It's Been A While...

It has been awhile since I posted here last. I guess life has gotten busy and I just can't find the time to sit down and blog. These next two weeks will be probably two of the busier weeks for me, though. The Fall Trimester is coming to a close and so the paper deadlines are drawing near. I fortunately have only one paper due, but that is still alot when the paper is quite a bit of the grade in the class. The paper is for my Social Work: Processes I class and I had to choose a field of practice in which social workers work in. I chose adoption agencies only because that is my passion. The first part of the paper is to do a lit review on what is going on in the field of practice. For example: explaining what the field of practice is, which population is being served, what types of services are offered, what are the roles of the social worker in this field, and so on. The second part of the paper is to describe the interview that we had to do with someone who is in this field of practice that we chose. Since I am friends with my own adoption placement social worker, I emailed her to see if I could interview her. She aggreed and so I gleefully sent along my questions. Finally the paper asks what I have learned about this field and if my interests have increased for this field. All of this is due by the 12th of November. Alright...no big deal. I have been good and actually started the paper way before it is due. I am giving myself a personal deadline for the 7th of November only so that the paper can sit for a day or two and then be worked over again if needed. When one person writes a paper it is normally done linear. I on the other hand jump out of this norm and work on the segments that are the easiest first. With this being said, I have completed the introduction and the interview portion of the paper done. What I will struggle with is the list review only because it is hard for me to put the words down on paper. I find myself trying to answer the questions but sounding as if I am a freshman in HS, which is not what I need to do. So for awhile I may just get some words on the paper and see how it looks. I am sure this is what authors do when they write a book. I do know that my professor has said that the majority of the paper will probably focus on the interview, so that makes me feel a little bit better. I just need to do the hard stuff and try not to over think it.

Other than school...life seems to be going pretty well, I think. Rob and I went to Texas a couple weeks ago, so that he could attend a conference in Houston. The weekend before the conference, we drove over to San Antonio to visit my sister's family. My parents were visiting my sister as well. It was great to see everyone. While in San Antonio we visited the Alamo and also walked along the Riverwalk. While walking along the Riverwalk we found a really great little mexican food cafe. Rob and I were in heaven while the rest of my family thought it was ok, as they are not really into mexican food. Houston was hot and muggy...but that is normal for that area of Texas. On the last full day in Houston, we went out to Johnson Space Center (NASA) for a couple of hours. I found it interesting but yet I wished that there was more for civilians to see while at the center. :) That evening we went to Lakewood Christian Church which is where Joel Olsteen preaches. He was not there that night, but it was still cool to go to his church. How cool be able to spread the gospel to 66,000 people at one time under one roof. Well it is more than that due to the church services being podcasted, televised, and so forth...but you know what I mean. So overall it was a good trip.

This weekend, Rob and I are headed out to Ohio to spend it with my inlaws. We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving early due to my inlaws spending the winter months out in Arizona with my sister-in-law. I am jealous that they will be in warm weather while I will be burried in snow this winter, I am sure.

Well I should get back to writing that paper that I took a break from so that I could write this blog. :) 

Step Afrika!

Since I am down on campus all day on Tuesdays, I thought I would try and check out some of the performing arts that are being offered on campus from time to time. Tonight there was a performance called Step Afrika!

The group is the first professional company in the world dedicated to the tradition of stepping. Stepping is a form of percussive dance in which the participant's entire body is used as an instrument to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. This performance that I saw was just incredible. I said over on my Facebook page that the group draws your attention from the moment they step out on stage until the leave wanting you to have them come back out and step for another hour. I was just amazed in how this all looked on stage together. Some of you may say, "why would you want to go to something like that?" My response to you is, "why not?!" I am sure some would be bored...but for those like myself who embrace the art in dancing (probably because I can't dance to save my life) just were in awe.

As a social work student, my professors here at Iona challenge us students to get outside of the box and learn about other cultures. As I watched this performance tonight, I asked myself..."How can this relate to my Social Work learning?" I would respond with that I am learning another culture's type of dance. By learning another culture's dance I can help clients by getting themselves involved with something like stepping to branch out and put negative emotions into something positive. Now I don't know if that would be the correct answer but I personally need to embrace what is different and enjoy it. 

October = Pumpkins and Fall!

 
October already? Really? As I am excited for it to be October I am sad as well, because of how fast this past year has gone. I do like this time of year though. I never thought that I would like Fall, but with living up in the New England area, I find myself anticipating the changing of the leaves on the trees. Growing up in Oregon I saw trees change colors, but I never saw full mountain sides in full firey reds, yellows, and oranges. My house has been in full fall decor for the past several weeks, and I know soon Rob and I will be packing up the fall items and putting up the three christmas trees and all of the winter decorations through out the house.

The weather is getting much cooler outside. I am having to pull out my long sleeved shirts and sweaters to wear. I wish that I worked at a job where I could wear my sweaters and cute long sleeved shirts. I know that though in just a few years, I will have that luxury. So for now, I wear my cute stuff on the days that I am at school for the day or on my days off from work when I am out and about. :)

So what brings to the month of October? Rob and I are headed to Texas next weekend! I am very excited about this. We leave next Friday and then will return the following Thursday. Rob has a conference in Houston and so we are headed down a couple days earlier to spend the weekend with my sister's family and my parents. I am excited to see all of them. It will be my first time to San Antonio and also Houston. As part of the conference during the week, we will be going to Johnson Space Center. I think that will be very cool to visit.

Not much else going on. School is going well. I have about a month left for my Social Work class. Hard to believe that I am almost done with one of the classes this term. This week we were assigned to our "Triad" groups in class. In these "Triad" groups we are learning how to be the social worker and learn different aspects of an interview process and helping process with a client. This week we learned the "Open Ended Questions" method. To begin though each person in the group had to think of a current problem that they feel comfortable sharing about with their group to help their "social worker" help the "client". Each time we are the "client" in the scenario each week, we will use this problem as our base. Since there are 13 students in my class there is an extra person for one of the "triad" groups. This extra person is part of my group but will act as the floater for a group if they are missing one of their "triad" members that week. This is all going to be very interesting. I am happy for who is in my "triad" group and I do not have to worry about having that rude girl who cut me off couple weeks ago be in my group. yay! Sociology is going well, despite my professor being ill the past couple of class meetings. We are behind on the class work, but he is still expecting us to be caught up in the readings or ahead, so when the time comes to talk about the readings all students have it completed. Our first paper was due on Thursday. Just moments before my class started I over heard my professor talking to a student from the previous class about the paper that was currently due. By listening to what was suppose to be in the paper by my professor, I realized that I forgot to put the last required part in the paper!! The last part was my own opinion about the article which we had to write on! I feel like a complete idiot!! You know how you keep reading something that you have written and in your head you say, "Something is missing. I don't know what it is...but there is something missing!" Well I did that all weekend and kept drawing a blank. Well the blank wall completely filled my head. Grumble!!! So here I turned in a paper that is only 2/3rds done. I hope that I can manage a decent grade as the papers are weighted pretty good. I just was so embarrassed. I didn't say anything to my professor as he was being bogged down by other student's excuses of why their paper was not being turned in. So it is now just a wait and see. I still feel dumb and I am sure I will feel dumb until my next paper is due. I know for sure the next paper will have the opinion included!!

That is all I have for now. Until next time...