Some of the dates I will guesstimate since I don't have that good of a memory.
September 3- Find out devastating news, crumble into comatose balls. We hear about the saving grace of Texas State's correspondence course and we are revivied.
September 4- Try and register, UT sends transcripts to Texas State (TS) via email. Hurray, they accept email!! No one seems to accept email transcripts these days!
September 5- TS says they can't open email. UT must send it by snail mail. BOOO!!
Sept. 8- TS says that they have received transcript finally and will start enrollment. Yay!!
Sept 11- Kyle is finally enrolled. Packet of books to start course being sent and should arrive in one week at the latest. We can't wait to get started.
Sept 20- Books still haven't arrived. We call my mom back in San Antonio to have her check her mail. She has the package even though we were very specific that should be sent to Washington where we are. People don't listen! Why listen, listening is overated.
Sept 23- We receive the overnighted "books" only to find out the books were only a packet of papers and evevelopes for ordering said books. Kyle and Vanessa go into slight coma. Something is seriously wrong since Vanessa isn't speaking.
Sept 30- Books arrive, minus the creative writing book. We are extatic besides the fact that the marathon of learning must begin right now, at this very moment. No fun time until it is finished. Not even a little. Ok, we are going to watch The Office Thursday but nothing else. However this correspondence course system seems to have not changed since WWII since everything is sent by snail mail using postage stamps. Who uses postage stamps? Even correspondence with the prof is by mail. (we did finally find an email) Tests have to be mailed to set location and a proctor has to administer the test at a University. Oh my gosh, how many things can go wrong and slow with this scenario! With Kyle, everything!
All in all it took 27 days to receive books for this course! That is right, twenty-seven days. We are in the Twenty-first century right? How does this happen? And have they not heard of internet?
On another note we had another day with our new job with the city of Redmon. Upon arrival we learned that their beloved principal had died the past weekend of a random brain aneurysm while working out. I never met the man, but I was told that he was a really amazing man who was loved by the teachers and students, which according to my aunt Nancy the kindergarten teacher, is a rare thing in the world of teaching. Life goes on however, and so did the after school program. We were in charge of study hall, which no one showed up for. We were planning on using the room for manicures at 2, giving the study hall kids at least an hour of quite time but since studying was obviously outdated for these kids or else the people in charge of the study hall were just incredibly uncool, manicuring took priority. Originally we started out with four junior high girls, however soon we were joined by three lively boys who willingly had their nails painted pink, purple and blue. They left when their nails had dried and went to show off their girly nails to the other boys playing sports in the gym. Soon, we had five more boys asking for their nails to be painted. One boy asked me to paint purple poka-dots on his pink nails. He claimed his girlfriend had picked the colors. Too be honest, I was really impressed with these boys. When I think back to my days in middle school, my true reaction is to cringe violently with disgust. Middle school kids are the worst when it comes to verbal torture, and any out of "the current norm" behavior is scorned and mercilessly decided social suidice. And yet these boys didn't seem to fear this wicked treatment of their peers. And not only did they not fear their peer treatment, they felt secure enough in their masculinity to paint their nails HOT PINK! To join in with the other boys, Kyle painted his thumb nails purple and black. It was wonderful, hilarious and so much fun!
I will post the winner to the Your Turn post tommorow so if you have something to say, you better comment quickly!
Yay for middle schoolers!! Either something has drastically changed in just a few years (unlikely), or looking at it from the outside gives us a different perspective (much more likely), this post and what I know about the kids over here just make middle school sound like a lot of fun, which is...strange. Good luck with bureaucracy, as always!
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