Living on the Wild, Wild, West(side) of Buffalo

I thought, since I'm living in a new place, doing something I've never done, and having lots and lots of adventures, I would start to blog about my experiences! Now, I don't want to promise to blog super frequently, because I probably won't. But I will try!


So, some background. I'm living with 6 other Houghton grads on the West side of Buffalo, in a slightly rundown house on Breckenridge. 

This is the exterior of our house...notice the balcony with our cute plants.

Our porch!

A shot of our neighborhood from the balcony.

And another!

Our small kitchen (we just love having the washer and dryer taking up valuable space...but in all reality, it is very convenient).

I just love Anna's cute spice rack!

Our living/dining room.

And again.

My room! I love the large desk I have.

And again :)

It's been great so far, and we've had lots of exciting things happen while we've been here! Some mice (which we tried to kill with some poison, but apparently we have a very hardy strain), drum practice from the Indian/Hispanic church next door (for hours and hours and hours...), a pizza party for about 20 neighborhood kids, various home improvement projects (painting, shelving, lighting), etc.


I am working at the King Center Charter school, as a librarian, enrichment teacher, kindergarten helper, Houghton liaison, and many other things. 

This is the King Center--pretty amazing, right? Can you believe the city was going to knock this down?

Gorgeous.

I've been working a lot in the kindergarten classrooms, because with 20 or so 5-year-olds, an extra pair of hands is always welcome. I've also done kindergarten testing, which involves lots of rhyming, alphabet recognition, reading very simple stories, and coaxing little kiddos into telling me their answers. I've also been planning for Reading Saturdays (picking out books, planning a craft and snack, making flyers, etc.), which I am excited about. I'm working on organizing the library, which is a mess, and I started teaching enrichment classes last week for second, fourth, and fifth graders.

The interior of the building.

The kindergarten classrooms--it's such an awesome building.

And here's the library--a pretty beautiful place to work!

Anyways....how about a couple of funny stories:


Little girl: "Is you a Grandma?"
Me: "No! I'm not old enough to be a Grandma!"
Little girl: "How old IS you?"


Different little girl: "Do you live with your mom or dad?"
Me: "No, not now."
DLG: "Do you live with a dog, or even a guinea pig?"
Me: "No."
DLG: "So you's all alone??"


Me: "How many brothers do you have?"
Crying little boy, who I'm trying to comfort: "4." (Sniffle, sniffle.)
Me: "Wow! They are so lucky to have a cool little brother like you."
Crying little boy: (Big eyes, adoringly looking at me) "Do you really thing so?"
Me: "Yeah!"
After our conversation, the boy literally skipped back to his class. Love it.