Spring Break 2009!!!

So this past weekend with the family out in Phoenix was nothing less than awesome. Thursday night I packed up my car with summer weather clothes and ski gear and headed out to Phoenix for my cousin Ryan's wedding. It was a long drive, but well worth it - with amazing scenery. Arizona was filled with colorful skies, mountains and cacti everywhere. I rolled in early Friday morning after a 2 hour nap in Flagstaff and about 3 cups of coffee and a 16 oz. energy drink. I immediately passed out on the couch for the next three hours to prepare for our 11 a.m. tee-off time. I hadn't played golf in ages so I definitely expected nothing spectacular (at least you can drink beer). I actually played a decent 9 holes and managed to lose only one ball - and had an awesome time with the family.

The wedding on Saturday was a blast. From Red Wings championship rallies to teaching the rest of the family how to do the ENTIRE "YMCA" dance, we all had an amazing time.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I had a my level 2 alpine certification exam in Taos, New Mexico. So after a hangover recovering breakfast at Denny's with Aunt Nancy and Julie's kids, I packed the car back up for a 9 hour drive back across the desert.

Taos is an amazing place to ski. Cliff drops, tree runs and extreme terrain is seemingly endless. Unfortunately, the lack of snow we've been experiencing led us to a day of solid ice. It was by far the worst day of skiing I've ever experienced. Seriously, every turn I tried to make ended up being a side slip. However, the first day we were just examined on Teaching.

Tuesday we got a light dusting of snow which actually made for fairly decent terrain. After my Movement Analysis exam, I met a girl named Heather (she was doing her cert. as well) and we went to tear up some of the crazy steeps at the resort.

Wednesday I thought things went fairly well (from the feedback I received) on my ski performance examination. I figured if I was going to pass any part of the exam, it would be this day. However, to my dismay I ended up failing every single exam. I forked over $375 to fail this exam, so needless to say I'm still pretty pissed about it (I could have bought a twin board with that amount of money or some jibbers). So please, no sympathy cards and I don't really want to talk about it.

Thursday at about 3 a.m., the snow storm of the freaking year hit Denver. It dumped snow all morning, all day and the following night. All in all, Denver got over a foot of snow (more than the resorts in the mountains)!!! My flight to California was definitely cancelled along with over 300 other flights out of Denver. So Heather and I decided to pack up the Jeep and try to head up to Keystone and shred some of that knee deep powder. Unfortunately, there was a 40 car pile up on I-25, eight accidents on I-70 and closures on every other possible road that could get us up there. So after sitting in traffic for about 30 minutes, we decided to give it a try later that night and just spent the rest of the day vegging out.



Down the street from me, Heather was coincidentally going to see Disturbed and Killswitch Engage (bands that most of my readers probably haven't heard of), and her friend bailed. So I got the extra ticket and got to rock out before heading into the mountains.

Friday we decided last minute to head to Vail (I've never skied there) - GREAT DECISION. The back bowls are everything they're built up to be. I spent the entire day in knee to waist deep powder (by far the best place I've every skied for powder). Completely random - I ran into Dave DeSteiger (friend from high school) at lunch there. Seriously, I see him everywhere; regardless of where I am in the country.



Today Tripp (friend that went I went to college with, but wasn't friends with until now), Heather and I went to Loveland and found nothing less than powder all day, again! These last two days have been the most epic days of the season... I actually can't think of any better riding days I've had in my life.

Side note: I have not received any calls about a new job for next year (starting to get a little worried), Spring Break ends Monday, and I am having the time of my life :) :) :)

Chillin'

Unfortunately the Chill program has come to an end. Friday was our end of the program banquet and yesterday was our last day going up to the mountain. I'm actually quite sad. It was such an amazing experience for our kids to get a chance to do something that is usually only for wealthier people. My students made so many friends and actually became very good snowboarders. Miguel for example, was going off fun boxes all day yesterday, Ruben keeps asking me to hook him up at Winter Park next year, and Seth is competing in the Jib Jam this weekend. I really hope I have the opportunity to do this program in future.

I also gained a lot from this program as well. I made many new friends and have gotten way better at riding - I can do a 360 now :) Yesterday after we finished riding, I went out with Scott (one of the coordinators) and some of the volunteers to grab a drink. Scott was really pumped to hear that I was going to China. Before he started doing the Chill program, he taught in Japan, China and South Africa. He definitely gave me a lot of good advice which made me even more stoked to travel abroad this summer!!!

Besides that, not much else is going on. Just finishing up this week and can't wait for Spring Break!! I leave for Phoenix on Thursday, Taos on Sunday and San Francisco on Thursday :)

我去中国

This is the last email I received:




Hi Andy,I have an email from Ms. Yao this morning accepting you into the summer program. She authorized me to send you a formal invitation letter. I'll put that in the mail. Be sure to take the letter with you to China.By the way, sometimes those school email addresses are not accessible when you are in China. If you another email like gmail, hotmail, yahoo, aol, etc. it might be good to switch to that for the summer. If you do that, let me know so I can change your access to YingwenTeach Interactive so you can access it this summer. We will use YT I to communicate with each other this summer.



Shane

I'M INVITED TO GO TEACH IN CHINA THIS SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Self-Destruction

Those of you that have been following my blog for the past couple of month might remember a post about Marissa (if you haven't, just go read it!). So I voiced how she started off the year completely off track and then completely pulled a 180 and became one of my most notable students. Her life outside of school took a turn for the worse, and she completely let herself slip. This is one of the hardest things to deal with at this job. I feel like the students lack so much support outside of school that all of the hard work a lot of us teachers put in just doesn't cut it. Without a strong family support, it seems that any student would be completely set-up to fail; especially in a corrupt district like DPS. Marissa's mom has cancer and apparently is not sure how long she has to live. Granted this is sad and having a tremendously negative effect on Marissa, her mom is definitely not stepping up to the plate. Instead of encouraging Marissa to be straight and trying to stay strong, her mom is constantly looking for attention and feeling sorry for herself. On a positive note, Marissa's mom has decided to move the entire family to Tampa so in case the worst does happen, Marissa's grandma will be there to provide some aid to the family.

Marissa has spent the past 4 or 5 months getting back on track, building up her confidence and then just collapses. It really makes me wonder how much we can really do for some of the these kiddos.

To keep with the theme (self-destruction), let me tell you about my Friday in the railyard at Echo Mountain. I ollied (jumped) onto a rail with my weight to far forward and completely tacoed the rail (picture my body being the taco shell, with all the good stuff being the rail), bruised all across my lower abs, left blue paint stains on my hoodie, and have a huge scab across my stomach; but all in good fun :) Later that night however, I hit the quarter pipe and landed a 360!!!

Finally my freaking cold is starting to go away too, so maybe I can actually get my fat butt back into shape for triathlon season. This was seriously the longest and worst cold I think I've ever had.

Dying Disease Part 2

Okay, so I know I've pretty much sucked with updating my blog and regardless of my excuses I apologize and should be letting everyone know what's going on out here in God's country.

First of all, this winter season has been awesome (as far as me getting better at both riding and skiing). Since my last post, I've skiied at Durango Mountain, Telluride, Echo, Copper, Keystone, Breckenridge and of course the usuals (Winter Park and A-Basin).

Telluride was a phenomenal trip. My friends Jonny, Lauren, Sam and I went out there for a weekend and stayed with my friend Sarah for a day and then stayed with Jake's dad Jim for a day near Durango Mountain. Telluride was phenomenal, Sam and I hiked about 45 minutes, rode down a chute then hiked over to an untouched bowl. We ducked a rope and almost got our passes suspended for 2 years, but well worth it.

This is Telluride and right above the ("u" in "Telluride is where we rode)


On Mondays I've been doing an after school snowboarding program at Echo Mountain. It's a really small ski area (by Colorado standards) but has night skiing and is a great place to learn to ride park. Everyday I've been there, all I do is practice freestyle snowboarding with the kids. So here's what I've learned so far:




180 (front and backside, switch and regular)
About 10 degrees away from a 360 off a wall
tail grab, nose grab, mute grab, rail slide (on a box, rail, pipe)

This is a mute grab :p

switch - riding the board backwards

grabs - tail = back of board, nose = front of board, mute = middle of board, backside = when you rotate, your back goes across the front of you

Tonight we have a make-up day, so I get to ski and ride 4 days in a row!!!


Let me tell you about the more responsible aspect of my life:


So I decided to resign from my job here at West High School. DPS has way too much b.s. and is causing me to be way to stressed out with my life - to the point where I don't really act like myself even when I'm having fun up in the mountains. I've applied for jobs in Breckenridge, Vail and Winter Park school district areas. So keep your fingers crossed!!!


I've also decided to pursue a teaching abroad program..... IN CHINA!!! I'd be teaching high schoolers that want to become teachers for the month of July in Jiangsu. I just sent in all my application materials, so keep your fingers and toes crossed - this would be an amazing experience. I want my masters degree to involve working with students from outside of the United States and I think this program would be a great resume builder and an all around awesome experience. If I get accepted, the only thing I need to pay for is my plane ticket and I also receive a salary.


Most recent note - I've came down with the dying disease....again! Seriously, I just got over it last week. I've decided to go through major detox and am only eating non-processed whole foods until I get better.