Diving In
Once again, Adam's blog rocks and if you haven't checked it out I sincerely encourage you to. Hope you dry off buddy.
So, my new home of Lake Village Arkansas is, in a word: beautiful. The village (though by my standards it's a city...once you top 2,000 people in my book and have a McDonalds you're living large. This city not only has a McDonalds, but a Sonics which I have officially fallen in love with (they have Lime-aid "happy hours" from 3-5..medium drink for 88 cents!!)). I'm also easily impressed, but most of you knew this already.
The city sits nestled along the banks of Lake Chicot in the extreme south-eastern corner of Arkansas. Once again, inspired by Adam, you can take a look at Lake Village by typing in "Lake Village, AR" in maps.google.com . There is a nice, high-res image of the place.
The past few weeks have been spent finding a house, which has been accomplished, but my roommates and I have not moved in yet because the roomies headed back to their respective homes for some much needed R and R. Whitney is from Memphis, and Larry is from Columbus Georgia and both will be teaching high school math this coming fall. Both are great people and I think we're going to get along just fine. Once Larry and Whitney get back the moving in process will commence (and we'll draw straws over our bedrooms.)
We rented the house from a local land-baron, this guy named McBride. He basically owns every building in downtown Lake Village and most of the residential properties as well. The house is a three bedroom, 2 bathroom beauty with white siding and it sits on the corner of a pretty broad road off a main road from the lake to the highway. We live about two blocks from a good friend of ours who lives on the lake and owns a 30 foot boat (which I've been spending entirely too much time on as of late). It has a huge back yard and a back deck and screened in brick patio to keep out the "mississippi alligators" (aka mosquitos..which LOVE to eat me). Most of the time you can spend walking around and enjoying the sunny days, which there have been many. However, once the sun sets you need to have about a gallon of "off" or quickly run inside because that's when the mosquitos take over.
The lake, as I said in the previous post, is very warm..but it's also quite clean. Much cleaner than most Delta lakes (which keep sediment). Lake Chicot is an oxbow lake, meaning that the Mississippi River (only about 10 miles from here) used to run where the lake now is, but then it shifted its course and the old river got cut off and turned into a lake. I think they pump it to keep it clear. There are catfish and bass in the lake, and at dusk the bass come out to play. We've dubbed them the "Lake Chicot Dolphins" because they get about three feet of air eating mosquitos and more often than not will run into the boat, causing squeals of terror from most everyone on the boat.
The nearest "big" town is Greenville Mississippi which has three bars with stellar music and a few casinos, but gambling's not really my cup of tea. Live music, however, is, and these bands play the blues like it was born in the Delta...which it was. It's easy to dance to, relate to, predict, and just sit and listen to the crooners wail on about a lost love. I went to a similar bar up in Clarksdale (The disputed "home" of the blues) and was at a bar that Morgan Freeman owned. Guess who was there? Yep. Morgan Freeman. I met Morgan Freeman. I also got moved out of the way by Morgan Freeman, so not only did I meet the man, the myth, the legend, but was also touched by said person. Amazing.
My school consists of two buildings. The elementary and middle school share a building but are in different wings, and the HS has its own building. The school is large by my standards (my classes will average around 22 students a class). I teach in a portable classroom behind the middle school and it has a rather nice electronic keyboard in it. The rest of my days, after furniture purchasing (which will happen today) will be spent honing and refining my classroom procedures, rules, and curriculum. Teaching kids how to read notes and rhythms will be alot of fun, and having a great choir will be a joy. Those are my goals, and that's what's going to happen this year, come hell, high water, or the occassional detention.
I'll find a way to post some pictures of the metropolis that is Lake Village. Until then...
Cheers,
-Nate
"If I could open my arms, and spread the length of the isle of Manhattan. I'd bring it to where you are, making a lake of the East River and Hudson"- Death Cab for Cutie
So, my new home of Lake Village Arkansas is, in a word: beautiful. The village (though by my standards it's a city...once you top 2,000 people in my book and have a McDonalds you're living large. This city not only has a McDonalds, but a Sonics which I have officially fallen in love with (they have Lime-aid "happy hours" from 3-5..medium drink for 88 cents!!)). I'm also easily impressed, but most of you knew this already.
The city sits nestled along the banks of Lake Chicot in the extreme south-eastern corner of Arkansas. Once again, inspired by Adam, you can take a look at Lake Village by typing in "Lake Village, AR" in maps.google.com . There is a nice, high-res image of the place.
The past few weeks have been spent finding a house, which has been accomplished, but my roommates and I have not moved in yet because the roomies headed back to their respective homes for some much needed R and R. Whitney is from Memphis, and Larry is from Columbus Georgia and both will be teaching high school math this coming fall. Both are great people and I think we're going to get along just fine. Once Larry and Whitney get back the moving in process will commence (and we'll draw straws over our bedrooms.)
We rented the house from a local land-baron, this guy named McBride. He basically owns every building in downtown Lake Village and most of the residential properties as well. The house is a three bedroom, 2 bathroom beauty with white siding and it sits on the corner of a pretty broad road off a main road from the lake to the highway. We live about two blocks from a good friend of ours who lives on the lake and owns a 30 foot boat (which I've been spending entirely too much time on as of late). It has a huge back yard and a back deck and screened in brick patio to keep out the "mississippi alligators" (aka mosquitos..which LOVE to eat me). Most of the time you can spend walking around and enjoying the sunny days, which there have been many. However, once the sun sets you need to have about a gallon of "off" or quickly run inside because that's when the mosquitos take over.
The lake, as I said in the previous post, is very warm..but it's also quite clean. Much cleaner than most Delta lakes (which keep sediment). Lake Chicot is an oxbow lake, meaning that the Mississippi River (only about 10 miles from here) used to run where the lake now is, but then it shifted its course and the old river got cut off and turned into a lake. I think they pump it to keep it clear. There are catfish and bass in the lake, and at dusk the bass come out to play. We've dubbed them the "Lake Chicot Dolphins" because they get about three feet of air eating mosquitos and more often than not will run into the boat, causing squeals of terror from most everyone on the boat.
The nearest "big" town is Greenville Mississippi which has three bars with stellar music and a few casinos, but gambling's not really my cup of tea. Live music, however, is, and these bands play the blues like it was born in the Delta...which it was. It's easy to dance to, relate to, predict, and just sit and listen to the crooners wail on about a lost love. I went to a similar bar up in Clarksdale (The disputed "home" of the blues) and was at a bar that Morgan Freeman owned. Guess who was there? Yep. Morgan Freeman. I met Morgan Freeman. I also got moved out of the way by Morgan Freeman, so not only did I meet the man, the myth, the legend, but was also touched by said person. Amazing.
My school consists of two buildings. The elementary and middle school share a building but are in different wings, and the HS has its own building. The school is large by my standards (my classes will average around 22 students a class). I teach in a portable classroom behind the middle school and it has a rather nice electronic keyboard in it. The rest of my days, after furniture purchasing (which will happen today) will be spent honing and refining my classroom procedures, rules, and curriculum. Teaching kids how to read notes and rhythms will be alot of fun, and having a great choir will be a joy. Those are my goals, and that's what's going to happen this year, come hell, high water, or the occassional detention.
I'll find a way to post some pictures of the metropolis that is Lake Village. Until then...
Cheers,
-Nate
"If I could open my arms, and spread the length of the isle of Manhattan. I'd bring it to where you are, making a lake of the East River and Hudson"- Death Cab for Cutie
posted by Nate at
11:58 AM
2 Comments:
Where is that picture of you and "Morgan"? Also "Hi" to Adam!
Ohhh...limeade. Totally jealous dude. So it isn't miserably hot or anything? Brian tells me you've been having a good time! Friendly people? But hey, isn't nearby Greenville in the keep of white supremacists? You know, the Mr. Bergis types? (From ebaumsworld.com/mr.bergis ? If you haven't heard Mr. Bergis, I think you'd have a blast listening. It is by some radio guys that wanted to see how racist people can really be...and Mr. Bergis was so bad they kept calling him back with all kinds of other stuff that generally angers the conservative types.)
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