UNCA Teacher Education: Lots of work and play!

Tonight is exciting! Who can sleep? Instead, my friends and I went out to eat at TGI Fridays. They even had blue and red drinks. :) I thought everyone was just as excited about this election and voting as we are in Asheville until I spoke to my friends a few hours ago. They didn't vote because my home state, California, always goes blue. Whether you vote red or blue, it doesn't matter. I thought this was a myth and that "your vote counts" is ingrained in everyone's head. My family members didn't vote either, but I can say I called my mom to make sure she voted.

So all in all, I found out all cities and campuses are NOT the same. Here, whether or not you wanted to be sucked into the elections, you were. Some people, like me, straddled the fence publicly to avoid tension (especially with working in the schools). I think it also had to do with North Carolina being such a pivotal and as we now know, close-call state. I'm happy we got a healthy dose of politics during this tough time in our nation. We had the Clintons, the Obamas, Sarah Palin, and Kal Penn (Kumar from "Harold and Kumar") come to talk in Asheville or even at UNCA. I'm happy to be a part of the fun and the ringing in of changes whatever they may be.

Apparently, the World Zombie Day/Walk came before Halloween and I missed out. However, my roommate went and took tons of pictures of this huge event that coincided with Sarah Palin's rally. He also met some "zombies" downtown, caught a ride with them, and went for food! I guess you can feel that safe in Asheville but not me!

I recently shared my Halloween costume with you. Well, my friends and I attended the Sigma Nu (fraternity) sponsored shuttle party on Halloween Eve. A shuttle (bus) toted us to a secret location for a party.

My roommate was Quailman and I was Sailor Moon.

Everyone is so friendly on Halloween! I have no idea who these people are, but they wanted a picture with Quailman, Eve, and Sailor Moon. :)

I woke up early the next day (Halloween Day) to take my 9th grade students to classes. Again, we went to Spanish where the students enjoyed hot chocolate and "pan" (bread) for Dia de Los Muertos. They also played with computers as they learned some statistics. We were treated to lunch in the caf with pumpkin-inspired everything from pumpkin burgers (pretty good!), pie, iced cookies, and staff in costumes.

On Monday of this week, I went to a meeting with all the other tutors. We did group work where we wrote on papers affixed onto the walls around the room. I had so much fun with my group consisting of mostly my high school tutors. I also saw some of my "old" tutors who are now at the middle school. We chatted and planned to watch some UFC fights together soon. :)

Afterwards, some 9th graders from a neighboring county came to visit! Alex went with them on their tour. We didn't realize that the end of daylight savings would make 5pm so dark! Anyways, we ate pizza with the students and took them to a UNCA basketball game. They were super talkative kids and I enjoyed my first basketball game in years! :/ I remember how much I love basketball now - I used to be a big fan of the NBA. I think it surprises everyone because I rarely talk about basketball now that I've dedicated my TV time to the UFC.