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! :-)
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! :-)
The best tuna melt I have ever had, and some delicious watermelon. Photo by Ryan Bowen.Dear students,Wow, that came together fast. As you may know by looking at my last post, I was up in Washington with Ryan for a while, until August 12th, when I drove back to Portland (because my birthday was August 13th). Now, once I got home, I saw this deal that JetBlue Airways is offering:http://www.jetblue.com/deals/all-you-can-jet/?intcmp=HPHero1Eng_All-You-Can-JetPassBasically, for $600, you can fly to anywhere they fly, and unlimited amount of times between September 8th and October 8th. You don't even have to pay taxes in the United States (though you do if you choose to fly internationally). 56 destinations, including many places that I would LOVE to go. Also, I know all of you know how much I love flying. So I figured that would be the perfect graduation/birthday present from my parents. I was jumping up and down excited, and still can't really believe it! Can you imagine all the possibilities? Here's everywhere that JetBlue flies (from Portland, they have non-stops to Long Beach, CA and New York City):http://www.jetblue.com/wherewejet/I am currently trying to get other people to come with me too. I talked with Ryan, who might be able to, but understandably has some finance issues with it. I also met with Mrs. DeFrance for lunch on Friday (so good to see her!), who was beyond excited about it as well - though I haven't heard back from her yet. Finally, one of my old college roommates, Steven, is pretty much committed to coming. He has family in Bogota, Columbia, who we could stay with. Isn't that just amazing?Anyway, that is cool. However, this is cooler: on my birthday (the day after we bought the JetBlue pass), my friend Alexis from Lewis and Clark called me because she really wanted me to apply for a job that she was doing. Do any of you remember Mrs. Woicke, who came to supervise me? Basically, she is helping run this really awesome after-school program called Step Up for some Portland Public High Schools. Here's some more information:http://www.openmeadow.org/open/meadow/schools/C11/The job is part time, from 1:45 to 5:30, Monday through Thursday. I had an interview today with one of the guys that runs it, and he hired me on the spot! Woo hoo! I will be working with Alexis at Marshall High School this next year - I have other Lewis and Clark friends that are working at other high schools too!Basically, I will be an after school mentor/tutor for at-risk youth. I'll have 10 students total - 5 on Monday/Wednesday, and 5 on Tuesday/Thursday. I'm still not sure about the specifics, but I think I will be basically teaching and helping them with whatever they are given in their classes at Marshall. I'll also be meeting with their parents frequently and making sure they know what is going on - since the population is about 65% white and 35% latino, it should be a good opportunity for me to brush up on my Spanish!So, put the two together, and that means that from Sept. 8 to Oct. 8, I will be working part time during the week (getting to sleep in, woo hoo!) and then flying off to all sorts of exotic destinations on the weekend. Could it get any better?I've already booked the first trip: I will be flying out to New York City on a red eye after work on Thursday, getting in at 6:30 AM on September 11. I'm hoping to go to Ground Zero and take in all of the rememberances and then jet back to Portland later that night - because I really cannot miss the opening Oregon Duck home football game of the season on Saturday 9/12 vs. Purdue - if any of you are going, let me know! :-)The next day, Sunday, I'm thinking about using the pass to fly down to Long Beach, CA for the day and then come back. Oh wow. This is going to be SO awesome!Anyway, where do you think I should go? Take a look at the route map and suggest places! For right now, I am thinking that 2 of the other 3 weekends will be Bogota (with Steve) and Cancun, Mexico, where I can go check out the Mayan pyramids of Chichen Itza and Coba.Seriously, it all came together that fast! It really was an incredible birthday and last few days. I am so excited for school!Finally, here are some aforementioned photos of what I have been up to lately:
Cliff face off of Cape Kiwanda
Check out what the wind and waves did to this rock over time!
Standing on Canadian ground, at the Peace Arch, where Interstate 5 meets the border.
Gorgeous sunset over Birch Bay, Washington. Ryan's parents get this view every night!
Ryan playing pool in Bellingham, Washington. He beat me, two games to one.
LOVE this picture. It is of an alley in Bellingham. The light was just incredible.
The view of beautiful downtown Vancouver, British Columbia. As seen from Stanley Park, to the north of the city.
Ryan and I went to a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, Vancouver BC. This was his fortune...
... and this was mine. I love it - it is on the inside of my wallet to remind me, haha.
Finally, here's me looking out over the bay towards Canada. Taken by Ryan. Good times. It has been a fantastic summer. Looking forward to getting back to work!
There you have it! Please let me know what you all are up to, and where I should fly to! Have a great day! :-)
Cape Kiwanda, taken on Saturday, August 8th. Currently my desktop background!Hey everyone,
It has been a long time, I know! I have actually been very much enjoying the first real summer that I have had for a few years. This morning, I was at Cape Kiwanda, Oregon with my family on a weekend beach trip, and now I am currently typing from Birch Bay, Washington, where I am staying for the next few days with Ryan Bowen and his parents. We will probably make a trip up to Vancouver, B.C. as well! Just wanted to check in and let you all know that I am in fact still around - pictures will be coming soon, once this all calms down. No news on the job front yet - there simply aren't any to apply for! We will see what happens down the stretch! Let me know how you are doing - ready for school to start back up? :-)
Have a great day, thanks for visiting!
John and I, at his wedding last weekend in Gold Beach! Photo by my dad, Steven FritzHello all!Let's see, since the last time I wrote to you, I have:1) Went to aforementioned wedding in Gold Beach.2) Finished Lewis and Clark's Masters in Teaching Program - school is finally out for me!3) Played tennis 5 consecutive days in a row.4) Beat "Minesweeper" on Expert difficulty 9 times, with the current record at 184 seconds. EDIT: Right after posting this, I beat it twice more, lowering my best time to 182 seconds!5) Continued to watch "Planet Earth" on DVD - I just finished the "Jungles" section.6) Contemplated what the heck I am going to do next year roughly one thousand times.That about sums it up! I had really forgotten how boring summer can be without anything planned to do! Basically, I have been sitting inside, finishing up the last few odds and ends for Lewis and Clark, and trying to stay out of the heat. Really, the only solid thing on my schedule right now is Jury Duty, which is next Monday, the 27th.Of course, I do have a ton of other things to do as well - namely, preparing essay answers to all the school districts application questions: Beaverton alone has FIVE. The hard thing about those is that since there are no jobs open, it is difficult to tell which I should be concentrating on doing first (and thus, I have a lack of motivation to do them). Ugh, I can never win!Here are some fun pictures from recent events for you all:
Another great one by my dad - we liked this one so much that we are making a print and giving it to the Trauts (our next door neighbors, remember) as a present.
At almost every wedding I go to, I like to take a black and white photo of the first dance. It just seems so classy!
On the way back to Portland, we stopped at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Here are some mean looking bison, staring down my car!
Finally, here is a picture of my friends Jessica, Alexis, and me from the Lewis and Clark graduation party this last Thursday. If you have a fantastic memory, you will recall that Jessica gave me the Santa Claus/Muslim hat/beard lesson, and that Alexis gave me the ball of yarn connecting us all activity. Two awesome ladies - I am sad to no longer have classes with them!Okay, I am off to go play some more tennis (though my hand and arms are starting to feel the effects of so much play)! Let me know what you guys are up to! Also, check out the new poll, which I will use to coordinate my posts on here! Hope all is well!
In front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona right before a beautiful sunset. Taken in the summer of 2007.Good evening, everyone!I really hope that your first week off has been restful and interesting. As I pointed out below, I have been coaching football out at Westview this entire week (basically just trying to chip in where I can). Tomorrow (Saturday), we are starting the camp that we have been preparing for the last two weeks! It takes place at Canby High School, about 45 minutes away from Westview. We are not actually staying the night there, but will be there practicing and playing various teams from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, on both Saturday and Sunday. If you want, come out and watch next year's team! I will primarily be coaching the incoming freshmen, but you will also see me with the other squads as well. Zack, you will be sad to hear that I got absolutely DRENCHED today at the Freshman practice. So much so that Coach Fisher took pity on me and gave me new clothes for the second practice. Summer, indeed.In other news, after football ends, it is back to Lewis and Clark full-time for me. I have already ordered all of my books (in college, you have to pay for every textbook, and it is not fun), and been e-mailed a 3 page essay, due on Monday! Crazy times. Back to being a student for me! One of the classes I am taking is on teaching the Constitution, which will be taught by Westview's own Athletic Director (and all around amazing guy), Mike Sanderson! I am definitely looking forward to it. However, with class from 9:00-5:00 on Monday and Wednesday, as well as classes from 9:00-1:30 on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, I know it is going to be a ton of work!Totally jazzed by the student blogs that have gone up this week (below)! Exactly what I was hoping for! This place should really be for everyone to stay in contact with everyone else, not just me with you all. For one, I think that people are probably more interested in how everyone is doing, not just me. Two, I really enjoy reading and seeing what everyone else is up to as well! Please, keep it up! Remember to e-mail me if you want to be able to post blogs yourself, so I can send you an invitation! After that, just sign in to www.blogger.com - select "new post" under this blog, and you are good to go!For those interested, here's the visitor stat tracker (which I tend to think is counting first time visitors wrongly, because as much as I would like to believe that there have been 242 different visitors, I do not - EDIT: Unless, as I just realized might be so, the tracker is counting "first time visitors" PER DAY - as in, it resets every night. That would make way more sense, so we are averaging about 30 visits a day - good!) for this first week:
Overall, I am still very pleased! Keep coming back and checking in! As I said, I am hoping to keep my own post count down to about once a week, but there is no limit to how much everyone else can post!Okay, a few other things before I head off. One, for those interested about my ability to possibly land a teaching job for next year - the opportunities simply are not coming yet. I think they will, but it will probably be near the end of the summer, if at all. One thing that may have an enormous impact on this: KGW.com - Governor threatens to veto K-12 budget. Which is actually pretty funny to me, because I like Governor Kulongoski, voted for him, and he spoke at my WOU graduation last year, but now he has the ability to really dampen my prospects for a job. Just remember, everyone - you cannot have good public schools without people earning money and paying their taxes!Secondly, I know I keep coming back to this, but pay attention to what is going on in Iran right now! It is seriously monumental and really ties in to what we were talking about in class at the end of the year. This weekend, especially, should be really interesting. The leader of Iran (it is basically a theocracy - a religious government), Ayatollah Khamenei has basically said "bring it" to the protesters of the recent election, and has threatened to use violence to suppress them. Link: CNN.com - Chants against West punctuate Khamenei's defiant speech. All of this might happen tomorrow. Just check out the headline of the Huffington Post right now (again, they are running a fantastic live blog of the whole uprising here):
A day of destiny, indeed. Let us all hope that the Iranians can resolve this conflict by gaining true democracy and rights for all, without any more blood being shed. You can see some really incredible pictures of the uprising (as well as a money quote by Gandhi) here: DailyKos.com - Tehran Street Photos -- On the Brink. Look at the reaction from all around the world too! Finally (for the Iran news), we also talked in class about how women (specifically in the Middle East) can have an impact in policy and gaining rights. Here's a fantastic article about how the women in Iran are responding to this: CNN.com - Women in Iran march against discrimination.In other news, check out my (and now your) friend Ryan Bowen's pictures and blog from Rwanda - he has had a few updates since I last showed Period 1: PlayForHope.org - Ryan's Blog.Finally, to wrap this all up - I cannot believe that I did not somehow find the time to show everyone these sites in class this year, but these are some of my favorites for FREE giving to people in need, just by clicking! The first one is: The Hunger Site. Just click on the "Click Here to Give -- It's Free" button in the middle, and presto, you have given 1.1 cups of food to hungry people! There are all sorts of good causes (just click on each site at the top) - click every day, for free, and help out people for nothing (it is based on the ad revenue from your click)! I try to do this every day, though I often forget. Just put it on your favorites! Make a difference in one minute, sitting at your computer!That should just about do it! Wish me luck for everything coming up! I will try to post a new poll later tomorrow - it seems like the overwhelming favorite for right now is keeping the layout the same, which is good, because it means less work for me!Have a fantastic weekend everyone! I miss all of you! :-)
In London, during the summer of 2007 for a month long study abroad term. I cannot wait to hear all about where everybody travels to or does around town this summer!Hello and welcome to the alumni blog, everyone!I really do hope that this becomes a place where everyone can keep tabs on what is going on with everyone else, whether it be over the summer, or if you ever need help on an assignment, or want to talk about what is going on in this big wide world of ours! I am hoping to post every so often about what is going on in my life, though I will probably keep my own number of posts down, unless this idea really takes off. Hopefully, everyone is posting and talking to each other! Basically, let's continue the learning and the fun, as much as possible! If it becomes obvious that nobody is following along even every so often, I will just stop posting altogether. Let's please not have that happen!I am thinking that this will be much less formal than the class blogs. For instance, I am taking away the "approve comments before they go up" rule that I have on the other blogs (unless I see some reason to go back to the other format) - meaning that if you enter a comment, it will post immediately, no matter when you post it. Hopefully, this will mean that there is much more talking to each other, rather than just to me. Also, as I think I mentioned to everyone, if you want to start posting your own blogs on this website, for people to comment on, make a Blogger ID, let me know what it is, and I can made you an author/contributor on here, so you can post whenever you want, about whatever you want (obviously, within reason).
I also have some other ideas, like guest appearances, topics, votes on settings (how do you like the flipped colors?) and generally, stuff to keep your interest.So, the first question for anyone that is checking this, so I know that people are actually doing so - Are you going on vacation this summer? If so, where? If not, what do you plan to do around town?Start posting in the comments and let's get this thing started! Come back often! :-)
Currently -
Located at: Home, Portland, OR.
Listening to: "Caribbean Blue" by Enya.
Reading: "1,000 Places To See Before You Die" by Patricia Schultz.
EDIT: Saturday, 6/13 - I just went through all of my old class related e-mails and sent invitations to everyone I could find, something like 23 different people. Spread the word, please! Sign up to be a poster, and e-mail everyone that I don't have addresses for! :-)
Also, Ben Ludeman, in the comments on the Period 1 blog, suggested that we have a group photobucket, for anyone to drop pictures into and see what is going on with everyone (besides just posting all your lovely pictures here on the blog, too). The address is really simple: http://photobucket.com/westviewgsalum. Sign up to view and post photos using the password "newsbrief" - I crack myself up. Great idea Ben!
