fun people i know #1.

on my way home today i was behind two young guys driving in an old white truck. i could see them in the rear view mirror. i totally thought of kouhei and shuji [those guys ann, mandy, and i met on our okinawa spring break last year]:

vital stats: heaviest smokers i've ever met. cutest guy buds i've ever met. most willing to share their grandparents. always up for hilarious games. lovers of surprises.

bicycle built for two

i'm looking for a different bike since my friend becca bought my wicked cute vintage cruiser. i'm in the market for a hybrid or a cross bike but they aren't readily available online.

BUT look what i found on craigslist:
it'd be great fun to ride with someone, don't ya think?!

amazing day~

today= so great.

i tutored my little burmese rugrats, then walked to the train station. then ate an amazing sandwich (pesto chicken, grilled veggies, mozzarella, on a grilled pita! YUM!) at a cutie cafe. then went downtown and talked to lynz on the phone from a cozy park.

then took a three hour PA certification exam. [ok, not really great.] passed the exam!

then walked to a delicious gelato place at my fav time of day. took the train home. walked to my car. came home and ate dinner.

picked beans in the garden with meliss!! went for a walk with meliss. dropped off the used fire pit we found last week that we're giving to some of my friends. PERFECT~


[some of my fav little girlies on the train back from philadelphia last week]

our philly trip!!

we took our students downtown to philly on friday. for most of them, it was their first time in philadelphia. for a lot, it was their first time on a train. so exciting!!! <3 darlings!
listening to a story about ben franklin
our whole big group

we're famous!

my non-profit organization was in the newspaper last weekend! our director recently retired and my boss has taken over the position of new executive director! she already does so much work, i can't fathom how busy she will be from now on~


i wasn't very impressed with how the article was written, but it's still super fun to hear that WE are important local news :)

if you've been dying of curiousity ["what DOES kelly do every day??"], check it out!

one year anniversary

one year ago today i was in himi for the last time. i got on the train in takaoka and cried my little eyes out. most months for the past year, i've gotten weepy around the 22nd/23rd. this month it's way worse, since this is my anniversary of j-departure.

what better way to celebrate/look back than by posting about my friend kazuki who hitchiked to himi and beyond?!?! i saw his whole album on facebook, and even though he has no idea, i'm going to dedicate this post to his trip. :)

i don't know who kazuki's friend is, but i recognized the kanji for himi on his sign!! i was like "eh?!? himi?!?!" then i was super impressed with myself for being right!


i love how he took a photo with some random children!!! absolutely adorable. utterly japan. oh, how i miss this!!!

hmmm...

yahoo showed me this post on the web today. bilingual kids= ahead of the game.
"Mastering your dominant language gets in the way of learning a second, less familiar one, Kuhl's research suggests. The brain tunes out sounds that don't fit. "You're building a brain architecture that's a perfect fit for Japanese or English or French," whatever is native, Kuhl explains — or, if you're a lucky baby, a brain with two sets of neural circuits dedicated to two languages."

[i love how the article uses the example of learning japanese & english!!] i used to dream of having bilingual children. i still think it'd be awesome, but the chances are slimmer since i no longer live in a foreign country...

however, i DO have at least one small window of opportunity: my student, patricia, told me that she has a cousin named roberto who is single. today she offered me his phone number. haha.

because i love lists

1. i had a traumatizing experience at the red cross blood drive yesterday: apparently my blood was pumping way too slowly so the nurse jiggled the needle around. i gasped in pain. then the nurse got nervous bc i was bruising immediately. it hurt/ scared me so much i asked her to just take the needle out. ick. i couldn't even finish donating [when she asked if i wanted to try the other arm, i said heck no]. and today my arm is nasty shades of blue, purple, and yellow.

2. we had field day on friday and the kids were absolutely darling!~ i adore them all.



3. meliss, rebecca, ML, and i are going to the beach tomorrow. WAHOO!!!!

4. almost every day i wish i had someone who was excited about the same things i get excited about... for instance, kids who can't speak english. or surprising sunsets. or sitting outside on summer evenings. or good books. or traveling. sometimes i just get so excited about one [or all] of those things and i want to talk to someone who loves them too. dang.

5. sam just told us that rebecca wanted him to play "the egg" in church on sunday. he refused because he said it would be equal to rebecca doing "interpretive ballet" in front of the church. rebecca said "i think my parents should break out and try new things". ML said "okay, i'll do ballet!!"

cute!

my student maria is way too cute:

[I met my husband in a plaza. We had the same friend. This friend introduced us. I talked with him. My husband invited me to a dance. Then he asked me, "Do you want to meet more?" Then he was my boyfriend for four years. Later he asked me, "Do you want to marry me because I love you and I want to share my life with you?" I said, "Yes, I love you, too." Now we have a pretty family with two kids, and I love him, and I love my family.]

my heart is melting over here~

quote[s] of the day

1. my co-worker, iryna, told the other ladies: "kelly told the girls that they needed to change their attitude. kelly, that was the best moment of the whole day!!" :) haha. i'm such a meanie!

2. citlali said [in spanish] that she wanted to play frisbee. when i offered her one, she said "no! i don't like that one. it's for boys, not for girls". i told her green is for girls AND boys. where DOES she get these crazy ideas?!?!

book recommendation #1

i have been doing a LOT of reading lately. and loving every second! i decided to post a book review/summary whenever i read something that's especially good. i LOVE sharing books, so i'm quite excited to tell you all about the book i just finished this afternoon.

my aunt recommended it way back in april and i had to wait forever to get it on inter-library loan. i picked it up on wednesday night and finished it this afternoon... not really surprising, considering that i'm a fast reader, but still. i could hardly put it down when it was time for work!

"the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society" was phenomenal~ i had NO idea about this segment of world war II history, so it was fascinating. the book is made almost entirely of letters written between the various characters. it seems like a ton of history is included and the plot is well developed. i felt like i knew each and every person whose story is told; the fear, excitement, joy, anxiety, love, and concern all blended together seamlessly.

please check this book out from your library. OR, ask me to borrow it sometime because i just bought it on half.com :)

hate it, like it, love it

i hate tough kids. i like tough kids who are really softies inside. i love seeing a tough kid's soft side come out.

i hate that junk food is cheaper than healthy food. i like kids offering to share their food with me. i love kids asking me to sit by them at lunch.

i hate when teachers aren't watching carefully and little kids almost escape. i like when little kids are found, safe and sound. i love when little kids walk away from the group because they want to find ME. <3

i hate when siblings fight. i like when siblings look out for each other. i love when little siblings want their older siblings to hug them.

i hate when sad babies won't stop crying. i like when crying babies let me hold them. i love that most crying babies stop crying when i hold them.

being the bad guy

so today was the start of our 2009 summer program. we had 20 adults and 52 children registered. fortunately for us, only about 1/2 showed up for the first day. we got 21 kids from ages 2 to 13. it was partial-mayhem for most of the time, with little children running around, arguing, talking, laughing, asking a hundred questions. basically pure bliss for yours truly <3

THEN around 1:30 the director of head start comes into my classroom and tells me that there's a big mess in the boy's bathroom and that there's powder on the floor. i'm like "UH? powder?!" but i just nod and smile politely.

THEN she comes back and says that the "big boys" had been in the bathroom and should clean it up. as i'm on my way to the boy's bathroom to check it out, i run into another teacher who tells me that she saw those two big boys coming out of the bathroom looking at each other a little funny. plus, the powder is on the very top shelf in the bathroom and there are no other males in the building who can reach higher than three and a half feet. i haven't said boo to either of those boys and am not even the "big" kids teacher. but i automatically kick into camp counselor mode...

i ask the boys to come with me. confront them in the hallway about the big mess. they say they didn't do anything with powder, just went to the bathroom. we walk into the bathroom and i point to the powder on the top shelf, way above my head. "do you have anything to say about that?" they don't. "well i obviously didn't make this mess. i don't come into the boys bathroom. should I clean it up?" no, i shouldn't. they'll clean it up.

dang straight they will! we all grab paper towels and clean up the piles and piles of powdery whiteness that's ALL over the room, mixing with who knows what kind of liquid on the toilet seats and the floor. sick.

when we're finished, they're still avoiding eye contact but i say "thanks" and we walk in silence back to the classroom.

i hate being the bad guy. especially on the 1st day.

but later on, i realized i kinda like it a little.

happy 4th

four day weekend + two parties + hilarious candid photos + completely perfect weather + awesome fireworks viewing spot + glenside parade + lots of walks + wonderful 2nd family + my best friend =

most memorable july 4th ever.

13 things

~you may or may not know about me.

- i really like being the funny one in a group. it's okay if there are multiple funny people. i just like being one of them.
- if i like a guy a little, i will probably like him more if he thinks i'm funny.
- i can survive on very little sleep. but i seriously love sleeping.
- talking in person is my absolute fav. but snail mail, email, phone, and skype are all perfectly acceptable forms of communication.
- i like country music more than you would think.
- if someone thinks i'm cool for driving stick, i'm really flattered.
- being the odd one out [by choice] gives me great satisfaction. for instance, if everyone is showering at the campground, i find it satisfying to refrain.
- if i have the choice between crying in front of people and shooting myself in the foot, grab me a gun.
- when we go for walks, melissa likes to travel the same basic route. i would rather go a different way every single time. sometimes she sacrifices for me. :)
- i get random urges to watch movies. and i rarely fulfill those urges.
- it's far easier for me to say "i'm sorry" than "i forgive you". don't know if i should analyze that or not...
- usually i don't like riding in cars with girls driving. awkward, since i have a lot of friends who are girls.
- i'd rather eat outside than inside any day.

congrats*

on monday i met up with my friends meg and kyle. they're recently engaged and i'm super jazzed for them :)

as we walked through philly, kyle told me "we have a blog, you know". i'm like "WHAT?! AWESOME!" naturally, i'm more excited about the fact that they are in fact getting married. but the fact that they have a blog about it is wicked fun!!

check them out on blogspot.

congrats, guys. i'm excited for you!!