A Poem I Wrote About Costa Rica

Pura Vida

By Holly Melgren

July

I live in a valley surrounded by mountains

but I can't often see them

because of the clouds.

These same clouds hide my wide-open

skies

and bring more rain than I knew existed.

I live in a city full of smoky loud cars,

and odd signs from two different worlds.

I stay in a nice house with

strangers I can't always understand

and who I hope I'm not offending.

I eat strange, delicious food,

and spend lots of time in my dictionary.

I wonder what God was thinking

in bringing me here--

or was it my idea?

November

I live in a valley surrounded by mountains

and I've seen them light up

like a hill full of stars.

I've seen them wear

clouds like a scarf

and stand tall and proud

on a clear blue morning.

I've been soaked by rain

and more so by sun.

I can give directions using

only landmarks, and have

a love-hate relationship

with rice and beans.

I've learned that you don't have to understand

everything that is said

to know you are loved.

And that you don't have to know

what God is up to

to know that He's still there.

Teacher Aiding

Here's some exciting news: I have officially started Teacher Aiding!

For those of you who don't know what that means, allow me to explain. As part of the education program here at North Park we have three "clinical" experiences. The first is called Teacher Aiding, where basically we go and observe. Sometimes the teacher has us work with small groups or one-on-one with students, and they may even let us teach something, but the goal is to just get in the classroom and start to get familiar with how it works. This is what I'm doing now.

The second part is called Mini Teaching, and that's where you teach for one hour every day for about 7 weeks or so; you're in charge of the lesson plan, teaching, grading, everything for that one class. Then the third part is Student Teaching, when you teach all day, every school day, for 10 weeks. My plan is to do Mini Teaching and Student Teaching next Spring.

So anyways, I'm now Teacher Aiding several days a week. I've only been twice so far, but I've really liked it. My cooperating teacher (the high school teacher I'm working with) is great; she seems like a good teacher and I think the students really like her. I've sat in on a regular Sophomore English class and two AP lit classes that are a mix of juniors and seniors. It's really weird to be back in high school again; it's even weirder to be known as Miss Melgren. So far I haven't done anything but observe, but she wants me to help with small group work when they get to that, and I'll be helping some of the sophomores write papers when they finish the book they're reading (Catcher in the Rye).

Well that's about all for now. Happy March!

Indian Summer

Okay, I feel kinda lame always talking about the weather. But it really has been gorgeous these past few days. Yesterday felt like one of those rainy April days, and today feels like October- sunny and windy, chilly but not too cold. In short, not February weather, which is great.

These past couple weeks have been really busy. My sister and her friend Alli came up to visit last weekend for the Trustee Event. I didn't get to see them a lot because they were busy with the event, but it was still fun. Saturday night we had a "We-Don't-Have-Plans-for-Valentine's-Day" party in our apartment. We had cupcakes and sugar cookies to decorate, games, and other food, and it was a blast. There was a good turn out too--we probably had about 40 people in our apartment. Other than that I've been busy with writing advisor conferences, and of course just regular class.

And lately I've just been really happy. I think it was last spring that I realized how much I love being at North Park. And this semester is no different. I love living in an apartment, keeping house and cooking meals. I love my classes, reading lots of literature, improving my writing, learning about how to teach English. My roommates are amazing. I get to spend actual time with my wonderful boyfriend. I mean, things aren't all perfect-- I still get stressed by homework, I miss my family and friends studying abroad, I sometimes miss Costa Rica. But overall, life is really good right now.

Soli Deo Gloria

Snow Day

For maybe the first time in history, North Park has cancelled school for snow. Or at least, in my limited knowledge of the history of North Park. In light of the raging blizzard outside, North Park has told us to stay inside, keep warm, and not worry about classes tonight or tomorrow. Which is sweet, since it really is nasty out there. However, I still have to work, so I will have to trudge across campus at 6:50 tomorrow morning, and again in the afternoon. But the rest of the day will hopefully be spent inside my cozy apartment, drinking hot chocolate and catching up on some reading (because my books finally came today!!!!).

We plan on watching "Day After Tomorrow" tonight with my roommates, just in case the blizzard wasn't dramatic enough. :)

Winter in Chicago

You know it's cold when the inside of your nose freezes and you have bits of ice in your eyelashes when you get to class. And you know it's been really cold when the mid-20s feels balmy...

But surprisingly I haven't minded the cold too much. I don't know if I'm just used to it after two years, or if I'm just so happy to be back at North Park that I don't really mind the cold. Plus my apartment is often a million degrees, so sometimes the cold feels really good. :)

Other than surviving the cold, I've been busy with classes. Several of my books STILL have not arrived in the mail, which has been frustrating. Thankfully I've been able to find the readings online, but I'll be glad when they finally get here. But I'm enjoying my classes thus far and the homework load hasn't been too heavy yet.

Last weekend a group of us went downtown to Giordano's for pizza, which was really fun. Last night we (my roommates and I) surprised our roommate Marlee for her birthday, sort of. Technically her birthday is in July, but we don't see her then, so we were going to celebrate her half birthday, but it was actually last week. Needless to say, she was pretty surprised. So after grocery shopping, she and I ran to Target to get a couple more things while Abby, Melissa, and Sara made smoothies and chips and salsa stuff. Then when she came in we sang Happy Birthday and ate and talked. Later we watched "Failure to Launch," which was a funny movie. She wasn't quite as confused as last year when we surprised her with cake. We meant to do it on her half birthday but missed it, so when we started singing her Happy Birthday she looked really confused and kept saying, "Guys, it's not my birthday."

Today has been pretty laid back: I slept in, did my laundry, made cookies, and did some homework. Tomorrow promises to be a full day, with us making lunch at church. Overall a nice, uneventful weekend, which in my opinion is the best kind.

Back in Chicago!

I'm back in Chicago! I've actually been here since late Friday night, but I haven't gotten around to updating this yet. But since I'm sitting desk right now, and have no homework yet (which will change very soon) I figured it was a good time to write a post.

It's really nice to be back in Chicago, even though it's freezing (it's snowing... again). I love our apartment, and I'm slowly but surely finding a place for all my stuff. Last night one of my roommates, Marlee, made vegetarian chili for dinner, one of the few things all of us can eat (everyone but Sara has at least one food allergy, which makes cooking kinda tricky) and we had a great time eating and talking and laughing. Kyla, my friend Bekah's sister, and another friend, Zach, joined us for dinner too, which was fun.

I think this semester is going to be crazy busy, but I'm looking forward to it, for several reasons:

1. I think I'm going to like all my classes. I'm taking two lit classes, both with professors I've had before, and I know at least one of them is a fabulous lit professor. I'm also taking a writing class, which should be good. I'm taking a couple education classes (one each quad) which I don't know a lot about, but will hopefully be good, or at the very least interesting.

2. I'm really excited about living with the girls in my apartment, and spending time with them and other friends. I'm also looking forward to spending time with Drew, which we finally get to do without any phones or computers. :) One thing I want to really work on this semester is balancing my time between homework and people.

3. Did I mention all my classes are in English? :) I do miss speaking in Spanish though, and I want to find a way to speak it more, so I don't lose all the Spanish I learned last semester.

I think there are probably more things I'm excited about for this semester, but I've been up since 6 and my coffee wasn't quite enough to fully wake me up, so that's all for now. Running around campus for a couple hours in the snow should be enough to wake me up a bit more, hopefully before I have class this afternoon.

New Year, New Blog

Hello again! After some thought, I've decided to continue with this blog. As you may have noticed, I changed the title and the description, as well as the background and theme colors. I hope you like it! I really enjoyed writing in my blog while I was in Costa Rica, and I've kind of missed it since I've been back. And of course, the adventures don't stop just because I'm back home. I may not be swinging through the jungle, but that doesn't mean my life is boring.

So far, since I've been home, I've had Christmas with my family, traveled down to Houston to visit more family, read a few books, and made several trips to Starbucks. Two weeks from today I'll be starting classes at North Park, and I'm super excited for that. I'll also be "teacher aiding" (as part of the education program at NP, I go into a high school classroom and observe throughout the semester), which might be an adventure in and of itself. I'll also be living with four other girls in an apartment, and hopefully seeing a bit more of Chicago than I have in the past two years. So all in all, this looks to be a good semester! We'll see how often this blog gets updated, what with all the classes I'm taking and working and everything else, but my goal is to write once every week or two weeks.

Well, I hope you all have had a good Christmas and New Year's and are looking forward to going back to school or work or whatever.

Bendiciones (blessings)

Holly