policy

So I decided recently that I eventually want to go into educational policy. Good thing I'm moving to DC. I mainly want to do this because our current educational policy basically sucks. My friend, who teaches at a public school, sent me an email saying:

the 2 students I was most concerned would not pass the end of course state test and hurt my stats have been arrested and kicked out of school. So now I can reach my goal of 85% passing.

Which I found particularly odd, because I thought that no children were being left behind these days. Huh.

road trip

So I went out to San Antonio this week to visit my mom, because she was bored and lonely and has a really great chocolate stash. Now, my parents have a kayak, because we are fun kayak kind of people, but since they are moving and becoming fun Mexican people (which does not involve kayaks, but is a completely different kind of fun that I'm not sure I'll ever entirely understand) we decided to strap the kayak on to the top of the car and drive it out to my brother's apartment. He is not moving to Mexico, and therefore plans on remaining a fun kayak person forever.

So we tied the kayak down, using my dad's oh-so-precise directions to "mess around with it until it looks right". He forgot to mention what "right" looks like, but we did figure out that the straps should probably be attached to the car somehow, and that simply closing the straps into the door wasn't quite enough, which made me feel pretty good. So we took off, with the kayak on the car and the chocolate stash on my lap.

And everything was going just fine until the kayak decided to slip off the side of the car so it was hanging precariously outside my window. Now, I'm no kayak expert, but I was pretty sure that this is not what "right" is supposed to look like, so my mom pulled over a whole foot and a half off the freeway (she values my life very highly) so that we could fix the kayak. This was pretty exciting, because it left a whole 12 inches between my head and the 75-mph traffic whizzing by. (My mother knows I love an adventure, and was worried that my trip hadn't been as adventure-packed as I like. So this is how she made it up to me. She's nice.)

At this point, my bossy side came out, and we strapped the kayak on correctly, and made it the rest of the way with no incident.

break

So after school ended, I totally needed a break from everything. So I took one.

But I'm back now, and can fill you in on my plans for the near future that will more than likely make you jealous. And if they don't it's because you're boring.

First, I am heading out to Colorado for Katie's wedding. Which will be awesome.

And then, I am going to Costa Rica for a week of excitement, which will include the following:

• Fly in at around 2:00, pick up the rental car and drive to la fortuna to see the live volcano
• soak in the hot springs while we watch the volcano explode
• hike Cerro Chato, a dormant volcano with a lake in the middle.
• go mountain biking or to the national park to hike on old lava flows
• drive to monteverde to do the zipline/canapy walk and see the cloud forests
• drive to the coast, go to the national park and see the crocs
• go to manuel antonio, go to the beach and hike the rainforests
• go to the gold museum and national theater
• possibly make friends with the researchers so they will take us out on their boats to see the turtles

So Costa Rica has way more to do than sit on the beach, which is what somebody who will remain unnamed implied.