Day 49: I'll pay you a visit and my respects.


As part of Flint Hill's Spirit Week leading up to Homecoming, Miss Priya had Decade Day today. I helped her put together her 80s outfit (comprised entirely of my clothing) -- it is interesting to note the similarities between her "costume" and my daily attire.

Today turned into my day of multilingual car conversations.

In Mrs. Bergman's automobile this morning, I requested that she help me practice my Spanish. What resulted was a wonderful "lesson" in Argentine Spanish (arguably the most beautiful, and certainly the most quickly spoken, type). Once at in DC, I read my sonnet and the Times before doing some research about which author I will read daily after Shakespeare's 154 poems run out. I learned that Petrarch (the "father" of sonnets) wrote 366 sonnets -- reading his poetry would have been so convenient for my year, seeing as this blog's url ought to be http://365gapdays+1leapday.blogspot.com/. However, the writing of anyone as obsessed as he was with one woman named Laura can't be all that interesting to read. :) I also read a bit about Ovid's influence on the sonnets of both Petrarch and Shakespeare -- cool.

At work today, I "womanned" the front desk while Gina and Carolyn worked next door to the administrative office. In between phone calls and other inquiries, I did some research for Vicki, searching for an evidence-based life skills curriculum which could be used to teach youth in the foster care system about health, education, employment, and household management. After searching for quite some time, I finally found a set of modules which I think will do very nicely! http://mhtransformation.wa.gov/MHTG/partners.shtml The introduction to the curriculum discusses the need to put this information on a website to make it more accessible to youth, so I contacted the webmaster listed and asked if I could help to enter the curriculum into a blog-based site for youth to reference. When Vera got in, I went over my fact sheets from yesterday with her, and promised to take fantastic notes at tomorrow's Ethics Training!

At the end of the day, I hopped on the metro, headed for home. At the Vienna stop, I met a cab driver from Afghanistan who had lived in India for 6 months and was fluent in Hindi! Driving from the station to my house, he asked me about the latest in Bollywood cinema, and serenaded me with music from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

While Cleaning
After Cleaning
Once home, I set up an "About Me" page on this blog (click the menu bar above to see it), crashed for 28 minutes, and fetched Priya from the bus stop. After saying "hi" to Dee Dee, I went for a jog in the neighborhood. As a cool-down exercise, I cleaned another monstrous corner of my room. I know Mama, wherever in the world she is right now (i.e. Bolivia), is smiling as she reads this.

I look forward to a relaxing evening with Nani and Priya, and can't wait for Gap Day 50 tomorrow!

P.S. MY GRANDMOTHER MAKES THE MOST DELICIOUS FOOD.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bygones -- by Marina Keegan

Image
I had a dream the other night that I was checking my email. That dream sucks. And woke to woes of seniors writing love songs for tomorrow and Tomorrow and the melodies That flirt us forward, whispering the next thing and the next thing and  – so we beat on birds flocking south until we circle round and realize maybe maybe all that running wasn’t worth it. Maybe we should build a cabin. Or teach high school. Or use our hands. My palms are smooth as words – Weak with fashion and double spaces. I want everyone else’s club and job and class The grass I sleep in always browner than Than that around erasing dreams To sit and breathe because you Only bank for two years then it's over And twenty two is nothing new It’s just another chance to build For when we’re twenty three And twenty four And time begins to sell for more than Any 9 a.m. to never. We’re not stuck. That's the thing, we're not stuck. We owe no o
Read more

Din 227: “God took his time making you.”

Image
I awoke this morning to the sound of my students -- what could be better? We started today’s class with 15 minutes of Anapana (the first step of Vipassana meditation), which is designed to concentrate the mind. I have never seen meditators more still or focused than these children! After teaching them the technique, I told them we would be starting every class like this from now on. Meditation is a wonderful tool they can take with them wherever they go, and they are lucky to be starting at such a young age! As the class broke into groups and started practicing numbers for our upcoming Variety Show, I caught up with a few students. Vandna, a sophomore and our oldest student, was supposed to pick her academic stream (cf. major) a few weeks ago, but had been waiting for my return to consult me before making her final decision. She is most interested in commerce and dreams of holding a high position at a bank one day, but her family is advising her to take liberal arts, which has le
Read more

PSYCHED for summer!

Image
The last few days have been emotional with packing and moving and no more exams and lots more goodbyes. Wednesday night we threw a fabulous surprise farewell party for a very oblivious Reylon, with many of his closest friends and entrywaymates turning out to shower him with love, song, and pizza. Yesterday came my last exam of the year, a truly tragic event -- I stayed in my Latin classroom until the very last possible moment, twiddling my thumbs and staring at my professor and trying to draw out my freshman year as long as possible. I cried when I turned in my test and left the room. In the evening, the Opportunes had our last private gig of the season at the Faculty Club (throwback to our first gig this year!), where our beautiful seniors performed their last public rendering of "Midnight Train to Georgia" amidst laughs from the audience and tears from Bernie. After a night of packing and snacking and New Girl , I fell asleep hoping to stay in
Read more