Mr. Jimmy

Last Monday I returned from a trip to Plains, Georgia. My entire school's faculty, staff and cast/crew from Singin' in the Rain spent 4 days in this little town. Our school has developed a friendship with several people in this town. It is 3 hours southwest of Atlanta, in the middle of pecan and peanut orchards. Wanna know why it's famous? President Jimmy Carter grew up here in this little peanut-farming community. I learned everything there is to know about peanuts and Jimmy Carter! We took a tour of the home where Jimmy grew up, put on our show in his high school auditorium (now a national histroric site and museum), and even got to attend his sunday school class that he teaches. Mr. Jimmy, as everyone calls him, is a pretty nice guy! It was cool. I also got to eat peanut butter ice cream and I bought some fresh, homemade peanut butter (it tastes a lot like the stuff from the store, but I think it is healthier).

Mr. Jimmy teaching Sunday school (I didn't take this, but it is exactly what it actually looks like)

Downtown Plains--Yep, that's the whole thing!

On our way back to Atlanta airport, we were able to stop at FDR's little white house. It is his vacation house where he passed away. I saw his wheel chair and the car that he drove with special hand controls. We also visited Martin Luther King's grave and national historic site including the home where he grew up.

I learned a lot on this trip about people and how everyone is different. It was interesting to see the segregation that still exists in the south, especially because we have people of every race in my faculty. I think that it was a great learning experience for me. I definitely wouldn't have done it on my own, and probably won't go back (we definitely saw everything there is to see in Plains) but I am very glad that I went. The south is so different from Utah county or Los Angeles and it is good to get out and see stuff like that every once in a while.

Homecoming

So, last week was really busy for me. It was homecoming at my school and I am senior moderator. Each day we have actvities--competitions between classes--such as basketball, dance off, spelling bee and class skits. Then we top it all off with a parade on Saturday from our school 2 miles down the road to the football game which is played at a public high school. You have to know though that the road we parade down is a major road with 3 lanes of traffic going each way. Imagine State Street in Orem, for you Utah people. Anyway, as senior moderator, my job was to get the kids ready for the activities and make the float. I also got to compete in the "moderator competition" against the other teachers that assist the other classes. It was an obstacle course involving stacking pop cans, chewing gum, jumproping, rolling lemons with straw and blowing up balloons. Anyway, I totally won--just in case you were wondering. I am going to attach some pictures of our senior class building their float and the finished product. The theme was heroes, so we had Superman on the front, the twin towers in the back and Captain America and Wonder Woman riding by the towers. It is all made of tissue paper and cardboard and was fun to make--even if it did take a million hours!

Here is Superman and our "Senior" banner.

These are the twin towers and class of 2009.

This is the freshman class float--I thought is was really cute.

Here is my name--they must think I'm a hero :). They put names of the teachers that helped out each year on the tires.

Anyway, just thought I'd let you know what I've been up to. Luckily we have a few days off this week to make up for the extra work.