“Please please don’t write anything awful,” I begged the reporter over the crackly cellphone line. “I just got this new job and I really like it and I’m not trying to get thrown out!”
Darren chuckled and calmly replied, “I’m a reporter. No one would talk to me any more if I violated their trust. This will be a positive, inspiring story, really.”
The Herald reporter was true to his word, and what [...Read More!]
Tomorrow, after a year-long Leave of Absence to circumnavigate the globe, I return to being an English teacher in the Boston Public Schools!
I am super, super psyched. A year away has given me massive new appreciation for living in beautiful Boston, for the great people here, and for being a teacher in BPS.
“But,” some of you may be asking now, sniffling slightly, “does this mean the end of this blog?”
No, no, [...Read More!]
The world’s relationship with Muslim culture is one of the most intense and important topics around these days.
And thus it is with joy and hope for all humanity that I bring you an absolutely beautiful story from last week in our multicultural ESL class.
Let us allow the story to unfold through the words and pictures of three women in our class: Mafer from Venezuela, Yuri from Japan, and Meaad from Saudi [...Read More!]
We have discussed where clothes you donate might end up, but what about the BOOKS you toss into the “Donation” bin?
Me, I only had a hazy idea of how my old tomes might be used. Did they find a second life as firewood? Toilet paper? Food storage? Sometimes I worried about my cast-off literature’s fate.
And thus it was with absolute joy, during the three months I volunteered in Ghana, that I [...Read More!]
Article #13 in the ESL Student Life Story Project, by Faleh from Saudi Arabia, age 23.
My mother was crying and we didn’t know what had happened. I came to my mother, then she said, “I have been calling your father for two days, but his phone is off I don’t know why! There must be something bad that occurred to him.”
Later on we received the news: he had [...Read More!]
Article #12 in the ESL Student Life Stories Project, by Mei from Taiwan, age 35.
Pedestrians First! The cars stop behind the white line whenever I cross the road here in Boston.
I am so surprised by the street action! I come from Taiwan, where drivers and passengers always contest each other.
Sometimes in Taiwan, a driver will curse at you if you don’t let his car pass. He will [...Read More!]
Article #11 in the ESL Student Life Stories Project, by Amanda from China, age 20
There is something that makes me more mature than before. My mother is 48 years old, and in her life she has already had 3 operations in the hospital.
When I was 8 years old, my mother had her first operation, because she had an “Ectopic Pregnancy.” In this operation, my mother stayed in [...Read More!]
I can’t drive a car and I don’t really want to learn.
Lame?
Meh… naw.
It just means I’ll always be forced to live somewhere with adequate public transportation…
…meaning I’ll always have the joy of the train/bus reading commute!
My current hour round-trip MBTA ride means an hour of delightful book time each day.
Comment below, then read these related articles:A Tale of Buns and The Best Food of China Travel 100 Different Ways to Finally Start [...Read More!]
Article #10 in the ESL Student Life Story Project, by Faisal from Saudi Arabia, age 28
In July of 2009, I met President Obama.
The meeting was simple and very fast.
I simply introduced myself and asked Obama, “Could I sit in your chair in the Oval Office of the White House?”
Obama shook his head in humor, and, smiling, said, “OK!”
And then I was sitting in the chair of the President of the strongest [...Read More!]
Blogs are supposed to be honest, so after a bunch of weeks of trying to hide it, let’s be honest here: Things are weird.
I suppose it was to be expected, right?
You can’t just uproot your life and meander around the world for nine months, then come home and expect everything to be silky smooth.
Now, it’s not that things are bad: in fact, most things are lovely.
It’s all just… weird.
The best way [...Read More!]