Social Saturdays

With a new outlook on life, I endeavor forward. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the ups/downs and responsibilities of life, I decided that, instead of doing the masses of homework and other tasks to do (trillions of things, in fact), I set out to the beach. Sandy Beach, to be exact and it is probably the farthest away from home I've been all semester. I spent about five hours at the beach. It was fabulous. I went with Autumn and Julie and we swam (with some massive waves! they made us tumble, sommersault, and think of a tragic death, but it was exciting all the same) and we talked, but mostly we lounged. I listened to the ocean, I soaked up some sun, I watched the clouds forming and passing by. It brings a new sense of peace and I feel recharged to move forward with this semester which is proving to be a challenging one- academically, professionally, and personally.

So despite all the millions...sorry, trillions of things to do this weekend, I spent all day at the beach, came home and wrote this message (after washing out the sand), and now I'm off to the mall to catch a bite to eat (maybe do some homework) and then go to a friend's house for a little partying. What am I thinking?!

Well, here is my to do list for the weekend (mind you, this only for the weekend and neglects the fact that I have many things to do throughout this horrible Week 4):

-Read Schmidt (1983) Interaction, acculturation, and acquisition of communicative competence 35 pages
-Read Hinkel Ch. 1 Cultures of Learning 21 pages
-Read Atkinson & Ramanathan (1995) Cultures of Writing: An Ethnographic comparison of L1 and L2 University Writing/Language Programs 29 pages
-Read Cahn (2004) From ideology to inquiry: Mediating Asian and Western values in ELT practice 18 pages
-Read Duff & Uchida (1997) The negotiation of teachers' sociocultural identities and practices in postsecondary EFL classrooms 36 pages
-Read Flowerdew (1998) A cultural perspective on group work 8 pages
-Grade 15 of my students essays (2-3 pages each) at 20 minutes each = 300 min = 5 hours
-Finish my application for Breakthrough's Future Leaders Fellowship (4 short essays)
-Lesson Plan for Week 4 of my classes

p.s. I'm not going back to Hong Kong this summer.

And my Spring Break is on March 23-April 1... in case you were interested (hint, hint)

Autumn Cake

By the way,
My friend Autumn had a birthday last weekend and she also got engaged to Judson Cake over the break. So, if you do the math, her name will eventually be Autumn Cake. Cleverly, I got her a book about how to choose the perfect wedding cake (to start her cake book collection), and it feature wedding cakes for all seasons, including an Autumn Cake.

Hahaha!! Single T...you so clever!! ^^v

I also decided that choosing the wedding cake is one of the aspects of wedding planning I would like to have a say in.

Finding Innisfree

I think it is so funny that I'm taking this volleyball class. It brings back all these memories from high school. I started giggling when, on the first day, she made us run around the gym 3 times and then we did some stretching and drills. Wednesday was a lot of fun because we just got to play the whole class and my team kicked ass. She lined us up on a line and counted us off to divide us into teams. A bunch of people just went off to whatever team their friends were on and, even though the teams were supposed to be even, our team only had six people. Did you ever do something like that? (I know I did in middle school). Well, it worked out fine. In my Creative Drama class we are learning about how to teach drama to little kids. I went and saw a youth theater presentation of Sadako and the Thousand Cranes. Did you know that the story isn't super popular in Japan? It is such a common story here. Anyways, my attempts at folding paper cranes failed quite miserably, but I had a good time. I was invited by the SLS department's secretary and she brought along her two daughters. I've hung out with them a couple of times, but for some reason her daughters really confide in me. Both of them tell me things that are bothering them or they were wondering about and don't want to tell their mom. Obviously, they aren't anything too terrible or scandalous that I had to tell their mom about, but I think it is so weird that they trust me so much, even though I haven't spent that much time with them. Even my nieces won't just tell me all this stuff. But it is a nice feeling too.

So, my poetry class is trying my patience. Not only is the professor so inefficient (we've spent 48 minutes introducing ourselves one day and often nothing happens for the first 15 minutes) and does he try and run through 10-20 poems in one class period and he completely neglects any poets that either wrote after 1950, aren't White, or aren't Western, but there are a bunch of these stupid undergrads in the class (and they are all English majors). I used to think I was so patient and didn't let stupid people bother me much, but it is really difficult in this class. I think because there are so many. A bunch of stupid surfer dudes making random stupid comments. And then all these ditsy girls talking a lot, but saying nothing. BUT! There is this one girl in particular who is full of excuses, complaints, and doesn't know when to stop. She has sent emails to the whole class asking for reading assignments (cuz she didn't write them down) or accusing someone of stealing her iPod (which she later remembered she left in our professors office...surely she was there to complain and give more excuses). She even apologized later and then took it back because there are a lot of "sketchy" people on campus and someone stole her friend's phone the week and so really, she decides, it was okay to accuse us of stealing. And she IS blonde, but I don't know if that is the natural color or not. And she wears almost nothing to class and complains about how cold it is. And when she introduced herself on the second day (after coming in late) she said she didn't like poetry and wasn't really interested in the class, but just needed an English class around that time and it was the only one that fit. Ah! She would be enough on her own, but when added to all the others, it makes for a rough class.

Umm...I'm going to give a conference presentation next month at Hawaii TESOL annual conference and I got this job offer to work at Punahou and be an Assistant Director for the PUEO program which is very similar to the Summerbridge program. But more about this later. For now, I'll leave you with some words that I really liked from W.B. Yeats, thanks to my poetry class:

"And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow"
-from "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" by William Butler Yeats

So where is your Innisfree?

Notes from my students

To follow-up the earlier post, here is a list of ways students addressed me in their emails:
Mat
Mathew
Mr. Espinosa
Mr. Mathew
Prof.
Professor
Professor Mathew
Professor Espinosa
Sir

Can you think of any more?

Oh, and my favorite question:
"Could you please tell me what annoys you most about students' behavior because I would really like to know how to behave properly so I will not upset you."

Winter Weather?

None here.

I thought you might enjoy knowing that yesterday I was wearing a tank-top, shorts, and slippers (i.e. flip-flops).

Today I had to teach so I wore nice jeans and a collared shirt.

Enjoy freezing! Hehehe...

Teaching College: Day 1

So my first day of classes went so well!! I felt like a real college teacher (and like they respected me) and we had fun and I got to know them and I'm excited about my classes and students. I can tell it will be a challenge to figure out how to meet their needs and I may not be super successful at first, but I will try. My students come from all over: Korea & Japan (of course), China, the Philippines, France, Vietnam, Taiwan, East Timor, and Slovenia. My first assignment was to have them write me an email to practice formal emailing and communicating with professors/asking questions, and a few of them addressed me as Professor. I swear I told them to call me Mat, though you may not believe me. Anyways. It was great today.

But the real teaching begins Thursday and I wouldn't claim to being prepared. Better get on that. And I am enjoying having an office and "office hours" because I am way more productive there than at home, but (my new computer is a Mac) and all the excitement I had and desire to own a Mac is slowly fading away. Every once in a while I stumble upon something I think is neat and more efficient, but I'm more frustrated with it than not. That surely has something to do with the model and my ineptitude and unfamiliarity and other factors, but still. My opinion of Macs is going downhill.

The most exciting moment of the week was looking at the online class schedule thing and seeing my name appear. It is a fantasy I've explored many times in my head and now it has come to life! I'm officially a faculty member!! :)

Check it out:
http://myuh.hawaii.edu/uhdad/avail.classes?i=MAN&t=200730&s=ELI

My class is ELI 100 sections 3 and 4.

And to top it all off, it was a gorgeous day and I came how to the most amazing sunset since Tahoe. Ahhh.

M Espinosa

p.s. To make my life easier, I dropped one of my SLS classes (bilingual ed) because I couldn't fathom writing three 20+ page research papers due the final weeks of class. I might add another "for me" class to make up for it. :)

Safe in Aloha Land

Hawaiian again...

I left a 20 degree morning to arrive to 80 degree beauty. Along the way I watched Snakes on a Plane. I don't if you understand. I was watching SNAKES ON A PLANE on a plane! And on a Hawaiian Airlines plane going to Hawaii (in the movie they are flying a similar route between Honolulu and LA on a South Pacific plane). It was fun (especially because the old lady sitting next to me wanted to watch it with me), but it made me sick. It was definitely pretty gruesome and a bit scary, just to warn you. But there are some damn funny lines like "I've had enough of these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" Classic.

So, I slept for 14 hours last night. That means I was exhausted from my vacation. And I went to the beach today. Already experienced the best of Hawaii. :)

Mute

I spent a good portion of the day not talking. And it wasn't because I didn't have anyone to talk to. I actually communicated with nods, gestures, and by writing in a notebook. The reason was because I had dental work (i.e. wisdom teeth pulled) and I was supposed to be biting on gauze and my mouth was full of blood and my face was numb. Yuck. Still, it made for an interesting experiment seeing as I had things I needed to do despite the surgery. Like buying new tires for my car and ordering a prescription (vicadin for the pain). I felt like the people were very considerate of me, but treated me normally still the same. The awkward part was not being able to say thank you and goodbye and so I'd try and be polite with my eyes. Also, since my face was all numb, I felt like I looked very stoic, even just walking down the street. So I tried to keep my eyes friendly and I have no idea how it worked.

So, lots of blood, but not much pain yet. Tomorrow I board the plane though.

Oh. And Joey convinced me that I need to move to San Francisco to teach after I finish my grad program. Hmm. Maybe...

Dawning 2007

A brand new year.

My year started out with waking up next to people who love me. Then a stroll on an incredibly gorgeous and warm San Francisco Monday to a good old-fashioned American diner named Mel's. I have high hopes for this year. The tragedies of 2005 led to the great depression of 2006 that really didn't go away until melted in the Hawaiian sun. Never completely healed, I started tearing up over my mom yesterday because I needed advice on tires and wanted her, I stand strong and optimistic...ready to embark on whatever journey 2007 is prepared to take me. And it will be a journey, as all years worth living are, and I will emerge ever so slightly changed. I'm eager to see what is to come. I have high hopes for the year. I have high hopes for more memories and smiles and adventures and growth and love. I plan to learn a lot. And I'm going to do more traveling (more? you ask). I hope I can take you along with me. This is fixing to be a beautiful year.

After escaping to the island, I returned to the mainland stronger. Now, as I return to the island, I'm no longer escaping, I'm living.

An Island

Sometimes
you need an island

To escape
into like a cocoon,
the ocean
a barrier to strife.

Shielded in your island world
the metamorphosis starts,
you can't see across
so you begin to look within

Until you are strong enough
to return to the mainland
where you left behind
your tears and sorrow

Because sometimes
you need an island.

Home for the Holidays

I can't believe it is almost over. As a matter of fact, it was a bit overwhelming. I found myself really worried about school, feeling completely unprepared to teach, and also feeling like I'm wasting my time here, like I should be out doing exciting things and seeing people and all for every last second I'm home. I guess it led me to realize how overwhelming it can be to have so many wonderful people in your life, all of whom I should be calling or emailing or having dinner with in the next few days. Oh well. I'm trying. It may be overwhelming, but it also makes me feel super blessed. Like I'm the luckiest person in the world to be so loved.

But I'll save that rant for Valentine's day as per usual. For now I'll tell you that I've had a wonderful break. My visit with my sister, while full of grama drama, was so worthwhile. It made me start thinking about how much I wish she and her family was a more regular part of my life. But I do talk to her a lot. I just hope my kids can have a good relationship with their Auntie Barbara (especially since they will miss their Grandma Di). Then there was the best Christmas Eve celebration of recent years. My family was so spirited and there was lots of food and laughing and singing and dancing and games and I read stories to the kiddies until Santa himself was ready to make an entrance. New Year's in San Francisco with Joey and more bonding with good friends to bring in the new year with loved ones. Oh, good times for all. It will be hard to get used to the new work ethic that the semester begs, but I have made some wonderful memories this break and those will carry me through till the next time I see all you crazy fools.

p.s. Thank you so much for taking the initiative to call me or write me or visit me. I love it!