snack, and we both have to use the bathroom. We make another amazing find at WalMart, but we're saving it for Christmas, so we can't tell you what it was.
12:00 pm - On the road to Idaho Falls for the festivities there.
12:30 pm - We get to Idaho Falls and find a table selling ducks for the upcoming duck race. We bought a duck for $5 and crossed our fingers that we would win something in the duck race at 3:45.
We walked around the greenbelt and watched some speedboats drag race on the river, and checked out the car show. (The pictures are mainly for you dad...)
2:00 pm - The Tug-of-War across the river. They got local football teams to participate, strung a rope across the river, and played tug-of-war.
Our team: The Shelley Russets
The other team on the other side of the river:
They had the police boat in the water to start the race - it went something like this:
(To our side of the river) Are you guys ready?
We're ready!
(To the other side of the river)
Are you guys ready?
Ready!
3-2-1 GO!!!
(3 seconds later) SNAP! and everyone falls over and the tug-of-war was over.
They took yellow nylon rope, tied two pieces together, and as soon as there was that much weight pulling on either side, it snapped right where it was tied and nobody won. ... Nobody saw that coming except us? Oh well - it was entertaining nonetheless.
2:10 pm - We set out in search of food that doesn't cost as much as carnival food. We call Mollie and find out that there is a Subway in the WalMart a couple of blocks away. We begin walking.
2:45 pm - We finally find WalMart and its Subway and order sandwiches. I have a flashback to being in Washington, D.C. when I was little and waiting hours for McDonald's hamburgers. Guess it runs in the family. But we did only spend $10.00.
3:15 pm - We find our way back to the Greenbelt because there's supposed to be a "Duck Egg Drop". We didn't know what this was and the description online wasn't that clear.
Watch the video below to see for yourself. (Egg Drop and Duck Race are the same video)
Yes, it ended up being a helicopter hovering overhead a big crowd of people and dropping thousands of ping-pong balls. Most were white, but some were red and all got you a prize. If you had more than one red, you had to give them away because the red balls got you better prizes. We gathered some white ping pong balls off of the ground after the general crowd had dispersed. We found out from the prizes that this was generally a children's activity - the prizes were snack size packs of skittles or oreos, and the red balls got you foam arrow shooters or bubbles. After finding this out, we didn't feel so bad about not getting any red balls. We planned to give away our white balls, but all the little kids seem to have their own fair share, so we kept them for souvenirs instead.
Just after the duck egg drop, we were waiting for the duck race to begin at 3:45. We saw that there was a firetruck parked in front of the duck race area, and they were letting little kids spray the fire hose at a wood cut out of a burning house. Now, how often do you get to spray a fire hose?!! I got in line with the little kids, and waited my turn for 15-20 minutes. Chad wandered over to the river at some point to make sure he got pictures of the duck race starting. (They drop the ducks out of the air.) Just like the circus, my little heart beat with anticipation at the excitement of spraying a fire hose. Every step got me one step closer to everyone's childhood dream come true! I keep looking at Chad because I'm not sure when the ducks are going to drop, and I'm getting closer and closer to the front of the line. Finally the kid in front of me is done, and it's my turn! The EMT controlling the fire hose was an older guy and he says "Who's next?!" And looks up at me. I say "Can big kids try it too?" He looks at me, looks at the next kid in line, and says "Come on up! Give it a try."
HE TOTALLY IGNORED ME! And I look behind me, and there were only two little boys behind me, and besides that, THERE WASN'T EVEN A LINE! I wanted to try it!
I waited for a second, with the thought that I would ask again after the two little boys were done - maybe he just didn't hear me - but I decided not to lest I be ignored a second time. And I didn't have a mom there to say "Uh, excuse me, my daughter was next. She's been waiting in line."
And unlike the let-down of the circus where I was a big girl, I may have shed a few girlish tears over the destruction of all my hopes and dreams when I didn't get to spray the fire hose. If he had said "Oh, I'm sorry, it's just for the little guys" I wouldn't have cared but to just completely ignore me?!! Jeese!
And in waiting to get my picture spraying the fire hose and trying to get a picture of the duck race beginning, Chad got neither. The pictures of the duck race beginning are off the internet. Neither of us was very happy.
We watched the duck race and cheered on our duck. The first duck over the falls won a Toyota Yaris.
Here I am with the car we won!!!
No... we didn't actually win it. But I sure wish we did!
4:30-ish pm - Got back on the road to go to Pocatello Zoofari.
5:30 pm - Arrive at Zoofari.
Now - let me tell you about Zoofari. We saw a commercial for the event on TV and decided we had to go. It boasted free ice cream, an entertainer, and face painting at the Pocatello Zoo for $6.00 a person. Now, as we drove there, we contemplated all the ways they could make it more lame than the commercial made it sound. Free ice cream only for kids - free ice cream as long as you only want vanilla - free ice cream as long as you waited in line for an hour at a time.
But - I give a million points to Zoofari. It met and exceeded all our expectations and made all of our dreams come true! You don't understand - I have been waiting for Zoofari since I first saw the commercial about a month ago. And today was the day!!
The zoo is a fenced off part of a park. It had buffalo,
coyotes, bears, lynxes, donkeys and cows, a petting zoo with goats.
and this little guy.
Chad (Charlie) with Charlie the bear who is 85 in human years and has arthritis.
It didn't have that much to see - but the admission wasn't that much. (It's usually $4.75/adult.)
View from the top of the zoo.
Now. We walk up to the gate, and they have two tables set up there for people to take your money. We pay our 12 bucks, and Chad says "Now, where do we find the ice cream?" Who are we fooling - we're here for the ice cream. The guy points up the walk (It's all on the side of a giant hill/mountain). We head straight to the first ice cream table. Pistachio or Butter Pecan. Whoa - are you serious?! Those are actually good flavors!!! But they were renamed to zoo-ish things like those pictured below.
There were several ice cream tables set up throughout the zoo (which was very small, so you only had to walk about 100 ft to get to the next table) with two flavors each. In all, there were 18 flavors of Dreyer's ice cream bliss, and two sundae tables. AND IT WAS ALL "FREE". (we did have to pay admission) Naturally we ate as much as we could without throwing up.
#1: Butter Pecan
#2 - don't remember
#3
Not sure
Raspberry Sorbet
#4
Raspberry Sorbet
Bubblegum
#5
Bubblegum - trying to chew the frozen gumballs
Rocky Road
#6
Rocky Road
Strawberry Shortcake
I topped out with 6, but Chad went on for a seventh.
#7
Mint Chocolate Chip
As we were enjoying our ice cream and scoping out the animals, we came to the coyote den.
I don't know if you can read this sign in this picture - but take note of what the title says:
We overheard the following conversation -
Mom: No _______, they're coyotes!
8-10 yr. old Girl: It says right there "A Living Paradox"
Mom: They're coyotes - there's no such thing as a paradox!
I guess the zoo people should be more careful about their signs!
Watch out for bears and paradoxes!
Here I am on the slide of the treehouse at the zoo. Letting my inner child out, thank you very much.
Anyways - so there you have it. We were only at Zoofari from 5:30-7:30 and it went till 8:30 but I couldn't convince Chad to stay and try to force down some more ice cream for another hour.
8:45 pm - arrived back in Rexburg.
10:00 pm - went over to the school auditorium to meet up with some friends and retrieve a book they bought us for ward choir the next day. (Thanks guys!) Final performance of the Idaho International Folk Dance Festival.
Home for bed.
It was a great day. Wish you could've been here!
Saturday, August 08, 2009
Friday, August 07, 2009
Student Teaching
In my time at BYU-I, I have never EVER gotten any help from student employees. They don't know what they're talking about, and when you question their authority and ask to speak to someone who does know what they're talking about, they get really defensive, and keep assuring you that they can help you. No. No you can't. I've been talking to you for 15 minutes, and it is obvious to me that I am not going to get what I need from you.
Obviously, there is something to spur this blog rant.
I applied for student teaching about a month ago. I had all my paperwork, I checked with the advising office twice (with different people) to make sure there wouldn't be a problem with my student teaching. I also talked to someone in the education office. Everyone told me I was good to graduate. I asked - Is there anything else? No - you're all set. Great!
The student teaching will not even bother to look at your information if they think there is something missing/wrong.
So, sometime in these next couple of days we're supposed to find out our general placements for student teaching - local, Arizona, Utah, Las Vegas. I got an e-mail from one of the student teaching people and opened it with much anticipation...
This is what it said:
Megan.
Congratulation on being so close to completing your degree. After an initial check I noticed that some courses in your Music Education Composite are not showing up as complete. I know you have been working closely with the advising center of visual and performing arts. I would recommend that you contact them and make sure everything is complete with this major and fill out any necessary substitutions now to prevent problems in the future with student teaching placement.
(signed)
What the crap?!
So, I respond with an e-mail asking where the problem is, because this e-mail is vague, and I've already been told by 3 people that I can graduate.
This was on... Wednesday and I haven't gotten anything back. But the student teaching people get really worked up if you contact them, because they are simply TOO BUSY to even try to answer all student e-mails, and as a result, they ignore them. They have sent out e-mails that tell us this. Basically - don't even try. But I did anyway. You can't send me an e-mail like that, and then not expect a question or two.
I contact the Music Advising Office, and ask if Sister Jones (the full-time adult employee who works there who is the only one who knows what she's doing) and the full-time adult secretary tells me, yes, she is in from 10-2.
I go to the Music Advising Office yesterday, and see a student sitting at Sister Jones' desk.
"...Uh, is Sister Jones in today?"
"No."
"Do you know if she'll be in later?"
"No. She doesn't come in during the 7-week break. She might stop in during the day, but I don't know."
"Oh. Can I make an appointment to see her? "
We set up an appointment for today at noon with the understanding that if Sister Jones knew there was an appointment, she would come in for it.
I get an e-mail yesterday saying she won't be in at all, but I can come in and meet with the student who will be working there. The student also tells me that after looking at my grad report, I am missing a class. The student also tells me that there are substitutions that need to be made in my courses.
I refuse to go meet with a student employee, of the same breed who told me in the first place that I could graduate, which information appears to be wrong.
So I send an e-mail to the above mentioned student.
I tell him I am waiting for the professor to add me to the class (I have been waiting for about 2 months now). You would think that the people and secretaries in charge of registration might be able to add me to the class anyway if I have professor permission, but so far I haven't gotten anywhere with that. And now that the professors are on break, who knows when I might get added to it. As far as I know, the student teaching people will ignore my application for student teaching until I am added to this class. I also ask about the substitution that needs to be made.
I get an e-mail back that says "we usually make the substitutions when you apply for graduation". Oh- cuz I thought when I said "So, I'm good to graduate" and you said "Yes" that meant that the necessary paperwork had been completed.
No, I would be wrong.
I am waiting for an e-mail back.
I'm really annoyed! It's not like I haphazardly threw together my student teaching application and didn't bother to make sure I had all of my classes complete - I actually met with three different people who ALL told me I could student teach and graduate. I had assumed that meant I could student teach and graduate! Not that there would be extra paperwork that had to be filed before I could student teach and graduate. Which aparently THEY have to file!!! Gr. The information I have gotten from student employees is NEVER correct. EVER. And when I ask to speak with the full-time adult employee that supervises them, they get all offended and keep talking to me like I'M the one that doesn't know anything.
*sigh*
I did get an e-mail just as I was typing this that says I will be placed locally, but I won't find out exactly where until mid to late November. For those of you who don't know, "local" to the student teaching office means anywhere from Island Park to Pocatello - basically 1 hour (+) in any direction.
Why does everything with this school have to be so COMPLICATED?!!! I will be so glad to finally graduate!
Obviously, there is something to spur this blog rant.
I applied for student teaching about a month ago. I had all my paperwork, I checked with the advising office twice (with different people) to make sure there wouldn't be a problem with my student teaching. I also talked to someone in the education office. Everyone told me I was good to graduate. I asked - Is there anything else? No - you're all set. Great!
The student teaching will not even bother to look at your information if they think there is something missing/wrong.
So, sometime in these next couple of days we're supposed to find out our general placements for student teaching - local, Arizona, Utah, Las Vegas. I got an e-mail from one of the student teaching people and opened it with much anticipation...
This is what it said:
Megan.
Congratulation on being so close to completing your degree. After an initial check I noticed that some courses in your Music Education Composite are not showing up as complete. I know you have been working closely with the advising center of visual and performing arts. I would recommend that you contact them and make sure everything is complete with this major and fill out any necessary substitutions now to prevent problems in the future with student teaching placement.
(signed)
What the crap?!
So, I respond with an e-mail asking where the problem is, because this e-mail is vague, and I've already been told by 3 people that I can graduate.
This was on... Wednesday and I haven't gotten anything back. But the student teaching people get really worked up if you contact them, because they are simply TOO BUSY to even try to answer all student e-mails, and as a result, they ignore them. They have sent out e-mails that tell us this. Basically - don't even try. But I did anyway. You can't send me an e-mail like that, and then not expect a question or two.
I contact the Music Advising Office, and ask if Sister Jones (the full-time adult employee who works there who is the only one who knows what she's doing) and the full-time adult secretary tells me, yes, she is in from 10-2.
I go to the Music Advising Office yesterday, and see a student sitting at Sister Jones' desk.
"...Uh, is Sister Jones in today?"
"No."
"Do you know if she'll be in later?"
"No. She doesn't come in during the 7-week break. She might stop in during the day, but I don't know."
"Oh. Can I make an appointment to see her? "
We set up an appointment for today at noon with the understanding that if Sister Jones knew there was an appointment, she would come in for it.
I get an e-mail yesterday saying she won't be in at all, but I can come in and meet with the student who will be working there. The student also tells me that after looking at my grad report, I am missing a class. The student also tells me that there are substitutions that need to be made in my courses.
I refuse to go meet with a student employee, of the same breed who told me in the first place that I could graduate, which information appears to be wrong.
So I send an e-mail to the above mentioned student.
I tell him I am waiting for the professor to add me to the class (I have been waiting for about 2 months now). You would think that the people and secretaries in charge of registration might be able to add me to the class anyway if I have professor permission, but so far I haven't gotten anywhere with that. And now that the professors are on break, who knows when I might get added to it. As far as I know, the student teaching people will ignore my application for student teaching until I am added to this class. I also ask about the substitution that needs to be made.
I get an e-mail back that says "we usually make the substitutions when you apply for graduation". Oh- cuz I thought when I said "So, I'm good to graduate" and you said "Yes" that meant that the necessary paperwork had been completed.
No, I would be wrong.
I am waiting for an e-mail back.
I'm really annoyed! It's not like I haphazardly threw together my student teaching application and didn't bother to make sure I had all of my classes complete - I actually met with three different people who ALL told me I could student teach and graduate. I had assumed that meant I could student teach and graduate! Not that there would be extra paperwork that had to be filed before I could student teach and graduate. Which aparently THEY have to file!!! Gr. The information I have gotten from student employees is NEVER correct. EVER. And when I ask to speak with the full-time adult employee that supervises them, they get all offended and keep talking to me like I'M the one that doesn't know anything.
*sigh*
I did get an e-mail just as I was typing this that says I will be placed locally, but I won't find out exactly where until mid to late November. For those of you who don't know, "local" to the student teaching office means anywhere from Island Park to Pocatello - basically 1 hour (+) in any direction.
Why does everything with this school have to be so COMPLICATED?!!! I will be so glad to finally graduate!
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Summer Vacation: Day 12
Yesterday was another day of the Folk Dance Festival. I went to the Junior High (the dancer's dressing rooms were there) from 3-5 to watch the door. There was a street festival set up on Main Street from 5:30-ish (?). We walked around and looked at all the booths, got free water, lollipops, cotton candy, and popcorn. The parade started at 6:30. Each country came through and did a dance. The parade lasted 30-40 minutes. After that, we were hungry, and not wanting to pay street festival prices for street festival quality food, we went to Jack in the Box.
We got back from Jack in the Box and bought tickets to see UP at the cheap theaters at 9:00. The fun center (just opened) across the street from our apartment was giving out free hot dogs, so we went and ate hot dogs, even though we were really full from Jack in the Box. But they were free! If only there had been free funnel cakes... The closest we got were free samples of little fried donuts. Yum.
While we waited for the movie, we walked around Main Street some more and helped clean up a little bit. It had been pretty stormy looking all evening. There were dark clouds and lots of wind, and around 8:00, it finally started raining. But it never really rained, just a sprinkling here and there. But around 8:00, it rained again, and then, sure enough, it hailed! Apparently in Rexburg you are never free from the threat of hail.
We went to the movie (which was as sentimental as Melissa said it was) and when that got out, they were still having their street dance (It went to 11:00). We walked around the street dance, and then walked down to the sno cone shack and bought a small sno cone for $1.00. We made our way back to our apartment and sat on our front step and ate our sno cone before we went inside and called it a day.
Sorry no pictures. It was one of those perfectly pleasant summer nights - just thought I'd share - so you want to come visit us sometime because you're reading all about how fun Rexburg really is. (ha!)
Today is free taco day at Jack in the Box - you can print out a coupon for 2 free tacos. ($1.00 value)
Anyways, the end.
We got back from Jack in the Box and bought tickets to see UP at the cheap theaters at 9:00. The fun center (just opened) across the street from our apartment was giving out free hot dogs, so we went and ate hot dogs, even though we were really full from Jack in the Box. But they were free! If only there had been free funnel cakes... The closest we got were free samples of little fried donuts. Yum.
While we waited for the movie, we walked around Main Street some more and helped clean up a little bit. It had been pretty stormy looking all evening. There were dark clouds and lots of wind, and around 8:00, it finally started raining. But it never really rained, just a sprinkling here and there. But around 8:00, it rained again, and then, sure enough, it hailed! Apparently in Rexburg you are never free from the threat of hail.
We went to the movie (which was as sentimental as Melissa said it was) and when that got out, they were still having their street dance (It went to 11:00). We walked around the street dance, and then walked down to the sno cone shack and bought a small sno cone for $1.00. We made our way back to our apartment and sat on our front step and ate our sno cone before we went inside and called it a day.
Sorry no pictures. It was one of those perfectly pleasant summer nights - just thought I'd share - so you want to come visit us sometime because you're reading all about how fun Rexburg really is. (ha!)
Today is free taco day at Jack in the Box - you can print out a coupon for 2 free tacos. ($1.00 value)
Anyways, the end.
Monday, August 03, 2009
Summer Vacation: Day 11
I told you I would post pictures of the giant cupcake we made for our friends who just moved into a new apartment. We bought the cupcake pan at Porter's and this was our first attempt to make it. It was really hot that day, and our frosting was thin to begin with so you can see that it kind of melted. Not the best thing we've ever made, but here it is.
The roof - Chad's work. With Necco wafer chimney.
We put our friends on the cake in frosting - Mom, Dad and little unknown-gender baby (except we recently found out they're having a girl!)
The back of the house.
In other news - we rented a tandem kayak this last weekend since Chad got Saturday off. (YAY!) It was $15 for the day, but since it was Saturday, we had it until Monday. We packed some sandwiches and took it out to Rigby Lake (which now costs $5 to get into - $6.50 if you don't have cash and have to pay with a credit/debit card.... boooooo....).
We pass this lake frequently since it's on the way to Idaho Falls - it always looks so nice and cool on a hot day. So we went finally. Unfortunately, you can see the whole lake from one place, so it wasn't too exciting. We took the kayak out for 20 minutes (tops) before we got bored. We dipped our feet in the lake, tried to swim, but only got in to our waists because the water was SOOOO cold.
Rigby Lake.
Hehehe... he's white.
Getting ready to go out
Yummy lunch.
On Sunday after church, we headed up to Island Park. It was a long way to go for about an hour on the water, but it reaffirmed our thought that it would be more fun up there. We went out on the reservoir created by the Island Park Dam. The lake is HUGE AND IT'S FREE! We got to explore a little bit, but the most wildlife we saw were (was?) some chipmunks. The only thing was the fear of powerboats coming zipping by and tipping us over. We never saw one even close to where we were, but we may not be that lucky next time. But we have decided that should we rent a kayak again, we should skip Rigby Lake, and go straight to Island Park. (They rent kayaks up there, but only single ones for $12.50 - so for both of us, it would be $25.00 - and we're not sure they let you take them anywhere besides floating the river their business is on.)
Saturday night we went to the opening ceremonies for the Idaho International Folk Dance Festival which (mostly) Rexburg hosts every year.
Countries were: Chinese Taipei, Japan, Russia, Lithuania, U.S., Mexico, Germany, South Korea, and one other that I can't think of right now.
The opening ceremonies were in the stadium at BYU-I - all the countries marched in, then one by one presented a gift to the Governor's office, received a gift from the Governor's office, and then presented a dance. Afterwards, there was a laser show (in lieu of fireworks) that ended up being pretty lame. Which is too bad because in talking to our friends who were in charge of getting volunteers for the week, we found out that the guy in charge of the laser show has been working on it since November. We decided it could have been really cool indoors with theater haze for the lasers to shine through, but as it was outside, all of the haze just blew away, and it was pretty lame.
Group dance.
Us.
Laser Show - There were two screens, but they only used one of them for unknown reasons.
The roof - Chad's work. With Necco wafer chimney.
We put our friends on the cake in frosting - Mom, Dad and little unknown-gender baby (except we recently found out they're having a girl!)
The back of the house.
In other news - we rented a tandem kayak this last weekend since Chad got Saturday off. (YAY!) It was $15 for the day, but since it was Saturday, we had it until Monday. We packed some sandwiches and took it out to Rigby Lake (which now costs $5 to get into - $6.50 if you don't have cash and have to pay with a credit/debit card.... boooooo....).
We pass this lake frequently since it's on the way to Idaho Falls - it always looks so nice and cool on a hot day. So we went finally. Unfortunately, you can see the whole lake from one place, so it wasn't too exciting. We took the kayak out for 20 minutes (tops) before we got bored. We dipped our feet in the lake, tried to swim, but only got in to our waists because the water was SOOOO cold.
Rigby Lake.
Hehehe... he's white.
Getting ready to go out
Yummy lunch.
On Sunday after church, we headed up to Island Park. It was a long way to go for about an hour on the water, but it reaffirmed our thought that it would be more fun up there. We went out on the reservoir created by the Island Park Dam. The lake is HUGE AND IT'S FREE! We got to explore a little bit, but the most wildlife we saw were (was?) some chipmunks. The only thing was the fear of powerboats coming zipping by and tipping us over. We never saw one even close to where we were, but we may not be that lucky next time. But we have decided that should we rent a kayak again, we should skip Rigby Lake, and go straight to Island Park. (They rent kayaks up there, but only single ones for $12.50 - so for both of us, it would be $25.00 - and we're not sure they let you take them anywhere besides floating the river their business is on.)
Saturday night we went to the opening ceremonies for the Idaho International Folk Dance Festival which (mostly) Rexburg hosts every year.
Countries were: Chinese Taipei, Japan, Russia, Lithuania, U.S., Mexico, Germany, South Korea, and one other that I can't think of right now.
The opening ceremonies were in the stadium at BYU-I - all the countries marched in, then one by one presented a gift to the Governor's office, received a gift from the Governor's office, and then presented a dance. Afterwards, there was a laser show (in lieu of fireworks) that ended up being pretty lame. Which is too bad because in talking to our friends who were in charge of getting volunteers for the week, we found out that the guy in charge of the laser show has been working on it since November. We decided it could have been really cool indoors with theater haze for the lasers to shine through, but as it was outside, all of the haze just blew away, and it was pretty lame.
Group dance.
Us.
Laser Show - There were two screens, but they only used one of them for unknown reasons.
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