Getting to Know You Games, for Old People

So after I got my speeding ticket, I trudged on over to Phoenix at the lowly speed of 65 MPH. But I did finally make it in time, checked myself into the Marriott, and passed out, not really knowing what would happen the next day at Induction.

Induction is the feel-good get-to-know-you part of TFA training. It was fun; to be honest, it was just like those first few weeks of freshman year all over again. Lots of meeting (and re-meeting, since, let's face it, a lot of the "meeting" happens after large quantities of booze have been consumed) new people, lots of going out, lots of 12-hour days where you learn about what it means to be in TFA and how much we love diversity and hate the achievement gap.

It's just a big, fun, feel-good fest.

However, there are 177 of us in the 2010 Phoenix TFA Corps. How in the world are you supposed to find your best friends, spouse(s) [as a TFA teacher you are more than 50% likely to meet your future spouse during Induction Week], roommates, and where you want to live in 5 days? It's just overwhelming to do all of those things, move into a new city, figure out how to live on a college campus again (I'm staying at Arizona State University - my grad school - for the next month), and sit through 9 hours of seminars all day - in suits - in the 110 degree heat. (Although, conveniently, "suit" in Arizona means "no tie and maybe flip flops some days" - I love this place)

And in that sense, it really was like those first few days of freshman year - I loved them, had a blast, met awesome people...but I wouldn't want to do it over again. O-ver-whelm-ing.

But, like I said, we did really cool things. For example, the Diamondbacks (that's Arizona's sub-par baseball team with a SICK stadium downtown) are a major TFA Phoenix sponsor, so we got to go to a baseball game and sit in the party suites and booze it up and watch our team lose miserably to the St. Louis Cardinals (congrats to Mr. Bruer and his hometown).

And the TFA alums and current Corps members made us amazing 3-course homemade dinners and showed us cool restaurants and bars all over the Valley of the Sun. And the nights - the nights were awesome. Tempe has a really cool bar scene, centered around Mill Avenue, which is a classed-up western version of Carolina's Franklin Street, with a spray-tan and on steroids. Conveniently, there is also a bar, called the Vine, that has become the TFA hangout - which is right across the street from our dorms.

So those are my reflections on my first few days of training. And although I said I wouldn't want to do them again, I kind of miss that collegial, laid-back atmosphere, with frisbee on the Quad with strangers and late night walks home from the bars with your new best friends. I've now started Institute, the more intense, big, bad older brother of Induction. Institute is when people drop out of TFA. Institute is when they throw you into a classroom. Institute is where you have to crawl under your desk and cry.

So, at this point, of COURSE I would rather be doing getting to know you games than Institute. Induction, come back!!