boston and much more

Friday one of my friends from college came and brought 2 of her friends from camp. We lunched and headed into Boston to meet up with another camp friend and frolic. We got lost, explored Boston, generally enjoyed ourselves and the 3 of us headed back to my apartment after getting lost again (we left one camp friend in Boston). Saturday my brother came to visit and it was much of the same- get lost, hang out in the city, get lost again. I went to a barbecue with some of the teachers I'll be working with- they're really cool! It was just the 9th grade team for my sub-school but we had a great time, told a lot of stories, I got filled in on a few things and time passed very quickly. Then I headed back to the city and didn't get lost! Brought 3 people back to my apartment and only got slightly lost on the way. Sunday brought waffles - so delicious - and wall decorating. Most of my paintings/puzzles/posters are hung and the ones that remain have a place on the wall, I just couldn't find any more nails. Then, of course, we headed back south, to our second home for the weekend. DDR happened, as did a wild night that didn't end until the early hours of Monday. We never quite made it back to my apartment. Monday was spent leisurely (i.e. in recovery), we did manage to spend a couple hours lounging by the Charles. The ducklings were rather adorable. Monday night saw the departure of visitors and left me alone to prepare for new teacher orientation.

This morning I had to get up painfully early, I used to see 6:45 on a regular basis, but my body quickly adjusted to getting up later than that (especially when I had nothing to motivate me in the morning). Everyone in the school system is really cool. The superintendent is impressively motivating, positive and enthusiastic. The system is set up surprisingly logically. The high school is amazingly innovative and has facilities that are the best and the biggest in several categories. The city may be lacking in funds, but it has an abundance of charisma. My brain reached saturation point around 1:00 (2 hours before the program ended) but the day was well organized and everyone seems to have reasonable expectations of how much we can actually do as new teachers. Hopefully I'm still feeling this enthusiastic tomorrow!