Wednesday, October 31, 2007

C is for Cookie

Deviating momentarily from the funk the past few weeks have found me in, there has been a bright spot or two amongst the recent daily grind.

I love music and I've started to implement music into a few of my classes that are otherwise deprived. Music gets used as a teaching tool in beginner classes but quickly fades from the curriculum and classroom once English acquisition picks up a bit. So, I've decided to work it back in, particularly with my first crop of kids for the day, as they are generally sleepy-headed zombies as they file into class. Music during our "set-up and get ready for class" time seems to help my students transit to a state of awakeness and also seems to motivate them in our writing time at the end of class. An instant hit with my 2nd graders has been the Cookie Monster's "C is for Cookie." They love it! And man, I love it too - I can keep them in line and productive simply with the promise to play it.

Moving right along, this year my school did not celebrate Halloween and I admit, I'm not disappointed. Halloween parties can end up being a lot of work and overall, the efforts are rewarded by lots of complaints and whining from the kids. However, in the spirit of Fall, I made pumpkin cookies to share with my classes, garnished with candy corn (Thanks, Sarah! Believe it or not, I still have some left.).


I just knew that if I went to class and actually told the kids that I brought them pumpkin cookies, I'd have a room full of "Eww's" and turned up noses. So, instead, I just offered them a cookie. I let them have up to 3 if they wished, as they were small, and many took me up on the opportunity and had 2 or 3. After they ate and enjoyed their cookies, I took delight in asking if they knew what kind of cookie they were. Of course no one did, and with a smile I told them that they just ate pumpkin cookies. "But teacher, I don't like pumpkin!" shouted several. "Really? That's funny, because you just ate 3 pumpkin cookies. I guess maybe you might like it after all." was my reply. Playing tricks on students - just one of the joys of being a teacher, right up there with tests and homework.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

sound off

So, for the past 2 days I've found myself feeling rather angry - angry about work stuff, angry about world events, angry about dumb stuff from the gay Dumbledore down to the unrelenting tiny ants storming my kitchen, and of course, angry about the dumb guy trying to sell the "pet" raccoon. I confess, I can only go so long without engaging in a debate and I think it's been far too long, so perhaps my need to spend 2 hrs at the track last night to burn off anger was partially due to a long overdue need to argue about something. So here I am, ready to sound off about at least one of the topics burning me this week.

Inspired by photos snapped by a friend in D.C. over the weekend, my target, a-hem, topic for the day is protesters, more specifically the protesters at the World Bank - IMF meetings in D.C. When I first saw the photos, I found myself becoming instantly angry, though uncertain as to why, not at my friend for taking the pictures, but at the protesters themselves. Is it wrong that I think they appear incredibly selfish? There they are, doing what on the surface may appear as a very selfless act to some - protesting things such as the debt held against poor nations. However, all I could see were people who appeared to be more concerned with being seen and heard than they were about what they were saying. Making a spectacle of oneself, and therefore diverting all the attention to oneself, detracts attention from the cause one would have us believe there is actual conviction about.

I didn't see people who cared about a cause nearly as much as getting their 15 minutes of fame. I think it's selfish because I think if they really cared about something, they'd see their time and energy could be put to far more constructive uses with greater reach and benefit. If they really cared, I don't believe they'd be engaged in the street debauchery of puppets, dances, chants and cheers, street theater, music, marches, stripping, and sit-ins. What useful and constructive purpose do they convey? What message is actually being sent to the World Bank, IMF, the nation, and the world at large? See me, notice me? Are they really revolting and rebelling because of a cause or merely using a cause as an excuse to revolt and rebel in general?

If they really care, then step up! Truly sacrifice or do something meaningful in a way that's really going to benefit others. Example, globally, people are impoverished, starving, and homeless. Don't dance on streets crying out for the right of those who have no roads to walk on. Do something real, or shut up! Is it unreasonable to consider that a homeless person doesn't care that you protest how money is being controlled or directed, but that you cared enough to meet them where they are and helped them build a home?

Do something real, or go home! Money does no good when you have nothing to buy with it. I saw this firsthand in Haiti. The people who had a chance, a real chance at a better life, weren't those handed money, but those who outsiders cared about enough to go and take the time to educate on how to have a better life with the very little they had. How to make that very little grow until it was not just enough for them but others as well. Teaching people to care for the land, to think communally rather than individually, to think about tomorrow and not just today, teaching trades and handicrafts, farming, irrigation, how to purify water to make it safe for drinking are examples of ways that real people are making a real difference in the immediate and long-term needs in the lives of others. People are not simply being provided with education and skills, but perhaps for the first time ever in their life, hope. They're also learning how living for today is destroying their tomorrow and the benefits of community. Another example: I'm now living in a country where the lives of my friends are significantly better than those of their parents just a few decades ago, thanks largely to international trade.

Face reality. Though they can be eased and the burden lightened, such serious and widespread problems as poverty, disease, homelessness, starvation, and civil war can never be solved or eradicated because the hearts of men are selfish and corrupt. Not the hearts of the faceless men who drive world finance and business, but of those belonging to the faces in the mirror. One of my favorite passages in Blue Like Jazz (and there are sooo many) is when Miller writes:
I am the problem.
(There comes a time when one must) stop blaming the problems in the world on group think, on humanity and authority, and start to face himself.
The problem is not out there; the problem is the needy beast of a thing that lives in my chest.
I don't have to watch the evening news to see the world is bad, I only have to look at myself.
True change would have to start with the individual.

After his own experience protesting for social justice for the oppressed concluded, "I was the very problem I had been protesting. I wanted to make a sign that read 'I AM THE PROBLEM!' "

While canceling debts is a nice gesture, the action is still incredibly limited in the good it will do without a true willingness on behalf of a country's government and people to commit to change in improving the quality of life. I'm not suggesting that money doesn't factor into the problem, but rather that there are even greater giants standing in the way of reducing poverty, famine, violence, wars, etc.

Finally, as an American abroad, I feel like I fight sterotypes every day. The people who judge me are often ignorant and limited in their knowledge of daily life in America and American culture. They know what they're fed by media, which as I've seen, even influences what they're taught about Americans in schools and at home. When our media feeds the world crap about what we're like, it's no wonder the world has such a low opinion of us. And too many seem to relish in the splendor of putting their best crap forward, on display for the world's criticism. In the end, no one cares how much money and aid, both in material resources and manpower we give to other nations. They care how foolish, selfish, ethnocentric, and egotistical we appear, and sometimes downright are. Why else would we parade ourselves in the streets singing and dancing about something as serious as hunger and poverty?

Do I think protesting in and of itself is wrong? No. Do I think it, at times, can be incredibly selfish considering the alternatives? You betcha! Don't just say that you care, show it!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

back of the pet shop

The sib of a friend was recently on island for a week long visit. We rounded out the week with a number of fun activities on her last day in town including: a yummy Hakka lunch, a post typhoon visit to the harbor complete with visit to the former British consulate, and an evening of shaved ice, a night market visit, and movie watching.

Further posts on the visit may come but for now, I wanted to share one of the highlights of the evening. As listed, one of our stops was a night market. While strolling the streets taking in the sights and sounds, and trying to avoid many of the smells, we happened upon a makeshift pet shop. They offered an interesting assortment of things for sale such as a baby pig, fluffy bunnies, tarantulas and other large arachnids, snakes, snakes, and more snakes, beetles of various sizes, baby hedgehogs, and kangaroo mice. But the best, perhaps, was an animal they were keeping near the back - an adult female raccoon. And it gets better. The price was a mere $800,000 NT (Taiwan dollars). That's roughly $25,000 US . . . for a raccoon. And not just any raccoon, but a North American raccoon brought over from the States and now put on display in a small cage at a hot and noisy night market.

I was mad, to say the least. A raccoon is not a pet! You can not just capture any animal you wish and try to pawn it off as a pet. It belongs in the wild and not in a cage in the city.

A friend spoke to the owner to inquire after the animal, which is how we learned it was brought over from the U.S. She had wanted to pet it but dared not for fear of getting bitten despite the owner's assurance that it was a female raccoon and therefore not aggressive, basically harmless. Seriously?! Why is someone who clearly knows so little about raccoons currently in possession of one? Also upon talking to the owner, he stated the price as being $80,000NT ($2,500US), though the sign clearly had an additional zero. Clerical error by the hand wielding the black marker that denoted the price or tactic to ward off less than serious buyers? Either way, while I am concerned for the animal's well-being, I hope no city dweller is foolish enough to claim her for a pet, though there's bound to be someone roped in by its "exotic" charm.

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Thanks a Brunch

This afternoon, a friend and I swung by Brunch, a chain cafe, for some post lunch coffee. They packaged our 2 cups-to-go, which we could have carried in hand, in an oversized bag. However, upon closer examination, the poetry on the bag made the indulgence in resources totally worth it:
Coffee brings me temporary self-inuigeene

and makes me feel at ease
I want to run away from my life!
I want to travel, and serch listiessiy!
I walk and walk . . .
And find myself returning
to the starting point.
I whisper to myself;
Have another cup of coffee!

Ahh, I am so deeply stirred beyond expression except for to exclaim, I think I'll have another cup of coffee!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

I scream, You Scream

My late summer acquisition of an ice cream maker has been much fun indeed. Experimenting with recipes has resulted in a number of yummy frozen treats. Not only did summer gathering invites increase, but being the trendsetter that I am, two local families purchased ice cream makers within days of sampling homemade ice cream.

Among the attempted delights:

Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream
Green Tea Gelato
Coconut Ice Cream
Mango Sherbert
Mango Ripple Ice Cream
Coffee Brownie Ice Cream
Peanut Butter Ice Cream w/ Peanut Butter Oreos
Avocado Coconut Ice Cream
Old Fashion Vanilla
Watermelon Frozen Yogurt
PiƱa Colada Sherbet
Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Temptations to come: mint chocolate chip, chocolate with mint chips, apple cider ice cream, tiramisu, blueberry cheesecake, banana, and cinnamon spice

Suggestions?

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

secret keeper

when i was a kid, i was naive enough to think knowing secrets was cool, as though it was an honor to be trusted and entrusted with that knowledge. now, however, i know the burden they can be and the weight they carry.
knowledge may be power, but it's also a lot of responsibility. i'm a tired knowledge bearer and secret keeper.
thinking of all that God must know, both secrets and confessions, what an unbearable task that would be for any human to shoulder. all knowing is not so worth envying. seriously, what was satan thinking in wanting to be like God?

Double 10


Ahh, another partial work week granted to us compliments of Taiwan's National Day - 10/10. I decided to make it a day at home to accomplish some frequently put off tasks - sorting papers, letter writing, laundry, blogging. . . For my company, I selected a few famous classic flicks that I've previously not see. I love that I can get classic films on dvd for $1 at my local supermarket. So, first up was Gone With the Wind. I caved and decided to find out what all the fuss was about. What I discovered was a long movie, a very LONG movie, chockfull of old Hollywood cheesiness but in the end, I still kind of liked it. However, I didn't like the cliffhanger ending. I mean, will Scarlett ever get Rhett back? What will become of Ashley and Beau? Will she be content to stay at Tara? Oh Tara, Tara! How it makes me long for my own non-Southern, unnamed, fraction-of-the-size home of my youth. As for Scarlett, for some reason I had not imagined her to be such a despisable, selfish creature, and yet somehow in the end, I still found myself wanting to root for her, wanting her to find a way to redeem herself for all the poor and selfish choices she had made. Oh those Hollywood film makers, they're tricky like that - convincing you to side with an arguable villainess.

Anyway, next on the list for my viewing pleasure is Casablanca, another film I've yet to see. While I've enjoyed the trip to yesteryear, I think for my next movie day I might explore something a bit more modern such as Pulp Fiction or First Knight. Despite my years of movie watching, I think I've seen surprisingly few of the more famed cinematic selections. Any suggestions of what to add to my rainy day "must see" list?

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

stay tuned, more blogging to come soon. you can look forward to these delightful topics: rodents, rage, rain, and well, other ramblings.