And, summer is officially over (well, in about 2.5hrs, give or take). This is deeeeeepressing, to say the least. I am seriously dreading this semester, and it isn't even laid out to be all that of a difficult one - I'm just totally and completely over my life as a student is all. Well, enough of that on to updates!
The creme brulee...oh the creme brulee... Well, it didn't really work. *sad and depressed face* I don't really know what went wrong, the recipe is really only two things: heavy cream and egg yolks. You boil the cream for 30sec (without scalding it, of course), mix it into the beaten yolks, pour that mixture back into the pot on the stove and heat the mixture until it becomes thick and coats the spoon. I did ALL of that! Then you pour it into shallow baking dishes/pans and chill it in the fridge over-night. The next day you sprinkle a light coating of sugar over the top of the cream mixture and throw it in the broiler to caramelize the sugar. Sounds simple enough, right?!?! Well, apparently not. My cream did not set-up over-night, no idea why, and then my sugar would not caramelize! Ugh, I was not happy. Taste was fine, it just wasn't right. But, don't you worry, I'll be tackling that creme brulee yet again and I will keep tackling it until I boil/chill/broil it into submission! I'm determined. {the Pavlova will have to wait until I invest in an electric mixer of sorts...} But, anyways, that's the summation of my most recent adventure in the kitchen.
Now on to life news. My goal and dream for the last 2yrs or so has been to be a Teach For America corps member and teach the kiddos about science and get them excited about learning and chasing after knowledge. So, I filled out my application and submitted it with confidence on Friday the 21st. Well, this Thursday rolls around and I get an email telling me that I haven't been selected to advance to the next level of the application process. I was dumbfounded. I thought that surely, with two science degrees and the research I have been doing that I would be qualified enough to enter the program as an elementary science teacher. But, alas, I was apparently mistaken. I was definitely (and kind of still am) heartbroken. I'm really just kind of at a loss, I suppose, as to what I am supposed to pursue now. TFA would have given me direction for 2yrs allowing me to get grad school in order for after my time teaching for TFA. I still want to teach, I just don't know what I'm supposed to do right now. Do I enroll in an alternative certification program to become a science teacher now? Do I go to grad school next fall first, finish that and then try teaching? If I decide to go the grad school route, do I pursue U of M, Minneapolis or U of I Champaign-Urbana, or look for some place totally different? If I do teaching where do I pursue that route: Illinois, Minnesota, California, Colorado, north east?? Then there's the whole option of going to Dominica with Brendan next summer-fall and doing science outreach with the kids there teaching them about bugs. Or I could get a job working with the US Forest Service... I dunno...growing up is hard :( But, as disappointed as I am about TFA, I'm trying to keep my chin up and my heart and mind open to the next bit of direction the Lord will throw at me (if He could do it sooner rather than later that would be awesome....).
Well, as mentioned earlier, school starts tomorrow...yay school.
Mmmk...I'm outty.
~MW
Showing posts with label TFA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TFA. Show all posts
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Naturally...
As I informed you yesterday I decided to go ahead and try for Teach For America - grad school will always be there, maybe just with different people and doing different things...only the Lord knows and only time will tell. But for now, I feel the Lord is leading me to keep pushing for Teach For America.
If I don't get it, well then that's ok because, quite naturally, as I had predicted, George Heimpel emailed me back about grad school in Minneapolis. But...as I was saying, if TFA doesn't work out it's ok because, George has a spot "for me" fall of 2010. Fancy that.
Oh life, you are so fickle.
On a more temporal note, my couch cover came in today!!!!! It looks amazing!! I absolutely love it. It's a little wrinkly right now, but it definitely helps to pull our little living room together. I had planned to snap a picture of it for your viewing pleasure, but Lindsey and I got distracted watching movies on her little TV - yay girl time :) I also unpacked TWO more boxes (little ones) of stuff for my room - all the good stuff, picture frames, crosses and the like.
Work was uber productive. I do have to go in for a little bit tomorrow, but not for too long. And THEN! And then, Alyssa and I are going to catch some rays! Holla!! I'm soooo excited to get to see her, it has definitely been too long.
Well my loves, I took my sleep stuffs about 40min ago, so it is time to close my sleepy eyes and try for a "good night's sleep." 4th night's the charm!!
Happy weekend!
~MW
If I don't get it, well then that's ok because, quite naturally, as I had predicted, George Heimpel emailed me back about grad school in Minneapolis. But...as I was saying, if TFA doesn't work out it's ok because, George has a spot "for me" fall of 2010. Fancy that.
Oh life, you are so fickle.
On a more temporal note, my couch cover came in today!!!!! It looks amazing!! I absolutely love it. It's a little wrinkly right now, but it definitely helps to pull our little living room together. I had planned to snap a picture of it for your viewing pleasure, but Lindsey and I got distracted watching movies on her little TV - yay girl time :) I also unpacked TWO more boxes (little ones) of stuff for my room - all the good stuff, picture frames, crosses and the like.
Work was uber productive. I do have to go in for a little bit tomorrow, but not for too long. And THEN! And then, Alyssa and I are going to catch some rays! Holla!! I'm soooo excited to get to see her, it has definitely been too long.
Well my loves, I took my sleep stuffs about 40min ago, so it is time to close my sleepy eyes and try for a "good night's sleep." 4th night's the charm!!
Happy weekend!
~MW
Thursday, August 20, 2009
PUSH....and I'm applying for TFA!!
Tomorrow is Friday! Tomorrow is Friday!!! This is exciting, because then I can play and maybe get a few more things done around the apartment/my room. I have a few canvases I've been meaning to paint and we need a clean/dirty dishwasher sign...so I have lots to work on. Plus I REALLY want to get some reading annnnd....I need to work on poli sci, awesome. But it will be the weekend none-the-less!
Work went pretty well today, had a little hear-to-heart with the boss about Teach For America, grad school opps, and possibly going to Dominica with Brendan to teach the kiddos about bugs for 6mo *yikes!!*, and he helped me kind of reason out why it would still be best to do TFA now - or at least try for it. I'm young, TFA will help take care of loans and I will be getting paid (minor, but important details), if I get stationed in CHI then I will be able to go to Champaigne-Urbana all the time (it's only about 2.5-3hrs away from Chi) and get to know the people at the labs there, plus Therese and Brendan will be getting established and maybe get me a better in with those peeps. The U of I people I'm interested in working with always have $$ floating around because they write killer grants, so there should, theoretically, always be a spot open for me somewhere there. I haven't heard back from Heimpel about Minneapolis. There are plenty of other places just as amazing as Dominica that I could do science/ento outreach with kids, plus I could maybe just go for a few months, instead of the whole 6... And I need to be able to go do and see things right now, in his opinion, and TFA would give more of an opportunity to do that than would grad school. Granted, putting everything towards TFA means I probably won't be able to swing going to the Entomophagous conference in France in 2011, but I guess I'll survive...
That said, TFA apps are due TOMORROW!!! I pretty much have it all done, I just need to clean up my resume a little and polish off my letter of intent, then I'm set! Crazy.
Well, other than that I had a little girls night with Lindsey and LeeAnne. LeeAnne made us some delish pasta and we watched PUSH - it was actually really good, except the ending sucked!!! They totally leave you with a million questions, but rumor has it that they are making a second one, so we shall see.
Well kids, I'm off to work on the resume for a little bit before calling it a night.
Cheers!
~MW
Work went pretty well today, had a little hear-to-heart with the boss about Teach For America, grad school opps, and possibly going to Dominica with Brendan to teach the kiddos about bugs for 6mo *yikes!!*, and he helped me kind of reason out why it would still be best to do TFA now - or at least try for it. I'm young, TFA will help take care of loans and I will be getting paid (minor, but important details), if I get stationed in CHI then I will be able to go to Champaigne-Urbana all the time (it's only about 2.5-3hrs away from Chi) and get to know the people at the labs there, plus Therese and Brendan will be getting established and maybe get me a better in with those peeps. The U of I people I'm interested in working with always have $$ floating around because they write killer grants, so there should, theoretically, always be a spot open for me somewhere there. I haven't heard back from Heimpel about Minneapolis. There are plenty of other places just as amazing as Dominica that I could do science/ento outreach with kids, plus I could maybe just go for a few months, instead of the whole 6... And I need to be able to go do and see things right now, in his opinion, and TFA would give more of an opportunity to do that than would grad school. Granted, putting everything towards TFA means I probably won't be able to swing going to the Entomophagous conference in France in 2011, but I guess I'll survive...
That said, TFA apps are due TOMORROW!!! I pretty much have it all done, I just need to clean up my resume a little and polish off my letter of intent, then I'm set! Crazy.
Well, other than that I had a little girls night with Lindsey and LeeAnne. LeeAnne made us some delish pasta and we watched PUSH - it was actually really good, except the ending sucked!!! They totally leave you with a million questions, but rumor has it that they are making a second one, so we shall see.
Well kids, I'm off to work on the resume for a little bit before calling it a night.
Cheers!
~MW
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