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I spent the last few days in St. Louis for my induction to the city/program. Overall, it was a great time. We had plenty of time to socialize and a nice balance between info sessions, forced socialization and personal time. My experience was similar to the one in April, the other corps members are really awesome people. It’s like somebody has done all the work to hand pick me 85 new friends. I am looking forward to interacting with everybody in the next 2+ years.
On Sunday night I believe I established a reputation for myself when I was forced to face my biggest fears and to participate in a dance-off in front of about 100 people. Long story short, it was trivia night and there was a tie. The tie-breaker was a dance competition, which was pretty much my most horrifying nightmare come to life. I did pretty well in the dance competition, making it to the final round of the dance-off. I believe all those years of Polish dance lessons came in handy right at that moment. It did make me very popular and I had people coming up to me all week. Probably secretly laughing in their heads…
I found an apartment for us in the Tower Grove neighborhood. When I was driving the view the apartment I got detoured by a gay pride parade and I figured that it was a sign. The location is phenomenal, 2 blocks from a huge park (I mean, 350 acres huge) and 2 blocks from a major street with coffee shops, an adorable looking hair salon, restaurants (chinese, thai, vietnamese, italian, QUDOBA and St. Louis Bread Company….or as the Non-locals call it – Panera). It is a really cute neighborhood where one can find many liberal political signs and even more rainbow flags. Our apartment will be huge, perfect for entertaining and guests (2 bedrooms)…hint hint. It seems like there is a lot to do in St. Louis and this is one of the best hip, liberal, cozy neighborhoods.
I decided to turn down the offer at the charter school and hold out for a public school placement. Doing this has ensured that I will most likely not know what grade/school I will teach in until a few days before school starts on August 20. Added stress - for sure, but I think it will be worth it. I believe in public education and that is where I need to be.
In the next two years I will also be working on a masters degree in education at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. The school has jumped through many hoops to create a two year, one night a week, off site program for TFA teachers. I’ll be finished with my masters in two years. Factoring the discounts they have arranged for us, and the Americorps educational stipends, I will be getting the masters for free and still have money left over to pay off some undergrad student loans. Who could turn down an offer like that?
