get that wavy feeling

workroom06.jpg
Originally uploaded by alipants.

This week has been exciting and boring, long and too short all at the same time. I now have my classroom on wheels set up, my books in my three seperate classrooms, discussions about space in those classrooms are finished, etc. etc. I finished typing up and making copies of all the stuff I wanted to hand out on the first day and those are all tucked away in their folders. I've been hearing pretty good things about the students and every English teacher has been very helpful. Some I've hit it off with right away, others will take more time because we're awkward/shy/distracted/have nothing in common just yet.
The drive hasn't been too bad. Until today. Well, yesterday, really. Due to the rain, people have left earlier than usual the past two days, probably thinking to themselves the same thing I was: It's raining out and may get a little crazy, better leave a little earlier! Driving across the bridge and into the tunnel yesterday evening was a wonderful event since rain was waiting on the other side, causing people to go slower. I snuck a few glances over at the ocean where there were these huge, dark clouds on the Hampton side of the tunnel, I could see some rain pouring down and the water was going ca-RAZY!
Today was even worse. Since it rained most of last night, Hampton was flooded in places and the schools were closed down. So, I left a little earlier just to make sure I got to school on time just in case some of the highway was flooded. It wasn't, but because of the rain, a LOT of people had left early so there was already about a 1/2 mile of back-up towards the bridge-tunnel than there would be at that time. Oh well. Coming back tonight was another story. There were back-ups everywhere, every single tunnel in the Hampton Roads area. The traffic reporter, when she got to the accident report after reporting every back-up (and the location where you hit the back-up), said, "Well, there are way too many accidents to list them. Just... be careful. It's so easy to hydroplane and some secondary roads are flooded." Going across the bridge and into the tunnel was... awesome? The waves were high, almost able to break over the bridge. The wind knocked my car around a little, once I could speed up to 55 again. The water was very dark and you could barely see the ships. It was kind of spooky and probably wouldn't have been as crazy-feeling if I had had someone else in the car with me.
That's the reason why I got most of my work done today. I'm not alone, either: most teachers seemed to be preparing just in case the roads were flooded and we were told not to come in.
But there is some light at the end of this tunnel: Yesterday, a letter came from Amanda, today, one came from Katy and Megan left me a message saying she sent me a letter back and it should be here soon. Megan gets to go see Wolf Parade in Kzoo. I hope she has a lot of fun. The letters were awesome, but I miss them all a LOT!
Also, we scrounged up enough for rent money, with about $20 left over. (David gets in Fin. Aid check this upcoming week and I get my first paycheck a week from tomorrow. That's great, but left us a little uncomfortable in the time period between moving and payment.)
Natalie flies to Germany today. I miss her & can't wait until April when I go see her. I will do it! I have to! I'm not sure if she got the message I sent her this morning, but I hope her flight went quickly and was somewhat entertaining.
This weekend will involve much planning and hopefully no flooding in Williamsburg (and I hope there is little to no flooding in Norfolk, too... but I only work there, so what do I care?! Haha, just kidding. I would hate to see all my pals there floating by on their couches...)