back to school, week 1

not completely done with week 1 -- it seems both like forever ago and just a blink ago that this week started, after much anticipation, much sweat and [sometimes tears] stressing about putting together an entirely new classroom in an entirely new and small school.

some funny / inspiring / surprising moments of this week that involve both my students and (in an pleasantly unexpected way) my parents:

- best random phrase said to me by a student while i was trying to faciliate a teambuilding game: "miss, why do you have a hickey on your neck?" (to which i simply and calmly said, "yeah, i don't think i have one" (which i didn't!) and moved on. the wonders of being in your third year of teaching and being able to brush off wacky comments!)

- most inspiring moment so far: in a discussion about humanities and how history and literature represent the human condition, i played the song and youtube clip of strange fruit for all my classes. some students were moved so much they were crying in class. but besides that one young, outspoken young woman spoke up and talked about her grandmother's family being lynched and how she didn't want anyone to think that the song was funny or to react in an immature way and think seriously about the song. this young person is definitely someone i'm gonna focus on getting to really step up this year...

- least surprising moment so far: hearing that the students have asked the only other asian teacher at the school (who's vietnamese) if she and i are sisters. i've emphasized at least three times afterwards that i'm filipino. starred it on my map in my classroom and everything. talked to students how in the philippines we call our towns "barrios" too... am i doin too much? probably. will they know who are filipinos are by the end of this year? yes.

- interesting, to say the least, fact about my students so far: i have one pregnant student at 4 months; one male student who brought in his 2-week baby afterschool on the first day. boy, was that a trip seeing this young "man" holding this tiny little baby with the look of such maturity but at the same time seeming, still, so young. i hear another student might also be pregnant...

- which leads to the unexpected moment of the week: i had dinner with my parents the first day, and told them about the young parents in my classes. my mom brushed it off, sayin she wasn't surprised. my dad however, suddenly went deep into contemplation mode and all the sudden started talking about how at 18, he got this 16-year old girl pregnant. i already knew about having a long-lost sister, but i've never truly had such an open conversation with him about it, let alone with him AND my mom at the same time. i dunno if it's just me getting older, but it's nice having open conversations about seemingly taboo topics with your parents...

he told me how it wasn't even his girlfriend at the time, how he went off to the service when she got pregnant, and later returned years later to be sued by the mom. he talked about wanting to meet her, but not knowing how to go about it.

it's crazy cuz i remember growing up with two older brothers who at timed seemed too cool, too old, or too male-oriented to be close to. that and they were always farting on me or making me do random "projects" for them like making tap ramen for them or smelling their dirty socks. i always felt like having a sister would alleviate me and my need for a female presence in my life, besides my barbies and my mom who worked a lot. who knows... maybe i'll look my "sister" up on facebook one day... altho i hardly would know what to say...

anywhos. in a nutshell, so far (even tho it ain't over), good, positive, inspiring week. it's easy to get bogged down in planning, re-planning, prepping, and all the other hundred things to do when you're teaching. but when you go to work and see a bunch of bright eyed, honest, outspoken and energetic young people curious about the world, it's hard not to want to be good for them.

today's WTF moment: all my life gone terribly wrong

wow. who remembers playing the piano tune to this song? well, watch this clip (at 1:48 is when it gets damn good), and just watch the madness unravel...

and i thought k-ci was freakin loco...




my #1 favorite moment: "pick him up, man!"
runner up favorite moment: what k-ci keeps doing after 1:48 drops.

WHAT THE FUCK??

today's WTF moment: texas teachers allowed to carry guns

class is in session

found this as the first headline on google news just now: Texas district allows teachers to carry concealed weapons, as a mode of self defense, in their classrooms.

directly taken from the policy of Harrold Independent school district (a 110-student district), located in northern Texas, this is how they justify letting educators to "pack heat," as news media has been saying:

Recognizing that District schools are located in a somewhat isolated area and that response from emergency first responders, including law enforcement personnel, takes a minimum of approximately 30 minutes, the Board adopts the following policy to address concerns about effective and timely response to emergency situations at schools, including invasion of the schools by an armed outsider, hostage situations, students who are armed and posing a direct threat of physical harm to themselves or others, and similar circumstances.

ummm, yeah. instead of blasting on and on about the ridiculousness of this policy, i'll just leave it with some questions:

• if you can't handle making a safe learning community for 110 students (!!), how's adding guns into the equation gonna make it any better?
• guns are supposed to be "concealed." who says that students, or anybody for that matter, won't be able to find a way to get to those weapons?
• dude, there are teachers who can't even manage their own classrooms, who irresponsibly and unethically have relatinoships with their students, who feel threatened by their own students for unvalid and sometimes valid reasons: what about the equation of inept/disillusioned teacher + weapon = a very scary situation?
• if teachers can defend themselves, why can't students? [seems like a dumb question, i know. teachers are more experienced, more knowledgeable adults. but this just created an even bigger power hierarchy between students and teachers, where teachers are not only the "holders of knowledge," now they're basically the police too. i know that teachers aren't supposed to be using the weapons as classroom management tools, but let's not act like bringing in guns into the classroom doesn't create yet another complicated power dynamic.
  
• why not think of preventative measures for columbine-like experiences, for student conflict, instead of thinking of a reactionary bandaid solution, that, inevitably, will probably make matters even worse!!!!???!
• what the fuck??
  

5 things i learned as an ABDC audience member

so the sistamaestra chris corpus had a homie kaywon (thanks dude!) that hooked it up with tickets to last week's episode of america's best dance crew. being the only folks who didn't have work at that time (summer vacation babyyyy), we jumped on the chance to see my fave fanny pack (and my other secret fave, lil mama.... read below). to our surprise, it was quite the experience, on many different levels...

1. haterade is everywhere
now, i know ABDC is a competition, and there's bound to be shit-talkers and haters (i.e. "know your rank" is so stupidly militaristic, it's grosses me out). but i'm not even talkin about the contestants; i'm talkin about our wild experience just getting into the studio.

me, chris, and other homie aylene check-in and get wrist bands. we end up getting two different colored wrist bands, yellow and turqoise. we walk across the street to the studio and are greeted by a rockstar energy drink girl, who tells us to take a free can and wait at the side. sweet, we get free drinks and i am still on my master cleanse lemonade regiment. minutes later, i notice not all folks are waiting with us, and i look around and see a bunch of females -- tryin to find a common ground among us. hmm. is it the dresses? no, cuz chris is wearin jeans. is it cuz we're small and we won't block anyone? nope, cuz a tall skinny white girl crew joins us. is it the collection of gargantually big breasts i see to my left? nope. suddenly, chris, aylene and i are feeling a tad bit uncomfortable with our free rockstars and "special" wristbands. the discomfort then turns to hate towards females we don't wanna associate ourselves with, which turns to self-hate in thinking, damn, should i have worn a longer dress? do i/we look like i belong with these beezies?

some official dude with a headset walks up to us and tells us we're the "lucky" ones who get to sit in the front. to which the big-breast crew responds with, "yeah we know, we've been here before." official dude proceeds to tell us to walk with him, and of course, we must pass by an entire group of folks who aren't designated to sit in the front.

i'm just trying to channel my i'm-on-the-master-cleanse-just-stay-positive vibe, while chris and aylene keep making "wtf-is-going-on" faces, and then i hear the classic comment come from the folks we're passing by: "OH, IT'S CUZ THEY ALL HOES."

ha. chris's blood pressure proceeds to skyrocket. i kinda think to myself, "well, there are girls in the front of our line wearing hoe uniforms, so i can't be that mad..." it went from me hatin on our fellow "vip-ers", to me hatin myself, to being hated on. we have to still wait with our vip crew for about an hour, forced to listen to ignorant ass conversations and groupie talk. this whole two-hour waiting ordeal kinda makes me wonder, what the hell is the protocol for being in situations like this? i'm still wrappin my head around it...

2. judge shane sparks is uber small
like, my height. and old at the same time. who knew?

3. lil mama is high-larious
i don't care if she can't read filipino spelling of names and calls contestants "aliens," i think she's a hoot. the whole time she was pretend singing into her microphone during breaks and messin with the audience. maybe it's my experience working with goofy ass youth (cut her some slack, lil mama's young!), but i want her to be my friend.

4. i can still do the running man. i think.
while the judges are making their decision, the audience is split into different teams and compete for next episode's tickets by dancing like maniacs. i know it sounds uber cheesy, and i was afraid that if they taped it, they would edit my wtf face out of the scene, but lo and behold, i found myself slidin, gyrating, and knee-slappin like the rest of em. and it was flippin fun.

5. i prob won't be an audience member again
not to say it wasn't fun -- it was. and the performances are so much better watching live. and it's interesting see all the behind-the-scenes stuff and the elaborate stage setup. but reliving a one-hour episode in a four-hour process prob ain't gonna happen again.

go fanny pack!

mc day 6 and 7 aka miss universe boggles my mind

lady gaga performs at miss universe 2008. a bit awkward, maybe?

more about my detox later. while workin on my summer reading with the tv on in the background, my roommate and i came upon yesterday's miss universe contest, this year held in vietnam. immediately my wtf-face came on as i watched the opening sequence of national costumes. my mind couldn't wrap around all these questions:

1. what's with the freaking sexy stripper gazes at the camera? was miss universe always this freakin sexy, aka slutty?
2. what in the world is with the juxtaposition of lady gaga and her asexual dance troup with the scantily clad contestants boppin around like go go dancers?
3. who the hell decided it would be a genius idea for jerry springer to co-host with scary spice?
4. why does miss usa fall AGAIN during the evening gown competition (altho i prefer last year's flop)? is that what usa gets?
5. does anyone else think miss usa looks like a bootleg rihanna before she hired a stylist?
6. does this contest not remind you of a grown-up version of little miss sunshine? but even more disturbing?
7. must donald trump objectify both women and entire cultures to promote his resort empire? really? (i tried finding a clip of the contestants sporting bikinis and chinaman hats in the vietnamese jungle, but i couldn't. damnit.)
8. why can't i change the damn channel???

sad to say, i was both perturbed and entertained at the same time. bah.

anyhoo, back to the cleanse: easily made it through day 6 and 7 without any mishaps. well, i am tired of wiping my ass (and so is my sore ass), and i thought of licking the sauce off my niece's pizza, but besides that it's been smooth sailing. woke up this morning (day 8), and found some new frontier in the toilet -- i will refrain from descriptions for now. my tongue is sorrrrrta becoming pink, but still has those icky white spots.

3 more days, i can see the promiseland! yummy soup, here i come!

to celebrate my week anniversary of the cleanse, my favorite clip from little miss sunshine:

mc day 5: first midnight ride

midnight ridazz through LA

forget posting about my regular poo poo cleanse routine, let's talk about my first midnight ride! i'm sad to say i didn't take any photos from the night, but let me me briefly describe the experience.

me and the jerm, hoe, and jeff, met up homies mike, maya, rani, jason and others at the chinatown metro spot. immediately you realize that this is more like a party than a bike ride, with people fistin beer cans left and right, maryjane in the air and some woodstock music blastin. turns out i didn't get the memo that it's tie-dyed night and a bunch of folks are rockin bright ass hippie gear. not to mention the plethora of hipsters abounding the crowd. drew was nice enough to loan out some lights to folks in need. woulda been nice to down a beer and join the crowd, but my lemonade will have to do. i dunno about my newbie ass under the influence on my first ride anyway -- i'm alreadya concerned about not crashing into people.

finally we take off in some random direction and we're off. throughout the ride, you see LA down town in the distance, goin up and down mild hills, with a sea of red lights flashin in front of you, cars honkin props to you, dudes trailin speakers on their bikes blastin goodies and oldies. i'm doin good and then i suddenly realize after goin down a hill, that no matter how hard i try to whisp my precious little legs on the pedals, folks are hella passin me by. turns out i think my automatic speed shift is not so automatic, and i feel like an incompetent rider tryin to keep up with the homies. but it's all goo d-- i def felt the love around me, folks askin me if i was cool, jerm tryin to hold on to my bike and give me a boost. def got my workout on -- altho it was weird cuz i felt i was exertin way more effort than other folks.

did a lot of stops -- some seemed longer than they needed to be. but took advantage of the stops to down some needed lemonade energy. eventually ended up on a bridge, and some weirdos started climbin up and lighting firecrackers, so our mob decided to fly solo and go back to the startin point. turns out a couple of our folks got left behind cuz of some other people crashing. took a scenic route through j-town, through olivera street and back to chinatown. i made it!

definitely wanna do it again, and def wanna make sure my gears are fully workin by then. and add beer to the equation! day 5 of cleanse done -- halfway through baby!

to capture the ride a bit better, a little doc of the midnight ridazz:

mc day 4 aka guess who got a bike snitches!

morning
woke up several times startin from 5:45 am with the lax tea cramps (again). the tea entitled "smooth move" ain't so smooth after all. for some reason, didn't have an urge to do the do until i took the salt water. which, i must say, is getting a lot easier to drink.

afternoon-ish
after babysitting went on a mission to find a bike and ended up splurgin on that pretty young thang you see up there -- her name is nancy. after thinkin it all through, esp since i was gonna paint the $200 one and maybe revise it more, i decided might as well splurge and get one that's already ready to go -- booked to santa monica to pick up the size i needed. apparently a 24" bike, which i find most comfortable, is supposed to be for kids.
i dunno if you could see from the chart above, but 24" bikes are made for about 13 year olds (highlighted in pink in the chart). seems i am the size of half my age, yes! and, two different bike store dudes kept tryin to get me to get a bigger bike, by either whispering to my friend that "uh, i dunno if she knows this, but those are kid bikes," or giving me a funny look and directing me to the more adult bikes.

anyways, after bringin it home, ended up takin a nice ride to wilson park at sunset and ahead of me i saw a reflection of me riding as a little girl:

maybe i can add tassles to mine too! i don't look THAT young on a bike, do i?

night
overall, this lemonade cleanse is becoming routine and i don't really think about it too much. added an extra tablespoon to my servings, and its given me more energy. plannin to do a midnight ride tomorrow with homies across la, so that should be fun! i'm gonna need more lemonade tho!

goodbye day four! less than a week left!