Missing Savannah Already

It is weird to think that we are already packing up our little apartment in Savannah.  We are only moving 20 miles north to Hardeeville, SC but in some ways I will feel less connected to Savannah and I am sad!  I think we will still come in on weekends for dinner and fun outings and I am of course going to keep up with my 2 bookclubs, but I will no longer be able to go walking at Lake Mayer Park with Rebecca during the week or shop at the nearby mall or get my haircut downtown. 
On a positive note, I really do like the town we are moving to.  Our address will be Hardeeville, but if you spit you could reach Sun City and Bluffton SC.  Both of these small towns sit right on the water and are before the bridges that reach Hilton Head Island.  They are much smaller than Savannah (which is smaller than Greensboro!) so I feel like I keep going down in town size.  It is the type of place where you only have one movie theatre option and you are lucky if it has stadium seating.  I will probably also start running into some of my students which I have always tried to avoid, but it sure beats the hour commute.  However, everything in Bluffton is new with nice grocery stores like Publix, nice eateries, and thank goodness there is still a Target, Barnes and Noble, and a brand spanking new Wally World. 
Overall however, I am still in love with Savannah.  We are coming up on my favoritee time of year down here (and yes, I do know because Jason moved down here LAST October!).  Summer lingers here well into October but the humidity lessens and you can wear dresses or jeans and a short-sleeved top well into "fall."   Our new apartment that we move into on Sept. 10th will have a screened porch that we can not wait to use! The nights are especially comfortable outside and I am getting very excited for all of the festivals on River Street.  We are missing a big one this Labor Day weekend to come home, but we are looking forward to Oktoberfest, PirateFest, and officially going to our first UGA game in Athens in November with our friends Rebecca and Jenn. 
I honestly can not believe how easily we settled into our new city and jobs.  Last year was so hard with Jason and I being 5 hours apart and we couldn't wait to be back together and really start a married life together.  Well, it has been almost 2 and half months and it has been both extremely trying and exciting!  Many people say that moving to a new city as a married couple strengthens you because you have to rely on each other so much and I do think that it is true.... but maybe it is because Jason works second shift and I work first that we have also had to rely on ourselves.  We have each made our own friends and really found happiness in our careers and interests outside of our relationship as well.  I won't say that I don't eagerly await the weekends so I can spend time with my hubby, but I am very thrilled with the new people I have met here in Savannah and how much fun I can have even when Jason is at work!!
I am very happy we have signed a year's lease at Courtney Bend apartments and as much as I would love to move back to NC, I actually hope we do not have to break this lease before next September. 

Rainy Days

Well it does not feel like Fall is creeping in yet in the Savannah-Hilton Head area, but I can tell the seasons are changing because it is raining more and it is getting darker earlier.  I can not wait for cooler weather!
This past weekend Jason and I tried to go to our home opener football game but it got stormed out :(  We did however meet up at the "Hurricane Bar" with another new teacher Heather and her husband for a few drinks at the marina on the island before heading over the Gene and Nancy's to stay for the night.  Saturday Jason and I spent the day at the beach on Hilton Head and we LOVED their public access, especially compared to Tybee Island in Savannah.  HH was less crowded and had much nicer facilities such as showers and bathrooms (and parking!).  For those of you who do not know much about HHI, it was only developed in the 1960's by a man who wanted to create a community that could exist with nature.  The original community was called Sea Pines and then neighborhoods spread from there.  Because of his original vision, HHI has very strict building codes.  There are no neon signs, billboards, or any bright paint colors.  As Gene says it takes an act of Congress to cut down a tree limb.  The entire island is very wooded with tons of birds, animals and bike paths (oh, and golf courses!).  You will be driving along and then--- "oops, I think I just passed the grocery store!"  You can not see anything from the roads because of the trees.  The beach itself was wide and had clean water but very few waves so it felt more like a lake than an ocean.  But it is a very nice beach with far fewer rescues like Tybee!

Classes are still going good this week and I am already approaching Thursday!  Today was picture day and of course I forgot, so I will be featured in the yearbook this year rocking a ponytail. SWEET.

I have my other bookclub this Friday and the featured book is called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  It is a memoir about a woman who grew up in poverty because her parents chose to roam from place to place in the west instead of providing for their children.  It is painful to still watch as the children adore their parents despite the wrongful things they do to them and the amazing ways they can survive and find food.  I have found the book so far and enjoyable to read because Walls simply tells the stories- she doesn't give emotional commentary.  It is also interesting to see the development between the siblings and how they will all turn into successful productive adults in big cities like New York while their parents are still homeless in the same city.  It really is a fascinating and heartbreaking story.  It has made me enter my classrooms with a little different attitude because I now wonder how many of my students feed themselves or live without basic amenities like AC, heat, or even indoor plumbing.  Worse than those lack of physical conditions, the children in the book also lacked emotional care, which I definitely see everyday.  Sometimes I wish people would just not have children when they can not be responsible enough to care for them. 

Anywho- almost another weekend!  We are collecting boxes for our next move to Jasper County, SC.  I guess we will have to get new driver licenses and I will have to rename the blog to the Smiths Take on the GA/SC State Line. Ha.

The Joys of Teaching

Well I have been gone for too long!!  Sorry for the blogging drought- I am pretty sure I have lost all of my readers out there... but it has been a rough two weeks!  I officially had my first week in my new job with teacher workdays and then I had my first week with students as a teacher at Hilton Head Island High School.  Besides the few near complete break downs and going to bed at 845 and waking up at 5 am, it has actually been a pretty positive 2 weeks- I will start with the good...

Things I Love about my new job!
-I have excellent technology in my classroom! they even gave me a laptop unlike my last school where I took my own every day
-I have all my students year round (this can also be bad- see below)
-I work with very smart and professional people who take their jobs seriously
-I have a new work friend named Heather- she teaches SPED
-My room is cold and not musty!
-I am not in charge of textbooks- Praise the Lord!
-Our school colors are UNC blue and navy
-My AP students already know things such has all of the US Wars and who MLK, Tubman, the Grimke Sisters, and the Mayans are- and they use words like bias, perspective, and "culturally sensitive" (and they are only in 10th grade)
-My students wear uniforms

Things I am Learning to Love about my New Job (Staying Positive Here)

-I commute over an hour each way
-I cannot make my own copies- EVER- I have to submit them and wait til the next day, and I am pretty sure I will be over my limit by October, so please buy me reams of paper for Xmas
-I have my students ALL YEAR LONG (oh, 4th block)
-I have a floater in my room during my planning
-I still do not have an email account, log in, or am on payroll after week 2
-There is not really a teacher work room or area to congregate
-Getting supplies is like squeezing water out of a cactus
-I have a new prep- it is like being a 1st year all over again
-I have the 4th block bad boys on B days (thank god we rotate days)

So there you have it!  I survived the first week!!! I accidentally made fun of a boy because he told me his name was Storm and I thought he was joking, and then I had the class during the fire drill who were taking their shirts off and running around like a bunch of crazy kids, but...... I haven't quit yet! (or gotten fired!).

Luckily for Jason (ha) he was on first shift both weeks, so he got to tuck me in at 8 o'clock each night and make sure I had a lunch packed for the next day.  What a great husband he is to marry a teacher, because it is not a normal career choice.  We get exhausted and cranky and we really don't want to talk about anything by the end of the day.  And we cry alot during the first week of school!  But next week is the second week so it is all up hill!

Tonight Jason is meeting me for our first home football game and then we are staying the night with Gene and Nancy.  Gene is my Aunt Sarah's brother who lives here on the island and has been great to me and Jason helping us find a new place to live and give us directions all of the time.  Tomorrow we plan to explore the island and hit the beaches to compare them to Tybee Island!
More posts will come!

Dear Truckers...

Dear Male Truckers,

I would like to tell you how much it irritates me and ruins my trip on I-95 when you honk at me, flash your lights at me, speed up to ride next to me, ride my tail, or make obscene gestures at me.  I do NOT think your truck is sexy and I will NOT flash you a boob or pull over and make out with you.  Why do you think that my middle finger means that you should continue such behavior? Why do you think that I like being pestered?  The I-95 highway is NOT a 2nd grade playground so please keep you eyes off my sunroof and on the road!

Sincerely,
A Pissy '98 White Honda Accord

Cel-e-Brate AGAIN!

Well I am just going to make you wait until the end to find out why!!
We had a great weekend visiting with friends and family at the beach!  Jason had off Thursday and Friday so we packed our bags and headed north along Highway 17 and met up with Megan and Sean in Mrytle Beach.  We stayed at their very nice 2 bedroom condo with an awesome balcony.  Sometimes I forget how nice it is to watch the waves at night or watch a storm roll through- (we saw an awesome storm on Thursday night!).  We went out to dinner at Hamburger Joe's, the boys had too many drinks, we buzzed shopped at the Bargain (such treasures they have!),and then we played cards late into the night.  The next day we were able to spend it at the beach and play cornhole, swim, and relax.  It was great to catch up and spend time together!!

Jase and I took off Friday evening and headed north to the beautiful Emerald Isle.  We got to visit with Audrey and Charles that night as we waited for H.C. and Kristen to get there.  We were all too pooped to get ice cream that night, but we did go Sat. night.  We had a beautiful long day at the beach on Saturday with sandwiches and watermelon and peaches and great conversation.  Jason and I couldn't get over how beautiful the water looked and how refreshing it felt after spending the summer down here at Tybee in the brown hot water.  We never wanted to leave!  We had Audrey's yummy lasagna and H.C.'s fresh veggies for dinner before riding our bikes up to the Sweet Spot for some ice cream. (I had Raspberry Rocky Road).  We went for a nice long bike ride that night along the sound side before my butt got too sore and then headed back.  Sunday we ran into some rain, but that didn't stop us from hitting the beach with our tent before dinner and then everyone heading back home!  It was a great trip and I really wish we didn't live 6 hours away from the beach house now.  Sad!

And now for the good news!  I got a call on Friday of last week while at the beach from the department head at Hilton Head High School requesting an interview for a teaching position.  Some of you may remember that this is the same school that called me for an interview the week before my honeymoon and I ran out and got clothes for it and then they cancelled while I was in Mexico because their district would not release them funds to hire anyone out of district.  Well apparently last Thursday they finally got approval to hire again and they were on a whirlwind to get me in there before school starts for teachers next week on Monday Aug. 9.  So I had my interview on today (Tuesday) and this afternoon the principal called and offered me the position!  I will be teaching all US History which is a dream come true, and 4 of the 6 classes are AP US History which is advanced students.  Of course there are negatives in that the only reason they are bringing in someone from the outside is because they expect their scores to go up so that is mucho pressure on me.  Also, from what I got from the interview, there are some very "involved" (aka PESKY) parents at this school.  I mean, it is Hilton Head- the richest community in the area.  I am moving from a school where the largest club was Future Farmers of America to a school that has a CREW and Lacrosse team.... can I handle this?  So I might be up against some parents when little Johnny and Sally bring home a B instead of an A.  Also, because it is an advanced school with an IB program, the AP US course is offered in the 10th grade year and I have never taught Sophomores.  There is a BIG difference between 10th and 11th grade year (I mean 11th graders can like, drive--- geez), so I am nervous about whether these kids will be mature enough and academically ready for tough ole J.Smith's class.  I didn't earn my past scores by being sweet and fluffy.  So there you have it!  I am officially a SeaHawk starting Monday!!  I am so excited to have a job, paycheck, and something to work at during the week I could jump up and down over and over..... or maybe just go have a margarita!

Check out the school here-

Hilton Head Island High School