Go Red Raiders!

So my first week is complete! And it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. I think next week will be the real test though.

I am taking four classes (10 credit hours): Higher Education (class for my TA position), Qualitative Research Methods, Communication Theory, and Theories of Rhetoric. So far, I think my biggest worry will be Qual, although I am apprehensive about Rhetoric as well. For both Qual and Theory I have to write a research proposal, I have to read 10 books for Rhetoric, and Higher Ed is a course to help me along my position as a teacher. Needless to say, I have blocked off all of my time in my planner for not only class, teaching, office hours, and meetings, but to read and do work as well! I am super fortunate to have EVERYTHING in one, single building and on the same floor too!

I have successfully set up my office and organized it to fit my needs, I do spend a lot of my time there. I even have a chair next to my desk for students to sit in when/if they visit my office hours. With the advice of my mother, I put an inspirational quote up today (decorated and all); it says, "Believe you can and you're halfway there," from Theodore Roosevelt. I thought this was fitting to my every day :) I also have pictures of my lady, my mom, and my cat to keep me going throughout the day. Unfortunately, it gets incredibly warm in my office (I share it with three others), so I bought a little fan to cool me off- super great purchase!

I am pretty excited about the semester. My students are pretty fun, they keep me on my toes. Today I gave them their first reading quiz to ensure they are reading the chapter, I think that will set the tone for the semester- I mean business when it comes to their education! Haha it's also fun because I get to throw candy at them when they answer questions correctly. 

Zoey hasn't been super happy about me being gone most of the days. Therefore, when I am home, she is clung to me like a koala to bamboo and I am totally okay with that! I do miss her a lot of the days so it's nice to come home and have her cuddle up on me. 

Tech's first football game is tomorrow, which is super exciting. It's not a game that is part of the conference, but TTU still decks it all out!

All of the lamp posts had red and black streamers attached to them, including the entire balcony surrounding my building. I am pretty pumped to be involved in Red Raider Football. That is one thing I regret about Pirate Nation; that I didn't get more involved in the football culture there until the very end. I intend to make the best of it in my two years here. I even put a flag up above my desk at home :)

Until next week! PLEASE leave a comment of some sort, I know it may be a hassle, but it's reassuring to know people are enjoying me ramble haha! 

Ready for the Classroom

I'm not sure how successfully I can express how happy I am this week is over. Although it has been extremely useful with all of the information, training, and meeting the entire department, it was very tiring going at least 8-5 every day and cramming information in our heads.

I do feel much more prepared to enter my classroom, but it is still a little nerve-racking to think I will be teaching two different sections of Public Speaking. Making lesson plans is an entirely new concept to me and I need to work on getting more efficient with my time when making them. I have managed to reach out to a couple of people back in NC for tips and pointers.

My colleagues are pretty great, I have made some solid friendships thus far. I am excited to be working with/taking classes with/ studying with some of these people. I would say the overall theme for us is nervous, but excited! We have an amazing office space. Some people share with 1, 2, or 3 others. I happen to be in the only 4-person room. The upside though, is that not everyone will be in the office at the same time so it shouldn't be nearly as cramped. I went shopping last night for office supplies, pretty excited to get all of that setup!

We even got our own HOT PINK cameras to film our student's speeches with, pretty nifty -->






Having such a busy week has completely distracted me from my apartment. Today I spent the morning doing a sink full of dishes and tidying up where I've slacked. I also went grocery shopping, it'll be nice to live off of something other than cereal and snacks.

This coming week will be my first full week of classes (teaching and taking). Pretty anxious about it all, I 'm just ready to get in there and do it. I have a couple of meetings already- one of them is with Dr. Castle Bell (she is teaching my Communications Theory class) to discuss my getting on board a research project she is conducting. I will be analyzing the remainder of the data and ultimately will be one of three authors on it and could potentially present it at an upcoming conference. Doing BIG things!

For the remainder of my weekend I intend to read my assignments for my classes (some of them anyways), create my lesson plan for my first class on Wednesday, and go shopping for teaching clothes. Oh and rest- that's important! Zoey is really going to enjoy me being home so much since she hasn't seen me at all this past week. She did help me fill in my new planner last night while I did my laundry and watched Rent :)

Anyhow, stay tuned for my next post which will probably be next weekend, but we may both be surprised! As always, PLEASE leave comments, advice, thoughts, or anything of the sort. I love to see your feedback!

Canyons, Crafts, and Chances R

It's only been a few days since my last post, but SO much has taken place since then. Prepare yourself, this may be a long one!

Tuesday night we went to the Stars and Stripes Drive-In Theatre, which is only 10 minutes from my apartment (how convenient!) Turns out, we failed to look up the radar before going and there was a thunderstorm. Despite the inconvenience of continuously turning the power on to use the windshield wipers, it was pretty cool to see the lightning in the open fields. We went to see Bourne Legacy which was pretty good. I say this because both of us had not seen ANY of the previous three movies. We stayed about half-way through Ted until Ma started to fall asleep, so we went home.

Wednesday was a very eventful day. We had a nice breakfast and then headed to Canyon, Texas to visit the Palo Duro State Park. It was GORGEOUS! An absolute wonder that you can have such flat land and then ~BOOM!~ a drop-off of canyons. We took a number of photos and had a blast out there.

After the canyons, we went to Amarillo to check out the thrift stores which was a HUGE success. We managed to find exactly what we were looking for, plus a few other items. All for a grand total of $20, this includes three pieces of furniture. We then visited Cadillac Ranch. Now we were only told about the Ranch itself, not what exactly it was or the activities that took place there. Now we know- next time, bring spray paint! It was a very cool sight to see.

Thursday was rather relaxed, which was a nice change of pace. We shopped for some items to make crafts. We also hung out with my friend Aly for a bit. Had a nice pasta dinner and a couple glasses of wine. I purchased my first bottle of Viva Rosso (my favorite wine from the tasting on Tuesday) and am not ashamed to say I nearly finished it. For it to only be $10 a bottle, I have a feeling it will be my go-to drink of choice :)

Friday we reserved for "Craft Day." I was pretty excited to make some crafts, considering I got a portion of my crafti-ness from my mom. After a meeting with the Director of my Department to meet and chat and a refreshing haircut, I headed home to start on our projects. We made a candle using a carton, taper candle, melted wax, and melted crayons. This is something I remembered doing as a kid and always thought it was really neat. We also made sun catchers- an idea she got from Pinterest. These are simply made of pony beads. You melt them in pans and they solidify, then you hang them up and voila! We added chimes to mine so they would make a nice noise in all this Texas wind. 

Friday night we went to the bar, Chances R, for some good country dancing and to get the real "feel" of Texas (so Ma says). It was a lot of fun! After a few drinks we got out on the dance floor and did the electric slide and later danced to a few (non-country) songs, as well as the cha-cha slide. Had I of known how to two-step, I would have done so with Ma. Nonetheless it was a great night of fun, dancing, and best of all: people-watching!

Today is another lounge day, running a few last errands. We did check out Ransom Canyon, about 20 minutes away. Not as impressive as Palo Duro, but still a cool place to go and check out. There was a house that looked like an airplane! How cool!

I am attempting to mentally prepare for the long day ahead tomorrow. We will be leaving at 10am (central time) to drive 5 hours to Dallas to have a late lunch and then have her at the airport by 5pm for her 6pm flight. Once she is dropped off, I will head back to Lubbock, another dreadful 5 hours. Luckily though, Aly has agreed to go along for the ride so hopefully it wont be so awful. 

Next week is a full week of orientation (technically a class with homework and grading). I am excited to learn about how to teach and handle certain situations and such. I think this week will definitely help me feel more comfortable and welcome at TTU. It should give me a better idea of what to expect as a whole from classes I am taking, as well as classes I am teaching. Only great things to come!

Until next week! Please leave comments, words of wisdom, advice, love notes (only accepted from my lady), or anything you would like to share!

Thrifting, Errands, and Free Wine!

Ma has only been here for two full days and already we have done so much, that is my mom for you! It was extremely bittersweet having to say "see ya later" to my lady, but hello to my mom. I miss Jade so, so much, but I know I will see her again for sure; she IS my lady after all!

Jade certainly did a great number on my apartment, making it homey, but Ma has definitely filled in the gaps with things like side tables, a desk, an area rug, a few kitchen items, among other things. My apartment is finally looking complete! Thrift stores are the place to go- we managed to find a TON of items (throw pillows, leather desk chair on wheels, a huge cutting board, and many other things) for just $20 total! Bargain shopping, I learned it from the best! Then, of course, we hit up the dollar general for a few smaller items and end up spending nearly 4 times as much- how does that work out?

Yesterday we set up all of the furniture I got which looks great! Then we went thrift shopping and got all of the afore mentioned items. Today we walked to campus to a) see how long of a walk it would be on a regular basis and b) to get a few things done on campus such as getting my ID made and having a few questions answered. Overall, it took about 15 minutes to walk to the edge of campus, not too bad although it got pretty hot. Campus however, is known for having the most square footage, which makes for a trek to anywhere ON campus. That will be something to get used to!

After the errands on campus, we went to lunch at Freebirds with Aly- super cheap mexican food that was very good! Great service as well! From there we drove to Llano Estacado Winery and had a free tour and free wine tasting! Absolutely amazing, the smells were simply divine when you walk into the factory. I am personally a fan of only sweet, white wines. The Reisling was my favorite Texas wine. My absolute favorite wine was the Viva Rosso which was actually a wine from Italy. I was very happy to find out it is cheap AND sold in the grocery stores around here! I'll be buying many bottles in the near future haha. 

We have a full week planned! Tonight we are hitting up the Drive-In for Bourne Legacy and Ted, double feature for $7! Tomorrow we are going to Palo Duro, the second largest canyons, next to the Grand Canyons. We are also going to hit up Amarillo and check out that area. Thursday we have a craft day planned- anyone who knows my mom, or me, knows we are into crafts, big time! Thursday evening we are going to see a live Bluegrass band at a restaurant. Friday night we are going to a saloon so she can do some country dancing, while I sit aside and take great photos! Haha! Those are the plans thus far, I will be sure to post next week with the updates and photos.

Next week I have a full week of Orientation and intend to be busy with notes, homework, and reading. Lots to do before classes start on the 27th. Not only will I have my only classes to attend, but I will be teaching at least one class and will have office hours, pretty legit! I am excited for the coming two weeks! Stay tuned and as always, PLEASE leave a comment of some sort. I understand you have to go through a few steps and create a profile, but you don't ever have to use it and you can leave me awesome words of encouragement and such :)

Settling In Nicely

Now that I have internet, I can write a new post! I have been in my new apartment for a week today and it has become quite homey, most thanks to my lovely lady, Jade. She has certainly helped keep me sane and has contributed significantly to the smart-thinking I am lacking because of all the excitement.

I have managed to furnish my living room with a couch and HUGE TV (with stand) for $90 total, talk about a bargain! I have put up most of my decorations/artwork and it is looking pretty nice in my cozy one-bedroom. I found a great Office set at Walmart for $75 that includes a desk, a small bookcase, and a bookcase/drawer thing. I am pretty excited to get this next week when my mom comes to visit. I should be fully furnished after that last purchase. There are some smaller items that I am waiting to get such as kitchen towels, an area rug, a kitchen mat, a vacuum, throw pillows, and a microwave. Having always had a microwave, you never realize how much you actually use it until you don't have one. We bought popcorn, not even thinking about how we were going to pop it, haha.


Zoey has actually LOVED settling into her new home, with no other roommates and no other pets. I thought she was going to be angry with me for weeks after that 30-hour drive. Once she saw me unpacking familiar items, I think she realized this is home for us, and she has been loving on me just as before. I have two closets in my bedroom, she has made one of them her harboring spot. She likes to sleep on top of the bins that hold my unders, so I am sure to leave one of the doors cracked so she can get in and out.

The maintenance here has been awesome! Every time I call in something wrong, within a day or two, Daniel is here to fix it. He is SUCH a nice, friendly guy and I am so thankful for him. He not only fixes my problems, but provides nice conversation too :) The only problem I have right now are the bugs, I have found an average of 3 per day. Jade certainly is not fond of this, I hate to kill them, but don't want them in my home!! The exterminator should be coming next Thursday, hopefully I can hold off that long.

I am getting better at orientating myself around Lubbock. If anything, I certainly know where my bank is! Walmart is a straight-shot down one street from my apartment, which is really nice. There are a TON of dollar stores around, makes for pretty cheap shopping. We visited the mall, it is pretty large and has many useful stores. This is why we left shortly after we entered, didn't want the temptation to spend money we don't have!

Well this is the end of this post. Stay tuned for the next one, next week. I greatly appreciate all of you who read my blog, but it is always nice to see some comments with words of encouragement, thoughts, or just a simple hello. Until next time...

Go with the Flow

So we made it! Took us a total of 30 hours to get from Charlotte, NC to Lubbock, TX. We were in no rush and claimed "go with the flow" as our mantra for the trip. We did not set a certain time to leave or get into town, we felt it was important to just get here when we get here; less pressure this way! 

We stopped at every Welcome Center at each state line to take pictures and use the restroom.

<--Ready for take-off

 <--South Carolina

Very useful rest area stretches!!

Georgia

 

Alabama

   Mississippi

^Lousiana

 Texas

I am anticipating moving into my new apartment tomorrow (August 2) and unpacking the car. Friday, my new friend Aly, whom is currently a Grad student in my cohort, is going to show Jade and I around TTU's campus and around Lubbock. I am excited to discover what my new surroundings have to offer me.

More updates to come so stay posted! Please leave comments, words of encouragement, anything you would like to say or leave in my comments area, I greatly appreciate it!