Induction

Greetings from St. Louis!

Sorry in advance for this crazy long post:).

I went to sleep at 1am early Sunday morning and had to wake up for the airport at 3:45am. I spent about six hours on the plane and had issues with my carry-on luggage being "too large." I finally arrived in St. Louis at 1:45pm on Sunday afternoon only to be greeted by 85 degree weather. I can handle 85 degrees, but I can't handle the 85% humidity:). I am slowly adjusting to sweating and being ridiculously hot all the time!

I took the shuttle to the hotel where I met Candy and picked up my car:). For those of you who don't know, Candy drove my car from Portland, OR to St. Louis, MO. After picking up my car, I drove straight to my new house! It is so much more beautiful that it was in the pictures and my roommate is so very nice! I have yet to meet the second roommate, but she is moving in tomorrow! I think it is going to be so much fun!

I woke up this morning at 6:30am, got dressed and walked to go eat breakfast. We are staying at Washington University and the campus is huge! Our dorm room is also huge, so that is great news! After breakfast we went to registration and turned in important paperwork, then to introduction. The staff is continually reassuring us that we are here for a reason and that reason is to close to achievement gap in St. Louis. It feels so good to finally be a part of something that I am so excited about!

After introduction, we attended a few sessions about Teach for America and how it operates then we went to lunch. After lunch we attended a Diversity and Inclusiveness workshop and got a feel for what our classrooms will look like in St. Louis. I really had to motivate myself to attend the event in downtown St. Louis tonight. I was so incredibly exhausted from only sleeping about 8 hours over the past few days, but I mustered up the energy to go!

We had dinner at a bar in St. Louis and received one free drink. Then we toured an apartment complex, which definitely reassured me that I LOVE my new place! We then walked a few blocks to another roof top terrace bar. The city of St. Louis is so beautiful but I think it is only like this a few months out of the year!

I got back to the dorm room at about 9:25 then had some reflection questions to complete. I thought we were going to get a little bit of a break, but it really seems like induction is a lot of work!

In regards to my placement... I have not had any interviews. Quite a few people have already been interviewed and placed in their schools. I have been told by everyone that I will get a placement and if I don't, TFA will supplement my income until I get a job:).

I am off to bed right now, because I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow:)

Love you all, goodnight:)