How I Spent My Summer Vacation

So I thought that I would write sooner after my last brief article spilled my major news. It’s not that I’ve had too little to write about, but rather too much. I've been doing a lot of thinking about the next two years...Maybe I’ll chicken out and start with a few recent events. It’s been a jam-packed month of June!

Teaching:

I committed to Logos School on May 30th, with 3 weeks remaining in the school year. In those three weeks, my AP students finished a chapter book that I love and translated a number of popular German songs into English. On June 9, their last day of normal classes, I sent them off into the world to soar and reach for the stars and be all they could be.

Meanwhile, underclassmen had another week and a half. My German II students cheered with me when I told them we were done learning new material: I had crammed so many chapters into their poor brains since December. They and German IV both got to watch a movie in German (with subtitles), having finished the year review with a few days to spare. One class even got to play Blind Soccer during finals week, where coaches instructed their blindfolded teammates in German with directions like “Nach links! Schiess den Ball!” (To the left! Shoot the ball!) I stole this game from Mr. Hindman, my mentor teacher, because it is hilarious to watch.

Friends:

Eric and Ruth after the rigged bouquet/garter toss at Sean & Hillary's wedding

The K-House has been abuzz all semester in anticipation of not one but TWO weddings: my housemate Sean to Hillary on June 14, and Hillary’s roommate/my good friend Ruth to Eric on June 21. They were even in each other’s wedding parties. Both were lovely and included 4-part harmony in Mennonite hymns, plenty of laughter, some dear friends no longer in State College, and dancing to this song. Ruth and Eric’s wedding was a sweet way to say goodbye to many people. Back in Doylestown in the last week, I’ve enjoyed an old-fashioned frolic at Lake Galena with friends from way back, girl time at home (the boys were gone last week), and…brace yourselves…two movie theater trips in one weekend! (My first two of 2009.)

Appointments and Errands:

I’ve had 3 doctors’ appointments: a regular physical, eye care, and a travel clinic. At the travel clinic, I learned ways to avoid fun stuff like typhoid (a shot), dengue fever (wear bug spray), and parasites (don’t eat the salad). I have 3 prescriptions to fill, but am weighing the benefits of super-cheap drugs there of *mostly* decent quality. I’m delighted that Phnom Penh is malaria-free, unlike anywhere else in Cambodia.

I realized early last month that my passport had conveniently vanished. After one personal day, $200, a trip to Philadelphia, and an urgent phone call to Cambodia, I have a replacement – and even a visa to go with it.

I have a plane ticket! It’s just over $2000 (thankfully Logos will reimburse me), incorporates stops in Detroit and Tokyo, covers 3 meals, and even includes a free overnight stay in the Hong Kong airport. So much fun packed into a brief 37 hours!

Books:
I decided that reading was one of the best ways to prepare for Cambodia. I’m trying to read books about Cambodia, books about teaching English, books about living overseas, and the books that I’ll be teaching this fall. There’s no way I can get through my whole reading list, but I’m giving it my best shot.

What I’ve read in the past month:
First They Killed My Father – poignant and majorly disturbing true story from the Khmer Rouge era. I’ll include some quotes in a separate post.
Paradise Lost – after 3 pages, I stopped reading and concluded that there is no way I’m teaching that book this year. If this book is paradise, then I guess it’s my loss... (sorry!)
Killing Fields, Living Fields – a detailed history of the Cambodian church. I’m taking notes on it because I found it overwhelming at first, but it brings together nicely the spiritual developments in individual Cambodians and the political developments in the greater society.
Till They Have Faces – C.S. Lewis merges a number of mythic figures in this tale of beauty and love, inspiring me to look up Psyche and Iphigenia and Antigone. I’m not finished, but already excited to teach this alongside Greek mythology in eighth grade.
My Sister’s Keeper – OK, so this one is unrelated to Cambodia. But Julia loves it, and since it just came out as a movie, my mom and I rushed to read it before seeing it Sunday night with her and some friends. It’s a sobering portrait of lives intertwined with a cancer sufferer, and the strain on a mom to pour herself into her daughter’s recovery without neglecting her other kids. Parts are sappy, but much of it rang true.

I have another 15 or so after these: wish me luck!

The next two years...

So remember the post in March, when I told you I'd be in the US for at least the next year? If by "the US" I really meant "Cambodia," then that would be true.

That's right. I'm teaching in Cambodia's capitol, Phnom Penh, for the next two school years.

The short version (since State College still has school tomorrow):
-Teaching English in grades 7-12 and possibly a French 1 class
-At Logos International School, a private Christian school
-Students' family backgrounds range from wealthy Cambodian businesspeople, to missionaries from Korea and North America, to a local orphanage
-I'll be living with 1-3 other new teachers
-Orientation starts July 27 (!)

More to follow.

My dog ate your homework...

"Meine Hundin hat eure Hausaufgaben gefressen." That's what I had to tell a few of my students recently after spending Easter weekend at home. I returned from some errands to discover that Demi had ransacked my "teacher bag," gouging out a chunk of the bag, shredding manila envelopes and old sandwich bags, unzipping pockets to devour my granola bar, and yes: nicking a few corners from student assignments. She looks so sweet and innocent, and she used to be (more or less)...maybe we can blame her recent turn for the destructive on a midlife crisis, since she's turning 10 this year.

In related news, teaching can be really really fun. There are days when I feel that I'm not getting anywhere, and that everything I learn is at the expense of my students' mental anguish. But there are also days when I just love it. Here are some recent highlights:

1. I asked my AP students to write essays mimicking NPR's "This I believe." And in so doing, I learned that my students believe in:
-Aliens
-Dancing barefoot in the rain
-Being mediocre
-Winking



2. My German IV students, as part of their fairy tale unit, had to write one of their own. (See above for our class illustration of Hänsel und Gretel, based on students' descriptions.) They got pretty creative while writing, incorporating everything from a compost heap with appendicitis to an army consisting entirely of toast. We're assembling a book with the entire collection to continue a longstanding German IV tradition.

3. We had a debate today on the Wehrdienst, or Germany's military/civil service requirement. Everyone took on a role, like Billy: "I'm the loving mother of three children," and Ben, who while discussing his lifelong dream of driving a tank, invented an excellent new word: "destroyuieren." That's up there with translating "cowgirl" as "Kuh-Mädchen. :-)

4. In German II, we've had fun looking at different texts. I came across a German quiz show ("Wetten, Dass) that's world-famous for its crazy stunts. We watched two fun examples, although my favorite (which involved throwing plungers) has since disappeared. We also had a chance to read dumb questions that Germans have been asked while in the USA. For example: "You guys have your own language? I thought you spoke English with an accent!" Or: "Are there problems with the German-Chinese border?"

A rose by any other name...

...but really? You looked at this and thought "ranunculus?"

Baby's First Year

A recent college graduate, especially as a new teacher, is kind of like a baby adult. Babies experience many changes and milestones in a short period of time. Proud parents like to keep close track of these milestones and record them for posterity's sake. But not all of you "proud parents" live with me to track my every move. So here's a helpful guide for those of you playing along at home. In the last week or two, we've seen:

1. "Baby's First Discovery of Cheating" - with a textbook open to the vocab page during a test.

2. "Baby's First Confrontation" - where the student acted indignant at the suggestion of wrongdoing.

3. "Baby's First Parent Conference" - with the father trying desperately to believe, against all odds, in his son's innocence.

4. "Baby's First Interaction with the Assistant Principal" - who graciously backed her up throughout the incident, enabling said Baby to navigate #1-3 unscathed.

5. "Baby's First Police Escort" - no, wait, that would have been Baby's mentor teacher a few years back, whose screaming parent visitor required a chaperone to enforce her departure. Guess we'll have to postpone this one a little longer in my book.

6. "Baby's First In-Class Lesson Plan" - supposing, hypothetically, that I had at one point this week (say, yesterday in 6th period) not finished planning class until during their quiz. If this had happened, it would have worked out much better than one might suspect.

7. "Baby's First Proselytization" - by a Vedic guy who forcefully sought to convince me that I was really Vedic and had never realized it, and that by scrapping my belief in Jesus' divinity, I would understand true Christianity. Don't hold your breath for "Baby's First Conversion."

8. "Baby's First Recipe Invention" - apparently African ground nut stew, minus three key ingredients, plus four or five others, still tastes awfully good.

9. "Baby's First Shoefly Pie" - because anyone who leaves their shoes directly in front of the oven is secretly asking for toasted shoes.

10. "Baby's First Credit Card" - nothing says "grown-up" like the chance to spend money you don't have. Look out, King of Prussia!

11. "Baby's First Towing" - um, by the way, Mom and Dad... (It sure LOOKED like non-permit parking.)

12. "Baby's First Time Being Told She Looks Like a College Graduate" - actually still waiting for that one too, since most strangers still peg Baby as a high school student. (She's growing up so fast!)

A way I cannot see

Update on Chelsea's future: I'm still in State College through June, and I'm pretty sure now that I'll be in the US for at least the next year. Based on advice I've gotten, things I've read, and common sense, it seems logical to get some teaching experience before trying to teach overseas. I'm hoping to stay in or near PA to avoid completely uprooting myself, since I'd still love to go abroad in the not-too-distant future. Schools hire late, though, so it'll likely be June or July before I know for sure where I'll be teaching.

I'm looking at this year and next year as preparation for life overseas, but I'm afraid I'll forget about my dreams and get too comfortable here. That's why tonight, I was looking at web sites on education in Cambodia (a country that's drawn me for a while somehow).

It's bleak -
1930s: The first modern high school opened.
1960s: The first university was founded.
1975: The Communist Khmer Rouge assumed power, systematically destroying educational resources and slaughtering the educated population.
1980s: The succeeding government (PRK) made a half-hearted, half-funded attempt to re-establish an educational system.
1993-4: The government spent enough on books to buy one book per student every 20 years.
1998: Only 17% of teachers nationwide had attended school beyond ninth grade.
2000: Most Cambodian adults were found to be completely illiterate (36.3%; ) or semi-literate (26.6%); 45% of women were reportedly completely illiterate.

School fees are another problem: parents pay for 3/4 of primary education costs, while the government chips in a mere 13%. Many rural families are subsistence farmers; school is the greatest expense they face each year.

What would it take for me to improve Cambodia's education system? More experience in teaching, so I have something to offer. A decent knowledge of Cambodian. Some good connections to NGOs already at work there. The grace of God. And an inordinate amount of determination/stubbornness/insanity. Will I ever get there? I don't know. But I sure hope that if not, it's because something even more important grabbed my attention, and not because I got too comfortable.

Frozen splinters

Somehow it seemed urgent for me to re-read the story that had so moved me when I was young. For my fairy tales unit at school, my mom sent me a German-language collection of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, in which “The Snow Queen” was first. I’ve been puzzling over it for weeks, trying to remember how it went, but lacking the time for 35 pages in German. This week during spring break, on the train to Philadelphia to see my dear friends Anya and Capri, I finally got my chance.

It’s a long and roundabout story, but the gist of it is this. Goblins have created a mirror that distorts everything it reflects, so that good and beauty don’t appear at all, while bad and ugly things are magnified. The most breathtaking landscapes look like “boiled spinach” in it. The mirror falls a great distance, splintering into billions of fragments that are blown all over, lodging in people’s hearts and eyes. Infected eyes see everything through the mirror; infected hearts turn to ice.

Kai and Gerda, a young boy and girl, are devoted playmates and best friends. When mirror fragments get into Kai’s heart and eyes, he instantly becomes cruel and aggressive, losing enjoyment in all their old games. He turns his attention to manmade objects or to mocking others. All that is beautiful to him now are the snowflakes he examines through a magnifying glass. The Snow Queen arrives and easily steals Kai away to her home up north; two of her kisses make him forget his old life and numb him to the cold. Thinking he has died, everyone mourns his loss.

The next spring, Gerda learns that he is still alive, and sets out on a quest to find him. That’s all I could remember before re-reading it: that, and my sense of horror with Gerda at the abrupt change in this dear trusted friend. I needed to find out how Kai was saved. What was Andersen trying to say about the human condition? How could I too be a Gerda, and invite people to abandon the splinters that robbed them of joy and peace?

I never expected that in the ending, I would identify even more with Kai’s nearly-frozen-solid heart than with Gerda’s distressed compassion for him. (Doesn't the Bible mention splinters in our eyes?) Andersen’s classic tale for children mostly left me sober at the realization of how my own eyes dull what is beautiful and good and right, and how I instead crave what is artificial and distorted. It reminded me of a freeing and joyous alternative.

If you haven’t let this story confront you in a while, I’d invite you to examine it. Whimsy and light-hearted touches permeate even poignant moments: Gerda discovers a numb Kai mechanically arranging chunks of ice into shapes and words, since the Snow Queen has promised that a certain impossible word will win him not only the whole world, but also a pair of ice skates. But mixed in with the escapades of these two youngsters is a gripping portrait of sin and redemption.