Tremor-endous Day

Today I was back in the 7th grade and all ready the kids are feeling comfortable around me. I'm able to assist them  and make sure they stay focused on their work. I'm also able to relate to them as well. For instance this once kid didn't do his homework because he played basketball after school. So today I asked him what he was going to do and he told me ball. I said thats fine, but if you don't do your homework, that really wont matter. I told him I don't care if he drops 20 and 10 dimes (assists), if that homework isn't done, I could care less. He promised me he'd get it done. We'll see tomorrow. The kids find it fun to bust on my shoes, which is all good. I mean I do lack a certain fashion sense.

In math, I was helping this one girl who was really struggling with decimals and determining which ones are bigger than the others. By the end of the lesson, she was able to understand and could explain to me why that was the case. It was great to see progress being made immediately. After class was over, another girl approached me and asked if I would help her with her multiplication tables, the 9's and 12's specifically. Of course I said yes and taught her the finger trick for the 9 times tables. The bad part is tomorrow I will observe another class so I won't see these kids for a couple days.

I ate lunch with a group of them and we discussed music and instruments they play. They were really excited to tell me about playing the viola, the piccolo and the guitar. I told them how I play the piano, trumpet and euphonium, which they needed an explanation for lol. I really hope to be able to continue teaching that 7th grade class when I get my final assignment.

In the afternoon I was heading back to the office with my team for more training. When we stepped off the Metro, people were lining the streets. My group was like "what the..." So I asked a lady and she said there was an earthquake. I figured it was people blowing things out of proportion and panicking but there was a legit earthquake in D.C. People felt it and in the City Year building, it was easily felt. City Year decided to give us the rest of the day off, so that mean early Happy Hour!!!

The metro's sucked on the way home as they were only able to run at a max speed of 15 mph and they got crazy crowded. Tomorrow I apply for food stamps and am uber excited cause I miss cooking. I hope you all survived the earthquake and we're to rattled.

P.S. Happy Birthday to my roommate Sean Eagan...Happy 22nd, hope you don't get the shakes tonight...hahaha see what I did there I made a joke about drinking and earthquakes...