Annoying Cities

The first of every month is Theme Day on the DP Blogs. Tomorrow, February 1st, the theme is "Something that really annoys you in your city." Eric at Paris DP has already posted what really annoys him about Paris. Yeah, it is pretty annoying. He also has links to the other 51 blogs that are participating. Some of the posts will already be up, but others won't, depending on time zone.

If I had to post what annoys me most about the city where I live, hmmm....there are just so many things to choose from. For a start, the things on the ground here make Eric's photo look positively pleasing. :-)

104th Carnival

This week's Carnival of Education is up at The Median Sib. Go take a look!

An American Rhapsody

We watched An American Rhapsody last night on DVD. The children watched it, too - there was one brief violent scene where we covered some eyes.

A family is escaping from 1950s Communist Hungary. It's too dangerous to take their baby, Suzanne, over the border because she might make noise and give them away, so they make a plan to have her brought afterwards. The plan falls through and the baby is taken to the countryside to be raised by a childless peasant couple. Then, finally, the parents, settled in Los Angeles, manage to arrange for Suzanne, now six, to join them. They all try to take up where they left off, but of course, it doesn't quite work out that way. Eventually, Suzanne's feeling that she doesn't fit in in the United States or with her birth family takes her back to Hungary to see the couple that took care of her as a young child.

All of this is based on a true story, and the DVD includes some commentary by the woman whose story it is. The movie is terribly sad - I cried through most of it - but there are some funny moments. For example, the older sister "helps" Suzanne learn English by teaching her a crude expression which, of course, comes out of the little girl's mouth at the most inopportune moment. (OK, admit it, my MK friends - you've all done this, haven't you?)

The teenage Suzanne is played by Scarlett Johansson, who gives an amazing performance. Tony Goldwyn and Natassja Kinski are also very good as her parents. But the star is the little girl who plays 6-year-old Suzanne, Kelly Endresz-Banlaki.

I highly recommend this movie, especially to people like me who have lived in several different cultures. I always like stories about how people pass from one culture to another - what they keep and what they lose. It's fascinating to watch how the family interacts once reunited. You can feel the mother's misery as she tries to connect with this little girl that she has missed so desperately. The ending is satisfying as Suzanne has the experience all parents wish their kids would have - she comes to understand a little bit about what her parents have gone through, and therefore to forgive them for the mistakes they have made. "We've all made mistakes out of love," says a character in the movie. How wonderful if we can acknowledge that, and forgive, and move forward.

Bye Bye, Purgatorio?

Marc hasn't actually said that Purgatorio is no more. He's calling it a hiatus, but his hiatus sounds pretty permanent to me. It's those fatal words: "I'll leave the blog up for a time."

So anyway, go check out Purgatorio while you still have the chance. It's billed as "a panoply of evangelical eccentricities, un-orthodox oddities & christian cultural curiosities." I often find the comments offensive, but just as often I laugh until I cry.

Here's my favorite post of all time.

103rd Education Carnival

Once again, lots of great stuff to read at The Education Carnival. It's hosted this week by The Education Wonks.

Where Do I Get All the Books?

My brother asked me how I manage to find so many books, living as I do in a place where English books are not readily available in every store?

When we first moved here, this was a big preoccupation of mine - finding stuff to read. When we would go over to someone's house, I would greedily scan the bookshelves and beg to borrow books. When we traveled, I would bring back as many books as I could. I read books from our school library, too, of course.

A big breakthrough was finding the subscription library I belong to. A group of Americans started it back in the 20s and it is still going strong. Now, even though I still borrow books from everyone who will loan them (and in return, I loan my books out freely), I don't panic as much about what I'm going to read next.

Lately, I've finished the following books: Love That Dog, by Sharon Creech, and The Seville Communion, by Arturo Perez-Reverte. (Those are Books #12 and #13 of 2007.)

Anonymity

A few weeks ago one of my students walked in to my class and said, "Oh, I've been reading your blog! It's funny!"

Many of the teacher bloggers I read would immediately gasp with horror, but I thought about it for a minute and realized it was OK. I don't write for my students, but I also am careful not to write anything that would embarrass them. (Unlike someone I know who posted the complete text of a love note a kid passed in class, but don't worry, I won't name you!)

This student is the daughter of friends of mine, so that's how she came to see my blog. I don't think any of my other students are reading. But if they are, hi there!

Kidnap

Each day I get an email from Merriam-Webster. Actually, I get two, since I've subscribed to two Word-of-the-Day lists. One is a daily word, complete with etymology, and the other is especially for English language learners. The second doesn't have etymology but it does have a link you can click on to hear the word pronounced and it includes some information on how to use it. (You can find information on these lists here.)

One day last week the word from the second list was "kidnap." But really, that's not a word I need to teach my students, even those for whom English is a second, or third, language. They all know what it means. Not because I taught it to them, but because life taught it to them.

Last year we gathered as a middle school to pray together for three separate kidnappings. This is not to say that these were the only kidnappings that happened to people our kids were close to - these were just the closest ones. One was a parent of one of my students.

When I first thought about writing a post on kidnappings I thought that would give away where I live, but when I did a quick search of Google News for stories about the topic, Tecwil didn't even come up in the pages I looked at. Probably that's because of all the stories about kidnapping in the United States over the past few days. But the stories weren't just about the United States - lots of other countries have this problem to varying degrees.

Right now we are waiting for news of a young child who has been kidnapped. I don't want to say any more about the situation here, just that it's such a horrible crime. Here it's all about money. All about terrifying people and destroying their peace of mind in return for money.

And part of you always thinks, a bit guiltily because it seems so self-absorbed, that could be me. And much, much worse, that could be...I can't even type it. I try not to think it.

This is a vocabulary word I wish none of my students knew. Oh, Lord, don't let us have to meet as a middle school again this year, praying for someone's release.

The Virgin's Lover

Book #11 of the year is The Virgin's Lover, by Philippa Gregory. It's the story of Elizabeth I of England and Robert Dudley.

The challenge of a book like this is to make suspenseful something that is part of historical record. I've read several versions of the story - it's really irresistible to a novelist, since the characters are so vivid and the plot twists more exciting than anything you can make up - so I know exactly how it's going to turn out.

Yet this book held my interest right until the last page. Yes, it still happened the way history tells us it did, but Gregory is fabulous at showing us all the quirks and mixed-up motivations of the three-dimensional people she writes about, so that you feel for every single one. Elizabeth and Dudley are stars, of course, but Amy (Robert's neglected wife) is unbearably poignant as well. Gregory has her own version of the mystery - what happened to Amy - and explains in an afterword that she did research in contemporary sources to come to her conclusion.

I'm looking forward to reading more of Philippa Gregory.

Hint on Dealing with Difficult People

Don't tell the New York Times all about them. Evil HR Lady explains why.

Saturday

I had big plans for today but am not feeling well so they are all cancelled and I'm going to stay home and rest.

Take a look at today's Saturday Review of Books to see what others are reading and reviewing.

A couple of days ago I finished book #10 of the year; it was Waiting, by Ha Jin. It was a fascinating read because of the insights into the way people live in China.

Reading Update

In recent days, I've finished the following books (#7, #8, and #9):

My Brother Sam is Dead
Uglies
Pretties

I hope to post reviews at some point.

I'm Back...

We've been having computer problems, both at school and at home. The problems at school persist - the connection is so slow that it's barely there at all. Here at home, we threw money at the problem and a new modem is in place.

I tried posting at school once this week, but I ended up double-posting and then couldn't get on to fix it, so I finally gave up in frustration. It's nice to be able to be back in time to link you to this week's Education Carnival.

If this is Thursday, we must be in Nepal. I mean, Peru.

Apparently nobody noticed that the Royal Nepal Airlines had a picture of Peru on one of their advertising posters until a Peruvian mountaineer pointed it out.

I guess all those little mountainous countries look alike?

Read about it here.

101st Education Carnival

I was so immersed in the carnival that is my life that I didn't even go and look at the Education Carnival yesterday. I plan to remedy that today. Here it is at I Thought A Think.

Iraqi Refugees

The BBC interviews some Iraqi refugees.

More Books

So far this year, I've posted a review for every book I've finished. I know I can't keep up that pace once I start back to school, so I have to lower expectations, my own and other people's.

So here goes: A Complicated Kindness, by Miriam Toews, was book #5 of 2007 (I didn't like it) and A Breath of Fresh Air, by Amulya Malladi, was book #6 (I liked it).

What I Did Over My Christmas Break

I have to go back to work on Monday! I can't remember when I've had such a relaxing, enjoyable time off school. And yet, I haven't done much that was exciting. I've just stayed home and:

*eaten good food.
*slept.
*played with my kids.
*watched six puppies be born.
*read.
*blogged (this is the 38th post since I wrote about the last day of school!).

I also went to a couple of parties to celebrate Christmas and New Year's. And we went out for lunch once and for ice cream once.

The weather has been perfect - cool and breezy. It hasn't rained in a few weeks and the dust is getting bad, but there's no humidity.

The best part, really, was that I got all my school work done at the beginning of the break. We had a few extra days off due to the deteriorating security situation in this country, and I used those days to plan units and lessons, clean up my classroom, grade and enter grades, all that good stuff. So I could really relax, knowing that stuff was done. I hardly went in to school after that, until today, when I went and spent a couple of hours making sure that everything is really ready for Monday.

And of course, when you're a teacher, you're always thinking about teaching with part of your mind. At least I am. So I did some planning at home here and there.

One thing I meant to get to and didn't was working on photo albums. And I still have the rest of the weekend, so maybe I'll even get some of that done!

Saturday Review of Books

This week's Saturday Review of Books is up. Go and see what people are reading!

Freedom Writers

I won't see this movie until it comes out on DVD (as is the case with practically all movies), but I was curious enough to click on this review.

Here's the sentence that I found interesting: "Teachers, I know, need all the inspiring Hollywood can give them."

Really, folks, is that what we need? Inspiration from Hollywood? Maybe you're going to go see this movie for the teaching tips?

I don't know about you, but I don't get my inspiration for teaching from movies. I get it from other teachers, and from reading teacher books and teacher blogs. And from my students, even on the days when they are trying hardest not to learn anything.

Has anybody seen the movie? What did you think?