Friday, November 07, 2008

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Who's Next?

A lot has happened since I lasted updated this blog, so I'm just gonna give the truncated version. My summer staycation was anything but...
To begin with, I went New York City in early July, slept on 5th Ave for an entire week, & set a Guinness World Record in the process.  My picture ended up on the front page of the New York Times, I bought an iPhone, and promoted local agriculture.
Next, I assisted with the purchase of an upside-down school bus from Ben of Ben & Jerry's, helped customize the bus in New York's Union Square Greenmarket, and traveled in said school bus from NYC to Cleveland, Chicago, Milwaukee,  middle America, and San Francisco.
After arriving in the Bay Area, I realized this is the furtherest west any explorer has ever traveled without leaving the atmosphere, so I decided to ground myself for awhile. 
Another Georgia boy once summarized a similar occurrence by saying he was just gonna sit on the dock of the bay, watch the ships roll in, and watch 'em roll away again.
Peace be with you Mr. Redding. 
I feel you.
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For further details about the ambiguous information stated above, please see the following links:

Friday, June 27, 2008

My Summer Staycation

At the last minute, I decided to take a break from teaching English at Northeastern and start a Summer Staycation. It feels great to have the next eight weeks on my calendar wiped clean.

However, instead of sitting around playing Wii all summer, I’m gonna throw my weight behind some volunteer organizations in my neighborhood.

Just the other day, I attended an orientation for 826 Boston and their storefront Greater Boston Bigfoot Research Center. I’m really excited about this, and I hope my teaching experience will come into play.

I’ve also contacted The Food Project about volunteering on their farm, but unfortunately they don’t need help until August because of a youth program, so I’m looking around for other Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) opportunities.

Bikes Not Bombs is also on my list of places I wanna join. I bought a bike from them a few months ago, and it’s become my main mode of transportation, but I need to learn more about bicycle maintenance & safety.

If anybody reading this knows of other organizations around Boston that may need help for the summer, please leave a comment and let me know.



Peace by Peace.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Spring Revival



I sit by the water
Breathing sun illuminated sky
The waves are cresting on the shores of my mind

Wharf water shimmering
reflects spring

Cherry blossoms bloom
Summer soon

My heart soars high
My soul delves deep
My happiness is unmatched




written by Matthew, Heyward, and Soo

Thursday, April 03, 2008

A Confederacy of Dunces

“Teacher, I don’t like this novel,” Waleed said to me as soon as I walked into classroom catching me a little off guard.

“Whaddya mean? I love this novel. It’s hilarious,” I said with honest enthusiasm. “Didn’t you read the chapter last night?”

“Yeah,” he assured me, “but the vocabulary was very difficult.” Shaking his head he continued, “I had stop and look up words all the time. It’s really hard to understand.”

“Well,” it was time for me to sound like a teacher, “Like I said at the beginning of the semester,” I began enunciating every word, “I recommend not stopping to look up every word, just get the main idea. You can always mark words and go back later to read certain parts again that were confusing.”

“Yeah, but…” he wasn’t having any of it.

I had to think fast and try to diffuse the situation. “Give me an example. What’s so difficult?”

“Ok, what is ‘stool’?”

“Stool?” I questioned with a crinkled brow of confusion.

“Yeah, in the chapter last night it talks about Ignatius sitting on stool. I don’t understand.”

“Oh, yeah!” I was getting really excited again and began speaking at normal speed again. “That’s one of my favorite parts of the book! Mr. Gonzalez gives Ignatius a stool with wheels to help him reach the lower drawers. Big ‘ole Ignatius sits on the stool like an eggplant on a thumbtack,” I said using grand hand gestures and started to sense some level of comprehension from Waleed.

“As soon as he tries to wheel around the floor, he falls off and starts screaming that he broke his back,” I continued building momentum. “Help! Help!” I started screaming and trying to imitate Ignatius’ pompous pain, and Waleed started to brighten up a little.

“Then, that nutty, senile Miss Trixie comes in and doesn’t even notice Ignatius wallowing around on the floor and steps on him!” Now, I could see a smile.

“Next thing ya know, Ignatius pulls Miss Trixie down onto the floor and the boss walks in!” Waleed exploded into hysterics and had to hide his face in his hands. I think I even saw him wipe away tiny tear.

“Oh… well… when you explain it like that, I understand,” he confessed as the confusion came back to cloud his face. “But what is stool?”

I looked at him cockeyed. “Uh?”

In all seriousness, Waleed looked me in the eye. “When I go to the doctor, I have to give a stool sample,” he stated while holding out his cupped hand in front of my face for emphasis.

“Stool is sh*t, yes? I don’t understand. I hate this book.”

Sunday, January 27, 2008

CoExisT



“So, when was the last time you saw a 3D movie?” I asked them trying to make some light conversation.

A little puzzled by the question, “Never,” Humaid answered in a thick Middle Eastern accent.

“Really? Howwa ‘bout an IMAX movie? Are you familiar with IMAX?” I asked them.

“Uh?.... What is IMAX meaning?” Saeed asked in a sheepish, somewhat broken, naïve tone.

“Ah, man! It’s a really, big, huge screen,” I tried to explain while making sweeping hand gestures and accidentally nudged the fella next to me. “I’m really, sorry,” I grinned at him, unable to contain my excitement.

“It’s ah-right,” the New Englander smiled back as his wife chimed in, “Yeah, ‘dis is like ah concert. Some lady ah-ready yelled at us for breaking in line.”

“I saw people scalping tickets out front.”

“Da only thing missin’ is beeah.”

“They have beer,” I quickly interjected and motioned to the concession stand.

Without hesitation, the husband scurried through the packed lobby to the popcorn line like an overeager teenager to pick up two Buds in a bottle.

“This is really crazy, uh.” I said to the wife while her husband was paying for the beer. “I teach English at Northeastern, and I’m here with a few of my students. They’ve never even heard of U2.”

The woman looked a little befuddled and then, clearly as excited as I was, peered over my shoulder to my students and blurted out, “Ya guys are gonna love it! I heaah the Edge’s guitar comes off da screen and ya can almost touch it!”

Blank stares.

Just then, the happy husband came back and handed his honey a beer.

I seized the chance to ask my students another question, “Do ya’ll drink beer?”

“No… never,” Humaid said stoically.

“Ah… only wine,” I joked, which drew a couple nervous smiles and shifty glances from them just as the theater doors opened and the line started to snake through the lobby.

“Say,” the happy husband began, “ where are you guys from?”

Saeed and Humaid replied almost in unison, “We’re from Dubai.”

“Oh… I know where that is. It’s…. ahhhh….. ummmm…. United ….. Emirates…..” his unassured voice trailed off as the orderly cue crept forward. “That’s a rich country.”

“Yes… we have oil,” Humaid said dubiously.

I was happy to see my students engage in a spontaneous conversation, but as soon as we crossed the threshold of the theater doors, my focus shifted to the scamble for seats as close to center as we could get.

Not long after getting situated in front of the 65-foot screen, we got two big thumbs up from the beer drinking couple two rows behind us.

The lights went down, the screen popped out, and the surround sound cranked up.

After a couple songs, the leather clad Bono began sporting a CoExisT headband while banging a snare drum to the opening march of Sunday Bloody Sunday. As he began to ask the question, “How long must we sing this song?” water droplets came flying off the screen and the oceans of 3D people in the crowd waved and melded into the theater audience almost seamlessly.

Humaid leaned over to me and whispered, “It’s like truth.”

I grinned ear to ear.

In Humaid's limited English ability, he just said a whole lot.

I sat back in my chair and thought to myself, "Peace be with Bono and you too."