The Holy Rat Temple - Bikkaner

Later this day we went to the market to buy fruit and met an aspiring school teacher. We told jokes with him and his friend until the sun went down. Witty jokes and not-so-witty jokes. Here is one of my favourites translated from Hindi.
"There was a man named Syd who was going abroad to work. He needed to pack a suitcase so he went to the market and bought one. Wne he got it home he realized he needed more room, so he went back to the market and bought a bigger one. He brought it home and realized that it woo was too small for all his things. So once more he headed to the market, found a large trunk and much to his delight, the trunk was large enough for his things and he left for the airport. During his flight, the aircraft encountered terrible mechanical porblems and was heading downward towards earth. To buy some time, they began throwing access cargo out of the plane one by one. The man was extremely saddened when he found out that his trunk was thrown out. He ran to the back even to see if it was real and it was. Now he would arrive in a new world with no belongings. If he arrives at all! That is the end of the joke wanna hear another one? [ok] A young couple was hopelessly in love wiht eachother. The man says "I love you so much I would do anything for you. I'd go to the moon. I'd bring you the stars. I'd even die for you." She says. "Ok die" So he starts to walk up a tall mountain and she follows. He looks back and says, "I'm going to do it honey", and she says, "ok". He walks a bit further and says, "I'm really going to do it honey" and she says, "ok". But before he could get to the top or ask again. He dies.
How?
Well, it was Syd/s trunk falling from the sky!

I'll never see those two again, they kind of dissappeared into that night, but the jokes made them legendary to me.

India

'Exciting' Tuc Tuc Ride through Beijing

We spent the day at Tianamen Square celebrating the National holiday and when it came time to return back to the hotel, the streets were full of people and no cars. So instead, we negociated our transportation through sign language with a parked man sitting next to a peddle-bike-meets-lawn-mower tuc tuc. What we got was a five inch seat backwards off the back of the bike, a good time and my favourite low-quality camera video was created.

The jokes on Ms. Kothlow

For a change, I often give my students a countdown from ten to pick up their books and quickly run to a new desk in the classroom. This was one of those times. New desk, new partner, new beginning. So 10… 9… 8... [students are scrambling] 7… 6… 5… [I turn to write on the board] 4… 3… 2… [I turn back to the class. The last students sit down. Now everyone is ready, quiet and waiting. But one desk is empty. I look around.] “Where did Alan go?” I ask. Two students giggle. I turn around and Alan, hiding crouched behind the back of my legs, jumps up right against me with this huge grin across his face. I don't smile right away; it was more of a shreek at first. Everyone laughs. I have no idea how I didn't see him. Alan grins, touches my shoulder and looks me in the eyes, slightly apologetically, then turns, throws his fists into the air in triumph and walks to his new desk. A new beginning with a surprise is a good sign for a new beginning I think.

Sunday afternoon at home in TongHeLi

A video for you today of Sunday's chill mode:

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Our Local Market: Manjitan

We joke that inside the gates to our campus we have created a self-sustainable Canadian bubble. It isn't really a joke though., it's the truth! Officially the largest Canadian bubble in China in fact!

However, it is just a walk down the street to the local one strip town, Manjitan. Though it has been absorbed into the National Holiday Resort in recent years, it has still got its small-village feel. The highlight for me from Manjitan being the Saturday market.

Maple Leaf Campus

Maple Leaf has roughly 700 grade 10 students, more than I had in my whole school in high school. The campus is, yes, pink and the classroom building was adapted from the architectural plans for a hotel which made it really open and bright!

Dalian Maple Leaf International School

DMLIS, its 2000 senior secondary students and its 200 or so teachers are located one hour outside Dalian, a north-eastern city of about five million, roughly midway between Beijing and North Korea along the coast.

It aims to "blend the best of Chinese and Canadian education" and I believe that is does this successfully in many areas of student school and life. I really appreciate the value placed on discipline in Chinese education. Simply put: the students are generally remarkebly self-disciplined when they face challenges in their studies and it leads to a lot of success stories in our classrooms.



This is posted at the front door to the grade 10 building and I post it here to wonder what would happen if it was posted in a North American high school.

I needed a Plan B

Plan A would be sharing the content of this blog in person, face to face in conversation, you share-I share, with dramatic effect, actions... voices.... the whole bit. But my friends and family have become scattered across the globe, making Plan A not always feasible. So, this blog becomes part of a 'Plan B'; to share some of my "special moments":

• Alysha learns something new


• Alysha does something she thinks is interesting


• Alysha thinks it's funny


• Alysha is brought to question

Emily Dickinson wrote to "dwell in possibility", taken by me to mean the possibility that the everyday things are more than the evident; that they stand filled with possible opportunities for laughter, insight, motivation, change... anything really, for those willing to open their minds to them. I don't know what this blog will transform into, but for now I should dwell in all its possibilities. If she had been born one hundred years later and was looking for a Plan B, maybe she also would have written a blog, or at least I like to think so.

I dwell in Possibility - Emily Dickinson

I dwell in Possibility —
A fairer House than Prose —
More numerous of Windows —
Superior—for Doors —

Of Chambers as the Cedars —
Impregnable of Eye—
And for an Everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky—

Of Visitors —the fairest—
For Occupation —This—
The spreading wide of narrow Hands
To gather Paradise—