The joy of the unexpected

This weekend, I was going to go on my very first camping trip. It was going to be awesomely combined with a float trip down a beautiful blue-green river that looks like it should be in the jungle instead of rural Missouri. But you already know from my past continuous + infinitive sentence structure (was going + to go) that something must have interfered and prevented my plans from taking place.

That something was my health.

The plan was to peace out on Friday at noon. This got moved to Friday at five to accommodate a friend who got off work then. Thursday night, my stomach raged, my sinuses burned, and I went to sleep way early. Maybe I actually was fighting some virus, or maybe I was just exhausted from lack of sleep and too much hurry. Either way, around 10:30 Friday morning, I got honest enough with myself to recognize that the LAST thing I wanted to do was drive five hours and sleep outside. On the ground.

So I stayed home. My boyfriend Caleb came over and we watched Finding Nemo (he's looking for his son, Fabio), which I had never seen before. Saturday, I went to the farmers' market and got eggs, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, and my very first paw paws. They are very similar to the cherimoyas I enjoyed in Espain (and lo! I was correct in my assumption that they are related). They are, according to that link I used with paw paws, also referred to as the "poor man's banana". That strikes me as ironic because I am pretty sure the poor man's banana now is... a banana. Paw paws could be re-termed the rich man's banana because they 'spensive.

I also made a gluten and dairy free peanut butter banana cake. So. good. Why? Because yesterday was my dear friend Amanda's birthday. (You should click that link. It took me two freaking years to write that post.) We celebrated with a surprise tea party! It was delightful and perfectly Amanda.

In all, it turned out to be a weekend full of good things, but nothing like I planned. Sometimes I find myself addicted to planning. It feels deceptively as if I am in control...

It seems like I usually find myself happiest though when my plans don't work out because something better comes up. I can't plan to make myself laugh so hard I feel sick. (A good experience, I promise!) Nor can I schedule seeing complete surprise register on someone's face as they open a really good present.

Have you ever been surprised by the joy of the unexpected?

G-F

I'm trying something new. It's a little crazy, but so far, I feel really good. I have cut gluten (it's the protein in wheat) and dairy from my life. This is on top of meat, which I already don't eat on account of being vegetarian. Oh. And I stopped eating sugar.

This has been a gradual decline, sort of.

Day 1 I subbed rice noodles for spaghetti and ate all the other things.
Day 2 I ate half a cupcake and M&Ms
Day 3 I ate a cookie.
Day 4 totally free!
Day 5 totally free! but now I am having cravings. I can do it. I went grocery shopping and got some snacks that were G/D/S free. I am not bloated and I feel great. I actually feel hungry instead of just sort of uncomfortable. I can recognize it. Here we go...!!

YES!

Two life goals in four days? Pretty good.

1. Catching the bouquet at a wedding. (after which, I let out a really loud "YES!", hence the title of this post)
   
2. Biking to work. (17 miles round trip)
   

What's next? Skydiving?

Expanding on #2... Today I biked to work. It was awesome. It took me an hour and a half and I arrived with back sweat. it felt like such an adventure. I am a pretty happy exerciser, generally speaking. I laughed at least 8 times on my bike trip and at one point, I felt like I knew a secret that almost no one else knows: arriving at work powered only by your body is totally awesome. (But tomorrow, I will drive.)

dreaming

Sometimes it's fun to imagine possibilities. And I love my life right now. I just like to imagine for the future...

I think it would be great to:
get up every day and do yoga
become an urban farmer
have dreadlocks or really short hair
live in community
(am i a hippie?)
make sweet works of art
have perpetually dirty nails from working on my urban farm
have a horse or two and chickens
only eat food from my urban farm
live in a house with no TV or computer
go to sleep and wake up with the sun
carry my future children around in those straps of cloth that you use to wrap them to your body
speak english and spanish every day

that was fun. you should try it!

full hands

I've started a new job. Actually, it's kind of like I've started three new jobs. Let me discuss.

1. I am now an ESL instructor. I don't think I can describe how much I like this. I feel like all of my years of learning Spanish are combining with every single job I've ever had (except for maybe doing the football team's laundry) to make a really great fusion of classroom time. My students are Chinese, Taiwanese, and Saudi. I am writing syllabus and finding homework. I am making lesson plans. I had to make lesson plans in Spain and it was so terrifiying. I had no idea what I was doing. But I've been in schools for two years now. And suddenly, I just know how to do it.

I'm a little scared that I am not doing good enough. I'm scared of being too easy and I'm scared of being too hard. But I'm learning (over and over) that it's about trying it out and making mistakes and learning how to be a teacher. Each day is dynamic and I'm learning when to yield and when to push.

The top question on my mind is this: What does it look like to have a classroom of students who come from a variety of academic backgrounds? I'm trying to assume nothing. I know that some of them come from a culture where children go to "cram school" on the weekend and some come from a country where women and men are never allowed together - and the women's classes consist of a male teacher lecturing on a TV screen.

I want my classes to inspire creativity and imagination; but learning another language is sometimes necessarily repetition and drilling. It's like with playing an instrument: you can't compose music if you haven't learned to play the notes. So I guess for now, I'll keep explaining why we do each drill, even if it's obvious.

This is probably the most highly motivated, responsible group of students I've ever had. (Not hard when you compare them to Spanish teenagers and low-level 1st graders - both of whom I LOVED working with)

I just think I'm going to have to keep being flexible and amping the level. One part of me wanted to be consistent, but if my students are going to keep being awesome, I'm going to have to keep bringing my "A" game.

So that's one job. The main one.

#2. I'm tutoring some fantastic kiddos also, but don't get paid for that.
#3. I'm interpreting in some hospitals. Which is amazing, except that every time I do it, my heart is filled with terror of messing up. Oo. Messing up is a great idiom. I should teach it to my students. Hmm...

In conclusion, if it seems like I've fallen off the map, it's because I sort of have. But I'm pretty happy down here, if only a little tired.

how to make lap swimming more interesting

1. Pick a pool that is filled with playing children. Then don't get mad - obstacle course!


2. Think about how you are outside. Swimming in a pool. NOT doing a workout video.


3. Think about how you are NOT on the computer or watching TV.


4. Do a no arms lap.


5. Do a no legs lap (significantly harder).


6. Speak to yourself in a foreign language. Probs not out loud.


7. Don't count your laps. Boring! Then you have to think of numbers the whole time. You're getting exercise, don't worry about it.


8. Pretend you are a dolphin. (very fun when combined with #1 or #4)


9. Compose blog posts about how to make lap swimming more interesting in your head.


10. Watch the small children (from #1) do hilarious things underwater.


11. Reflect on your day.


12. Do a blind lap. No goggles. No peeking underwater.


13. Go back and forth between two lanes. Or more. (This may happen unintentionally while doing #12)


14. See if you can laugh underwater.

beyutifle* things

"Above all, remember that the meaning of life is to live it as if it were a work of art. You're not a machine. When you're young, start working on this great work of art called your own existence."
-Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

I like this quote.

I also like this picture.

*This is a first grade spelling of beautiful. I think it's quite lovely.