It's just like ALIAS in real life! I probably shouldn't be so excited about foreign spies living in the US...

cool or creepy?

I have a student who is a clown.

Enough said.

I just finished reading some of the nicest journal entries from my level 2 writing students. Their assignment was to write 1 paragraph (~8 sentences) about things they like about themselves followed by 1 paragraph (~8 sentences) about things they disliked (physical appearance, personality, abilities, etc). Almost all of them started their entry with "this was really hard for me to write about..." Now if it had been me, it would have been because I couldn't think of enough good things to write. But all of them mentioned it was difficult because they couldn't think of things they disliked.

I know what you're thinking. Arrogant Asians, right?

But no, this class is actually mostly Hispanic students, all from different cultures, some LDS, some not. All of them said the loveliest things about themselves without being a bit proud or obnoxious. And their dislikes were honest, but not degrading or full of self-loathing. I don't know what went wrong in my wiring, but I've never been like that. What good things I could come up with were usually short and half hearted and the bad list long and self-contemptuous.

I'm not hinting at a "oh, no you're so wonderful" kind of comment to this post. I'm just wondering what you would have written about yourself. Would the postivies or negatives have been easier?

You've heard the expression "publish or perish" right? From the way I've been going, I'm not going to make it much longer (I'm trying to start something, really I am!), but T-rav is well on his way with his very first published work. Aside from some odd corrections his non-native English speaking professor made, it's pretty dang good.

Go Irish go. I hope they have better luck than previous blockade breakers.

Fire!

The most exciting thing just happened. Two cute, innocent looking Korean girls were playing around before class by a fire alarm...and accidentally bumped into it, causing the alarm to go off and everyone to evacuate the building.

YES!

I love fire drills. They're so exciting (except when you think of all the books that could burn if the building were actually on fire). And I've always secretly wanted to pull a fire alarm.

So we all dutifully exited the building to the beautiful sunshine, though some less enthusiastically than others. I was ecstatic about this chance to hang out in the sun until I unwisely opened my mouth and mentioned to someone with Authority that it was just an accident and that I had seen it and Mr. Authority made a call and suddenly the alarm went off and we all had to go back inside (and now I had no excuse for not being prepared for my next class).

But it was a glorious few moments.