Two months in

I graduated from high school on June 6, 2009. Since then, I have not written any papers or taken any tests. I guess I have taken a few real-life tests, including interviewing for and getting a job, but not any tests inside a classroom. I have titled this post "two months in" because I consider my gap year to have begun two months ago.

The way I see it, the summer didn't count as part of the gap year because my friends were here and it was normal to not be in school. But in mid-August, my friends started leaving one by one, and before I knew it, the reality of the decision I made on May 1--the decision to postpone enrolling at Yale University until the fall of 2010--hit, hard. I was all alone!

Fortunately, I got a part-time job at a toy store in early August (while this is not turning into a career, it is a really fun/nurturing place to work), and an internship at a small school in Boston in early September. SO, I have been staying moderately busy and making a little bit of money. Other things I do include: watch television (I am now emotionally dependent on HBO and Hulu), annoy my boyfriend (who, because I am a cougar, is a senior in high school), read books (right now I am on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw) and pretend to exercise (I would use the elliptical in our basement way more often but a couple of mushrooms have sprouted up around it and I am a. afraid to breathe in their potentially toxic fumes and b. too lazy to pluck them out).

In January, I plan on going to the Dominican Republic to do the following:

-take TEFL classes and then put them to use by teaching English to little children

-regain the ease with which I spoke Spanish when I got home from an educational tour in Spain two years ago, and hopefully achieve fluency

-do community service (apparently, the program I will be going with selects a specific project based on interest/skills once I get there)

-learn Bachata y Merengue

-live with a host family and hopefully like them

-study Dominican history and culture, and experience both through day trips/ventures into stores and restaurants, and finally

-write in this blog!

Until then, expect updates on my job (things that happen there can actually be pretty funny), my internship (I find it quite meaningful) and the TV I watch (I am an NBC junkie--expect in-depth analysis of 30 Rock, The Office, and Community)...