I feel like Blogging. . .

I have a few things to say or talk about right now. . .

Today I had my social work classes all day and it was a long day but it challenged me in some ways and I learned some things. My first class today is practice, so we talk about our practicums/internships in it and a lot of people had some issues they wanted to bring up today including me. I talked about how I am feeling frustrated at the school a lot because I feel like I am getting more done when my field instructor isn't there. Its like I could almost say, "You aren't really guiding me enough, so just leave me alone or get stuff done."

Oh before I get into this I have to tell you about the safe school meeting last night, which was very interesting. I found out some more about how dangerous the area is, which I really don't know the extent of it because I don't live there. Well, the gangs are a big issue, especially the Hispanic ones. Vandalism and graffiti are huge problems and violence, drugs everything is there. Well, during the meeting we set up goals for the next 30, 60, and 90 days or the people involved did about what needs to happen and what is going to start happening.

Back to class today so my teacher was listening and doing a good job of empathizing with whats going on and understands I think. I am experiencing the classic social worker's internal colladrum(spelling) with all of these issues that are going on; not knowing really what to do at times, wanting to do more, but lack of funding, and everyone seems overworked and overwhelmed at the school. Anyway, you might see if you can do more by connecting with parents more whose kids will be doing group counseling and then I would be getting the child and adult stuff. Okay, I want to do more and see some stuff getting done, but its another thing to take this up with my field instructor. I can, but you know thats a bit scary especially being a student.

There were about three things I heard today in my classes that stuck; (1) Its okay to make waves, but don't make them so big that you fall out of the boat!, (2) Don't be a jelly fish, meaning passive, passive, and then suddenly you sting someone BANG, and then back to passive. You are unpredictable like that and its not good ever!, and (3) Fear is the beginning of understanding.

So, I am going to maybe start thinking about how to make this experience better for me before it gets too late in the game. I am going to do a needs assessment tomorrow for me and the school and then maybe get into contact with my field liason for some more advice on how to handle things.

Other than that I only slept like five hours last night because I got hooked to watching the movie Jerry McGuire on TBS last night. I have seen that movie before, but you know it sucked me in and I like that movie. Then tonight I didn't go to help out with youth group at the church because I am so tired and everything. I am going to try to get better though and go more consistently, I've been going like every other week so far this semester. They understand, but you know I want to go if I can. But I do need to take care of myself too. . . . so anyway tonight I watched Inocente de Ti, my favorite telenovela right now. Its in its last chapters and its still sad to me. It probably won't be happy untill like the final two episodes, I get hooked on those things so easy. But hey its Spanish and I can understand more and more as time goes by especially after I was in Guatemala this summer!

This is my life for the most part right now. . . stay tuned!

*Side Note please let me know if anyone is reading this!

Doing the Social Work Thing

Here I am sitting at the elementary school where I am doing my internship. My field instructor left about two hours ago when school ended to go to her son's football game. I am still here though because I am staying for the safe school meeting at six. No watching the TV shows tonight! Oh well. . . get used to it right?
Today I have done a lot, but then again it doesn't really feel like it. But I still feel tired after these days its a bag of mixed feelings constantly about this whole thing. Today I sat in her in listened to my field instructor and whoever else stopped by here talk about life and such. Then this afternoon I learned how to use the database, which is great but a lot of busy work. Its pretty much typing out all of the records for the kids we do stuff with and then learning how to file it all. Yeah for paper work, but it must be done! Then I helped out with extended day today, and was going to play wit the kids. The one kid Joe, who doesn't really speak English had a soccer ball and kicked it to me first so I was excited! Well, I ran after the ball and tripped on it and fell on my elbow on the concrete. I am okay, had to get cleaned up. How did that happen!? I need to start bringing my tennis shoes if I want to play with the kids after school and better clothes. Unfortunately I don't think I will be able to really do that much.

Okay, so I am bored right now wating for this meeting, so thats why I am blogging. I don't know why because all I have been doing today is paper work and stuff on the computer. Oh well. . . can't wait to get home and relax and then go to class all day tomorrow. But so is my life Tuesday - internship all day, Wednesday - classes all day, Thursday - internship all day and Monday and Friday are suddenly becoming more busy. Life sure is different this year, I keep sayin that to people, and trying to convince myself that its okay and I am doing great at the same time!

Oh by the way I had a great birthday yesterday! Thanks for everyonen who wished me one.

22 Tomorrow, OH MY!

How can that be that I'll be 22 tomorrow, where have the years gone?! I mean seriously before you know it I am going to be a grandpa and thinking about things like; why did my kids stick me in this horrible nursing home? Haha. . .

Bueno, mis padres vinieron aqui ayer por mi cumpleanos. Nosotros comimos con mi amigo Pedro y su esposa y nino, ellos son de Guatemala. My parents really enjoyed meeting them and I thought it went very well. I found out that my friend's wife is seven months pregnent. WOW! The whole time I was there in Guatemala I had no idea and still you cannot tell. Pedro left for Guatemala again today untill October. He is hoping to be back for the baby's birth and then he'll leave again untill December. Crazy. . . but he'll be here all next Spring semester, my last one at KU!
Then I showed my parents the elementary school where I am doing my social work internship you know in the inner-city (ghetto). My parents were like okay, we would've felt better not knowing where it was. . . haha! I shouldn't have said anything about the shootings last weekend on the same block as the school.
From there we went to the biggest furniture store I've ever been too. It was cool, but once again its just a huge furniture store, so that only goes so far. My parents are always into that kind of thing, especially since right now they are remodeling half the house.
We came back here and ate at a steak place, the steaks weren't that great! Then we went to the World Market and I showed my mom everything. I bought one of my favorite German candy bars and some vanilla flavoring for my coffee. THen before we left we bought a cheap bottle of wine to take back. Oh by the way I haven't told you yet but my parents spent the night here in my room.
So, we get back here. . . and of course my mom's dog is here because he had to come with her! We drunk some of the wine, which wasn't bad but not the best, but then again the bottle was only $6 something. Oh before we got back we went to the grocery store. My dad was complaining the whole time too because he really wanted to go to the football game. So, we aired up the air mattress and talk a lot and my dad watches football on TV. I tried to sleep on the air mattress with my dad, my mom and dog were on the bed. But my dad snores, and does he snore loud. Around midnight I got up and moved to the living room couch. It was much better. . . but then my parents got up like two or three different times. One time they both said it was so hot and my dad turned up/down the temp. on the AC, I said it was okay we'll send the bill to you! My parents gave me the only thing I asked for on my birthday a pair of pajama pants from Target, and man they are comfortable! Then my dad gave me a hundred dollar bill before they left. . . how nice. If you don't know my parents have some money. For example, they consistently have just wrote checks for my tuition some semesters adn thats out of state at that. Yesterday they were like do we need to apply for financial aid again for the Spring since ours didn't go through this semester. Then my dad was like we have $xxx,000 in our checking account, the gov't going to see that and go, WHATEVER! Very true. . .
I have to say though the older and older I get the more I am appreciating my parents and get along with them except for some issues as always. It was actually kind of nice that they didn't get a hotel room and decided to stay here. It was nice to be kind of the host for once to them you know?

Thats it for now I guess.

Follow Up

I cannot really tell you much of a follow up from my last post about the student who was possibly being abused by their parent(s). Except that the father came to the school the next morning and asked the vice-principal how he should punish the kid for telling these horrible lies about their parents. Well the v-principal said the right thing about just sitting down and talking about it in a very serious way. My field instructor kind of half serious/half jokingly was like she should've have said, "Sir that would be a good thing to talk about with the caseworker that comes to your house later today to investigate." The student did make a point to wave to me today from the hallway of course after this incident. I did get a little time with the student when we went back to the room while everything was going on. I found out the student likes to draw, watch cartoons, and loves puzzles. The student is a very smart kindergartner!

Today at the school nothing quit that exciting happened. I did a lot of busy work, mainly to keep me busy! I am still deciding on how I exactly feel about my placement and what I am going to get out of it. I mean yes it is good and I will learn a lot but I don't know if it is what I was expecting. And with talking to some of my fellow social work students/friends they are doing a whole lot more than I am and a lot more traing and more real hard core social work stuff. But then again I am in elementary school, but the neighborhood is a bit scary or suspicious. Especially when you find out that last Saturday night there was a report to the police that there were gun shots being heard on the same block and someone actually saw blood too. It makes me really wonder, concerned and amazed at how some of these kids' home lives must be like, crazy, unstable, whatever. . . I am trying to take care of myself and not bring a lot of stuff home with me or outside of work or whatever, but its hard! I don't know I still feel like I am not being that productive or used to my full potential yet at the school. We'll see though. . .

What else. . . I am living this year in a duplex with two other guys that I have known but not known to well. Its kind of hard for me for a lot of reasons; they are a lot older than me, their personalties and mine are very different, we all have our own unique ways of living and how things should be done, etc. . . But when I am here I stay in my room a lot with the door closed. I watch Spanish telenovelas I will admit that and am quit fond of them. I know what some poeple say about how they are trash, you only watch it for the women, etc. I think part of it is the mainstream white culture's own biases and stereotypes with Hispanics and that sort of thing to an extent. Plus, I don't watch it just for the beautiful women, even though it helps, I watch them for the Spanish and I actually like to follow the stories and get wrapped up in them. I don't understand why people make a big deal of it because everyone has their channel or show that they watch and don't like to miss episodes either. So, its the same thing is it not? Okay that was a random tangent, but the roomate situation its awkward for me sometimes, and because I am on the main floor right by the living room they always use my bathroom. And sometimes I am like I don't like that. And this newspaper route thing where they go and deliver the paper extras every week for money and breaks on our cable bills and such is great, but I don't have time to do it and really don't want to do it at the same time. I guess when it comes down to it my living style and how I was raised is probably a lot different. I am working through these issues though, believe me. Don't tell my roomates about this if you know who they are, but if they read this then thats that, its all good!

Okay, I need to go to bed.
Till next time I blog. . .

A long day for a Social Work Intern

Today I went in for my pracitcum like normal to the elementary school. . . well it turned into one long day with some other suprises. I found out this morning that I would be there untill at least 7:00 because there was a parent teacher organization meeting tonight at 6. Okay no big deal that should be interesting I am supposed to go to those anyway. Later that morning we find out from one of the kindergarten teachers that one of her boys is in the office because he had a big noticeable bruise. He also apparently told her that his parents were doing this to him and that they smoked a lot and used him as their ash tray in a matter of words! Well, later on I was a witness to hearing the boy tell this to the principal after he tried to lie about it. Well we hotlined, at the school, the correct people to contact about this kind of thing to come on out and investigate into it. Well, they never showed up untill after dismissal and the boy's dad came and found out we were holding his son. Well, this turned out to be an awkward position to be in for me, my field instructor, and the principal. The man kind of made me a little scared about how he acted at one point I moved so that I was closer to the door so I could leave if I had too. It was a very quiet twenty or thirty minutes untill the official came but it was intense at the same time! Then the boy's mother came in, the wife, and the husband didn't really talk to her. He told us that because of the situation if he finds out that his wife was hurting his son he would take the kids and leave her. Well, they ended up taking the son home, but the worker that came for the investigation said he wasn't done. He was suspicious for the same reasons we were after observing the father and how he acted and also the mother too. I pray that nothing happens!

*As you probably know I left a lot of things out and changed some major facts of this story for confidentiality reasons. Plus, it is my ethical responsibility as a social worker.


Then the meeting tonight that in the past has only gotten six or seven parents to come too, well tonight there were over 80 people. I was supposed to go to this meeting but I had to help watch the kids while all the parents were in the meeting. That was a blast because we also had pizza and drinks to take care of! It was so hot in the building too, and it started late so it didn't end untill about 7:30. I left finally tonight at about five till 8:00. I am exhausted and I have class all day tomorrow!
Oh well thats life right. . .

Thoughts

Okay yesterday was another day without my field instructor at my practicum. I pretty much worked with a kindergarten class all day and helped out the teacher. Which if I can add this particular teacher teacher is an older lady thinking about retirement probably soon. Well she like stresses out too easy and feels like she loses control of the class a lot. I am like, "HELLO" they are kindergartners you can and should be able to walk them down the hallway for music without yelling "HELP ME!" That day I almost laughed she made it sound like she was being assalted by her class or something in the hallway! Then towards the end of the day when I was thinking about leaving a third grade teacher called my room. He reported that one of his who was having issues following the rules for me to see. Well, I went to get him and talk to him and we did for about half an hour, but he did not really coporate with me. This was hard for me and really my first one-on-one like that without my field instructor, so that was kind of difficult. I told the teacher and he was going to have the principal talk to him some more. Hopefully this part will get better with the time that I am there, I think it will!

Okay, well I am about to leave for campus for my first conversation group for the semester. That is if anyone comes! Then I am meeting with the girl from Costa Rica that is meeting with me to converse in Spanish for maybe an hour each week. Its great. . . I need to meet more Spanish speaking students like her. Then my last conversation group of the week will always be on Fridays at 4:30 - 5:30, what a sucky time! Oh well. . . I shouldn't complain its with international students which I like and I get paid for it!

The weekend plans are still open. . . except I think I am going to have a drink with a friend sometime Saturday night. That sounds nice. . . I am looking forward to it! I need to find a date sometime, thats what I need! HAHA

Today I went to the elementary school where I do my practicum (internship) for school and the field instructor never showed up! But thats okay. . . I got by. This morning I almost finished my initial learning contract and then read through some other paper work that was left for me. I did go around to the kindergarten classes and told them that I was there if they needed me. One teacher in particular usually has many issues going on so I get to talk to a lot of her kids about not talking all the time, or not pushing, or not throwing rocks. Why they shouldn't do it? What could they have done? All the important stuff, but I just feel like this one teacher just stresses out to much and if she didn't she would be able to take care of more stuff I think. Then I walked into one of the kindergarten classrooms and the teacher was like you talk Spanish right? I was like sure, she said talk to this kid and see if he wants to play. He was just standing there looking down and being complacient. Well, I talked in Spanish and he understand but he never said a word to me. He opened up some though and kind of played with the toys around other kids. Then the last part of the day was kind of a handful I tried to help with a kindergarten class in music. Keep in mind the music teacher is another sweet old lady that has kind of lost her edge to control the kids, and she seemed really annoyed at me. But a couple of kids were out of control and I couldn't really do much about them. THen I tried to take them back to their class at the end and the other stressed out teacher kind of yelled at me for taking them to the wrong place. They are supposed to just go to the library since its close to the end of the day, well how am I supposed to know that? I left about 3 when school ended and wrote down most of the daily activities for my field instructor. I hope she is okay!

I am tired! It was nice to watch Inocente de Ti tonight though, my favorite telenovela. La Madrastra ended last night, which was really a good one! But Sunday there is a special episode, La Madrastra Anos Despues. Exciting!

Yeah, for class from 8:30 - 6 tomorrow, right?

I am at my parent's house right now, I drove down Friday for the Labor Day Weekend. Its been nice and somewhat relaxing. I have hung out with some of my good friends, one of them from KU that came down with me because his car is here. He was in Japan this summer for five weeks and had a great time, and awesome pictures! But its been nice hanging out in one of my all time favorite coffee houses and another one of my all time favorite places thats a coffee house/bar so you can drink too! I also got to see another good friend and met her new boyfriend, which was a little bit of a suprise. But as far as I could tell the guy is really good guy and I am happy for my friend, plus she seems really happy (giddy) too about the whole situation! I got the guy to talk because when I first met him he scared me a little bit because he just looked at me and was quiet. Well, I broke through that ice and by the end of that night we were good friends (okay maybe it wasn't quit that dramatic, but oh well).

Then tonight my mom, brother and I went to the airport to pick my dad up from his trip. We got there an hour later and watched the Hurricane Katrina stuff on CNN, not like we haven't been doing that non-stop anyway. How horrible, I can't imagine being in a situation like that with nothing and then waiting five days for the damn government to come and help you! Its heart breaking!

So, we'll all hang out tomorrow which is rare it seems like these days! Then I'll leave tomorrow afternoon to get back to watch my telenovelas. Inocente de Ti is a great one, but its been so sad lately! And then the two hour grand ending of La Madrastra. We get to see what happens to Maria and everyone, do they catch Demetrio in time before he kills her and Fiabola and Bruno and before Esteban gets the death penalty. For a crime he did not committ, that Maria also actually spent twenty years in prison for and she didn't do it either. My favorite episode was when the crazy Tia Alba was in love with her nephew Esteban and he didn't love her like tha because thats sick. Well Tia Alba seeks revenge and gets Esteban on death row and then tries to kill his kids. Well her accomplise was one of the servants and is planning on making a lot of money off of Alba for helping her because the family is rich. Well, Tia Alba during a cheers to their success puts rat poison in the servant's glass of wine. The best part was the death scene of the servant doing convulsions on the floor and her mouth foaming! Then she gets caught and Tia Alba knows she has no where to go so she walks off of her mansion and dies minutes later. How messed up is that, but the ending should be exciting! A look into my world of Spanish telenovelas that keep my mind off the stress of my life for a couple hours every night!

Today I am realizing that my readings for school are really boring this semester! I don't know if I have changed or what but its like I can't make it through an article or chapter without zoning out at least 3 times! Not good news and a lot of the stuff is directly related to me and social work. On the other hand, my practicum is going well thus far and I think it will be a very exciting experience. Last Thursday was Open House and I got to speak Spanish. I helped or thought I helped translate between a mother and a teacher. Whatever, I got to practice! I am looking forward to working with kids because I like kids!

Other than that not much is going on. . . I am just writing this as a distraction from reading an article for my case management class. I am listening to a radio station from Mexico City through the internet, which is cool! I've been watching Hurricane Katrina a lot today make its way towards the coast, pretty scary! I pray that there isn't a huge loss of life anywhere an damage is minimal. Its not as much as they are predicting and especially for New Orleans!

Bueno, el fin!

So. . . here is my brilliant idea out of my very own head to make millions of dollars.
If some rich person is reading this consider investing in my idea.
Okay, I speak and am always learning how to speak better Spanish. Well, one of my favorite pasttimes is to watch the telenovelas on TV, on univision of course. Bueno, these telenovelas are usually very exciting because their stories actually end they don't go forever like the soap operas here in the US. They are ten times more exciting with the plots and on top of all this the actors and actresses are usually beautiful people! So, why not convince the general US public that they should try watching one with subtitles lets say on prime time on one of the big networks (NBC, CBS, ABC). I bet you some of the ratings would be through the roof because thats how good they are! Plus, people could probably start to pick up some Spanish. Which is a great thing since some 40 million people speak Spanish as their native language in the US these days.
That is my plug for Spanish telenovelas to come to mainstream United States TV.

Other than that I went to KC MO today for my first day of my practicum at James Elementary School. The kids aren't there yet of course so I got to meet and listen to a lot of teachers talk about stuff. I'll hopefully and probably will get to practice my Spanish there a lot too because its such a heavely Hispanic community. But I learned the inside scoop on what its like to be a teacher some good and some bad. This school will be a reality check because I guess its real life in Northeast Kansas City Missouri. It should be an interesting year which will give me an amazing experience!
Classes start tomorrow finally - yippee!

So, this is what I am doing with myself. I am so bored that I have actually created my own blog on the internet. This could be fun though I guess. . . right now its better than taking a relaxing Sunday drive because that would break my bank.

Stay tuned for something exciting and thoughts that will change your life to come from this blog!
~Later!