Merry Christmas

Finals are almost over, my piles of things to grade is beginning to dwindle, and peeps are starting to leave for Christmas.

But I'm not ready for Christmas yet! I need another week!!

Does anyone else feel this way?

dinner parties

Last night we were invited to a non-lds foreign friend's house for a dinner party. This was our evening's schedule: we arrived around 5, chatted and snacked for about an hour, started on dinner around 6 while our hostess cooked and brought out dish after dish, sat around the table for the next few hours chatting, had dessert at about 8:30, chatted some more, and finally left at about 11. I think our hosts were slightly surprised that we (there were 5 of us, all lds) stayed so late. Apparently their experience has been that lds people expect to eat dinner right when they arrive, eat, talk for a while, then leave within about 2 hours of arrival. Having not been invited to many dinner parties in my life (after all, dinner at your non lds friend's house when you're 16 hardly counts as an official invitation), I was wondering if this is an lds custom or an American custom. What are the usual expectations for a normal non-lds American dinner party?

I was also wondering about this: what do you expect when you invite someone over for dinner? If I invite you over, I'm offering dinner and, as long as I don't have something pressing later on that evening, inviting you to stay as long as you'd like (usually I prefer it that way. I feel empty inside when people leave). On the other hand, when I am invited to someone's house for dinner, I usually feel like I've overstayed my welcome if it's been more than 3 hours.

And this: if you bring something with you to dinner, do you expect to take home the leftovers? Or do you expect to leave them with the host?

some stereotypes are true

Such as the one about Asians being rill rill smart:

Today one of my Korean students told me that her 10 year old daughter just won a spelling bee in school. Did I mention that she's been here for less than 1 year and barely spoke a word of English when she got here?

And she won the spelling bee for her entire grade.

It's ok to be impressed. I was.

Oh, and exciting news: I've decided to start an International Student Choir (club) at UVU. So as of next semester, I get to be a choir director. Coolies eh?

Now if you have any ideas for songs, I'd happily take suggestions...

you are what you eat

I have a friend who is overweight and quite miserable about it. I enjoy spending time with her, but I often feel quite awkward around her. Let's say, for example, that we're having lunch together. I might sit down to a salad and yogurt, or a sandwich, or even something relatively unhealthy like a hamburger or greasy cafeteria food. It doesn't matter what I'm eating- she always has some kind of comment about it. She might ask me how I eat things like that and stay so thin, or comment on how I'm so good for eating so healthy, or how she's so fat and will never look like me...blah blah blah. For a long time, I felt almost guilty for eating around her because I'm skinny and she's not. But over the past few weeks I've been watching what she eats and my guilt has lessened. Here's an example of a typical meal with this friend:

• Chips
• Chex mix
• Several cookies from the vending machine
• Lots of chocolates
• Salted flavored nuts

She's also always the first one to grab a piece of pie or cheesecake or tart or anything sweet and bad for you. Occasionally she eats something healthy with lunch, but almost all of her snacks, and they are many, are things with lots of salt, sugar, or fat. Really, it's no wonder that she's overweight- if I ate like that, I'm sure my booty would also expand. And I'm starting to want to tell her this anytime she makes a comment about her weight. She's living proof that you are what you eat.

wishing you a Merry Christmas

Dear non-religious Christmas celebrator,

Why does Christmas need to become a secular event? Why can't I have signs saying "Merry Christmas" in my store windows? Why does it have to be "Happy Holidays?" Why can't I sing Away in a Manger in school along with Jingle Bells. I understand that you may not choose to celebrate the religious aspect of Christmas, and that's just fine. But the plain fact of the matter is that Christmas is a religious holiday, no matter how you look at it. I'm not trying to force my Christianity on you by wishing you a Merry Christmas or by singing traditional religious Christmas carols. I'm just celebrating Christmas the way I see fit, just like you are. Why does my way of celebrating = closed minded or offensive? And why can we talk about Hanukkah and Kwanzaa without any repercussions, but Christmas is taboo?

How about this for a solution: I'll wish you a Merry Christmas, you respond with a Happy Holidays, Eid, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whatever, and we'll both smile and go our separate ways.

Sincerely,
your religious Christmas celebrating neighbor

LOOK...

at what T-rav bought me today! He's the best!


I wish I lived in Harry Potter land.

Cheater!

What, in your opinion, makes one a cheater? Is sharing answers on an assignment cheating? What if it's a dumb assignment or busy work? What about on a test? What about finding information on the internet and "rephrasing it" (kind of) and claiming it as your own? How often did you cheat on things and get away with it? Did your teacher ever catch you?

There is a ton of cheating among ESL students. I don't know if it's because they have a different idea of what cheating means or what, but they all do it, even after we have long, in depth conversations about it. And one of the most unpleasant things I get to do as a teacher is tell students that I know they've cheated and this is how they're going to be punished for it. I always feel extremely awkward, but at the same time slightly vindictive. Ccome on people. If you're a level 3 ESL student, should you really be writing essays that look like a college student's senior thesis? Probably not. But somehow they think I won't notice. They really do think I'm that dumb.

I've been tagged!

Cousin Manda tagged me on a picture post, so here's the fourth picture from the fourth folder in my computer photo album:

In this picture, I'm testing out T-rav's new karate foot pads and gloves. Yes, I am trying to kick him as he takes this picture. I'm desperately hoping he'll buy me my very own set so we can fight without restraint (meaning I can wail on him and he can wail back with fewer visible bruises- after all, I wouldn't want anyone to think we actually beat each other...)

I tag: Layla, Krust, T-rav and Callie.

Good bye Samantha

I have urgent news for any of you who once loved or still love your Samantha American Girl Doll: Samantha is being retired!

Yes, it's true. She and Nellie are going the way of all the earth, and almost ALL of her beautiful accessories and clothing are already out of stock on the american girl website! Right now it's a mad (and expensive) rush on ebay to purchase anything anyone has left. I find this terribly depressing. If only it was my birthday TODAY so I could waste all my money on Samantha stuff, as well as the new head I promised her (her hair is badly in need of replacement).

So if you or a small young female are still in want of any Samantha items, you better hurry. They're going fast!

(to the few males who read my blogs, please disregard this post without any snide or snippety comments...I'm really being quite serious and sincere)