I'm awed by the highway infrastructure of the United States every time I travel by car or bus here. What incredible planning went into this complex system of interstates and bridges and roads. I also marvel at the number of fast food restaurants and motels and hotels that exist. Some towns seem to be made up of only those establishments.
We're back from Memphis - cut our trip short by a day because of impending snow/ice - and I was definitely not disappointed by the visit. The night before we left, I finally watched the DVD sent to me by the TFA Memphis team, which was basically a promo video for the city, and while it was really positive and lively, I was a little wary, because of course no one's going to be saying anything bad about the city in it. But, as I told my parents after we'd been there a day, if you didn't know it had a high crime rate, you wouldn't think anything bad of Memphis. It does seem like just another Southern city, and it actually reminded me a lot of Orlando. (That could be because Orlando is the only Southern city I'm familiar with...)
We didn't do a whole lot of sightseeing (it was, unfortunately, really cold - so much for getting away for some sun), but we drove to the Mississippi River our first afternoon there and took the bridge over to Arkansas just for fun. So now we can say we've been to Arkansas! I can't wait to see Memphis in the summer and actually walk along the Mississippi or take a stroll down Beale Street. You really can't feel the pulse of a city from the passenger seat of a minivan.
We did spend a day driving around town and checking out potential places to live, though, and it was pretty productive. It's still pretty early to be deciding, considering I don't have a school placement yet, but it was comforting at least to see the layout of the city and get an idea of places I'd want to live depending on where my eventual school is located. (However, it is a plus that the whole of Memphis is not too expansive; every school seems to be within a 30-minute drive of Midtown.) There are some really nice - and reasonably priced, especially with roommates - apartment complexes on Mud Island, though I feel it's a little incongruous, to be working with underprivileged kids and living in what seems to be a very affluent area. I guess I wasn't actually expecting to live in an impoverished neighborhood, but the stark disparity kind of threw me. (I don't know, did I really think there wouldn't be any nice areas in Memphis?)
Corps members can get placed any time in the spring up until the start of the school year in August, which is a little disconcerting (if you haven't noticed, I'm someone who finds it hard to function without a plan, but I'm working on that... New Year's resolution, perhaps?), and I obviously want to know where I'm going to be teaching and, subsequently, living as soon as possible. So here's hoping I get an interview sooner rather than later. I really don't want to be going through institute and worrying about a placement and finding a place to live, which I saw was the case for a lot of NYC corps members this summer, unfortunately, because of the hiring freeze. Knock on wood.
On our last day, I took Flip to the Children's Museum of Memphis, which was predictably cute and educational. Probably a biased sample, but I saw a substantial number of pregnant women there. Very few of the kids I saw there looked old enough to be my potential students, but can I just say that a Southern accent makes a child that much more endearing? If it wouldn't make him stick out like a sore thumb here, I'd have Flip speak with one, too! It's going to be fun to hear whole classrooms of Southern accents. And people in the South are so polite. Am I going to be called "ma'am"? Are people going to think I'm rude if I don't use "sir" or "ma'am"?
Those are probably the least of my worries. On the not-so-distant horizon: the Praxis II math exam. (Praxis I was successfully conquered last week.) I glanced at a review book in the car, and not only was there stuff I'd forgotten from high school math, but there was also stuff I downright never learned. Why the face? Granted, it wasn't a lot, but it was enough to startle me. There was a lot that I need to reacquaint myself with, though, so we know what I'll be doing in the evenings after work next week.
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