Last First Day

As a student, that is. Though I will (hopefully) have many more "first days" ahead of me, this is my 18th and final first day as a student. Hard to believe that we've gone from this

to this.

I think I looked a little cuter on the first day of Pre-K than I did today, but I am certainly not going to waste my last year of being able to wear shorts, a t-shirt, and chacos to school. But before I dive into today, let's back up a bit to yesterday. I got back to Austin around 3:00pm yesterday, and I immediately started unloading my car and attempted to put things in their proper places, but Sarah suggested a walk around Town Lake, and I was obviously not going to turn that down. Our work schedules paired with the fact that we both like spending time at our respective San Antonio and Houston homes meant that we kept missing one another for about two weeks. So I was more than game for a little catch up time with my suite one roomie.

Shortly after we returned from our walk, all eight members of the Clubhouse were in the same place at the same time (this may never happen again) and we went to dinner together at Galaxy Cafe. If you have been reading my blog fairly regularly, you know that is one of my Austin favorites. I opted for the garden salad with grilled chicken, topped with balsamic vinaigrette, and it was delicious. Galaxy is very generous with their salad portions, yet I still ate almost every last bite, plus more than a few of Sarah's sweet potato fries.

I'm a fan of this word!

We all made our way back to the Clubhouse after dinner, and since I was going to HEB to restock my food supply for the week, I offered to pick up the ingredients necessary to make a pizookie. If you aren't familiar with what a pizookie is, it is a huge cookie (normally chocolate chip) that is served warm and gooey, topped with ice cream (normally vanilla). We were served pizookies after we finished hiking 37 miles through the mountains at Wilderness Ranch in Colorado, and I don't think it lasted even two minutes on the table. 

Due to my lactose intolerance, I am unable to enjoy the greatness that is a pizookie, so Sarah and I went back out to Yogurt Planet in the Triangle so that we could indulge in a little frozen yogurt before hitting the grocery store. I went for a mix of chocolate brownie and blueberry, topped with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries. Delicious.

I then tried to go to bed early and get a good night's sleep before the first day of school, but I, even though I went on and on in my last post about how "ready" I was for school to start, laid in bed worrying about all of the things I have going on this semester and how in the world I am going to make everything fit without losing my sanity. Then I realized that I just have to take it one day at a time, and that I am absolutely going to get through this semester, with a smile on my face to boot. It will be one big balancing act, but something tells me it's going to be a great year.

First Day

Now we can get to the first day of school! I woke bright and early, and took advantage of a sleeping house to journal and read before my day really got going. Around 8:00am I started getting pretty hungry for breakfast, so I scrambled up some egg whites and spinach, topped with pepper and salsa before biking that familiar route to campus for my 9am class - Literary Studies for High School Teachers of English. 

Today was technically only "syllabus day," but this class is a very theoretical class, with some method thrown into the mix, but we are going to be talking a lot about language and the power of language in different texts, as well as developing our own philosophy on language and teaching. I read two chapters out of our first book this morning after I got home from class and it talked a lot about developing your own theory about the nature of language and language learning based on your personality and the content of your curriculum. It was reassuring to read that every teacher develops his or her own teaching personality, and that even though the curriculum might be the same, each teacher does things a little bit differently, so I'm excited to see what this class holds.

Workout

After completing my reading, I put on my bike shorts and headed up to the gym for my favorite Austin spin class. I warmed up with 20 minutes on the treadmill, alternating five minutes of walking with five minutes of running, before going upstairs to set up my bike. This class was tough, but in such a good way. We did lots of hill training, and lots of sprints on those hills. That is generally my least favorite thing to do on a bike, but we changed things up so often that it was hard to notice how hard my legs were working.

Lunch

I had worked up quite the appetite by this point, and with the return of the school year comes the return of my dairy-free pizza. It's been so long since I've recreated this favorite recipe of mine, and I was probably a little too excited about eating it. In any case, it was delicious, and I see many more of these pizzas in my future.

And with that, I'm off to run a few errands that I neglected to run while I was in Houston. I hope to pop back in with a recount of my UTeach class tomorrow - it's sure to be the source of many of my blog posts this semester!