Cinco de Mayo

I wanted to have something special planned for Cinco de Mayo at school . . . but it didn't happen. (It's my first year--I have the luxury of not having it all together. lol!) But I am resolving to make something bigger and better happen next time.

However, I am giving my students a mini-history lesson and showing them a little clip so that they'll know what the holiday is all about. A lot of people think it's Mexican Independence Day, but indeed it's not. That's September 16. May 5 is the day that the outnumbered Mexican army beat out the larger, more well-equipped French army who was trying to take over. Get your little history lesson here.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Play the Name Game

A redesigned blog baby is just itchin' to be christened.

The Bench Warmers is going through a metamorphosis, if you will. Instead of commenting on sports, the focus will be instead on engaging our modern culture at large in a Christ-like way. But because of this new focus, The Benchwarmers needs a new name.

The challenge is on. Get your creative juices flowing and send those new name ideas in! For more details on how to play the name game, visit this recent post by the editor. (I've already sent mine in, and I wanna win!)

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

God, Please Bring the Roach Out

The Incident
I woke up early yesterday morning. I had to perfect my little Cinco de Mayo lesson for the week. Anyway, I was up, going about my morning routine when all of a sudden this gignormous roach just appears on one my bed pillows!

::shudders:: Oh, horror. I haaaaattteee roaches. It was enough to make me scream bloody murder, but I had to be considerate of my still-sleeping family members. However, I didn’t want that sucker just roaming free in my room—on my bed of all places. Blech! I ran to get a broom to smash it to smithereens, but I remembered it was on my bed, so that was an unlikely way to dispose of it. So then I grabbed a can of Raid and planned to spray the nasty little thing and would just wash my bed sheets and such afterward.

But when I, bent on extermination, got back to my room, the little brute was gone. Oh, no! I moved my bed and tore off all of the sheets, all the while praying God, please bring the roach out. Not that I enjoy the sight of such a thing scurrying around, I just wanted it to come out so that I could kill it and not have to worry about it having free reign to go about its roachy business in my room. Much to my dismay, I couldn’t find it.

The Spiritual Application
But then, some weird way, I began to apply the situation spiritually. Nobody likes roaches. Most people can’t stand the sight of them. Filthy, nasty, creepy, crawly, ugly little creations. But sometimes God has to bring the roaches out so that we can deal with them.

We all have roaches in our lives. Those ugly things that maybe we didn’t even know we had in us, or maybe we did, but we put up a good front. God has a way of making those ugly things come to light, and sometimes at the most inopportune times. Maybe He’d put us in a stressful situation and we blew up, realizing that our roach of impatience just scurried out. Or maybe for the 5th time we’d called Bro. Whoever later, after we said we’d do something, and back out, realizing that our roach of inconsistency crawled into the open.

Once it’s out, it’s out. And then it’s up to us to deal with it. Even though the prospect of killing it isn’t that attractive at all, in the backs of our minds, we know we’d rather take care of it than let it have its free reign in our lives.

I was going to somehow compare Raid to the Holy Ghost, but that just seemed kinda irreverent. Anyway, you get my drift.

Spanish word/phrase of the day: Las cucarachas son repugnantes. (lahs koo-ka-RAH-chas son re-poog-NAN-tays) = Cockroaches are disgusting.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Miss Spanish Teacher

That’s what my Kindergarteners call me when they can’t remember my name.

Puzzling Conversations
When I tell people what I do for a living, well . . . here’s a sample conversation:

Person: So, what are you doing now that you’ve graduated?
Me: I teach Spanish to elementary and middle schoolers.
Person: Spanish? (puzzled look) I didn’t know you were . . . are you Spanish?
Me: (with a more puzzled look) Uh, no.
Person: Does anyone in your family . . . speak Spanish?
Me: No. I’m the only one.
Person: Well, how did you get interested in Spanish?

Ah. I’m glad you asked.

How I Came to Love Spanish
As I mentioned earlier, I’m a former military brat. Actually, we hadn’t moved around as much as most military families, but we spent some time in Italy. 5 ½ years, to be exact. We lived in the heel of the boot. Har har. We lived in an Italian neighborhood for about a year or so, and I picked up a bit of Italian. I used to order ham and cheese from the deli across the street for my mom. Due centi grami di prosciutto cotto. (Two hundred grams of cured ham.) Anyway, when we moved back to the States, they didn’t offer Italian, so I took the next closest thing—Spanish. I went on with it all through high school and college. I started out as a Language Arts Secondary Education major, but I had developed such a love for Spanish that I added on Spanish Secondary Education, which took an extra year, but I don’t regret a minute of it. (Especially the studying abroad.)

Getting the Job
Before graduation, at an educator’s recruitment day, a well-known Montgomery area private school was present. The academic dean took a look at my resume and seemed impressed. She made me feel very valued and was highly interested in scheduling an interview. There was a catch, though: “Would you be interested in teaching elementary?”

I’m a Secondary major and had done all my student teaching in middle school. I love little kids to death, but the fact is that I was a little apprehensive about the prospect of teaching them. Private schools have the freedom to hire anyone they want, regardless of certification area, but the truth was that I didn’t feel qualified.

Loving the Job, in Spite of It All
The interview went well, however, and I was led to accept the job, despite my initial reservations. God really knows what He’s doing because I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience in spite of my inexperience with elementary. I fell in love with those little guys. I teach at the elementary school for part of the day and three periods of middle school Spanish as well. (My middle schoolers are pretty cool, too. Just had to show them some love.) I have a huge range of ages—from 4-year-olds to 8th graders—but I love it. I get a lot of exposure and there is never a dull moment.

Spanish word/phrase of the day: Soy profesora de español. (soy pro-fay-SO-rah day es-pa-NYOL) = I’m a (female) Spanish teacher.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

It’s Here . . .

It’s what we’ve all been waiting for with baited breath. At last, presenting the one-of-a-kind, designed especially with peculiar people in mind, ninetyandnine.com t-shirt!

I highly recommend you check out LeeAnn’s post for more info on how to acquire one of these babies. And if you remember, the world premiere of them was featured here.

They’re new. They’re hot. They’re black and red. And they’re the best thing since fallen manna.

Top Ten Reasons to Buy the New T-Shirt

10. Perfect witnessing opener. (“What’s your shirt say?” “Well, there’s this webzine . . .”)

9. It’s one instance where you can justify jumping on the bandwagon and buying something because everyone else is.

8. You can’t go wrong with black and red.

7. You can fulfill your secret desire to be a conversation piece at a party.

6. If you’re on the weird side, you can have a reason to get on people’s nerves by saying the phrase “Please Feed the Flock” followed by bleating noises.

5. You can add yet one more tee to your cool t-shirt collection.

4. You will feel good about yourself knowing that you are supporting a worthy cause.

3. You will feel even more connected to the community that provides you with insightful fodder for the flock every week.

2. If you’re out wearing the shirt and you see someone else wearing it too, you can acknowledge one another with a silent head nod even though you don’t know each other because wearing the t-shirt = being “down.”

And number one . . .

1. How many other shirts have you seen with a picture of a sheep on it? Be an original!

Get yours today! (I’m gettin’ mine.)

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Chan Can Cook

Remember this chef named Martin Yan who had a show called “Yan Can Cook” back in the day? ::crickets chirping:: Yeeeah.

An Unjust Accusation
An accusation has been brought against me more times than I can count. All right . . . it’s more of an accusation I’ve brought against myself. I can’t cook. All you guys and gals who may have spent 4-5 years grubbing on barely-safe-for-human-consumption dining hall food and/or microwaved junk and then have been thrown out into the big wide world expected to know how to cook for real can share my pain. (Especially the ladies, like we’re supposed to have this innate ability to whip stuff up in the kitchen. I mean, maybe some of y’all do, but . . . )

I'd Had It!
However, there comes a day when enough is enough. I don’t think cooking is hard, I just think I’ve been lazy. Actually, to my credit, I did learn how to make a pound cake from scratch (recipe picked up from an elderly lady who had it all in her head), and that was my claim to fame for the longest. But I had had enough of my mom bewailing the fact that I never cooked and her annoyance that I’d rather eat junk or wait around for her to make stuff, and I finally stopped telling myself that I couldn’t cook. I resolved to dispel my “can’t cook” image. This past Sunday was my chance. We had a little 5th Sunday potluck at church, and I was determined to make a masterpiece. Little bit a’ penne pasta, little bit a’ chicken, little bit a’ alfredo sauce, little bit a’ broccoli, little bit a’ finely diced tomatoes, little bit a’ parmesan cheese and voilá, a Chantellian masterpiece.

Tell me that don’t sound good. Come on, what? Say it to my face.

And the Moral of the Story Is . . .
I got the idea from that little linguini, shrimp and broccoli bowl thing they have going on at Applebee’s. I just used a different kind of pasta and chicken instead of shrimp. Lesson learned: cooking is not something you have to learn how to do. It’s something you just do. (But you gotta taste it and make sure it’s edible first.)

Spanish word/phrase of the day: ¡Cocinar es divertido! (ko-see-NAR ehs dee-ver-TEE-do) = Cooking is fun!

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Blogger Photo Upload Has Smiled on Me

I had a better pic I took with my new digi cam, but whatever. (I'll figure it out by and by when the morning comes.) The faceless arm around me is that of my uncle in a pic taken this past Thanksgiving, so . . . yeeah. Just in case you were wondering. Now I am completely absolved of any possible accusation regarding anonymity. Like Pontius Pilate, I wash my hands of it.

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!

Blogoholics Anonymous

Hi. My name is Chantell Smith, and I’m a recovering blogaholic.

As you may have guessed from my scandalous admission, this is not my first foray into the wide and unchartered realms of the blogosphere. My freshman attempt was a little weblog entitled “As I Go Along” which I created to chronicle my experiences while studying for a semester abroad in Spain in 2004. But once you have been bitten by the blog bug, it stays in your blood. (For those alliteration and assonance lovers, that was for you.)

College graduation loomed last May (University of Alabama, Roll Tide!), and my expectations and apprehensions of the change to come spawned my sophomore effort, which I currently update, “Where You Can Find Me.” Since I was given the opportunity to share slices of my life in “A Month in My Life,” I’ve decided to temporarily go on “Where You Can Find Me” hiatus. Anyway, this month is kind of reflective for me because I’m like a year down the road from when I graduated, which is completely unreal.

Okay . . . first things first. Some stats are in order, I guess.

Brief bio: I’m a 24-year-old African-American female working her first professional job as an elementary and middle school Spanish teacher. I might as well say that I’m from Montgomery, Alabama, but I’m not really because I’m a former military brat and I’ve kind of grown up here and there (I’ve been in Montgomery for going on 12 years now, but any time I open my unaccented-English-speaking mouth around people who don’t know me, I’m always asked where I’m from). I was baptized in the Adriatic Sea, I love sunflowers, the color lavender, and chai tea lattes. I’m an avid reader, and I love Spain and all things Spanish—in fact, God has given me the ability to become fluent. I’m involved with the Spanish ministry and the youth, among other things, at my church.

As of now, I abide in my reclaimed room. Reclaimed because I moved back in with the ‘rents after graduation to try to save up some money. (I plan to move out in July.) Living with family again after 5 years of quasi-independence in college is another story. And, a little off the subject, but yes, I am addicted to parenthetical asides and, you’ll soon learn, points of ellipsis. (And dashes kinda get my juices flowin’ too.)

I wanted to give you a face to match with the ramblings, but blogger's photo upload is not being nice to me, so, I'll do it another day. Must not've been the will of God or something.

Now, join me as I venture again into the far reaches of the blogosphere as I fill you in on juggling my (still relatively new) professional life, maintaining a church-sponsored free beginning Spanish class I started, preparing to take a trip to the STL this month to take a class at the Urshan Graduate School of Theology (UGST) on the Apostle Paul, and all the blogworthy things in between. And to top it off, I’ll even teach you some Spanish in the process with a related word/phrase of the day. You can’t beat that, now. C’mon, it’ll be fun!

Spanish Word/Phrase of the Day: mucho gusto (MOO-cho GOO-sto) = nice to meet you

Questions, comments, concerns? Please feel free to E-mail me!