you know what would be a good present?

An ear.
Then I can talk to it all day.
Instead of.. not.

Like i feel like i'm ALWAYS bursting with something I want to say.
My mom and dad say I don't have to share everything.
I know.
And I squirm when I see other really really talkative people.
It's rude, or mooshikhae, or stuff.
but right now, i just want to talk through my opinions of the professors and what classes I want to pick.

and for me, talking through something helps me to make up my mind.
so i don't need anyone to advise me.. just to listen.
so i can talk my way through it.
hehehehehe

zot.

3 minutes ago.. i began screaming like a hot teapot... because.. i can't believe i'm actually going to grad school to study English literature.
You know how excited I got?

I seriously screamed for a minute straight.

And I'm looking through professors, slowly at first and then wore the rust off of ratemyprofessors.com.. and reading up on professors, what their interests are, perking up at names that sound familiar, feeling sad that i don't remember WHY i enjoyed Ruskin or W. Benjamin (ma man!)  ... and then now and then recoiling because none of them are good looking. hahahahahahahaha..

(i was like ooo italian professor, *click* and then.. whoa. not.. ..a.. hottie.. haha. at all.)

Kathy was here sharing in my giddiness.

nervous though.. like can i do it?  i feel too dumb. you know?
but then.... i mean, i'm qualified, right? they accepted me.

but i really don't know what the rate is. for all i know, only 20 ppl applied. -.-

anywhOOz no matter.   I'm excited to put on my thinking cap.

school starts June 15.  o_O

i love julia roberts

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/movies/02roberts.html

harrumph

I didn't really read this.

Just Challies's blog blurb: Miss Whitebread Was Wrong - Andy Unedited: "'Always make an outline before you start writing.' Isn't that what your fifth grade teacher told you? Well, I'm sorry to break this to you, but Miss Whitebread was wrong. In my continuing series of Stupid Things You Were Taught in School let me deconstruct this bad boy."


Then I got huffy puffy. This isn't the first time I've heard this argument and others like it (ie: down with grammar and spelling), but really, I'd argue that we NEED the Miss Whitebreads and we ought to have a Daniel Webster day and yes, even grammar has its rightful place by the literary throne.

It is BECAUSE we learned the cumbersome outline, the awful writing process, that we now have the ability to write without using one.  I am such a stickler of the 5-paragraph essay in middle school simply because once you have the rules down pat, you will have a tolerable essay.  Once that's mastered, you can toss it out the window and write magnificently.  But before you walk, my friend, you crawl!

Of course, there are exceptions (I never learned to crawl - my mom said I was so lazy, I just sat somewhere and if I needed something, I'd skootch over on my butt.  One day, I stood up).  But really, it is because of these technicalities that we can even write or argue against them. 


I've heard both sides of the argument; getting drilled in the "proper" essay by Ms. Sarles freshman year and then throwing it out the window by my crazy Rhetoric 10 lecturer in college.  Both has merit.  But really, Mr. Rhet 10... COFEEN .. HE would not be able to encourage our stream-of-conscious written crap college papers, if it were not for the years of 5-paragraph-indoctrination.

epiphany

during parent teacher conferences, I realized I have a totally different approach if i assume that the parent loves their kid.

(well duh Junia, what else?)

Plenty!  They might be pushing their child to success, trying to get them to do what they couldn't, trying to form them into what they want the child to be, trying to get the child to the top of the class etc etc.,


But I realized, even if they ARE, they can do that and STILL love their child. 

There ARE select few parents who feel like their children are a nuisance or a duty that will take care of them in their old age... but who am I to judge?

but I do.

SO, I realized, if i assume that they love their child, more than their jobs, their time, etc (even though it may seem to me that they don't), I can empathize better, help them better, and help their child more.

I love to be a parent's champion to their kids.  I wish I were reminded that my mom and dad loves me when I was young(er) and stupid(er).

i just got back from a wedding; so shoot me if i'm feeling a lil sentimental

"To you I shall say, as I have often said before, Do not be in a hurry, the right man will come at last; you will in the course of the next two or three years meet with somebody more generally unexceptionable than anyone you have yet known, who will love you as warmly as possible, and who will so completely attach you that you will feel you never really loved before."


- Jane Austen in a letter written on Feb. 20, 1816 to her cousin Fanny Knight 

Is this too idealistic?

After all, if Becoming Jane is accurate, Jane's love life wasn't too successful either.  (augh that movie made me cry)

Speaking of author biopics, who's excited to see Bright Star?  Hot DAWG I love Keates!  Intrigued by him ever since I found out in my Spring 08 Romantic Lit class that all the other romanticists looked down on him and likened his works to self-gratification (or the more lurid counterpart).  Poor Keates.  (although the actor who plays Keates is sort of a creepers... anyone seen Perfume?  yagh)

girltalk - also, 5AM club has been bad for a while; but today 6:30am.

Last night KG&I went to Saveur's with Mark and Fran.  Our last meal with them I guess.  Sort of hard to believe, but people fly in and fly out of my life... and I'm so grateful for that.

They have loved, encouraged, and fed me SO MUCH!  In the short span, I have so many stories.. and am inspired.  ... ANYWAY, afterwards, Kathy, Grace and I lounged on Grace's bed and talked and laughed.. and spent like 20 minutes arguing about the largest continent.  Grace insisted it was Asia, "I just taught on it!"  but Kathy and I couldn't believe Russia was part of Asia.. i mean Russians "are germanic" (according to Kathy)  "anglo" (according to me).  Well, according to about.com and wikipedia, Russia is 40% in Europe and uh.. 80% in Asia?  and counted as part of Asia.. so Asia is the largest continent.  BOOOOO  Russians are blonde!  What ASIAN is BLONDE.  That doesn't make sense!!!

Anyway, afterwards we talked, sort of falling asleep and stuff.  we tried to predict future couples (had to fix predictions since the past series of events have turned our predictions topsy turvy!) then decided that we're bad at it, and it doesn't matter.. whatever happens happens. 

Then we talked about stuff that smells bad and apparently, one of Grace's students (she's so sweet to her kids; she won't tell us WHO) stuck his/her finger down his/her butt, rubbed, then said to Grace, "Miss Kim, smell my finger!"  AND SHE DID.  AND SHE SAID that IT WAS AWFUL and that SHE FELT LIKE THROWING UP.  EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW  ahaha and I'm laughing as I type this, because I was LAUGHING UP A STORM. it was STINKING (badumchaa) HILARIOUS!!!!   seriously though, why would you smell a kid's finger?  AHHHH ..  so now Grace won't.


I think we began talking about that because we were talking about Lena and how if I did this one thing to her, it would break her.. I mean I've done a considerable amount of things (we listed... cutting her hair, shooting delicates at her, taking funny pictures, making her uncomfortable, pushing her into a closet, taking mean videos... hmm hmm hmm)  to Lena.. but the LAST one would be bad.  What was I sooort of thinking of doing?

Well, after I... .. well, I don't know.  Maybe I'll tell you in the states.
Talking about the states, TOMORROW I LEAVE ON A JET PLANE.


And to give you a taste of my school, I have other teachers asking me "You're coming back right?  Don't make me take over your class!"

Of COURSE I'm coming back.  I LOVE it.  I DO! 


(ps: 3 days ago i ran 7k!)

difficult decision

AT GCA we're preparing for Reading Emphasis Week and as a teacher here, we're all required to submit a small summary of our favorite childhood book.

You know how freaking hard that was?

I was perusing Goodreads.com, clicked the "children's literature" tag and went through lists rating each one I had read.

I narrowed down to Judy Blumes, Beverly Clearys and Roald Dahls.  Those were definitely favs.  I wasn't a super fan of picture books ever..  I think, I was discontent with how some picture books had fun stories but ugly pictures, while other picture books promised such adventure and the story was boring.

Like who cares about if you give a mouse or cookie or how much a bunny loves a rabbit etc?  No goodnight moon for me. 

But I still read them.

I think I have a huge thing for fairytales and myths though.  Particularly the story of Cinderella and Cupid and Psyche.  and i LOVE absolutely LOVE re-workings and re-tellings... LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!

Cinderella:
Mom's stories of Cinderella and kongji and patjji.
Ever After
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Ella Enchanted
Disney
Cinderella Story 
and now the KDrama "Cinderella's Sister" is... <3


Cupid and Psyche
the greek myths
The Golden Ass
Til We Have Faces


Me encanta stories.


And that idea of an orphaned daughter, a prince, a fairy godmother, a glass shoe, a midnight curfew.  Magic.

Links.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/04/09/yemen.child.bride.death/index.html

This makes me sad.  I feel like I'm OF AGE to actually DO something, you know?  People start organizations in college.  I don't know.  Hm hmm HMM.


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125766967&f=1014&sc=tw

This makes me think.  I remember loving the Sotomayor hearings and then disturbed by the politicians running our government.  :-/  I wonder what it would be like to be a Supreme Court justice.

http://www.dwlz.com/WWinfo/water.html

Trying to drink a lot of water again.  (43things.com/person/hoonz316)

Questions

So, Spiritual Emphasis Week at GCA was an interesting experience.  At first I was wary but excited.  In the end, however, I was thankful for the opportunities given to talk more closely with the students and to provide an open environment for questions.  I was blessed to be a witness of open hearts and we had quite a few verbal confessions of faith!  Now I'm just praying for these seeds of the Gospel to be planted into hearts of good soil.  This makes me worried!
But
WHY should I be worried?  Is it not HE who saves?  Does HE not know His children?  He does, He does!

To try to continue this open atmosphere, I asked my students to write down 3 things on a piece of paper and hand it in.
1) Spring Break plans
2) Any question they can ask me (I stressed that this was a valuable opportunity since I don't always answer their questions)
3) Prayer requests (optional)


I got a wide range of answers going from the banal to the extreme.

I was encouraged by questions from students I didn't expect questions from, such as "How/why did you become a Christian?"  I was humored and intrigued by prayer requests ranging from "Pray for my grandmother" to "Pray that I don't die" (this person's Spring Break plans was "breathing (important)")

Then of course, I got the inevitable questions, "Do you have a boyfriend?" (twice) and then from the more academically inclined, "Do you have a boyfriend, if not, why?" and "How old are you?"  The question that I got that I didn't expect was from a random student, "How heavy are you?"  


aHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH




hahahhahahahha..




Other random/interesting questions:
Would you lick Nick Jonas's foot?
Are you ginius?


I'll add more as I begin replying.
Sort of regret this.  I thought it was so clever too -_-

(Of course, I envisioned 7th and 8th graders penning me grave, thought-provoking questions about life and faith.  What was I thinking?  This ain't the 1800s!)