1 down, 14 to go! (Alternate title: Really, I DID tell you I'd be bad at this blogging thing...)

Hello world.

The last month has been just a whirlwind!  And we only have 14 months left to go!

Let me tell you some of the things I have been doing for the last four weeks...

1) We just finished Week 3 of being in our summer residency.  The Summer 1 Residency is a "course" we take, and what happens is we work with the education programs that the Museum has to offer.  For 7 days, we worked on the "carts".  These carts are placed throughout various halls of the museum, with objects for visitors to touch, observe, and learn more about.  This rotation reminded me a lot of what I did at the UW-Madison Geology Museum, showing specimens, asking if the visitors know what it is, and then explaining what the object is, where it comes from, and what we can learn from it.  I was in the Hall of Meteorites for 3 days, the Hall of Gems and Minerals for 2 days, and the Hall of Ornithischian Dinosaurs for 2 days.  I had a lot of fun interacting with visitors of various ages and backgrounds!

Teaching some young visitors about petrified wood!

And because we don't know the museum that well yet, one of our instructors set up a scavenger hunt for us! The team with the most correct answers that got back within the 1-hour timeframe won bragging rights.  My team won, of course.

My teammates, Jaime and Drew, and I posing with the frog!

2) People have been asking me, "So....how's the real world?!"  And to that I say...."Just like the undergraduate world!"  I am currently taking three courses in addition to the Museum Residency--in Edu 600 we learn pedagogy, or "the study and science of teaching"; we have a 2 hour seminar every week to review geology content (so far we've talked about rocks and minerals, igneous processes (aka volcanoes), metamorphic rocks, and geologic time); and an online course about the solar system.  So I have been VERY busy with homework, such as: writing up a lesson plan to teach about an aspect of the solar system; writing a 10-page paper about how people learn science in an informal setting; and designing a power point presentation on virtual tours that museums provide on their websites....these three alone were all only for this last week! Butttt I've been given lots of homework in short time frames already for the past three years, so it's really nothing new ;) just time consuming!

3) I really just want to talk about the people of New York.  I'm not sure about you, but when I thought about New York residents, I just figured I'd run into a bunch of rich hoity-toity people on the morning commute.  But honestly, there are so any good people here!  Here's just ONE example of what I mean:

It was one of the first weeks I was out here. My roommates and I were all traveling the subway for some reason, and I forget why...perhaps we were going to view an apartment? Anyway, we had exited the train, did whatever we needed to do, and went back to the train.  

-->Let me explain the MetroCard system to you...there are two types you can get. You can get a card with unlimited-rides for a certain amount per month, or you can put a dollar value on your card and every time it swipes, $2.50 is deducted from the card.  Well, being that I am commuting the train so often, buying the monthly pass with unlimited rides is the best deal for me.  However, there's a catch--once you swipe your card, you can't swipe it for another 18 minutes, because they don't want you to use the card for multiple people.<--

So, where was I...oh, we got back to the train. And I swiped my MetroCard. And the thing said "Please swipe again". So I swiped again. And it made a loud beep like it didn't go through. So I swiped the card a THIRD time and the little screen said "Already swiped".  And so I was like "OH NOOOOO" and Drew and Zack (my roommates) were already through the gate, and looked at me, and said "Uh oh. You have to wait 18 minutes now."  Just then, people were exiting the train station, and this nice fellow (about mid-20s) must have overheard my conundrum, because right after he exited, he pulled out his MetroCard and swiped me through. I was so taken aback! I hollered back to him "Oh my goodness, thank you SO much!!" like 10 million times as I continued to walk to the platform, and as he continued to walk toward the exit (I know he heard me too, he did holler back "you're welcome" and "no problem" a few times).  It was one of the nicest things that happened here so far.

4) Now, for the "entertainment".  Not a day goes by without some form of "entertainment" from people wanting to make a few extra bucks on the subway.  I have been told not to look the performers in the eye though, because then they come right up and ask you for money.  Some of the panhandlers aren't actually poor or anything, but in fact make a great big income off of their ventures in the subway day-in and day-out.  It's hard to tell who really needs it or who fakes it, which is just unfortunate.  But I have seen things from spoken word poetry to break dancing to instrument performance. And I have to say, some of them are quite talented!  But other than that, I really don't have much else to say.  It's just unfortunate that some people must resort to "making a living" that way, if you can even call it that.

I got this pic from the interwebz, but it's pretty much what I've seen.

5) The following was a story I put on Facebook but I think I'll put it here too :D

The guy at Starbucks says I have an accent. He asked me my name. I said "Ariel", and I said the "a" like in the word "air".  Then he repeated it "Ahriel", and he said the "a" like in the word "apple". He proceeded to say "I like your accent, the way you pronounce your 'a'," and then I said, "I don't have an accent, you do." And then he said something to the effect of living in NYC, and then I got my drink and sat down. But I don't have an accent.

6) The Mac. We have been given a Mac to use while at the program. And unfortunately, I am getting used to the thing. GRRR. However, I had a VERY scary moment last night while writing my paper...I hit "command+H" and my paper DISAPPEARED. IT JUST FRICKEN DISAPPEARED. (...props to anyone who got the Peanut reference!) Anyway, to re-find it, I had to FORCE CLOSE Word with blind faith that the program would recover my paper. And thankfully it did! But still. Lesson Learned: DO NOT PRESS "COMMAND+H"!

This is what I used to feel like. Now I'm a bit so-so, even after my almost-horrific event.

7) Okay, now that I think I've summed up all the important stuff of the past, time for the forecast. Tomorrow, ladies and gents, my sister is coming to visit for 7 days!! She has never been here before so it's going to be an absolute BLAST! I'm really excited to have her here, because I've been waiting for someone to come visit me to do all the touristy-things with ;) I'll have to update you all on what we do over the next week, next week. I promise to take lots of pictures and not steal any from the interwebz for my next post!

D'awww we're so cute!

8) So. I think that pretty much sums up the important things I've been doing so far.  I haven't been able to see or do much else.  I did see a free showing of "World War Z" (with Brad Pitt) in 3D down by Times Square, so that was really cool.  It was actually a really good movie!

Did I mention that my days are like a full time job, pretty much 9am-5pm? Whenever we get an hour or more for lunch break, a group of us like to go out to Central Park and toss around a frisbee.  It's been super fun! I thought about maybe joining an Ultimate Frisbee group with another gal from the MAT program. It'd be a great way to meet new people outside of the program!

I also met up with a friend from UW Madison who just graduated as well and is originally from NYC! It's nice to know someone in the city! We went to see a really good improv-comedy show. Really fun and really cheap!

OH and I almost forgot. While on the way to see the comedy group, look what I found:

I know that wherever I go, I will always have Masonic Family around!