Tests: Not Just for Students Anymore

After a lifetime of school - 19 years to be exact - I am still taking tests. I am currently navigating through a bureaucratic maze in order to become a certified special education teacher and yesterday I took the state-mandated "TExES" (what a weird acronym) test. Unfortunately I can't relax yet, I have at least two more tests to take in the next year - one for Social Studies and another that covers "Pedagogy and Professional Responsibilities", whatever that means. I guess it is only fair that the state test us teachers since we tests students nearly to death every year.

The good news is that if I passed my test yesterday I am eligible to be hired as a full teacher on a one year probationary certificate. After one year of successful teaching, I will get the standard five year teaching certificate that is transferable to almost any state. That is a great benefit of teaching - you can find work pretty much anywhere. Guess which state is experiencing an acute teacher shortage - - Hawaii! Jess and I really have no intention of moving there, but it is nice to have as an option.

I am hoping to teach at Akins again next year, so now I just have to wait for a position to open up. In the meantime I am enjoying the beautiful autumn weather (70s and sunny all last week) and the changing colors. Since I was in India for winter last year, I am ready for some chilly weather, but a week in Missouri and New Hampshire will probably be enough to have me craving Austin's mild winter weather. Did I just mention Christmas vacation already? I can't get ahead of myself - still more tests to study for before I get to relax . . .

Almost Awesome Austin

Right now in Austin, Texas it is exactly 72 degrees, near zero humidity, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. Absolutely perfect. If I had a magic control panel that could manipulate any and every aspect of the weather, I still couldn’t improve this Sunday afternoon. This is reason number one why Austin is awesome.

Austin has a lot going for it besides its 300+ sunny days a year and mild winters. For one, it is the “live music capital of the world”- at least that is the official slogan. Unfortunately I have only glimpsed at all the musical offerings in the city. Austin was also rated the least stressful city in the US last year out of the top 40 largest cities. Money magazine listed Austin as the # 3 “most livable big city” in 2009. Of course, Austin is primarily a university town, and is a haven for liberal politics in a very red state. It is also a center of the organic food movement, due in part to the Whole Foods headquarters located downtown. Add to this list lots of outdoor activities (mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking, hiking) and amazing Mexican restaurants on every street and you have a killer city.

No city, not even Austin, is perfect. If I was more of a city person, perhaps I would be more at home here, but one factor limits my enjoyment of this city: IT IS TOO BIG! After two years in Missoula, Montana, Austin feels like NYC or LA. It is the 15th largest city in the country and traffic is atrocious. I live on the far south side of town, so getting myself to all the wonderful events downtown involves either a 15 minute car ride with 20 more minutes spent searching for parking, or an adventure on the bus system. It is possible to cycle most places, but it is not convenient on a regular basis. The North side of town? Forget about it around rush hour; traffic is often at a standstill. Luckily, I live only three miles from where I work, so cycling is easy.

All things considered, Austin is a very cool city. I just wish I had more time (and money) to enjoy all that is has to offer. For now I’m just happy to enjoy the incredible fall weather in the backyard.

Just a Glimpse of Student Talent

Right now I have the pleasure of working one-on-one with an incredibly creative, funny, and interesting student who is skilled at making music and animation on the computer. Here is his New Wave News Part 1 of 4:

GoAnimate.com: New Wave News Part 2/4 by Victorx


All the music is original, and in my opinion, innovative and fun. I am lucky to get to work with such talent every day.

Still Lost in Place

I'll be honest, it has been a nice two month break from blogging. For the last two months I have successfully fooled myself into believing that since I am living in the USA, working a real job, and sleeping in the same bed every night that I have no cross-cultural or self-reflective issues to share. Although the break from posting was nice, the reason for doing so was flawed. I realized that not only was I wrong to assume that my life in Austin doesn't warrant reflection, analysis, and research, but I am exceptionally happy that my career and setting are challenging. I always want to be in a situation in which my values, beliefs, and knowledge are questioned and tested. Working in a economically disadvantaged school with a seventy percent minority population only three hours north of the Mexican border is definitely such a situation.


Realizing that overseas travel is not necessarily more blog-worthy than living and working stateside is only part of my motivation for reviving this blog; I found myself craving a good post. Forcing myself to sit down, digest the week's events, and communicate them in written form to a diverse audience - hopefully in an interesting manner - is a really important intellectual exercise. Although I am currently completing a teacher certification course, this is the first time in my life that I am not either traveling or engaged in an academic program which requires critical thought and analytical writing. As an anthropology undergraduate and Intercultural Youth Development graduate student I was constantly being challenged to think and write. To think critically, analytically, and honestly and to communicate those thoughts through convincing and concise writing.


It is ironic, but not surprising, that I spend my days in a school but find my cerebral cortex shriveling into oblivion. It is not surprising because schools are not necessarily educational institutions. Even the worst schools do contain some pockets of learning, but they function primarily as a warehouse for youth. Obedience and training are the goals for most schools, not truly educating students. I may be cynical about the current state of public education, but I am sincerely optimistic that change can happen, both on an individual and institutional scale. The problems that I witness every day in public school - state mandated standardized tests, excessive size (2700+ students), horrendous school food, poorly trained teachers - are all being addressed by various programs. Change is not only possible, but it is already taking place in many schools across the country.

So I look forward to kick-starting my brain with posts like this about life in the (Republic of) Texas, my experiences in public education, any traveling Jess and I do in the area, the convoluted route to teacher certification, and whatever else comes up along the way. Here's just a taste of what I have learned about the Texan perspective:

I'm told "Don't Mess with Texas", but since I live here now I'm going to try to get away with it anyway.

Magnificently Mundane

Grocery shopping, laundry, raking the lawn, and cooking. Usually considered hassles, these are all activities that I missed while traveling, so it is probably no coincidence that this is how I spent my weekend. Jess and I finally feel settled here in Austin, Texas and tomorrow I will begin my third week as an Assistant Special Education Teacher for “behaviorally challenged” high school students. Having a regular daily routine - getting up early, riding my bike to work, going to the gym, cooking dinner – is incredibly comforting after a year of constant uncertainty and movement. I need all the comfort I can get because y job is challenging and I am learning a great deal about education and Hispanic culture in the United States. Akins High School (2700+ students) has a 75% minority and 55% economically underprivileged student body – very different than Silex (120 students) which was 100% white.

I have hardly thought about this blog for the past month, probably because I am busy preparing for the new challenges that lie ahead, but I have not forgotten my last year of travels. I can’t say that I am able to use any of the specific knowledge or skills that I learned while abroad, but I am certain that I am now more confident and risk-taking thanks to my year of globe-trotting. Jumping into a stressful job in a new city seems like a break compared with hopping buses in a foreign country. During my last few weeks of traveling, I was sure that I wouldn’t want to pack my backpack again for a few years, but I was wrong. I’m already thinking about where I should spend my next summer vacation . . . Latin America perhaps?

Until my next excursion abroad, I’m putting this blog on hold. In the near future (after a blogging sabbatical) I will probably start a new blog which will be a forum for my political/economic/environmental/educational/philosophical thoughts, or at least posting of other people’s thoughts which express what I cannot.

A sincere thank you to those who took the time out of their day to read my disjointed and rambling thoughts. I can still be contacted via this blog, but of course you can always come down to Austin for a visit . . .

Staying Put But Moving On

One of the great things about my year of wandering was the enormous amount of free time I had to read, relax, and just plain think. A new stage in my life is about to begin and my year of relaxed and contemplative nomadism is history - I forgot what it is like to be completely and honestly busy. My to-do list won't fit on a single page so I have zero time to actually absorb how the past year has affected me.

So here is the update: I made it home just fine and I am indescribably happy to be spending time with friends and family again. Hopefully a thoughtful and lengthier post will follow in order to tie everything together and wrap up this blog (for a while anyway).

Airport Aficionado

It finally happened. It may have taken a year of hand-gesturing my way through seemingly insurmountable language barriers, eating mysterious food served in cheap and unhygienic restaurants, getting lost on incomprehensible byzantine bus routes, and sleeping in rooms ranging from bug and rat infested dungeons to hot and rancid closets, but it finally happened. I wouldn't change a minute of the last year because all of the challenges have given me what no luxury hotel or group tour packages never could; my “a-ha” travel moment.

My travel epiphany happened in London after my second night in a row of sleeping in an airport. First I spent the night in Almaty airport (small, quiet, and clean: **** I give it a four star rating) and the second in London Gatewick (constant loud announcements, but very comfortable seating and the security is not as intrusive as I feared: *** three stars). There is something about spending over 48 hours trying to sleep in busy public spaces that puts accommodation into perspective. Not only was I too broke to get a hotel either of these nights, but I was also too cheap to buy any food. So I spent my hours slicing block cheese and salami, scouting for good spots to snooze, and watching people from all walks of life filter in and out.

Needless to say, when I finally arrived at my hostel in Central London, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Clean beds, hot showers, a locker to store my bag, and a free breakfast! What more could I want? Life was good. That is when it happened. I had just gotten out of a luxurious and unapologetically long hot shower when I heard a familiar sound; a midwestern college girl on a summer Eurotrip. I couldn't believe my ears, not because I was listening to a fellow midwesterner, but because she was complaining energetically. “I can't believe they put 15 people in these rooms . . . like do they even clean these showers? . . . only cereal and bread for breakfast, no thanks . . . London is like so confusing to get around, you know? . . . “ I won't pain you with the rest, but there was more, lots more. That was when I had my travel moment and realized how far I had come. On most points she was right – the rooms were crammed, the showers weren't spotless , and breakfast was a bit slim – but until I overheard my straight-outta-Iowa roommate's comments, I would never have thought about the negative aspects of the hostel. Until that moment I still felt like a rookie Yankee tourist, but hearing what a real rookie tourist sounds like helped me to realize how far I've come.

Scrimping and saving every Som, Yuan, Rupee, and Lyra I could for the past year put things into a different light. I am happy to sleep in an airport hall curled up on an uncomfortable bench if it saves me a few bucks which will allow me to travel for a few days longer, to see a few more sights, and to eat a few more meals of local food. In my “a-ha” moment I realized how this year of travel has changed me, and I believe for the better. I will no longer take the day-to-day luxuries of living in the US for granted . . . well, at least I will try to be mindful of these daily blessings for as long as possible. If you ever hear me complain about trivial inconveniences (“damn, my cell phone is out of battery!” or “the grocery store is out of skim milk again!”, or “this stupid internet connection is sooooo slow!”) please remind me of this post and the unconsciously annoying American who inspired it. I promise it will shut me up for a while.

But anyway - London:

Although I found Central London a bit sterile and cutesy, I enjoyed my three days wandering around the city. Just when I started thinking that the city was trying too hard to appear like a hyper-British stereotype with the goofy guards and red phone booths, I sat next to two old men in tweed jackets drinking tea, smoking pipes and discussing Charles Dickens in their finest Oxford accents – that's the kind of awesome British scene you can't concoct. True to its status as an international city, London is full of people from all over Africa, India, East Asia and Europe. The city is stupid expensive, but it is easy to walk around and all the museums are free. The National Gallery and Tate Modern art museums are world-class; I saw works by Van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, Matisse, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo DeVinci all in one day.

I am writing this from London's Heathrow Airport (intrusive security, obnoxious announcements, and very little seating ** */2 two and a half stars) after a less than restful night. (Now that I am an expert on free airport accommodation, maybe I should start a website in which people can find and post information about sleeping in airports around the world. Sounds like a good idea, right? It is, but someone beat me to it; www.sleepinginairports.net check it out for yourself) Since England is not known for its culinary specialties and London is bloody expensive, I've only been eating food I packed from Kyrgyzstan, which I am thoroughly tired of at this point. Luckily, in a matter of hours I will be in Toronto in the loving care of Jessica's mother, Marg Lewis, and then off to the serenity and beauty of Wabun to spend ten days relaxing, rejuvenating, and recuperating on the shores of Lake Temagami. I have already begun to focus on my next travel challenge; getting a job in Austin, Texas and getting admitted to an alternative teacher certification program for the following year. Wish me luck, with all I've read about the economic situation, I may need it.