Why I want to go to China #2

"Increasingly the BRICS are betting on the yuan as their monetary alternative to a devalued US dollar" ~ Pepe Escobar

Earn yuan. Spend dollars.

Desire

what you do to me you crazy fool

darting in and out of my conscientiousness in your game of tag for one

usurping me of my reason, taunting my logic, testing my resolve,  all while flaunting your ease of use

carefully caressing my lapses in ego with your contempt

cycling through your creation and simultaneous destroying of determination and drive

reducing me with your imbalanced state you crazy fool you righteous bastard

you source of will, I want you

I found something I enjoy doing.

Taking intermediate ESL students to the advanced level.

After the brief, yet warranted mutiny yesterday (my second day of being more than a little tardy to 8am class) that included venting to management, I have my students back where I want them. Eating from the hand of knowledge.

I always suspected I would love teaching and law and I am half right so far.

This afternoon, Gina, the first student take advantage of the free hour I make myself available each day, told me of her struggle in the last five years since returning to Ecuador from the United States. She is losing vocabulary and general language production skills. In addition,  she is challenged by the spanish writing voice.

It will be interesting to see how I help students transition this voice and ultimatly lay new neurological paths.

I already have ideas using the visual Gina showed me today that illustrates the differences between the "voices" that dictate her speech and writing style.

I will need to show my students how they can write short, concise sentences with limited lexicon in English, as opposed to the ever flowing,  extended, and decorated style of the Spanish voice.

I also recognized that I will need to learn to adapt my teaching voice to suite different first languages.

grafbanos11_12clrneg

On the way to the market

I spotted this:

How to make soap?

Get six free mostly ummature coconuts from this guy:

Scrap them all out and put it osome high heat with some water.

and cook it...

and cook it...

and cook it in a smaller pot...

and squeeze the little fry balls.

and get a shot full of oil.

In order to make soap. But don't the lye to water ration... like I did.

Why I want to go to china reason #1.

Why I want to go to china reason #1. 

The first reason I want to go to China; it is the same size as the US with as much geographical diversity and wild places to camp.

Catfish ~ 2010 ~ Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman

I really enjoyed experiencing the documented real life story of Nev Schulman and the family of Angela Wesselman that directors Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman captured in their 2010 film Catfish.

This film touchingly reveals the level of connectedness that can be shared by people of vastly different worlds, who are living highly contrasting lives.

In the first twenty minutes the directors did a great job of engaging me with the excitement of the main characters Nev’s mutual enamorment with Abby, a highly successful child artist (Nev is also an artist) with the maturity and wisdom of an adult.  

I then found myself relating to Nev again as he wooed Abby's sister Megan, as a new love interest, into his world.  

As their budding courtship develops, we get to watch the subtitles of the communication between them amidst the vast physical separation they share.  

The story progresses steadily and the characters unfold. The mid point of the film reaches a climax when Nev finally spontaneously decides to make a surprise visit to Megan, Abby and their mother Angela.  

The scene delivers a very high level of suspense.  So much so it reminded me of the last two minutes of The Blair Witch Project it was so intense.

By this point in the film you have been given many opportunities to speculate about the truth behind the accumulation of mysteries that surround this family that Nev has discovered.  My guess is that you will not be far from figuring out what the visit to Angela’s house will reveal especially if you are aware of the remote fullness and limited economies of the upper peninsula of Michigan where Angela’s family lives.

I wanted to stop this film many times to begin write my review with all the different speculations but am glad I waited until the end as the story took many unexpected changes and waiting for each result was fascinating.

In the end, I found the brave willingness of Nev to enter Angela’s family’s world encouraging and I was touched the outcome of each of their mutual discoveries.  Abby, Megan and Angela are worthy women to be wooed and watching the enrichment of their friendships with Nev really worked because it was real life.

Why do we choose to watch film? To learn more about the context of our own selves and the lives we choose to live? To briefly share the vicariousness of a fantasy world filled with alter egos? 

If you answered yes to these either questions I encourage you the watch Catfish.  I also not so secretly hope to be a “catfish” for you and your life.