Ivry's First Haircut and Second Farm Fall Festival Trip

My First US Paycheck in 19 Years

My last paycheck I received just before I took off for a 19 year journey that would bring me full circle and back to the States last year was from a US employer. The Year was 1989. I worked for CTI Messengers in downtown NYC delivering small packages via the subway and my bike. I owned the streets of Manhattan, knew how to time my three-subway ride in twenty minutes from Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan to East forty second. Boy, I was a pro.


The image you see in front of your (and my) very own eyes is the paycheck I received from CCAC Allegheny Community College a few days ago - a grand total of $432.00 and some pocket change for teaching an ESL written composition class for two days a week, an hour and a half each time. I am loving it! My students are from East and West Africa, Pakistan, various provinces of India. The feedback has been positive and students are affable and earnest and motivated. It is a definitely refreshing break from twelve years of the Israeli classroom. As I noted recently to a friend, I keep expecting that an Israeli student will step into the classroom, raise his/her hand as in salute, cry out my name, do something to disturb the classroom deliberately so that I can't teach. In my mind, they inevitably speak back to me as they are VERY direct and verbal. It is no wonder that they have the appellation "chutzpanim" (im relating to plural of students) But none of those scenarios I've built in my head in fact happens, leaving me to conclude that my cultural reality in the US is not completely real.

So back to the paycheck issue - I am now a US taxpayer of Uncle Sam - all over again. I don't mind so long as I am learning and growing. Even in today's crazy economy, I must not be afraid. I WILL NOT succumb to fear. It is paralyzing. It's hard though not to. But the media does a damn good job of relating to it as such.

And a few updates:1.I just joined Suzanne Lieurance's Build Your Business Write. I participated in her Working Writer's summer boot camp, and it just boosted my confidence to take my writing to a completely different level. You can hear my testimony about on the left side link of my new teacher's blog blog. Just scroll down a bit.

2.I've got a newteacherresourcecenter over at blogspot and I've just purchased six months worth of my own domain name - newteacherresourcecenter.com Yay! I'll have my own domain name which I'll be setting up probably tomorrow when I'll choose a new template "face" for the website. My baby.

3. I'm also very excited with my marketing efforts until now. It has been a satisfying experience and I'm learning not to be intimidated from the technical issues that have been popping up as a result of the process. So far I've been able to successfully:

1. establish two of my own informational products including a FREE bimonthly ezine and ebook
2. post three times to my blog.
3. send already a FREE ezine to my 65 new and seasoned teachers on my mailing
4. establish a mailing list
5. network with teachers all over the world
6. submit articles to the EZine article directories thus increasing traffic to my blog


Anyhow, I've celebrated the Jewish New Year with the birth of my blog. Let's hope the New Year rings in business!

Simmons Farm - First Farm Festival Trip

We finally made it to our first hayride excursion out to Simmons farm, about 40 minutes drive from Pittsburgh in the South Hills. Luckily, a ride pulled in for us at the last minute and a friendly young woman by the name of Stephanie from the UJF (United Jewish Federation) was so courteous and helpful. (it really does suck sometimes not having access to a car.)


Ivry had a great time sipping apple cider, going on his first hay ride, loading play trucks with dry corn, riding a 17 year old horse and playing in a fire engine. It was a beautiful sunny day with amazing blue skies. The weather was perfect. I think we came a bit too early to really enjoy foliage, but the signs of it were sprouting everywhere.


We bought two little pumpkins (85 cents each) and a candied apple for fun. We also amazingly delicious apple and pumpkin butter. Yum! We bought a few veggies including: zucchini, a buttnut Squash, some red peppers (which I fried to make a salad) and four tomoatoes at a whopping $4.00. We also bought some garlic gloves and a small jug of apple cider, but the price of veggies are still so expensive. The veggies in Israel are so cheap and fresh. I guess farm produce is the closest to freshness that we could find. Simmons farm is very kid friendly, but what a money making machine. I paid three bucks for a horse ride for him that took 50 seconds. They wanted five bucks for two rounds. Can you imagine? But of course, these are the memories which Ivry will have for his whole life, and these are the special moments for him that I can't get anywhere else..... so go figure...

Many people especially children, came clad in their Halloween trick-or-treat clothes (not costumes) and it was great meeting some of Ivry's friends at the JCC too. It's amazing what a few hours out of the city can do for my tired brain and for a happy preschooler who fell asleep on the car ride home. What a wonderful day!



Now that we are almost ready for bed, he is watching the fiftieth anniversary edition of Laslie and I am reminded of how he and his father went down to the basement to look for tigers (cute) because of the tiger episode with Laslie. Now, Ivry is in his tiger slippers and pj's ready for bed. What a cutie! For some reason, everywhere I go, everyone calls him "she" - "she wants to play," and "she wants to get out, so move please..." and so forth. Weird.

Anyhow, hope y'all are having a good week. Enjoy the pictures and the two videos of Ivry's first hayride.