Best Week Ever

This was the Best Week Ever.  I probably wouldn't be saying that if I hadn't made up a week's worth of sleep last night, but I did, so I can look back on this past week with no regrets.


I'll be honest; I don't really remember all of the events of the week in chronological order.  There was just too much that happened, and by now it's all conglomerated into one big, scrumptious mess of Best Week Ever.


Monday night I was supposed to see a concert put on by the Anti-Defamation League at the Kennedy Center.  Unfortunately, there was a mix-up with the tickets that were supposed to be allocated to City Year folk, so I couldn't go.  Not unfortunately, there was another great event happening that night: Wes Moore, a "youth advocate, Army combat veteran, promising business leader and author" was giving a speech at GW on his book, The Other Wes Moore.  I had never read the book before, but I had heard about it and found the story really inspiring.  Wes Moore also has a reputation for being a great public speaker, and he is giving a portion of all the book's proceeds towards City Year, so a bunch of the Corps members went to hear him speak.  For those of you who aren't familiar with his story, I suggest looking up his website, because he can describe it far better than I can.  I will tell you that he is one of the most inspirational people I have ever heard.  I stayed to get my copy of his book signed (biggest stipend splurge to date).  I had to wait in line for an hour, but it was one of the more worth it things I've done.  When it was finally my turn, he saw me in my uniform and gave me this look of what I can only call gratitude and thanked me for my service.  He was so sincere in everything he said.  I was a little shocked, because he his a man who has devoted his adult life to helping others, and he was thanking me!  That's not something I'm going to forget any time soon.  It made that night's dinner, which I ate promptly at 10:30, that much sweeter.  


Wednesday morning I had to be at the office at 7:00 AM for this year's first corporate Breakfast of Champions (BOC).  BOC's are open to anyone involved with or interested in helping or joining City Year.  It's our way of appreciating those who help us, while also luring in potential corps members or donors.  The corporate BOC's are aimed towards those belonging to - here's the shocker! - corporations.  I was there to give tours of the office, talk about City Year, and show off some of the CY culture (PT, anyone?).  I got to meet some team sponsors and others interested in giving to City Year.  I also got to eat a lot a lot of pastries (and I mean A LOT).  So it was a great time.


Thursday night I obviously went to see Harry Potter.  I was suuuuuper tired, but it was super awesome.  I haven't read the book since it came out (I know, shame on me), but it made the movie extra enjoyable.  I wasn't all, "OMG that isn't what's supposed to happen!"  And that snake was freakin scary.


Friday, my class went on a field trip to The Phillips Collection, an art gallery in Dupont Circle.  I have never seen my students so well behaved before.  They got so into it!  I found out that one of them is an absolutely incredible artist.  On the bus ride over, I sat next to Jovanka, who I had previously labeled as "the girl who pushed me and whined all the time and lied more than she told the truth."  We had a really great time.  She asked me if I was born with my hair and told me all about her family and her Thanksgiving plans.  We sang (she stumbled through) bits of "Seasons of Love."  She asked me to teach her that big number some time ("It's like, 'five thousand three hundred thousand,' or something like that").


The whole week was filled with some really quality interactions with students.  I'm starting to grow really attached to the first graders, who I work with for after-school clubs and Starfish, an after-school program City Year runs as a mini City Year of sorts for first through third graders.  In arts and crafts club, we had them write about what they're thankful on different colored paper leaves.  My favorite was "I am thankful for City Year teach me mooves."  One of the girls surprised me with a hug one day and said "I love you so much!"  They're all just precious.  I wish you could see their faces.


And now for the absolute highlight of my week, and possibly even my time with City Year so far:
I was working with Amon (or rather, doing everything I could to keep him away from his classmates).  His house recently burnt down, so I've been especially wary around him lately.  He didn't want to read, so I improvised and decided to do something with the map of the world on the floor.  He would throw a nickel up, and I would tell him the name of the country where it landed.  When it landed on Russia, he told me that his father had been in jail in Russia, but it wasn't so bad, because he visited him on weekends and it only took about 2 hours.  The whole time I was working with him, he didn't call me any derogatory terms or threaten to shoot my boyfriend once (read: big improvement).  Right as he was getting tired of our game, Durim came over to me and asked if we could read a book together.  I said yes, and he chose The Giving Tree, which is an absolute tear jerker.  I asked him to sit with me so I could read it, but he defiantly sat down on a chair and told me to sit on the carpet.  He was going to read to me.


Understand that Durim is possibly the worst reader in the class, including those in special ed.  On a reading assessment in which he was supposed to be able to read a minimum of 100 words in a minute, he read about 30.  I saw one of his written responses in class one time, and in the whole paragraph (which was surprisingly lengthy), the only correctly spelled word was "mother."  "Her" was "re," and "and," in," and "a" were all interchangeable.  Most of the "words" were incoherent strings of consonants that he couldn't even read back to me.  Couple that with the fact that he has quite an abysmal track record behaviorally, and you can imagine why I didn't have very high expectations.


He opened the book in such a way that I could see the pictures and began: "Once there was a tree..."  He read in the sweetest voice I'd ever heard come from him.  He made sure to pause before he turned each page, so that I could see the pictures.  He didn't get frustrated when I had to feed him a word.  He just kept barreling on.  I'm not exactly the incarnate of Niagra Falls that my mother is, but I have a hard time fighting back tears just thinking about it.  He kept looking back at me to make sure I was listening, and read the book with all the right vocal inflections.  When he read "'Come boy,' she whispered," he caught himself and proceeded to whisper the entire page.  He made it all the way up until the final three pages, at which point the class was transitioning and he got too distracted.


 I was pulled out of my reverie and had to read the last bit to him, but the feeling I felt while he was reading to me still hasn't entirely left me.  The change I've seen in him this last week is staggering.  He is working harder and behaving better than I have ever seen him.  Every day he makes sure that I tell Mrs. Zeljak and Mrs. Dodik how good he's being.  And I don't ever hesitate to.

Gimme some more of that vitamin D!

Natural light is one of the best forms of therapy.  I had the pleasure of leaving my apartment this morning to a glorious blast of sunshine to my face.  It was such a pleasant surprise, after the past month of dark-cloaked departures.  All my love and admiration goes to Mr. Daylight Savings.  My high school history textbooks simply did not do him justice.


Now, the notable part of today:


Today, I got to leave school in the middle of the day to do PT for the Eighth Annual Catalog For Philanthropy  (CFP) Kick-Off Volunteer Opportunity, launching the 2010 Giving Season.  PT (physical training), is something we do at City Year to "inspire the community around us, and to prepare our minds and bodies for a powerful day of service."  It consists of a varying assortment of exercises led by the PT crew (super enthusiastic corps members) and executed by the whole corps. We usually do PT outdoors in very public places, which is totally awesome, but today I had the treat of doing it at the Sidney Harman Center (on a real stage!).  At one point, we had the whole audience get up and do one of the moves with us!  It was pretty silly.  


The theatre we were in had these acoustics that just knocked my black or white socks off.  I have to admit, it made me a little nostalgic for my high school days spent on the stage (you know, way back when).  At least there's no shortage of theatrics in my daily life.  At the school I work at, one gets a healthy dose of love ("He liiiiiiiiiikes youuuuuuuuuuuu!"), sabotage ("He threw that pencil!" "Nah, she did!"), good guys and bad guys ("Imma steal you!"), and, of course, comedic relief (can't think of a good one liner off the top of my head; you'll just have to take my word for it that fourth graders are freakin hilarious).


Now, though the sun has set, I can enjoy the end of the day in my favorite way: eating homemade (Rachel-made) pumpkin pie with a side (I use that term liberally) of $4-a-gallon neapolitan ice cream from Giant, listening to the gently lilting sounds of some trashy new sitcom Zack is watching a few feet away, and wishing Tiffer's chicken tenders were in my belly (update: snagged one!).  So to you, Mr. Savings: thank you.  Thank you for a beautiful, sunshiney, City Year day.