Apples and Pumpkins and Hay, Oh My!

A few of us ESL TAs continued a (1 year old) tradition of visiting Curtis Orchards in Savoy to pick some apples and pumpkins. What looked liked a blustery October day actually turned pretty warm out in the open fields. Next week, we're going to carve our pumpkins at our boss's house.

Cass and Jin hiding in the hay maze

Kristen searches for the perfect pumpking

Faces of Fun

Enjoying evenings during the workweek.

Not thinking about phonology.

Chilling at Cowboy

Tangueras Goofías

Sonrisas Bonitas

Beating the Heat

Today was the last day of EPT (English Placement Testing) of the semester, so Professor Davidson treated all of us to Jarling's Custard Cup in Champaign, which is a real good local frozen custard place. It was good timing because today was the last day of the heat wave. We could actually feel the cold front come through because when I left for Jarling's, it was around 95 degrees, but by the time we left it was breezy and in the 80s. Still perfect temperature for enjoying some frozen treats.

What's on your mind, Dr. Sadler?

Happy Harrison

Also, I finally finished my photo wall in the common room, but the lighting wasn't cooperating with taking a full picture, so this will have to be a teaser I guess.

Community Building

Sunday evening, a bunch of ESL Writing TAs and MATESLers (+Joe, Harrison, and a couple others' roommates) got together for a barbecue. I made Filipino barbecue (chicken skewers) and lumpia, and people brought assorted drinks and other snacks. I always like hanging out with my coworkers and classmates outside of school because it proves that I am more than just a student living in here in this corn town because they gave me a tuition waiver. 

Balancing Act

Also, earlier this weekend, me, Joe, and some other ARCHies went to the Urbana Sweetcorn Festival. Our mission to eat funnel cake and corn was a success. We also had a moonbounce pugil stick battle. Joe won 2-1.

Sweetcorn Newbies

Weekend Shots

I'm leaving for California on Wednesday, so I'm trying to stay busy in MD. It's kinda tough with people having jobs, so I must admit I've watched a lot of Netflix in my room at my parent's house. I have gotten to see friends and go dancing a number of times. Here are a couple from the past few days.

Freedom Plaza Milonga

Bentley's Happy Hour

Horsing Around at Assateague Island

I went to Assateague Island with some friends to camp out near the beach for a night. It was a nice, relaxing day trip, aside from the wind and having to fight off the horses.

Teddy's Commissioning

Today I went to campus to see Teddy, one of my old OAs, get commissioned as an officer in the Marines. It was also graduation day (part II). It was nice to see old faces and the new grads.

(Note: Obviously I'm not currently in the cornfields of Illinois, despite the name of this blog. After a summer on the coasts, I'll be back in Champaign in August.)

Prime Location

Taking the Oath

Teddy's First Salute

Monkey Business

Joe and I did not spend our last night in Champaign-Urbana packing and sleeping in preparation for a 12-hour drive the next day. First, some ARCHies and MATESLers (and Derek) had burgers at Firehaus. Later, there was a kidnapping, field goals in Memorial Stadium, surprise serenades, and a puppy. I won't go into too many details, but at the end of the night, we hung out at Lauren's, had some drinks, played some games, and enjoyed the company of Monkey, her poodle.

Monkey and Lauren looking sharp

Monkey is really excited about something

Monkey and Joe get comfortable

Minigolf Mayhem

With some lag time between the end of school, graduations, and travels, a bunch of us decided to play mini-golf in Champaign. It was a cool place with batting cages, trampoline basketball, and 2 putt putt courses. There were these wheels that you spun before a few holes that added some mischief to the hole. Rob was the ultimate winner, shooting a 46. The foursomes, amazingly enough, tied with 212 strokes a piece.

The following pictures were all legal shots taken today.

Silvia had to take her first shot with her foot, blind.

Joe bowls his first shot

Derek sets up an obstacle after Jenna switched ball positions with him (she put his right barely off the tee).

Bailarines Compadritos

Bailarín compadrito,
que quisiste probar otra vida,
y al lucir tu famosa corrida
te viniste al Champaign.

Rod Relucio and Melanie Klaric at Channing-Murray

Terry and Carmen at IndiGo

I have the best friends ever.

Without my friends here in CU, I think I would have gone insane by now. Today, however, they've crossed the line into the realm of so awesome that it stops you in your tracks. About a week ago, Joe suggested that since we haven't seen a movie since fall semester that we should check out Source Code. After running the half marathon and playing sports and a late night, a movie sounded like a good way to spend a Sunday. Then we went to Walmart, where I bought a rotisserie chicken because I was starving.

When we got back to the apartment I put my key in the door and realized that it was unlocked. I immediately worried that I had forgotten to lock the door. Then when I walked in I was more freaked out because there were all these shoes in the entryway. Don't exactly know what went through my mind, but it was something like "Drunk strangers are in my apartment...what do I do?" Then I went to the kitchen and turned on the light and a bunch of MATESLers (plus Harrison) and ARCH people (plus Pepe) yelled "SURPRISE!" Apparently Joe had organized a dinner where my friends would cook a meal as thanks for all the times that I had invited people over and cooked for people. It was really touching, and I'm still kind of in shock at the whole thing as it was COMPLETELY unexpected. No one's ever done anything like that for me before. After eating and chatting for a while, we played Scattergories, which got really intense.

And I still have that rotisserie chicken.

What made me think that something was not right...

Mica and Harrison (the eventual winners by 1 point) express their disapproval for a Team 1 submission.

Easter in Lakewood

I drove up to Lakewood, IL (near the Wisconsin border) to spend Easter with my cousin Jane and her family. It was nice to get away from Champaign and see them. I hadn't seen Ate Jane in 4 or 5 years, and Tori was only a baby then.

Milo (left), Ate Jane's dog, says hello to Scoobs

Tori (Ate Jane's daughter), enjoys the nice weather.

Murder at 507

We did a Murder Mystery dinner at our apartment tonight. The (real) cops came, people died (not really), and there was (real) good food. Here are some of the main characters.

Rob Deering as Geoffrey Worthers

Preetesh "Pepe" Mirchandani as Michael Rochester

Joseph Caputo as Jon Jacobs

Michael Murphy as Neil Worthers

Balcony Jams

We went to Rob's apartment for some jamming, poker, and most importantly, pizza rolls. We gained a few fans (and probably a few pounds).

My Cool Classmates

If it weren't for the fact that my MATESL classmates and other friends here turned out to be cool, interesting people, I probably would have gone insane here in Champaign. 

Ryan B.'s Squeaking Sneakers

Cass taking a break during Korean birthday dinner at Jin's (boo noise)

Back to work...

Now that I'm breaking out of my winter lull in creativity, I've started taking the camera with me back to school. Expect more random shots of day to day life in UIUC as this place starts to wake up again. Hopefully as the semester continues and the weather thaws out I'll have more things to shoot. I'm sure you're tired of snow, food, and tango.

 Aileen joins the rank of ESL teachers with adventurous hair.  Meow! Or, I guess a roar is more appropos.

The walk home. What don't you see? SNOW, that's what.

Faces and R.A.C.E.S.

I went to a potluck today at a classmate's apartment in Urbana. It feels like so long since I've been able to just take shots of people just chatting and sitting around. These are always my favorite kinds of pictures because they're so genuine. I also went dancing tonight--it was a benefit for R.A.C.E.S. (Rape Advocacy, Counseling and Education Service) at the Indi Go Artist Coop in Champaign. Really cool venue. I felt my tango shooting benefits from different venues--it was starting to feel repetitive.

In other news, I'm making my film debut in a MFA Dance thesis film.

Derek Wide-Eyed

 

Tango at IndiGo

Embrace

Ok, it's been a while since I've posted. I'm going to blame the furious laziness that comes with the realization that I have 15 weeks of school between now and summer break. I haven't had much occasion to take photos--I wanted to mark the coldest day of my life (Friday) with a photo, but I didn't want to take off my gloves to tweak the settings, so the day will have to remain in my memory.

I'd talk about how today I attempted to run with my new Garmin watch for the first time or how yesterday Joe and I made a massive beef stew, but this is neither a running blog nor a food blog. Instead you get pictures of Mica's dog and tango.

Aileen & Bodger

Kuru and Windy

One more night...

I'm heading back to Champaign tomorrow. To be honest, I'm more excited about my awesome boarding number (A20 woot!) than actually flying back to Champaign. However, I welcome the idea of having productive stuff to do every day. I've been sitting around too much.

Here are a couple shots of my last night hanging out in DC.

Glenmont Metro

Amanda and Leela

Christmas Fun

Merry Christmas, everyone! Hope you all had a great day!

Marie sports her new hat

This is supposed to be dancing.