Never A Dull Moment...

Although I spent the last four years of my life in Los Angeles, an undeniable entertainment capital I find myself going out much more now that I’m in Philly. The concentration of people, places and things makes it easy to find something to do any night of the week. Not only do I have access to the social outlets through Penn the city of Philadelphia always has something, so much so that I find myself passing things up. The past to weeks in Philly have been restaurant week, so myself and my roommates and honorary roommates(people who always seem to be at our place and comfortably go in our fridge) made reservations at Chima. Chima is a wonderful Brazilian steak house near center city. During restaurant week four-five star restaurants like chima offer meals with multiple courses for 35 dollars. The way Chima  works is that you have unlimited access to a salad, soup, and sides bar and have continuous top cuts of meat brought to you. As long as you have your table card flipped to the color that tells them to offer the cut they are distributing, servers are continually coming up to you asking you if you would like to try their meat. It’s probably not the best place to take my vegetarian or vegan friends; but with unlimited access to filet mingnon, steak sirloin, ribs, chicken wrapped in bacon, and even swordfish it is definitely a carnivore’s delight. Aside from restaurant week, I found myself at a Wine and Cheese event sponsored by BGAPSA, at the rave theater in University City, and Brunch at City Tap house this morning. So when it came down to my Sunday night plans I decided to give away my tickets to a basketball game hosted by Carmelo Anthony with other NBA participants like Lebron James. Each week seems to be a new social adventure . . .more to come on my social philly findings  

University City High School aka U-City aka UNI aka my new Home:)

(A Mural Painted on the Entry of My School...Gotta Love Philly Art)

Falling out of Summer

As summer slowly fades away it has come to my direct attention that the year ahead shall be one of academic rigor and long days mixed with excitement and what teachers Ed likes to call inquiry.  Some points of excitement for this semester include my elective, student teaching and we can’t forget the holidays. But let me slow down for a sec and reflect on the summer. For those who may not know Teachers Ed., actually begins during the summer unlike most Master’s program in GSE.  I took two courses and participated in a youth organization based at University City High School (also the place I will be doing my student teaching!) The summer was a breeze, not literally of course (old swamp coolers in humid west philly don’t mix!). For the most part, classes were enjoyable and I loved the students I worked with.  Our cohort became close through heated in class discussions and plenty happy hours.  But now it has come time to switch gears. During the fall I will be taking five classes and student teaching for at least three periods every day.  I am already learning about the behind the scenes work of teachers.  It seems the as though reading and planning will become the words for this semester.  More to come on my first couple weeks… Goodbye summer time hello fall.  

 (Colleagues and I...Social Studies teachers are the best #TeamSocialStudz)

(Youth I worked with during the summer through the Leaders of Change Program..Did I mention they're AWESOME...lets go Team E!)