Today was our second day of our professional development neighborhood visits. Today was definitely not as interesting or exciting as yesterday. At 9am, we boarded a bus and headed to East Los Angeles, during which a local college professor talked to us about the history of murals in Los Angeles, particularly those done by Chicano artists. Again, the relevance was not immediately apparent to us as we toured from location to location.

The “highlight” of the day occurred at around 11:00am when our tour bus blew a belt.The good news is that we had brought along two buses full of teachers. The bad news was that there were now six more teachers than available seats. They say that opportunity knocks but once. Sensing what was perhaps my only moment for escape, I quickly volunteered to forgo the rest of my tour in favor of a Los Angeles Metro bus ride home. In total, there were approximately 10 of us who stayed behind. Some took cabs, but my colleague Raul and I ventured to take the Metro bus from East LA, through Downtown, and then on to school.

In retrospect, it was actually a pretty fun experience, and I got to eat at this great Salvadoran restaurant on Grand/Venice (for those of you who know L.A. streets). Anyway, it’s off to bed to rest up for another busy weekend!