Beach Boys

On December 2nd I took a bus to Newark and a train to New Brunswick. It took 2 hours. Why did I do it? Well because I had a $30 ticket to see the Beach Boys and John Stamos (Uncle Jesse in Full House) live. What a night! I waited in the cold for two hours (thats what happens to people who arrive early), spent 30 minutes in an overcrowded lobby, and 40 minutes in the seats waiting for the concert to start but the second they came on stage none of that mattered anymore...it was AMAZING!! They even had John Stamos perform Forever just like on Full House. I got a bit worried at the end when they did their 'goodnights' and walked off stage because the two songs I had been looking forward to the most hadnt been done. Then boom they came back onstage and belted out 'Little Saint Nick' and 'Kokomo'. Man what a perfect ending! After that I made my way back to the train station only to find out that the train left at the same time the concert ended so I spent an hour reading my new book in the cold, left there at 11.30pm and caught the last bus back to Caldwell (at 12.20am) which meant I got home at 1.30am....like I said what a night!!

Rotary talks

November and December has been a busy month for Rotary talks with 3 more clubs visited adn a much more refined presentation ready for the next 11. I did have another club lined up but that has been rescheduled twice already. I am really enjoying getting around to different clubs and meeting new Rotarians. Its great fun. I already have another 2 presentations in line for February.

Drama drama

Well after getting past the terror of the possibility that my arm problems might end my ABA career before it started and that it might require surgery or an early return trip home things seemed to be looking up. That lasted at most...3 days. On the Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend  I opened up my Caldwell email account and found it inundated with emails about a letter (that I hadn't yet received) from the US government to the international students of Caldwell College stating that the college had lost its SEVIS status (meaning they were no longer certified to have international students) and that we had until January 30th to either transfer to a new college or leave the country. To be honest it seemed like a bit of a joke and we were being told not to worry because 'it doesnt affect our status'. By Monday it was all too real. My letter arrived, more emails had gone round that outlined the seriousness of the situation and we had a meeting with the President (Nancy) and some of the administration. You could here the emotion in their voices as they told us that they were doing everything in their power to fix the problem even having the New Jersey senator petition on the college's behalf. Basically what had happened was that the woman in charge of the international students' affairs didnt complete and file a report to the government that she had had 6 months (and two windows of opportunity to appeal) to complete (and didnt tell anyone at the college about it - so no one even knew there was a report until we (the students) started getting letters). We were told that if by some chance we couldnt stay at Caldwell (ie the government refused to recertify the college) then they would do everything in their power to get us transferred to a new college and that anyone with 9 or fewer credits left before they can graduate should arrange to do them over the winter break. Apparently my story was used as one of the case studies the college presented to the government. It was a very intense few days with the international students getting very worried, the administration working very long hours and the student body asking for international students' stories and organising prayer groups and meeting to express how much they loved the international students. After a bit of a freak out on Monday I decided that seen as there was nothing I could do but wait and trust that whatever the outcome the college would take care of us so there was really no point in stressing out at least for the first week anyway. In fact I spent most of the week making jokes about it because it was just easier to deal with it that way than to dwell on it and act like its the end of the world. On Thursday the dam broke and good news came flooding in. We had our certification back (though theres still a semesters worth of hoops for the college to jump through) and we can all stay but no new international students can come into the college until at least next fall. Talk about a cloud lifted off the college...and me.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a really interesting cultural experience that I was fortunate enough to share with a really nice couple (who I know through Rotary) and their family. As I was on fish feeding duty at the center for the 5 day weekend I met Christie (my hostess) at 3pm at the center adn we headed to her home. Over the next 3 hours another 12 people arrived for our 6pm dinner even though they were meant to be there at 3 like me (a lot of very late people!). During that time we ate an interesting array of hor d'ourves and played a couple of rounds of Taboo (until that fell apart at the seams as family games can do). Taboo is a game where you have to get your team to guess a word on a card but you cant use the 5 associated words that are also on the card. It's not easy especially when you dont speak American. OK so the main event - dinner. Let's see....we had turkey (obviously), sweet potato biscuits, mashed potatoes, stuffing, roasted beets, roast sweet corn, cranberry relish and almond squash (really loved this). It was very tasty but I am not a fan of cranberries - too tart. The turkey was very tender but to be honest Id definitely prefer chicken any day. Dessert was several types of gelato, cherry pie, pecan pie and some kind of cake but I didnt end up eating any dessert because I had way too much to eat for my main meal. After that I headed back to college. On Saturday I went back into Newark to the Prudential Center but this time it was to see the New Jersey Devils get beaten (Boo!) by the New York Islanders (ice hockey). Still not a fan of Newark - today at the bus stop a man was going around asking people if they wanted/had dropped a cell phone that he was carrying around and he had a handle of what looked like a knife sticking out of his back pocket. Starting to see why I only go to the train station in Newark and nowhere else normally. I also spent the Thanksgiving weekend (Friday in particular) shopping online for Black Friday deals buying mum's Christmas presents...I love shopping...especially when its not my money!

Arm troubles

For quite some time I have been having difficulty with one of the fundamental parts of ABA - lifting the kids beacuse I have irritated the elbow that I broke nearly 10 years ago. Something that really concerned me because Sharon said that if I couldnt do that then I wouldnt be able to work with kids in the long run. She was very understanding though, having a undergrad with me whenever I was working with one of the kids so that they could lift them back into their chairs when necessary and I could still work with them. Originally she was going to take me off the kids I was working with and train me on two that dont need to be lifted at all but she felt I was doing such a good job with my little 3 year old boy in particular that she decided on the undergrads instead. So on the 21st of November I went to see a specialist and get xrays done. I found out that during my original accident I had torn some cartilidge in my wrist which hasnt healed and has been aggravated into carpal tunnel. Now I have a wrist splint and 100mg of voltaren a day. It has helped but my arm is still sore and the elbow spasms occasionally which isnt fun. Having the support of the splint has helped me a lot with lifting the kids...just in time too because the kids have started cottoning on to the fact that I couldnt do it and it was starting to create problems during our sessions (so Ive been able to show them I can and things are good once more). I still have difficulty but things are finally improving.

Ecumenical Meeting

On the 22nd of November I was picked up at 10.45am by two members of the Rotary club - Bob and Janet a very nice, interesting couple who gave me the history of Thanksgiving and informed me that George Washington was in fact the 8th (or 9th) president because there were a bunch of 1 year presidents of the United States of Congress Assembled (or something like that) before him. Once we arrived at the Ecumenical lunch we set up the banner and the check in spot which I manned with Christie and Geetha. I was lucky that I only had to check in the special guests (who didnt have to pay) rather than the Rotarians (many who did). The lunch was OK - foodwise. The 3 speakers - a local Rabbi, the pastor of the United Methodist Church, and the Reverend of the new Greek Orthodox Church. One story that they told and I really loved was about a Native American youth who was telling his elder that when he gets a new thing he is very thankful but almost straight away he is resentful over not having the next new thing. He wanted to know if the elder ever felt that way and how he dealt with it. The elder said he did and they were like two wolves inside him that fought constantly. The youth asked 'which one wins?' and the elder replied 'The one I feed'. After the meeting we packed up and headed home and I went off to class. Another lovely day with the Rotary Club of the Caldwells.

First trip to Newark

The weekend before Thanksgiving I went to Newark for the first time (if you dont count the train station and airport) to see Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream which told the stories of Cinderella, Tangled and the Princess and the Frog. It was very well done but something that I would only do once. Didnt enjoy leaving as the bus stop was further away than I thought (10-15 mins walk), I missed the bus so had a 30 min wait and even though I left at 5pm it was already pretty dork and Newark is very unnerving even with the sun up. There was some huge procession commerating a marriage or death or something (it was all in Spanish and sounded mournful even though they were carrying a couple of dolls that looked like a bride and groom) that was being escorted by the cops so I stuck close to it until I got to my bus stop. Having the cops near by made me feel much more secure.

Weekend Relief

Lately I have started making a point of going away somewhere every weekend. It all started one Sunday when I headed into NYC to see the 3pm showing of Sister Act on Broadway - WOW! It was really great, totally recommend it. It was hilarious and the music was great. The following weekend I spent a Saturday in NYC with Tim and a friend of theirs who was visiting from Mexico. We took the open top bus up to Central Park and then downtown to the World Trade Center site which we were hoping to visit but apparently you have to get tickets online beforehand so instead we walked part way along the Brooklyn Bridge after having a deli lunch (an experience in and of itself). The deli was crazy busy. The bathroom was down two flights of stairs and it was very hard to work out where you order, where you pay and where you collect your food. Not really the kind of place I want to return to. After the bridge Tim and I caught a taxi back to Port Authority while Tim's friend carried on on the bus. Tim headed back to Caldwell and I tripped around to different stores scoping out the buying options before Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). The next day was spent shopping at Target with Nancy and the following sunday I took a drive to Brandon Beach with Sue, collected some bits from their beach house, took a stroll along the boardwalk and had some pretty decent Italian (there seems to be a tendency towards over saucing food over here).