Stand still for the catalyst

Hi everybody. I finally made the switch... I will still probably post in my LJ a bit, but it will most certainly be friends only, and probably more dorky emo stuff than actual travel writing.

SO.

For my South Korean Adventures... check out:
http://maggie-cube.blogspot.com

ENJOY! (And friend me on blogspot, if you have that.)

And in about 40 minutes, the consulate will open, and I can call them about getting my interview! And then I can book my ticket, and then I can start planning things next week, like seeing people and saying bye. Getting this squared away will probably take care of one of the more stressful things that I've had to do this week, so... then it will just be packing, and saying goodbye, and... you know, hoping that I get a plane ticket soon. It's the weekend in Korea now, though. Maybe on Sunday night they will send it to me. I wouldn't be so worried about it, but everybody keeps asking me: Now when is this and when is that? And I don't know.

Right now I'm sitting in my brother's apartment waiting for the consulate to open. Then I'm walking over to the Women's Center so I can hang out for Friday programming, or what they call fifth day. I went last week and it was a blast. This will probably be my last chance to go, but they are also going to the State Fair next Friday and I just think that will be a blast, too.

Korea is getting closer and closer, but there are also some things that I'm looking forward to in the next week. Tomorrow I'm taking my mom to the MGG exhibit, and I think she will enjoy that a lot. Then my trip to Chicago will be fun and exciting, because I'll get to see Jen for the first time in.. lord, I don't even know. A year? More than that? And of course Chicago is going to be a fun place! I am planning on buying my new camera today, probably this evening after the women's center. I have to go to the bank, too, to see if I can transfer money into an account that isn't mine, haha. Then of course, if I can go, the State Fair with the families from the center. I mean I figured eventually I would have to go, and with them it will be fun, I think. :D

Maybe tonight. I don't know. I think you need the visa number before you can confirm the ticket, and in that case I'll have to wait a little longer. ... How did it get to be Thursday already?

I have glasses, and they are giving me a hard time. My eyes are having a REALLY hard time adjusting. I feel like I don't see as well with the glasses on. Then, when I try to take them off to see better, I get terrible headaches. Yesterday I got a headache from trying to write on my computer for more than an hour. My peripheral vision is not doing so well. TV especially gives me a headache. I feel dizzy because of the concave or convex lense... things are different shapes.

Though I haven't run into any doors lately, which I used to do with considerable frequency. ^^; So maybe they aren't the wrong shapes, haha.

Anyway I feel like I'm fogging up like when I try to learn a new computer program, or a new computer system. Nothing really seems to make sense and I can't process certain things. I don't know which is better, either. Everybody keeps telling me tough it out, and that's what I'll try, but my departure in 10 days does not make it easy to do. I don't have much time to keep toughing it out, if it turns out that they really are not what I need.

But then again, I'm sure all hell would not break loose if I just didn't wear them. And I should probably start trusting doctors, and getting over my own ideas of how things should work. I mean I know I'm going to ignore the foot doctor when he says "don't wear flip flops", so maybe I should compromise and listen to this doctor when he says "wear the glasses".

Anyway I'm mostly disappointed, because true to form, I thought this would be a magic fix, and it definitely isn't. It's surprising how often I think about things like that. ^^; Embarrassing, kind of, too.

Anyway, today is August 20, which means that I have about ten days until I leave. I sent my plane ticket coordinator an email that said that my earliest date of departure was August 30. I don't know if she'll stick to that or not, but I don't know why she wouldn't. I had a dream last night that they booked the ticket for the 17th, which obviously wouldn't work, and shows how sincerely my subconscious is not registering the passing of time. This is the last day of girl's group at the Women's Center, too, so I'm going to take my camera in and get pictures of my girls and the center. I hope they don't mind. Next week at the center is supposed to be very relaxed. They are painting and cleaning, doing grunt work mostly, and I can stop by but I'm not on a schedule or anything. That actually worked out WONDERFULLY for my Chicago trip, which I should be making next week sometime, so I can get my visa and HANG OUT WITH JEN. :D I'm looking forward to it--especially because I found a plane ticket for 155. Say whaaat. :D

Anyhow, if I get my visa number tonight, which is Korean Friday, I should be able to leave on Saturday afternoon, and spend three days. Now I don't know if this will actually happen, but its what I'm hoping for, anyway. I don't know how hard it will be to get an interview at the Consulate.

There are other things I'm planning to do... Like BUY A CAMERA!! Woo! I'm interested in the Canon G10, which I've got my heart set on pretty seriously. It's a splurge for me, but I've been assured (by a gentleman at Best Buy) that it will last me five years. And this time, I think the quality will be enough for me to actually want to keep it five years down the road. My brother has agreed to buy my old one. I'm VERY excited for a new camera. I really want to get some great photos from Korea. My Japan photos turned out magnificently, and I had this dinky little 35mm that had NO features what so ever.

I definitely think that I will be opening another blog for my Korea adventures. It can be 100% more professional, while still giving friends and family a chance to read about what I'm up to. It can, you know, be a "blog" instead of a journal.

Part of me really wants to take a day trip to Lake Superior before I leave. Part of me thinks that this is an imperative part of being "right with the world" before I go anywhere. I don't know if I can do it. I mean, I would want to go to Eagle Harbor, but I wouldn't have enough time for that. Duluth and Split Rock would have to suffice. I don't have the excuse "I don't have money for that", but rather my excuse is "I don't know if my mom's car would ever forgive me--or if I could even borrow it for a whole day." Sadly, mom does not want to come with me. :(

We've been having some nice violent weather here. Tornadoes twice in the past two weeks. One when I was ON MY BIKE that decided to touch down close to me, and this time one that touched down in Minneapolis during girls group yesterday. I heard the sirens go off--kind of--because we were dancing. Now in my head I thought "That is a tornado siren, a very low one, but it is a tornado siren. Should I stop everyone and alarm the girls? No. There are people here that are older than me and probably know better what to do. Besides, there are other people in charge." Then Vicky came in and told us to stop playing and go somewhere else, this is after the sirens went through, and I think even after the tornado touched down. ^^; I felt kind of like an idiot. However, I do know that alarming 10 children old enough to know that something is wrong, but not old enough to be calm about it, is a BAD IDEA. I also know (from my last bicycle tornado encounter) that they pull up the sirens on the whole city when there is a touch down anywhere. And, well... it didn't seem like we really had a basement to go to. So.. I figured there was no point in freaking out. THEN OF COURSE I SEE THAT THE ROOF WAS RIPPED OFF OF A STORE IN MINNEAPOLIS. Hah. Anyway it was several blocks away. We were all fine. Of course, I think next time I'll be a little bit more assertive. I'm always afraid of worrying too much, because I did when I was a kid. (About the weather especially, now I worry about everything too much, but not so much the weather. And I try to keep it to myself.)

I wonder how stable sky scrapers are in tornadoes. Or Hurricanes. High wind situations. Who knows.

( Anyway... glasses and post-storm pictures.Collapse )

So I've been contemplating, once more, getting a different blog for my "public" entries about Korea. I think I might actually go ahead and do it this time. I love my lj, but I think I might want to keep it for more personal observances this time. Keep most of my posts friends only. Mostly I've been doing that recently anyway, because I have some serious philosophical things that need exploring, but that I don't want the whole world to see. Why not write that in my written journal then? Well, mostly because the keyboard lets me get the ideas out before they are gone.

Anyway I had a magnificent day at the center with the ladies on Friday. I love it there so much. I'm really going to be sad to leave. I don't usually go on Fridays, but this Friday was the English Teacher's baby shower, or as they kept saying "Baby Party!". They cooked a huge east African meal, complete with injera and rice and tasty beefy (goaty?) stew. The older women all sat on chairs in a row along the wall, not facing each other, which is something that seemed SO quintessentially African or Middle Eastern, but I couldn't place why. They were all hijabed in the most beautiful colors, and lined up along the wall they just looked so amazing.

Of course there are children running around and screaming everywhere, and the kids are all sitting on a plastic sheet on the floor that one of the older ladies put out. She's the one that seems in control, but in a stoic kind of control. I think she might be the wife of the imam, or the daughter of a respected imam. I once saw her direct her daughter to an older man, which her (five year old) daughter ran over and hugged. It might have been her father, and he was wearing imam clothes. Anyway this woman has power in the group not because of charisma, but because of a central agreement, and it is a somber one. She is kind of a somber woman. Beautiful, but somber. Her daughters are gorgeous too, but also very quiet and reserved, unlike a lot of the other children. Anyway, she was praying for the English teacher, and the whole room would give up resounding a "Amin!". I haven't heard that since I was at that lecture in Commonwealth hall. It was great. They were praying for the health of the baby, I think, but it was all in Somali. Every so often, Congo, or another one of the leaders (she leads by pure charisma, it's clear, I've never seen so much energy!) would attempt to translate for us--the three non-Somali women in the room.

Later on was dancing time, and the ladies made me dance, which was HYSTERICAL, because not only was I being watched by thirty Somali women as I attempted to do their own dance, but because they loved it! It was fantastic. I haven't laughed that hard in such a long time. Then they got me up to do a group dance. I loved that I am able to be with them. I just love it. It means so much to me. I may love to travel, and I may love the rest of the world, and I may always need to "get out of here", but in the end THIS is why my country is the country that I believe in most. Only in this country can we really, sincerely share these experiences as one nation. I just love it. Maybe within the century, it can make up for how we've hurt each other.

Anyway, after my last post (friend locked) the revelation I had at this party was apt. I was sitting there, where all these women were having the most fun I can imagine, dancing and laughing and sharing eachother's babies, I looked around at the little boys in the group. I wondered if they would miss these kinds of parties when suddenly they became 'grown men'. Then I wondered if maybe the whole reason for oppression of women at ALL was because they just wished they could come back into the fold like this. It was a cosmic topsy turvy for me. Obviously it's the other side of a black and white coin, and the real answer is gray, but it is moments like that which make me see oppression of women not as a dark, hateful reality, but as a stab in the dark against something that cannot be killed--that is the communities that women make. It makes attempts at keeping us down simply elaborate charades.

Because, really, in the end it wasn't men that Muhammad said deserved your honor. After God and the Prophet, the person you are most obligated to honor is your mother.

My documents are in the mail! That means that my life is in speedy motion towards a Korean apartment lifestyle. Woop!! My lovely little documents are traveling, traveling, traveling to the school when I will be working, and then I will have my visa confirmation number, which will get me the visa so that I can go into the country and get my documents back and start working!! I am SO EXCITED!

Of course it's mostly the travel that I'm excited about, finally having a job, and the chance to really start new. Everything is going to be different. In fact, I am going to be different, because my facial appearance is going to be different from when I was at Hamline. I'm getting glasses!! Plus, I have pierced ears now so I am also able to wear fancy earrings and that can change your appearance a lot too. And of course, with glasses I might want to accentuate some of my eye features away from the glass frames, so I may have to start doing certain cosmetic things that I haven't done in a long time... like having someone do my eyebrows and wearing eye makeup.

I'm excited about experimenting with my look, but chances are of course that in a few months time, I'll be back to makeupless Maggie with bushy eyebrows and glasses on top of it. (If I don't loose the glasses, which I hope won't happen, cuz they were 200 dollars.) I'm just excited for the newest of scenery, and a whole life ahead of me. No deadlines.

I have thought, though, that I really need to take the GRE while I'm still here. I don't know if I should study a lot.. or just do it. I bought a study book, but I haven't even looked at it. I know I need to. I know I really, really should. I know I will regret it if I don't, somewhere along the line, be it one, five, or ten years. (Though I think GRE scores don't last ten years.) I just need to grit my teeth and take it, but yuck, man.

I've got about three weeks until my designated contract start date. So I'm making lists of things. A lot of them include buying expensive stuff. I thought I might buy another suitcase, but I realized that I don't know where I am going to PUT an enormous suitcase... so I might take my Madina suitcase and then just throw it away when I get there. It's already almost falling apart. Plus it's the biggest suitcase that I've ever seen, let alone ever owned. I think with that thing I might worry more about hitting the weight limit than being able to pack all my stuff inside. Guh. The weight limit. I have NO idea what I'm going to do about that. I have books and decor that I want to bring.. you know, to make my apartment home sweet home. I mean, nothing like the massive amounts of stuff I brought to college, but stuff, you know?? Stuff like The Great Gatsby, and Changes, by Ama Atta Aidoo, who is Ghanaian and I just never got around to reading her book. The Bahagavad Gita. My book on Digital Photography. Reading Lolita in Tehran. It's a small collection, but it's important to me. On, and then there's the book that I bought from Mager's and Quinn, Karen Armstrong's "The Great Transformation" which is all about the world's religious upheavals before Christ. I can't get away without some good religious reading, and you know... I do love Karen Armstrong. She tells these things like a love story.

Plus then of course there are my decorations. I want to have some African decorations, mostly because they're the prettiest and best crafted things I own. They are also heavy. I want to bring a set of masks, and I think some of them were also originally gifts, so when my brain says "Maggie why would you bring all that crap?" my head can justify itself by saying "Gifts!"

In fact, I'm planning on packing clothes absolutely last in order to shove them into the crevices where all my nice things are so that they will keep the nice things safe.

I'm sure YOU don't care, but this is cathartic for me to type out. I've been planning this stuff for ages, but I wasn't able to really write about it because I didn't have answers yet. And now I have answers. So I'm going a little crazy on the packing ideas.

Anyway, though, I'm planning on getting a new camera. Hopefully one that is more powerful and just a LITTLE smaller. I don't really need the huge 12x zoom. Mostly I use it because it makes the photo quality better up close. Far away, there's really no use for it, because it blurs everything. I'm going to sell the old camera to my brother for a teeny price, and then get the new one--a Canon or a Nikon, for sure. Something hovering the edge of point-and-shoot and SLR. My friend Madi has been helping me out to decide what the cameras are all about. I don't really want a big clunker. Something nice but not professional, since I clearly don't need that. But this time I'm sticking with the brand I want. Canon or Nikon. No compromises. I'll have a salary soon so it won't matter too much. One might wonder... why on earth would you buy a camera here when you can save tons by buying it at the source? And the truth is... I don't know enough about it. What if I bought the camera and it was all in Korean? what if they didn't sell the brands I want? What if I got to the store, and I couldn't read all the ads! Not a good idea. But the most important thing is that I wouldn't have the camera to document my ARRIVAL!

Anyway now I'm just rambling. I'm ready to go.

It's not 100% official yet, but I have said "Yes" to a school in Daejeon, South Korea!

Daejeon is a mid sized city in the center of Korea, about halfway between Seoul and Busan. In fact, my guidebook informs me that the Korean government has been trying to relocate the government offices, and thus, the capital of Korea, to the Daejeon area. I am pretty much calling it the "Minneapolis" of Korea, because it's a mid sized city in the middle of the country. The job was found for me by the TeachESLKorea folks. Much like Minneapolis, Daejeon has one train/subway line that runs through the city, and my school is located about a block from the last stop! I am sooo excited!

My goal is to leave America on September 1st. I hope that's enough time for me to get my visa. I have to go to Chicago, which means I get to see Janelle for a little while! Plus for the next three weeks, I still get to have all the fun in the world with my favorite kids/babies/moms at the East African Women's Center. I actually had a really weird dream about them. There was a battle. I yelled at one of the little ones that she couldn't fight because she was too little. It was... a weird, weird dream.

So I really wish I could get back into writing fiction again. I've been miserably bad. I keep getting new story ideas, but I keep brushing them aside and not working on them. Instead, I play Sim City. However, that's getting kind of lame so I think the novelty of city buiding is going to wear off soon. However, I did discover that HGTV came out with a house designing program. WHAAAT? You mean... please don't tell me, you mean that I can build houses on my computer like HGTV houses??

I could spend YEARS playing with that. I don't know why they don't come out with housebuilding games. Or why they didn't make an architectural expansion for sims. They could make a game that was like a "house turn around" game, or a real estate selling game. You build the house, you fix the house, and then you sell the house to get more money to build/fix your new house. It would be SWEET. Why hasn't anybody thought of that yet? A google search says that they've thought of it, but not to the extent that I want, man... I want some serious house creation materiells. Anyway this thing might be my next software purchase, though I'm not sure that my windows partition is stable enough for it.

In other news, I almost got swept up to Oz yesterday, when I decided to take a bike ride at dusk. It was humid and gross, but I was feeling grosser, and I knew that I needed to get out of the house and have some excercize. Well--excercize I did get, when all of a sudden the creepy and fearsome whine of tornado sirens poke their way through my batman soundtrack. It didn't LOOK like there was a tornado coming! I mean, there was some lightning, but the storm didn't look too close.

I thought maybe it was a mistake. But they kept going off and, well, I was on the LRT Trail--a ways from my house. It was kind of the woods, back behind some of the more industrial areas of Hopkins. Now that I think about it I guess I wasn't too far from home, but boy. After about two minutes I realized that this probably wasn't a joke, and that I should start riding faster. When I got home I found out that a tornado had touched down just north of me in Plymouth, at around the 494 and 394 area. About ten minutes before, I had been pleasantly riding my bike at 494 and Baker Road. HOLY BUCKETS BATMAN.

In fact, I may have seen the funnel cloud, but I think what I really saw was just a cloud that had a column pointed down. I wasn't high enough up to the horizon to really see anything, and there were trees in the way most of the time. Man, though, I was blasting through those stopsigns to get back home... I worried that maybe a cop would see me and stop me, but I figured "TORNADOS!" are a good enough excuse to ignore stop signs when on my bike.

Long story short, Maggie had some drama, and lickity split got over a hangover.

Oh!! And I had a great art show on Friday! I sold 4 peices, which should be enough to cover the cost of printing and framing!

You decide that your "last meal" in your home country isn't going to be good old, home-style cooking, but rather a type of Foreign food (East African, in my case) that you know you won't be able to get in your destination country (Korea.)

My Korean job search has finally started to look up! I am working with TeachESLKorea,so far the recruiter who has done the most work for me. I am registered at two other recruiters, Pegasus, and Gone2Korea, and I've also been responding to ads posted on various websites job boards, like esljobfeed. So far, though, TeachESLKorea has proven to be able to give me the most options, quickly, and with the most sincerity. I trust them. Unlike Pegasus and Gone2Korea, they are all in Korea, as far as I can tell. Pegasus also got me some interviews, but the schools were not impressed with me, and declined me. After 3 interviews I stopped hearing from them altogether, and I suspect that they have moved on to others. However, they are helpful and I know another person who was placed by Pegasus who is really enjoying her job. Gone2Korea, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be interested in placing me. I think they're probably the biggest of all the recruiters. The person I was appointed to work with lost my interview time, and missed the call. Since the resceduled call, I haven't heard anything. No interviews and not even any "I sent your info to this school." It's a little odd.

My biggest fear was that the influx of teachers from the class of 2009 was going to drownd out my application. I think that's probably what has happened with Pegasus and Gone2Korea, but TeachESLKorea has still done a lot for me. They've found me positions that I can see myself in, and more importantly, at least one position that has definitely accepted me.

The other ones that I've found on my own have been less reliable, but they are still sincere about finding me a position. I have replied to specific positions, but they are often posted by recruiters who will find you something else if this one is not looking for someone like you or with your kind of experience. However, for a first time teacher, I feel much more comfortable working with a recruiter that has screened me before hand, and offers significant assistance with obtaining the E2 visa.

I had a great interview with a private school last night, and I am really hoping that they would like to have me. I was able to talk with one of the foreign teachers on the phone, during the interview, and he seemed to be a nice, understanding guy who would be a great coworker. He also was able to answer some of my questions about having cameras in the classroom, which is apparently very common and basically a given when teaching at a hagwon. That helped assauge my nerves about that practice a little bit. i was worried that mothers would tune in and complain, and then I would always be in trouble. However, he said that it was more about discipline--incase there was a dispute, then the director would be able to view the video and make a decision. It's still kind of nervewracking, but well... I think I will be able to deal with it. Especially if there are other foreign teachers at the school, who I can commiserate with. And in a larger city, I think I will have more escape avenues--like maybe some good Thai food, haha.

It really seems like the country is small enough to get around a lot. I am really looking forward to that, learning some Korean, going to Korean markets, and visiting temples. I have been trying to meditate here every day, but I am noticing a real tension in me. My stomach especially. I'm trying to breath with my diaphram but it tenses when I think about it. It's frustrating! Oh well. I don't know if meditating is helping my nerves at all, but it's nice to be able to do it with some consistancy.

Despite the nerves, I am really having a good summer. I love working with the ladies at the Women's Center. Yesterday we got into a discussion about the Quranic story of Mary (the mother of Jesus.) Apparently everybody loves that Surah, according to one of the other assistants, a girl who is going to Hamline next year. (Woo! We're university buddies!) It was me, her, and the older White American director of the center, plus the mother who is going to be running girls' group from now on. We were all discussing this story, and it just felt so cool. I love working there!!! When I come back to the states to live, who knows when, but when my plan is to stay here for a while, I really want a job working with the Somali community. I think they are just great people.

Had a conversation with two of the ladies about adoption, and how they would never do it. They said that it would cause too much emotional trouble for the parents and the child. I love hearing perspectives on things.

Still no job. I am working hard to get one. I figure the harder I work to get the job, the more it will pay off in the end. I'm trying to be patient and proactive at the same time. Now I mostly play sim city. I should be reading, but I don't feel like it.

Had a couple interviews today, and one more to go. I feel interviewed out. Mostly I feel dumb for screwing up which interview was given to me in Eastern Time. It wasn't smart to schedule three interviews on one day anyhow, but three different people said "When can you interview?" and I said "Monday Tuesday or Wednesday", when they were all empty, and then everybody miraculously picked Wednesday. Oh, actually that's not true. One person picked Tuesday and then erased my name from the board and then went on Wednedsay. This was Eastern Time Zone person. I got Eastern Time Zone person mixed up with Central Time Zone person, and then expected Central Time Zone person's interview and hour early. Then I scheduled another Central Time Zone person an hour and a half after Central-Time-Zone who I thought was Eastern-Time-Zone. And really they're ALL in Korea on +14 hours time zone, so they don't know why I'm confused in the first place. ACK.

Anyway I'm struggling through brain time zone holes, and working with the Somali girls. Today I was a little tired. I didn't bike much between Wednesday last and this Wednesday, so I think I tuckered myself out upon arrival. The babies were adorable as always. One is learning to walk. They call her the fish because she wriggles around all the time. She's like... destructo baby. She is already climbing and she can barely take a few steps. She's going to be really crazy, I can tell. It's exciting, but also kind of ridiculous. Her sister is also a big trouble maker, but she gets this mischievous look on her face. She's too cute. She also wears home made hijabs that definitely look like old t shirts.

I love that the kids look like their parents. So frequently it's in the eyes. They look so much like their moms in their eyes. Boys, girls, both--their eyes are their Mom's eyes. It's so cool.

I will be sad when I have to leave them, but new adventures are awaiting me. I really am looking forward to being able to speak Korean. I also have it on good authority that there ARE Africans in Korea! (Also that one was extremely rude to another American? I hope that was just the once.) I have been missing Ghana lately. I mean that might be because it is something I know and understand, versus the relative unknown of living in Korea. I don't have a job yet, but even without a real job, the truth of it is that this is one whole year of my life. The memories of Ghana WILL fade. I know that I want to go back to that country. I think about making trips in trotros to go to MaxMart, of learning the ropes of simple haggling, of how nice it was to run into people I knew at Madina--feeling humbled 98% of the time. It's something I know. It's something I understand. But I also know that Korea can't replace it. If I go there, something will be lost in the whirlwinds of memories. I won't remember what it feels like to look for certain products, or to try and cook, or to buy certain outfits because of the heat. There are a lot of things that I will have to learn differently. I wonder if there is only room in my world for one "gear shift". I learned, slowly but surely, how to shift into Ghana-mode. What if Korea-mode replaces Ghana-mode, and I lose it? Do I want that, or should I worry?

I've been feeling more laid back about these kinds of questions, even though they drift around in my mind. A small voice keeps saying: you just do the best you can, and trust in yourself. I guess I am better off now a days because I'm not driving myself crazy with overwork.

Anyway. One more thing to do tonight and then I am ready for bed. Woot.

Most of what I've been up to this past few weeks, instead of posting in this here live journal, is studying Korean on free "learn Korean" websites. I wasn't able to do this with Twi before I left for Ghana, and truthfully even if I had been able to, I probably wouldn't have made the effort. This time, though, I have access to a wealth of knowledge and literature about the Korean language, because so very many people have to do business there and teach there.

So far I haven't gotten a job. I am on the list of three different recruiters, with my eyes set on just about any location big enough to have a subway line. Most of it is a win win situation. If I end up in Seoul, I get to be right at the heart of the action, where everything in the country happens. If I land a job in Busan, I get to be in a quirky city (which Rough Guides claims takes dear pride in being different from Seoul.) If I end up somewhere else, in a smaller coastal city, I'll have the ocean beside me to keep me calm. Truly, I'm not sure how I could be placed anywhere TOTALLY bad!

Though, chances are, if I'm going to be teaching English, I ought to curtail my grammar faults a little bit. Ah, well. I'll go back to my old diagramming days. Maybe. Chances are, though, with my set of experiences, I will probably end up with younger children who don't need to know the fine points of grammar, and who still have language-picking-up-brains. That would make my job easier, huh?

I've been working at the East African Women's Center again. I go in three days a week, but maybe more if I decide later. (Four day weekends are terribly nice, but get really long. I need to keep active or my mind gets lazy!) The nice thing about working for free; ie, volunteering, is that I have some responsibility but not a lot. I'm just there to help. I'm there to hold a baby when a baby is crying, read a book with the older girls, and help play games when the people who are really in charge are doing important stuff. It does feel good NOT to lead, especially since I'm learning the ropes of how to deal with kids. I used to think that I was NOT A KIDS PERSON. That was all through college, but that's just silly, because my whole life I have been a babies person, and it's not too far of a step away. Though I tell you, they are adorable and frustrating and you want to kiss them and kick their faces in all at the same time. But it really is the best 'job' I've had so far.

On Wednesdays they do 'traditions and culture' day, and that means that one of the older Somali ladies, who is kind of the matriarch of the center, I think, teaches them how to drum and dance. It is a whole BUCKET of fun. All the older women get involved, to show the younger girls, and then they make us silly white girls do it, and it's a LOT of fun. I just love it.

Last Monday I had my hair cornrolled at the WOW fashions shop that belongs to my Ghanaian friend. It was fun just to sit there and talk to her and her kid, who is quite adorable. The kid just starts going through my purse and my backpack and finding everything she can. Then she takes out my planner and starts drawing all over it. She took out my marker bag and Amelia, her mom, says: "Why do you have all those markers??" So I showed her my sketchbook, and she loved it. It was so great. I don't usually show it to people that I'm just getting to know, but hell--she braided my hair for free so we're good enough friends for that! (Plus I think she has decided that I'm going to get married to her brother.)

I don't think I would ever have gotten the cornrolls while I was at Hamline. There's something about living in the suburbs, where I'm mostly anonymous, that makes me less self aware of it. The only place where I'm not anonymous, really, is the Womens center, and they loved it. Do here I didn't have to worry about anybody judging me. I think it's good to feel some distance from school, because I really don't feel affected by the school drama of this or that. I don't have to have a black-and-white opinion about this or that. I don't have to care about certain kinds of propaganda or opinion stances. I can do what ever I want.

The only thing about getting cornrolls, though, is that your head is exposed to the sun where it was once not exposed to the sun. And then it burns and peels and you look like you have horrible dandruff, when in fact your dead scalp is flaking off because you let it bake during Girls Group. Hah.