My Little Corner of the World: So I'm not sure how that went...

I had a job interview today! I'm not really sure how it went...but I'm just glad that I had the experience of interviewing. This is only my second teaching interview ever and my first in California. I interviewed with two people the assistant director-- Mr. F and the Director of School Operations-- Mr. S. Mr. F was not overly friendly and was practically falling asleep during my interview. lol. Of course, it was @ 4ish and I think they had been interviewing for most of the day, so i suppose that could explain it. Mr. S was extremely friendly and he knew all about Key Learning Community and Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences, so I think that was a definite plus for me. My downfall is often times my quietness and my classroom management. I'm not overly confident about my classroom management skills and I'm pretty sure it shows. :sigh:

The job is a 6th/7th grade Language Arts position @ a small charter school near downtown. So it's an inner city school with a diversified student body. I think it was also a plus that I had worked with a broad range of students @ Key, many of them low income and at-risk. So I think I have some things in my favor. Of course, I don't really know what any of the other candidates are like. There was another lady interviewing for the position that was seated next to me in the waiting room. I think she was actually supposed to interview before me, but I got there 40 min. early so they had me go in first. The interview lasted for about 40 min. so I guess that's an ok sign, right? They're supposed to let me know by Friday. The first day of school is Monday the 29th, so I would have a LOT of work ahead of me! I don't even know what the pay would be, but whatever it is, it's more than I'm bringing in now :P haha

So yeah, the interview was totally last minute. i don't know what the situation was, maybe they had someone quit, but they're definitely down to the wire. So i called them back around 10:30 and they called me back around 11 something. I spent the rest of the afternoon getting ready. I had to find something to wear, which was a challenge since most of my good skirts were still in Indiana, but I finally got something together. Printed out copies of my resume/cover letter/Letters of recommendation. Also, I studied up on my teaching philosophy etc. made some notes to take with me. Left a little after 3, had to gas up my car and then headed over to the school. I found it ok, had to circle the block one time to figure out parking and everything.

This school is near USC and LA Trade Tech and only a few minutes away from D's fam's house. He wanted me to stop by and pick something up, so hung out there for awhile. Talked to Chicho and his gf Crystal. Jessie got home right as I was leaving. When I got home, D said he wasn't feel so well. I think he might be getting a cold. Rachel and his dad are also not feeling so well. I've also had a scratchy throat/nose. Hope the sickness stays away! Made some guacamole and sopes for dinner. D's mom made the actual corn shell (sope) but I did all the toppings. hehe ;)

Had a busy weekend. Spent most of the time hanging out with D's family. On Saturday, we went over to the house and just hung out. D got a call from work so we headed back to the apartment while his siblings went to Griffith Observatory. The problem @ the apt. was absolutely ridiculous. This couple had complained of a burning smell. When we got there they said it had gone away and they hadn't mentioned to call us. So it took all of 2 minutes to do nothing. D and I hung out watching music videos haha. Then we met up with his siblings in Long Beach @ the pizza parlor with the delicious New York style pizza! yuuum! Went to the Seashore Village and walked around until midnight. It was fun!

The pizza parlor!

On Sunday morning, D and I got up and headed to church. He had found a flyer that was advertising a church in Torrance. Once we got there we realized that church had started @ 10 am, not 11! Everyone was already leaving! lol. So we headed down the road, we were going to turn around and head back home. Well, we saw this other church just down the road. There were a bunch of people headed into the parking lot and there were people directing traffic. As we pulled in, we noticed that everyone was Asian! We were pretty much the only non-Asian people around. haha So we asked if the service was in English, they said yes and directed us in. Everyone was just smiling broadly and kept nodding that yes, we should come in. They bowed as we walked past as is their custom.

Ready for church...

Wearing my new shirt and earrings...

Diego getting ready...

Come to find out, it was a Korean church. The entire service was in Korean! They gave us headset so that we could have an English translation. The sermon itself was a bit dry, but the music was AMAZING! ( I guess the pastor used to be a part of some pop music group, so really cares about the music.) Also, the people were sooooooooo friendly. I've never received such an amazing welcome. They made us feel @ home and were so kind. They all possessed such kind spirits. After service, the pastor stood outside the door so that he could shake everyone's hands. They even invited us to stay for a meal. We were going to head out, but a couple older women came up and were talking to us in broken English. They said that we should come try the food and literally took me by the arm and pulled me towards the food. haha. They sat us down @ one of the guest tables and served us a meal that consisted of fish soup and some fish patty. ( I don't like fish, but I forced it down!) They literally served us-- there were a couple ladies that brought us our food and brought us refills of water. They kept checking up on us to see how everything was. The two older ladies sat down by us and started talking. Then a guy with a guitar walked up, a bunch of church members surrounded the two visitor tables and the entire congregation started singing a welcome song in Korean.


Getting ready to dig in...

i look really shiny here. It was really warm in there!

After the meal, the invited us up to the guest gathering room to talk to the pastor. The room was filled with couches and comfortable chairs. There were several other visitors in the room. They had a lady that served us coffee and cookies. Then the pastor came in and talked to us all. He went around the circle and talked to us each individually. Since everyone was speaking Korean, one of the ladies came over and sat by to translate. She was so kind. I instantly liked her! She had such a humble spirit. In fact, that's something that I really liked about everyone that I met. They were so kind and humble! As we were leaving, there were a group of ladies just standing there waving @ us. I don't know that I would go there long term, but I would definitely go back! I think I could definitely make some friends there. :)

After church, we headed over to D's fam's house. Ended up going to some shopping outlet to find Jessie some shoes. I got a chocolate covered banana! yuuum! We stopped by In-n-Out (Jessie is obsessed with this place!) When we got back to their house, we watched a documentary called "Exit through the Gift Shop" I highly recommend it! It's really entertaining! I love documentaries so much! I could watch them nonstop! :)