I'm Coming Back to Visit Westview!

Former students,

I finally have a little bit of free time during the school day, so I am going to come out to Westview during the day this Wednesday to try to see as many of you as I can. Ms. DeFrance says that it is a crazy schedule due to a senior assembly, but I will try to be at the school for a while, say like from 10:00-1:00 or so. If you can let me know when your lunch is, or where a good place to visit might be, that would be great! I am really looking forward to catching up and hearing all about the last year! Try to spread the word to anyone who might be interested, as well.

Thanks! Hope to see you Wednesday! :-)

- Mr. Fritz

Happy Holidays!

At the Tualatin River National Wildlife Refuge this Fall.
Dear former students,

It has been a great school year so far for me, and I certainly hope for you as well. I have thoroughly enjoyed the e-mails that some of you have sent my way as well as the comments on here. I must say that I have thought about updating this blog roughly 100 times in the past few months, but kept putting it off due to having way too much to say and do (plus not knowing where to start). So, here are the highlights:

- I ended the JetBlue "All-You-Can-Jet" Pass having flown 27 flights, 36,452 miles, 5 countries, 11 airports, seeing many great friends, and making priceless memories in one month - while working four days a week. It was the most amazing experience of my life.

- Came out to Westview for the Beaverton football game. Saw Jaye, Brandon, Russel, Nathan, Mary, and CJ (on the sidelines after the game). I also got to catch up with Mrs. DeFrance and her husband, as well as see Mr. Chamberlain and most of the football coaches. Good times!

- Was hired on for extra time at Marshall High School in Portland, where I am now tutoring in a Freshman English class in addition to the after school job there. It totals about 22 hours a week, which is obviously not a ton, but it is nice that I don't have a ridiculous amount of duties. I really love my job and working with the kids at Marshall - they are great people.

- Went to all of the Oregon Ducks football home games (after missing most of the start of the season due to flying). Saw former student Carson Kelly at one game - on an official visit for the baseball team, no less! The USC and Oregon State games in particular were INSANE. After we beat OSU, I booked my flights for the Rose Bowl, where I will be at on Jan. 1st with my brother. Yeah, I know that I am lucky.

- Saw the Blazers lose to Denver on the second night of the season in person. By the way, what the heck is happening to our boys this year? It is like the injury plague! Seems like they are battling through for the most part.

- Went up to Paine Field in Washington (a little North of Seattle, where the Boeing plant is), for a free tour that I won with my dad. I also ended up winning a $250 Alaska Airlines Gift Certificate as well!


At the "Future of Flight" museum at Paine Field, Washington. This is the entry point for the Boeing factory tour.
- Started a Twitter page (yes, I know... what is the world coming to?) You can find that here: http://twitter.com/LukeFritz64.

- Watched my Philadelphia Eagles clinch an NFL playoff spot this afternoon on TV (more specifically, watching the NFL Red Zone channel - if that channel had existed when I was in high school I am fairly certain I would not have graduated).
----

There is roughly a thousand other events in there (retreats, trips, events, etc) but I will spare you the details. Just know that I think of you all often and hope that all is well!

Period 1, can you believe that a little more than a year ago, I took over teaching your class and we had the snowed out week that pushed back the Rwanda speeches until after Winter Break? Hehe. I will always remember that.

The next year promises to be a busy one as well. In addition to finishing out the year strong with my group at Marshall, I will be looking for full time teaching work next year. I also have a trip to England for my Grandma's 80th birthday in February planned, as well as a trip to Princeton, New Jersey to see my brother graduate on the 1st of June. Throw in a possible trip to Washington DC over Spring Break, and it is possible that it will top 2009 as my most traveled year ever. It all starts off in Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl - look for me in Section 9, Row 16 on TV! :-)

I am not sure how many people still read this, but I promise to come back and keep updating in the future. For now, let me know that you visited and tell me what is going on with everyone! Have a great Winter Break! :-)

I'm Coming Out to Westview! :-)

Hello everyone!

I wonder how many people will read this before Friday? If you are, come out to the varsity football game vs. Beaverton at 7:30, at Westview! I am going to come out and try to catch up with as many of you (and all my friends on the teaching staff) for the game! I will be rocking the Westview gear, so I am sure I will blend in, but look for me!

I know that I have not been up to date on putting up JetBlue weekend pictures, but that is simply because I have not had the time! Let me assure you that the Caribbean and Bogota, Colombia, were simply amazing. Here's a couple:


An Air France Airbus A340 coming in to land at St. Maarten.


Ryan and I overlooking Bogota, in Colombia!

Anyway, I know that you have been very busy as well, but I hope to see as many of you as possible on Friday! Let me know in the comments if you will be there, and if you want, tell anyone else at school! :-)

JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Weekend #2: Boston, Buffalo/Niagara Falls, New Orleans

Fireworks over Niagara Falls, last Friday.
Hey everyone!

It has been a while since I have heard a peep from any of my former students! I hope you are doing well and staying busy with the new year. I know that I definitely am. Everything is moving so fast! I have to get to bed pretty early tonight because I have a very long Thursday tomorrow (capped off by the Portland to New York red-eye, again), however, I wanted to be sure to post a few pictures of my last weekend. Here you go, with limited commentary:

BOSTON:


This is Paul Revere's house - the oldest still standing in Boston!


Old North Church, where Paul Revere had his men hang lanterns in the steeple - "One if by land and two if by sea!"


The Boston State House, or perhaps more famously, where the Boston Massacre happened!


Boston Harbor, where the Boston Tea Party took place!


This is me and my old college roommate Max, who lives 30 minutes away from Boston and was my tour guide for the day.

BUFFALO/NIAGARA FALLS:


The American side of Niagara Falls.


In front of the falls.


Checking out the falls from the Canadian side of the border, on a huge tower.


The Canadian falls.


Pretty dang impressive, right? :-)


NEW ORLEANS:


This was literally outside my window as we parked at the gate. I felt welcomed.


The New Orleans skyline, with the Superdome on the right. Thousands of people took refuge there during Hurricane Katrina.


Bourbon Street, in the French Quarter. What an experience!


New Orleans gumbo! It was really good!


My friend Erin and I. Erin lives in New Orleans with her husband Josh and generously hosted me for the day!
----

That's about it folks! Tomorrow night I am off to the Caribbean! The destination is Saint Maarten, which is half French and half Dutch (The Netherlands). It has some the best plane spotting opportunities in the world. Also, I'm looking forward to kicking back on a sandy beach for once.

Keep checking back for the pictures! I miss all of you! Please keep working hard! :-)

JetBlue All-You-Can-Jet Weekend #1: New York City, Ducks Game, Long Beach

In front of the New York Stock Exchange last Friday, on 9/11. Ryan Bowen took this picture - I love it! It has been a crazy last week, let me tell you! :-)
Hello former students,

Quickly, I wanted to update you on how the trip out to New York last weekend went! I had a fantastic first week of school, and now that we are able to get down to business when it comes to the tutoring after school, I am starting to get the hang of my new job at Marshall.

That being said, it is pretty awesome to know that I am flying off all over the place on the weekends! Here's some pictures and captions from last weekend, when I flew out of Portland on Thursday night, got into New York on Friday, spent Friday night in Washington DC's airport, went to Long Beach on Saturday morning, then up to Portland to drive to the Ducks game in the afternoon. Whew! Then on Sunday after the game (and about three hours of sleep), I woke up at 4:45 AM and caught a MAX train by the convention center, to fly down to Long Beach, stay there for about 4 hours, and then fly to San Jose, California then back to Long Beach, then back to Portland.

Here are some pictures!


JetBlue's Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Incredible. They just opened this up last year, and you can tell.


Ryan and his girlfriend Naj, who I got to meet for the first time!


A flag for the rescuers at 9/11/2001, exactly eight years earlier.


This is pretty much all you can see of the actual Ground Zero. It is fenced off all over the place. It is strange that there is still nothing there and even stranger to be there on 9/11, knowing that exactly eight years earlier, almost 4,000 people died at this very place.


The New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. Where the entire U.S. economy runs through, essentially.


A statue of George Washington, outside Federal Hall, where he became the first President of the United States.


Ryan grabbing the famous bull by the horns.


Times Square. I had never been here before - there was so many ads it was ridiculous! What is the point? How could you pay attention to just one?


We stopped to eat at a place right next to Times Square. It was packed! You can see why though - the New York pizza could not be beat!


After saying goodbye to Ryan and catching a flight to Washington DC's Dulles International, I tried to settle in for the night. It was completely empty, except for the random cleaning people that decided it was a great idea to come right next to me with a vacuum as I was trying to sleep, haha. I ended up getting about four hours on the floor. It was great. :-)


I caught that flight to Long Beach in the morning, then went up to Portland so my mom and I could drive down to Eugene for the Ducks game that night. They won, and I was able to get Clarke a ticket as well! Fun times, but I was SO tired! The rain in the second half helped wake me up, but I slept the whole way back to Portland.


This was the next day (Sunday), outside the Long Beach Airport in California. Many fond memories of this place!


Once I got off the plane in Long Beach on Sunday, I took out my handheld GPS navigator (that I usually use in my car) and searched for the nearest Mexican place, because there is nothing like an authentic LA burrito. This was it! Baja Sonora, about a mile away from the airport. The biggest burrito I have ever had in my life. Delicious!


Finally, this is the proof that I was actually once in San Jose International Airport. I landed, was on the ground for about 45 minutes while the plane was refueled, then took off back to Long Beach on the same exact plane.

Anyway, it was a great, but totally insane weekend! As always, you can follow along with my flights at my FlightMemory page.


The Great Circle Mapper for all the flights I will take on the JetBlue pass - 27 in all. See the page here.

This next weekend (starting tonight) consists of the following: flight out to New York at 10:20 PM from PDX. Arrive at 6:30 AM, then take a flight at 7:45 AM to Boston, where I will spend about five hours with one of my college roommates Max. From there, I will fly to Buffalo, New York, where I have relatives - my Uncle Sam, Aunt Diana and cousins. My Uncle is a teacher too, but he also works part time as a tour guide at Niagara Falls, so he says he can get me a tour for free. Cap off that night with fireworks over the Falls, then wake up early to be at the airport for a 5:30 AM flight to New York. That gets in around 7:17 AM, and my next fight to New Orleans is at 7:40 AM, making it by far the shortest connection I have during this entire month. I will have to sprint to the gate to make it! :-) In New Orleans, I have a good friend who was part of the London Study Abroad program I did at Western Oregon. I'll spend 24 hours there, then go back to Portland, via New York. Total for the weekend: seven flights, 8,155 miles.

I hope all of you are well! Keep working hard in school and let me know if I can ever help you out! :-)

All the best!

Welcome Back to School!

In the canyon at Zion National Park in Utah, 2007.
Hello everyone!

Welcome back to the grind of the school year! I hope that I am not the only one who is very excited to finally be going back! The time off was fantastic, but it is absolutely time to teach and learn some more.

Just so everyone knows, camp last week was absolutely fantastic. I already have my group of 10 incoming Freshman at Marshall who I will be tutoring this year. We became a really tight knit group at camp! That is what climbing 135 feet high trees with your team holding on to you will do! We did all sorts of other fun activities as well, but most of all, I think I really developed a great connection with all of my kids. I am very much looking forward to school starting tomorrow (though I don't actually start seeing my students after school until Thursday).

In other news, I am definitely incredibly excited to be going to New York City for 9/11 this Friday! You can be sure that I will be updating this blog after every weekend of my JetBlue pass, letting you know about where I have been.

Anyway, what I am most interested in is how all of you are doing in your sophomore year of classes! Be sure to e-mail me or post on the blog if you need any help or guidance with anything going on. I am sure it will be a great year for all of you! :-)

I also want to congratulate Westview Football on their gigantic win at Barlow last Friday. A great way to start off the season! I will definitely try to make it out to at least one game, probably in the middle of October.

Along those lines, I am also really hoping to come out to Westview for a few hours on a Friday a little later in the year, just to see Mrs. DeFrance and everyone else, as well as possible partake in a little lunch hoops? Let me know if there is a good day for that.

If anyone is going to the Ducks game this Saturday, 9/12 against Purdue (I am really glad that I didn't have to witness the debacle of last week on TV, because I was at camp), let me know, as I will be down in Eugene for it (after tons of traveling).

Also, The Office Season 5 DVD comes out today (Tuesday). Woo hoo! Super excited! The new season starts in a few weeks too. Everything is starting up again! Soon it will be the Blazers as well!

That's about all I have for you - just wishing everyone that reads this a fantastic first day and week! You guys are all amazing and I know you will have a great year!

Unitl next time...

Out Camping This Week

A photo of mine from Arches National Park in Utah, which I visited in the summer of 2007.
Hello all,

I wanted to give everyone a heads up: I will be away from all forms of electronic contact this week (it will be a good change of pace for me!) because I will be out at Camp Tillikum, near Newberg, with the rest of the Step Up crew and students from Marshall. It is our big week to get to know each other and develop some great working relationships for when we get back to school and start the year. So, I will not be able to respond or post any comments, or reply to e-mails (I love that I still get some from time to time from some of you - it always brightens my day) until Friday around 6:00 PM.

In other news, here's the deal with the JetBlue pass: Steven, my old roommate, had to drop out of getting one, but Ryan, with literally 5 minutes left, did end up buying it. Hurrah!

I just booked the last weekend of flights today: I will be heading to Bogota, Colombia from Oct. 2nd through the 4th! Even though he isn't going, Steve was able to get in touch with his Uncle down there, who was willing to host us for a couple of nights! So sweet.

I also booked the first weekend of flights, again. Get this: Portland to New York City on 9/10, getting in at 6:30 AM on 9/11. Day in NYC and Ground Zero in Manhattan, then 6:00 PM flight to Boston, followed by a 8:30 PM flight to Washington DC, where I will sleep in the airport for the night. On 9/12, fly from Washington DC (IAD) to Long Beach, California, departing at 7:40 AM and arriving at 10:00 AM PST. Then, Long Beach to Portland at 11:15, getting in at 1:35, in time to get home, shower up, then head down to the Ducks game at 7:15 PM in Eugene against Purdue!

The next day, I will get up super early again, and fly from Portland to Long Beach to San Jose, CA back to Long Beach, then back to Portland, all in one day, getting back home around 7:30.

So far, the total cost of all of these flights (two out the the available four weekends) would have been $2495.10. Because I have the pass, it is all for $600. Seriously, so sweet. Here's a map of where I have flights to booked so far:

Great Circle Mapper: Weekends #1 and #4.

Anyway, I hope everyone is enjoying the last few days of summer! I have seen an increase in the blog traffic around here, so I know people are beginning to check back in!

Until Friday... :-)