Historical Hearttrob(s)

If you've spent any time around me, you will pick up on the fact that I love history. More than that, I have illogical romantic attachments to historical figures.

Particularly, Alexander Hamilton.

Oooooo. So much looooooove.

This fact was so apparent that at one point, my roommate painted me a portrait of A.H. for a birthday present. This crush is real and ongoing, 7 years strong, I'm telling you people.

However, this post is not solely dedicated to A.H. even though the man fully deserves his own post. And will probably get one at one point. This is to show you this slightly inappropriate blog that I just discovered thanks to a friend.

http://bangabledudesinhistory.blogspot.com

Mostly historical facts with some snark and pictures of attractive dudes, what more can you ask for? I love learning things that I didn't know before and this blog has it all. Random facts about pretty famous people. And the best part?! A.H. was the very first post. BOOOYA! Apparently, Alexander is a pretty popular choice. Why not?! The man was brilliant, founding father and duel-to-the-death type of guy.

No really, he died in a duel. Stupid Aaron Burr. 

I will leave you with a rap about Alexander Hamilton that was sung in the White House. No joke, it's quite good and IT'S ABOUT ALEXANDER HAMILTON. What more do you people need?! ;)

Swayze Night with the Sister

To preface this post, I've wanted to see this movie for ages, like ever since I fell deeply in love with Tom Jones and his "She's a Lady" song. 

I found out that it was featured on this movie with the super long title, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Basically, it features Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo as drag queens. And basically, they change everyone's live they meet. 

It was a little hard to get past Swayze in a dress. But he was just so CLASSY. Seriously, I would have worn any one of Swayze outfits. 

I found out that Swayze and Snipes were up for the Academy awards for best actor and best supporting actor. Dudes, they totally should have gotten it. You try acting wearing high heels and well tailored dresses.

Of course, it can't be Swayze night without another Swayze film. And that is the ultimate classic, Dirty Dancing. 

                                                        

Mmmmmhmm, folks, Johnny Castle. The sis and I have a lot of fun imagining the perfect casting of the ultimate remake. You know it's going to happen eventually. 

This is what we think so far: 

Baby: Jennifer Lawerence (seriously, she is basically perfect for every role.)

Johnny Castle: Tatum Channing

Baby's father: Mark Harmon

Baby's mother: Jennifer Grey (it would be perfect if she did a cameo as the mother)

uhhhh...that is about as far as we got. But it would be perfect if Hollywood would just listen to us!

Apparently, I need to watch Ghost, another Swayze classic. It's too bad he went so young and such a hard way to go. Very talented actor.

Keep on truckin'

I'm still here!

I would like to announce that loud and clear everyone who cares. Life just gets busy sometimes.

So brief update:

1. I've graduated!
2. I'm teaching!
3. I'm surviving!

Now for all those debbie-downers out there who will be quick to point out that there is still six months left in the school year to survive, yes, I am quite aware of that fact. But so far, things are going great and there is nothing that I can foresee changing that. (Cross your fingers, ya'll).

Further updates:

• reading Frankenstein with my sophomores, progressing just how you can imagine sophomores appreciating Victorian literature. I've been pretty impressed with some, disheartened by others. The plan is to finish it by Christmas. So, if you have any AWESOME project ideas with Frankenstein, send them my way.

• just finished a WWI poetry unit with my juniors. They were pretty good about. Next up, short stories and the Roaring Twenties!

• American Imperialism with my U.S. history kids. It's been really fun to coincide my junior English and History classes. We investigated different views of Imperialism through poetry. BOOM! Cross-curricular awesome-ness.

• Seniors...boy. Seniors are hard. I remember being DONE with school. And I can only imagine that it's going to get worse as the year goes by. So...stick around for them.

Anyways, that is pretty much it! I think I am going to get back into the swing of things and blog more. I like it.

Till then,
Farewell.

Update: This is the 200th post! Wowza, folks! I'm prolific!

Glutten for Punishment

Oh hey there. It's been awhile. Astonishing how much time teaching takes. Well, we are getting close to the end and we are discussing poetry right now. As part of their assignment, I have asked the kids to pick a poem and memorize it. In the spirit of fairness, I decided to pick a poem to memorize as well. If only I had decided to memorize it a little sooner before the due date (i.e. tomorrow). Yes, I am the molder of young minds. Yes, I do procrastinate.
However, if I can pull it off then they have NO excuses.
Here is the poem.
The Pomegranate by Eavon Boland

The only legend I have ever loved is
the story of a daughter lost in hell
and found and rescued there.
Love and blackmail are the gist of it
Ceres and Persephone the names
and the best thing about the legend is
I can enter it anywhere. And have.

As a child in exile in
a city of fogs and strange consonants
I read it first and at first,
I was an exiled child in the crackling dusk of
the Underworld, the stars blighted. Later,
I walked out in a summer twilight
searching for my daughter at bed time.
When she came running I was ready
to make any bargain to keep her.
I carried her back past whitebeams
and wasps and honey scented buddelias
but I was Ceres then and I knew
Winter was in store for every leaf
And every tree on that road.
Was inescapable for each one we passed.
And for me.

It is winter
and the stars are hidden.
I climb the stairs and stand where I can see
my child asleep beside her teen magazines
her can of coke, her plate of uncut fruit
the pomegranate! How did I forget it?
She could have come home and been safe
and ended the story and all
our heart-broken searching but
she reached out a hand and plucked a pomegranate

She put out her hand and pulled down
the French sound for apple
the noise of stone and the proof
that even in the place of death
at the heart of legend, in the midst
of rocks full of unshed tears
ready to be diamonds by the time the story was told,
 a child can be hungry. I can warn her. There is still a chance.

The rain is cold. The road is flint colored
The suburb has cars and cable television
The veiled stars are above ground.
It is another world. But what else can
a mother give her daughter but such
beautiful rifts in time?

If I defer the grief, I will diminish the gift.
The legend will be hers as well as mine.
She will enter it. As I have.
She will wake up. She will hold the papery flushed skin in her hand
And to her lips. I will say nothing.

Have I Told You Yet How Glad I am It's Friday?

Hello all,

It's been a busy month and a half. I won't reveal too much of my personal feelings about teaching. I love it, but I am going to leave it at that. Other feelings are going to be left for the privacy of my personal journal.

Each day seems long and satisfying but the weeks truly FLY past like you wouldn't believe.

A couple of days ago, my university supervisor sent me a link to this video. She mentioned that some days it might feel like we are going no where like a hamster on his wheel. And sometimes, we might even fly off, chaotically. (It's true) But things will get better. It is getting better. I am learning so much about myself as a person, about my capabilities and about my likes and dislikes. It's such a growing experience.

Well, regardless of my learning experience during the week, I truly enjoy the weekends now. And I fully intend to enjoy this weekend to the fullness.  You should too. Weekends are meant for to be enjoyed.

:)

Um, this is kind of AWESOME

I spied it in the library and I HAD to get it. Mostly because I saw a preview of it on another movie and I noticed James MacAvoy was in it as Macbeth, and I was like, DANG, that has to be good. So I finally checked it out and ladies and gentlemen...
It has blown me away. They retell four of Shakespeare's classic plays: Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I watched two today and they were SUPERB. You'd think that there wouldn't be much more that could be said about the Bard, but the way the actors and directors interpreted the play...they seriously couldn't have done a better job. They made it classic and contemporary all at once. Believable yet delightfully imaginative. LOVED IT.
BBC, you've done yourself proud.
Review? Consider it highly recommended.

Bergen Trip!

So looking over my blog, I seem to be more than a little remiss in keeping it updated while I was in Norway. I had such plans!
However, I still have pictures, so I thought that I'd share some with you today.

These come from a little side trip we took to Norway's west coast towards the end of July. We took a train from Oslo to Bergen and saw some of the most stunning scenery that you can imagine. Truly! The ride has been described as one of the most scenic in the world! See here if you want to learn more.

See?? Isn't it beautiful?! These are taken from the Hardangervidda, the highest mountain plateau in Europe. I thought it had a soulful, Wuthering Heights kind of feel to the landscape. But there were lots of waterfalls, glaciers, mountains, and forests.

Welcome to Bergen

This was the sight we saw when our train pulled into Bergen. The city is absolutely ADORABLE. It reminds me of a smaller, Norwegian San Francisco. It has the hills, the sea food and the colorful houses.

Scene from the top of a mountain, Bergen in the background

We dropped off our stuff at our hostel (more on that later) and took the funicular. The funicular is like a tram that you ride up the mountain. It was a pretty view. Our professor took us on a hike even further up the mountain. Again, it was a pretty view. I didn't really understand why we had to put that much work into seeing the same sight just at a higher altitude, but apparently, there is a hidden joy to hiking and nature that I have yet to find...

After our adventure on the mountain, we had dinner at Peppe's Pizza! Hurrah! And it was Dr. Kramer's birthday, double hurrah! He threatened to walk out and leave us with the check if we had the servers come to sing him happy birthday.

We disregarded his warning and had the servers sing happy birthday anyways. Secretly, I think he really enjoyed it...
The next day was our Norway in a Nutshell. We saw Norway via train, bus and boat. It was, stunning, as usual.

Experiencing the scenery really helped me to better understand where the mythology and folklore comes from. I mean, who wouldn't see trolls in the mountains when you are surrounded by them?
It also explains why Norwegian mythology ends so violently. Looking at the dramatic landscape, the world just has to end in fire and ice.

The next day, our last day in Bergen, was our visit out to Troldhaugen, or Edvard Grieg's museum/home.

This is the concert hall that they built just a little ways from his house.

We were fortunate enough to attend a concert of some of his piano pieces in that very, grass-covered, concert hall and it was AWESOME.

After the concert, we went back to Bergen to check out of our hostel and explore the city before our train ride back to Oslo that night.

This is Bryggen, the old wharf area of Bergen.

Yes, this is probably the most recognizable part of Bergen. It's on all the tourist things. These buildings are hundreds of years old from the old Hanseatic league traders that made Bergen an important part of Northern Europe economics. They are also a part of UNESCO's world heritage sites, so they are all sorts of famous. It's really neat to walk past them and peer down the alleyways between buildings and see how much they lean. When I say lean, I mean lean. It's practically a miracle that they are still standing! Bergen is cosy like that. They have lots of curvy cobble-stoned streets and alleys and old buildings. Lots of charm, lots of personality.

Besides Bryggen, I wandered all of the city with my professor. We looked at the theater building with all these crazy carvings; St. John's Church (very big and very red); the Bergen Cathedral; this old medieval fortress called Håkons hall and Rosenkrantz tower; AND the fish market.

Since Bergen is by the coast, they have a pretty vibrant fresh fish market. There are all these different languages being spoken because of so many tourists and there were crabs literally jumping out of their containers! Live produce, man! It was freakin me out. I wasn't into the whole seafood thing, so I opted for a kebab instead. (SO GOOD. So much meat for so little money.) The other girls got plateloads of seafood. I even tried a little whale from one of the girls' plates... It was interesting.  I just had to try it because where else in the world would I have the same opportunity, hmmm? Norway is one of the few countries that still participates in whaling, which is so odd considering how pro-environment they are...

After the fish market, we went to our hostel to collect our things and meet back at the train station. Unfortunately, when we got to the hostel, I discovered that someone made off with my backpack. Sad day, I know. I was most distressed about loosing my journal that I had just finished. Two years of my life, sporadically recorded, gone forever.

Bergen YMCA, beware of your luggage...

After a brief mourning period, I got over it. I am glad that it was my backpack instead of the others. Besides my journal, packed with sentimental value, all I had in there was some clothes and some chargers; so nothing that cannot be replaced. (All the good stuff was with me the whole time.) I will just be more careful about my items in the future.

When we met up with our professor again at the train station, that is when we heard about the bombing and the shootings. We were shocked and stunned. We quickly contacted our family and our host families. Everyone was ok and safe and we just read the news as it came online as we waited for our train. It was unbelievable that something like that could have happened to a country that we had come to love so dearly, but bad things do happen to good people, so we had to deal with the tragedy the best way that we knew how. And even though it was a truly sorrowful experience, I thought Norway's reaction was one of the most beautiful and heartfelt that I've ever seen. The rose memorial has been burned into my heart forever and I will always, always remember it.

Jeg elsker dette landet. <3