So it's been over a month since my last post and that's just not okay. In my defense, I've been extremely busy. And I've discovered that when I'm not traveling I really forget to take photos. I'll try to be better about it after this post. My October resolution, if you will. But I guess a part of it is that my days are starting to be a little more normal now, so I’m losing the drive to document every second of it. I have also been extremely lazy with posting photos from my last couple of months in NZ, which is an undertaking for this weekend. And now that I’ve said it out loud (put it in writing?) I’ve got to do it. So what's new? Mostly getting settled in to, well, being settled. I have an apartment here with two roommates and I've really only just fully finished decorating and creating my space. I mean, I didn't have a bed until 2.5 weeks ago! I've started to get into a routine, but honestly it’s a little bit of a crazy one. I have three jobs at the moment so it's a bit of a time juggle. Right now, an average day goes like this: wake up at 7, bike/take public transit to my “big girl job”, work, go home for like 10 minutes so I can change, bike to my soccer coaching job, coach, bike to my water polo coaching job, coach, and then finally head home at 7pm. Notice there's a lot of biking, which is what happens when your only set of wheels are two in a straight line. I'm working on buying a car, but honestly it feels like a massive undertaking at the moment and besides the occasional major inconvenience of it, I kind of like living without a car. Even if my bike has basically no brakes and I can’t change gears. It’s kind of a great way to do some exercise without actually feeling like I’m exercising. Exercise with a purpose. So jobs! I'll talk about each of them below in the order that I started them in: Soccer I'm coaching 7th and 8th grade girls soccer at Saint Paul Academy and Summit School! We have about 22 girls on the roster, which makes subbing kind of hard but makes practice really fun. They're great. I'm really enjoying seeing them every day, though I'm not gonna lie sometimes they drive me crazy. I honestly forgot the unnecessary yelling and other loud vocal noises that apparently are a requirement in 7th and 8th grade. We had to talk about why it's not okay to scream (screech?) whenever you get tackled. But that's fine. I think they like me, or at least I hope so. If they don't, they do a pretty good job of covering it up. On of our away games was quite the adventure. We took a bus one way from SPA to the field and because I don't have a car I had to bring my bike on the bus. The girls found this hilarious because it had its own seat (see this is why I need to remember to take photos). The bus driver then reminded me that he wasn't my ride home, which I was very confused by. Why else would I bring my bike on the bus?! I mean, I love it but not enough to take it with me everywhere for no reason. Anyways, we get to the field and almost half of it is dirt from the baseball and softball diamonds on either side AND the lines are barely painted at all. Unbelievable. Then during the game, the coach on the other team kept moving onto my half to talk to his players, which was very annoying and technically not allowed. My girls kept trying to egg me on to cross into his side too but then I'd have been the same as him and I didn't like that. This game wasn't the best (we had a lot of handballs and played down to their level of boot ball a bit) but we still won! It’s been getting a little cold now at practice, which scares me because this Minnesota transplant skipped winter last year and now I just don’t feel prepared. Water polo Now, water polo is a completely different story. I'm coaching the men's club water polo team at Macalester, which is awesome because I've really missed being a part of the Mac community and now I get to be involved in a similar, but different way. The differences between coaching 7th and 8th grade girls and college age boys is astronomical. No unnecessary loud noises with the guys, but definitely some unnecessary suggestions about playing 5 alive every day. The hardest thing about this team is that we have a handful of new players. Not that they are hard to coach, but having half a team with experience and half a team without experience makes building practices a little more difficult. But it’s still so fun because I get to spread the sport of water polo to more people! We have a tournament this weekend at Mac and I’m pumped to see how the guys put together everything we’ve been working on since our last tournament. And with a home crowd too! I’m also keeping their stats for them during games because I always liked to have stats at the end of the season, but if I’ve discovered anything about coaching so far it’s that it’s EXTREMELY difficult to pay attention to two things at once. And by two things I really mean twenty. I have also discovered that me as a coach sounds fairly similar to me as a goalkeeper. In three weekends we head to Grinnell (which is in Iowa) for the conference championship, and I’m telling you right now, that trip will be an adventure in itself! Math So this is my “big girl job.” At the beginning of September, I started my job as the head math tutor at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. It’s a two year college in Minneapolis, and it’s a pretty sweet job because it involves getting to help people every day! I also have a more managerial role, so along with tutoring students, I am also in charge of about 15 student tutors and their schedules, I’m the liaison between the Learning Center (where my desk is) and the math department faculty and I hold tutor training sessions for my tutors in the hopes of preparing them for how to tutor specifically in math. It’s been an adventure so far, mostly in remembering how to do math. Okay, not really, but for some of these classes it’s been awhile since I’ve seen questions like these, especially in the algebra classes that I haven’t taken since high school. It’s all good though, I love being somewhere where I get to learn something every day. And I have my own open cubicle/office that has my name on it, so you know it’s big time when that happens. The other best part, besides helping people, is that the job is full time, but seasonal. So I have mid May through mid August off to do basically anything I want! Travel, get a random job, travel, sleep in, travel (can you tell I’m trying to do some travel?). I’m pretty excited to see where all of this goes! So basically I’m repeating my collegiate experience all over again. Math during the day, water polo/soccer at night. Except now I don’t have homework to do until 2am. Which is AMAZING. I honestly cannot stress that enough. It is so nice to not have to take work home with you. Onto other life things. I promise I have friends that aren’t in 7th and 8th grade. It’s great to be back with the people I went to school with and I’ve still got some of my old routines. I play trivia every Tuesday night and we won two weeks in a row recently! Came in fourth to break the winning streak last week, but oh well, can’t win them all. I’m also playing soccer again! I play on a 7v7 team on Monday nights and sometimes guest play on an 11v11 team on Sunday’s. Not going to lie, it took me almost the entire first half to remember how to play 11 aside soccer. The last time I played was in my last ever collegiate game with Macalester and that was almost 2 years ago at this point. Wow. Writing that down makes it seem a lot more distant than it actually feels. Oh. And I turned 24 this month. Another year gone. I had a great weekend though, all my friends in the Cities and some that were visiting went out with me the night before and then my three best guy friends from college took me out to Sunday brunch, complete with mimosas, obviously, at a southern style restaurant on the actual day. Then I went and coached/played water polo in the afternoon and finished off the evening with birthday cake ice cream, which was free because the woman at the register found out it was my birthday! It was so nice and laid back, exactly what I’d want for a birthday. The next part of the adventure is some visits! I have a few friends from high school that are up in the Cities over the next 10 days, and my mom is coming to visit too! I’m so looking forward to it. Catch ya later. re to edit.
2 Comments
Isaac
4/28/2017 02:22:40 am
hey! really cool post. can you tell your readers more about your jobs? asking for a friend.
Reply
Rita
4/28/2017 02:24:01 am
Was curious myself.
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
All
|