On to Chicago!

The Sears Tower in downtown Chicago.

Hey y'all! Much has happened in the last week since our last post, so we'll try to keep this update short and sweet.

After leaving Washington, DC, Celeste and I made it safely to Durham, North Carolina to report for our Teach for America orientation week. It wasn't easy though. We took a Greyhound down there, and let me tell you, that's tough traveling. Let us now loudly proclaim to all of you that Greyhound buses should be the ultimate last resort for travel for everyone but your worst enemies. Aside from the fact that our female driver had more facial hair than I could ever dream to have (seriously, it was a full goatee, and it looked as though she groomed it on a regular basis), it was loud, cramped, and smelly. On top of all that, Celeste and I were separated for most of the trip, which made the screaming babies and belligerent mothers that much worse.

Beautiful country, somewhere in Middle America. We saw a lot of beautiful agricultural properties like this one on our long trip from Durham, NC to Columbus, OH.

Our discomfort subsided, however, when we arrived at the Durham Hilton just a couple of miles from the campus of Duke University. It was a welcome change, and we were well treated throughout the week. During the week, we were trained and given various orientation trainings on our new callings as teachers, and we got to meet our fellow corps members (some of which hailed from schools like Yale, Dartmouth, Cornell, and MIT. As you can imagine, we Aggies fit right in). Celeste and I also got to interview at a few schools in rural North Carolina. See, the way it works is that we're accepted into the Teach for America program, but we're employed by the State of North Carolina, so we still have to interview for our jobs. We haven't heard anything back, but the good news is that Celeste and I interviewed at three of the same schools for 2 different positions, so there's a decent chance that we'll actually be hired on at the same school. Talk about cool!

We literally drove right through this mountain, located somewhere in West Virginia.

Then yesterday, we packed up a rental car and drove 8 hours to Columbus, Ohio where we met up with Celeste's sister Sarah and her husband Jason. Oh, and their lovely baby Lynlee. As you can guess, it didn't take long for me to become "Favorite Uncle Jack", or "FUJ" as I like to be called. Although I've got to be careful. The way Lynlee was smiling at Celeste yesterday, she may give me a run for my money. Anyway, we woke up early this morning and drove the remainder of our trip from Columbus to Chicago, and have been here since early this afternoon.

Ohio. Yep, Ohio.

We now face the challenge of becoming teachers head on. Tomorrow morning, Celeste and I will both take a 7:00 a.m. bus ride to our student teaching schools (not the same school, unfortunately), and will begin observing our students. Come next week, we'll actually take center stage and begin teaching. Wow. Nuts.

Well, we love you all. We're safe, happy, and in love, and hope you're all the same.

Us at a Durham Bulls game the night before we left (The Bulls are a minor league baseball team. Ever see the movie "Bull Durham"? Yeah, this is the team.)