The calm before the storm

I'm sitting in a dorm room on the UNLV campus, waiting until 10:00 to go to the Spasmatics at Mandalay Bay with the other corps members and preparing myself mentally for Institute, the training boot camp which everyone says is hell.

I've been shocked at how fun Teach for America has been so far. We've had time to find houses, go out drinking, do an amazing race around the strip, and take naps. It is so nice of them to let us find friends without worrying about school so that we have a support network going into institute.

At institute I will be teaching summer school. That means in about a week I will be staring at a classroom of high school students. They told us all, these kids are not our guinea pigs, we are actually supposed to catch them up over the summer so they can stay in the right grade. It's a daunting prospect.

I guess I need a little background to start out with. Teach for America is a national organization that places recent college grads in high need schools in 22 cities around the country. I have been hired by the Clark County School District, the Fifth biggest in the Country, to teach 9th grade algebra at Cheyenne High School.
A fellow corps member told me they have shootings occasionally, but that she has never felt unsafe. I'm not sure how I feel about that statement, but I did feel fine when I visited the school.

I've been checking out the rock climbing, biking scene around here with my future roomates, Mike and Bill. We have plans for a house trainer and putting up my hangboard and joining cycling teams. I'm excited to have a roomate who can lead harder than I can and probably generally out do me at all physical activities(especially considering that I'm hunting for a new knee surgeon because my knee is still retarded.) All in all life should be good.