The Bleu Plate Special

Desperately needing some humor after taking yesterday off to go to a foreign language teaching symposium in Baltimore (meaning I had to get up really early, did not get home until about 12 hours later, and sat in a chair allllll day), I looked up a few Dave Barry columns and found one about France and silly French people in general.

However, despite sitting around all day (which made me very sleepy), the speaker at the symposium was very excellent and I have lots of new ideas to try out - some of which I will be starting this week, others of which will wait until next year when two of my classes have only had me as a French teacher and I won't hear, "Well, Ms. So-and-So never did it this way," every other breath.

And today with my upper-level classes, we talked about Haiti both from colonial times and its connection to France (and now possibly Senegal) and the government, etc. of recent years. It was actually a good discussion and some of my students were really interested in the situation there. Also, we started brainstorming a master plan to get more students to take French (possibly t-shirts for the 8th grade open-house??) If you have ideas on how I can get more kids to want to take French, please let me know!

And read the column, it's very funny.

Bulwer-Lytton Contest

For all lovers of good writing, here are this year's winners of the Bulwer-Lytton contest, (aka "It Was a dark and Stormy Night" Contest) run by the English Department of San Jose State University, wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel.

10. As a scientist, Throckmorton knew that if he were ever to break wind in the echo chamber, he would never hear the end of it.

9. Just beyond the Narrows , the river widens.

8. With a curvaceous figure that Venus would have envied, a tanned unblemished oval face framed with lustrous thick brown hair, deep azure-blue eyes fringed with long black lashes, perfect teeth that vied for competition, and a small straight nose, Marilee had a beauty that defied description.

7. Andre, a simple peasant, had only one thing on his mind as he crept along the East wall: "Andre creep... Andre creep...Andre creep."

6. Stanislaus Smedley, a man always on the cutting edge of narcissism, was about to give his body and soul to a back alley sex-change surgeon to become the woman he loved..

5. Although Sarah had an abnormal fear of mice, it did not keep her from eking out a living at a local pet store.

4. Stanley looked quite bored and somewhat detached, but then penguins often do.

3. Like an over-ripe beefsteak tomato rimmed with cottage cheese, the corpulent remains of Santa Claus lay dead on the hotel floor.

2. Mike Hardware was the kind of private eye who didn't know the meaning of the word "fear"'; a man who could laugh in the face of danger and spit in the eye of death -- in short, a moron with suicidal tendencies.

AND THE WINNER IS...

1. The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"

Why?

While catching up on my current events (following a very productive (and expensive) day grocery shopping, wal-marting, etc.) I found this very interesting and well-written article, "Why does God allow natural disasters?"

Check it out.

Encouragement

After watching CNN and BBC for hours and hearing all that is going on in Haiti, I was really in need of some encouragement (and hopefully am passing it on) and came upon Isaiah chapter 41, which is titled, "Fear Not, For I Am with You."

"Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." - Isaiah 41:10

"When the poor and needy seek water,
and there is none,
and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them." - Isaiah 41:17

I particularly enjoyed these verses although the whole chapter is great, these two seemed particularly applicable and encouraging. I already was very familiar with verse 10 as it is a verse I often use to encourage myself when I am feeling lonely (it happens when you're not living in a dorm anymore), but verse 17 hit the nail right on the head.

Haiti

I ended up having a great conversation with one of my students today concerning the earthquake in Haiti last night. It was really eye-opening for the student and made me look up history of Haiti. (being a French teacher, I think this is important.) It was also great to talk about something so outside of what most high school students here in the United States are aware of.

My student was appalled by the conditions before the earthquake and even more so by the government and history of the country. I remember one particular moment when she said, "But how can they do that?!?" I looked up pictures of the shanty towns and before/after pictures of the cities (especially Port-au-Prince and Petionville) and the expression on this student's face made me think - why aren't we all always this offended by inhumane conditions all over the world and willing to contribute? Why do we seemingly have to wait until there's a disaster? Because we're human. So I pray that God will give me empathy and open my eyes to what I can do every day. And not only that, but give me the confidence and discipline to do what I can!

"Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. " - Job 42:11

What a good example this is of the love we should show others! (Except the part in Job where everyone abandoned him; rather, this part, where we share comfort and supplies for physical needs.) This should not only be for our close friends and family, but others that we may reach out to. For we are commanded, "Love your neighbor as yourself," (Matthew 19:19) and we are given the example of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). How much more in this modern day of convenience, fast travel, and faster communication must I take it upon myself to constantly aid and give up prayers to the best of my abilities?

Well Done!

As a reward for completing a level of a game online today, I was rewarded with the following message:

WELL DONE!

As a reward you will be played some easy listening music followed by some vigorous jazz.

Haha. I got quite a bit of amusement from this message. What a great way to reward arcade game players and expose them to a little bit of culture. Not culture I am very fond of (the easy listening), but culture nonetheless.

Laughter

It's important to laugh.

"La plus perdue de toutes les journées est celle où l'on n'a pas ri." - Sébastien Roch Nicolas, dit CHAMFORT, Maximes et pensées

Roughly translated to: "The most wasted of all days is the one where one did not laugh."

I'm finding more and more that it's important to have a sense of humour especially when dealing daily with teenagers! There are good days and bad days, but at the end of the day, I need to remember how much I care for my kids and the smiles and laughs they give me.