Lot's to share!  Just not tonight!  I have another early morning tomorrow, followed by oh you know... another month of them.. haha. I'll have some time tomorrow though!

Miss and love you all from the Delta and back!

The Delta Bucket-List, in more ways than one...

"I learned the path to Heaven,

Is full of sinners an' believers.

Learned that happiness on Earth,

Ain't just for high achievers.

I've learned; I come to know,

There's life at both ends,

Of that red dirt road."

Brooks & Dunn, Red Dirt Road

First- Just realized I never posted the pictures! I'll post those tomorrow!  This is going to be a quick post as I have to be up and on a bus at 5:55am tomorrow...can we say "Holy cow that's early?!!"  That's going to be my morning ritual from here on out! Ahhhh. 

On the flip side, I received some Delta knowledge today, of all sorts!  Apparently when you move to the Delta you do at least one, if not all of three things: (my thoughts beside)

1-Get a dog. (not so bad, 4 legged friends are good company)

2-Run a marathon. (time to get back in shape, get me a 26.2 sticker finally?)

3-Get married. (not sure how this will pan out for me? maybe I'll meet someone, running perhaps?, haha-Mrs. Eubanks will be happy!)

I have #1 covered with my handsome dog Toby and my two wonderful cats (even though they aren't dogs, they count!) and there is a Mississippi River Marathon February 9, 2013 that I think I'm gonna start training for. (Funds are donated to TFA, as we are a Non-Profit Organization.) The getting married part... a little in the distance, haha, though no worries, you all will certainly be informed, obviously!! =)

As for the rest of the day, we had a barbeque on the campus with the other regions and then had community groups this evening.  I chose to go to the Delta Bucket-list group.  There we got a quick run down of the Delta itself and were each given 4 places to check out by the end of Institute.  I was given 2 different bbq places, a local bookshop/cafe, and Ground Zero (a local Blues Club owned by Morgan Freeman).  We will also receive an email soon with a list of all the places they passed out and will be getting a mixed cd of Mississippi Music.  I thought it was a pretty good deal!

Anyhow, that brings me to now, and 10pm is gonna have to be bedtime-though I'm for once not the least bit sleepy.... oh well!

And hey-any suggestions for quotable music would be great-maybe I'll use it on my Blog!

Okay, really, I'm done! Later Gators.

Seeing the Sights!

"Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues, in the middle of the pouring rain."

-Bruce Springsteen, Walking In Memphis

It's finally the weekend!  One week down!  This weekend was full of finally seeing the sites in both Mississippi and Arkansas.

Started the morning by riding to Helena-West-Helena to a Farmer's Market and what they call Second Saturday which takes place the second Saturday of every month!  I saw a lot of the downtown area, including an antique shop and a little place hosting some blues music during the day.  The particular band playing was called Tyrannosaurus Chicken...odd name but they played pretty well!  I have a few pictures at the bottom from Arkansas including a picture of the blues music, a theatre downtown (thought Lenise may appreciate that) and a picture I took at River Park of the Mississippi River and a big boat on it.  We ate lunch at a local place called The Burger Shack, apparently known for having the best Coke in town.  I have to say, it was all really good.

The evening ended at a cookout by the river with music playing hosted by the City of Greenville.  The weather was absolutely perfect and the sky was beautiful.  There was actually a huge casino right by this cookout too.  I did go in just to see it, though I did not play any games! (we all know what a stickler I am with my money right now!)  Right before we left the wind started blowing tremendously hard which was crazy, and it did start sprinkling and raining some.  It definitely didn't last any time at all and there were some beautiful, full rainbows to follow which were really nice!

I did finally have a chance to catch up on some phone calls with a few of you which was great!  I'll try to work some more in today as well if I have some more free time!

Today we actually are registering for Institute and many of the other regions across the east coast will be coming in today as well to register for Institute with us.  They will be here for the next few weeks before heading back to their respective regions before school starts.  We may have a session or two tonight, so I'm not quite sure what my day will look like.   Guess I'll find out!

(And many thanks to my parents who have worked sooooo much on my house this weekend before it gets photographed to rent, and for chasing Pepper, it means a lot!)

Until next time~

"Are you in over your head?  Are you in water so deep you're drowning?  Do you think you've been left, and there is no one to feel your hurting?  Well everybody has been there, and everybody's felt lost.  If you're in over your head, lift it up, lift it up.  Oh listen to the sound of hope that's rising....

...I hear you saying you're alone, I hear you saying that you'll never make it.  I've got to tell you you're wrong.  I have been down this path you're taking.  You'll never know what faith is, 'til you don't understand.  Sometimes it takes a silence to finally hear His plan. Oh listen to the sound of hope that's rising..."

Building 429, Listen to the Sound

Well, I'm back for a moment.  Going to bed soon, hoping to finally catch up on the last bit of sleep I've lost!  

My first week is done! It was really pretty good!  Tiring- though after tonight's sleep, I think I'll finally be caught up again.

Today was really great!  We had several sessions based around what we would actually be doing, as well as what they call community panels twice.  Those consist of different people in the Delta, whether it be students, parents, PTA members, principals, school board members, or community members.  They all answer a lot of questions from us as well as tell us about themselves and the areas we will be teaching.

Aside from those, this morning we had "Impact Groups."  We chose what group best fit us whether it be faith-based, race-based, education majors, etc.  I chose the education major impact group, as I was curious of the things they may share.  It was very informative!  I also found out that a lot of schools do give $100-$200 stipends to new teachers for supplies, however, several schools are very limited on even the most basic supplies.  Many schools don't even offer copiers, printers, or computer paper to their teachers.... sooooo looks like I'm gonna be making a lot of hand-made things from the get-go until I get more invested in my classroom!  That's okay though- I have plenty of crafty things to bring down to help out with that.  They said books tend to be very limited too, so spread the word!!  Anyone with any old, not needed Pre-K-2nd grade books they would love to donate, would be fabulous! =)

We had sessions this afternoon too and mine was focused on Pre-K- 2nd grade teachers.  I've definitely been nervous about the whole teaching kindergarten thing, and now even more so, though very inspired after today as well.  Apparently kindergarten isn't even required for students in the state of Mississippi either so there is no telling how many students I may have.  In this session we focused a lot on how much of an impact lower elementary teachers have on the rest of a student's education career.  We watched once video of a previous corps member who just won some big award through TFA who had pre-schoolers (3-4yrs) READING, WRITING, and COUNTING and RECOGNIZING numbers 1-100.  It was amazing!  They recognized at least 100 site words, and so on and so forth.  Those are things that normally feed over into first grade and she had 3 and 4 year olds doing it!  I'm nervous, but excited and ready as well.

As today was our last day of Induction, we had a closing ceremony that was wonderful.  We heard from lots of previous corps members still living in the Delta and are now Executive Directors of Non-Profit Organizations, principals, still teaching, or doing multiple other things.  We heard from current corps members and learned the chants that Delta people such as myself chant at events.  All-in-all, it was a good time!

This evening was fabulous as well!  Many of the couples and families in the community of Cleveland offered their houses and became hosts for dinner tonight.  They fed us lots of good food, drinks, and dessert and an all-in-all good time. (Aside from the mosquitos! I've officially been eaten alive by the Mississippi Mosquitos!)  Lots of fun people and conversations.

NOW- I'm back in the dorm and already getting tired again!  At least tomorrow I can sleep in!  I'm hoping to finally see this gym and go running, and then tomorrow evening we have a cookout to go to, hosted by the City of Greenville!  Apparently it's on the river, so I'll finally get the chance to see this huge Mississippi River! =)  

Alright- guess I'll update again later!  Oh- and in case you're wondering, I'm trying to find quotes from music I like to head up the beginning of each of these posts that relate to something from the day!

Night ya'll!  Miss and love you all and I'll try to get some phone calls in tomorrow since I'll finally have a free early minute to do so! =)

Alright-  Here are some pictures before I get too much farther into my time here!  They are by no means anything taken with any real quality nor do some of them really look like much.... However, it is the best I could do with what I saw on my way down on a camera phone!  (I tried to get a picture of something to represent the state I was going through!)  There are also pictures of the room I stayed in right outside of Birmingham and pictures of the good 'ole dorm room!

andddddd last, but not least- please excuse all typos, grammatical errors, etc... I'm doing all of these in spare time, and pretty fast! =)

Goodbye North Carolina, Hello Mississippi..for 6 weeks

"And this is me praying that- 

This was the very first page- not where the story line ends.

 My thoughts will echo your name(s) until I see you again. 

These are the words I held back as I was leaving to say...

 I was enchanted to meet you."

-Taylor Swift, Enchanted

Alright, here it is!  Obviously I haven't done anything to the page, but I did want to get a start on writing about my experience here, and didn't want to wait too much longer.

To update some of you who may not know what I'm doing with my life.... I am now a Teach For America Corps Member, hopefully to be part of Americorps, and looking to start on my graduate degree within the next year!  As most of you know, I went to the University of North Carolina of Greensboro, and worked to obtain my degree in teaching!  (I succeeded; yay me!)  However- I went a different route a few years back and began managing one Bruster's Real Ice Cream store (where I had been working through-out college) and then stepped into an even bigger roll of over-seeing both stores in the area.

That part of my life lasted almost 6 years, 2.5 spent overseeing daily challenges of a business.  I then decided to wait tables at Outback for a while as I have always thought it would be fun!  You wouldn't believe the amount of memorization and training they put you through! (it was like a college exam all over again!)  

Now- here I am, currently living in a dorm room at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.  I took a leap of faith, applied to Teach For America and was blessed with this amazing opportunity to move back into the field of education.  I honestly had many emotions about all of this.  I was excited and shocked that I was accepted, nervous about knowing nothing about my future, where I would live, what I would do with MY house, funds for everything... yet here I am.  It has all fallen into place, and I'm still nervous and honestly a little scared of what this first year may be like, but then again, I was the same way before all the other big steps I took in life... and they've all worked out so far!

I was placed by Teach For America and will be living in Mississippi for at least the next two years.  I was hired at an elementary school outside of Clarksdale and will be teaching Kindergarten.  Luckily, I had an AMAZING teacher that I student taught with and some amazing classes through college that I'm sure will help, and am looking forward to diving into all of this.

I left Monday afternoon after a week and weekend of nothing but crazy busy-ness!  Luckily I had the opportunity to spend the week before with my family at the beach (for the WHOLE week!) and then had to jump in and really work the following week before induction.  I was able to see many of you who will be reading this and spend lots of time reminiscing, catching up, and talking about the future.  I had lots of time with my family, and this past weekend they really jumped in and helped save the day. (ie cleaning, yard sale, yard work, etc)  The good-byes were rough, but then again I'm horrible at good-byes anyhow.

Now to jump into the drive- I left Monday afternoon between 3-3:30pm, although my family would have preferred it be earlier.... We all know how last minute I am on leaving for things.  I always still make it though... =)  I had planned on driving straight through... its a 12-13 hr drive.  I ended up stopping a little outside Birmingham, Alabama and stayed the night, then got up and was on the road again by 9am.  Not long after I hit central time.

I have gained an hour, thought let me tell you... I'm super worn out.  The traveling, 1-hour difference, not used to early mornings, and lots of sitting for classes has taken its toll.  hahaha... I'll get on this morning schedule again soon!

Induction so far has been great.  Learning a lot about the area, meeting lots of people, and sleeping in a dorm again.  It's all be informative and helpful, and I think it will continue to only get better as the weeks progress.

Today we went into the community and heard a lot of school members and even students talk about different things, and how to be the best person we can be for them against the pre-conceived notions everyone has of Teach For America. Very beneficial.

Anyhow, to cut this off instantly... my alarm just went off and it's time for the next session of the day.  I'll update more later, and try to post the few pictures I have when I can!