Albania's Greener Grass

It is often said that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. When we take saying and apply it to home-ownership, or dweller occupancy, it takes on a possibly literal interpretation. The paradox is supposed to be that no matter what side of the fence you’re on, the other side somehow seems to be better - greener. However, we can use our metacognitive powers to realize that if we were on the other side of the fence, then we are currently on the better side, the greener side. This mental perspective-switching is not a hard feat to pull off, and is really just a realignment of perceptions, where we place ourselves in a position to appreciate our current reality rather than covet thy neighbor’s yard - or whatever.

I bring our attention back to a literal interpretation of this saying, where my current apartment dwellership means that my (former) house back in Sacramento has the greener grass.  Even if there is no green grass and only weeds, it would win by default because my apartment is fully lacking the quality of any growing thing. It is lacking a yard all together and even direct sun in the winter since it faces North, so there’s probably no hope of adorning my living space with anything living besides myself. But, if I use those metacognitive powers and stray from the literal interpretation of the saying, there are some, and one particular, benefits to my current living situation - I can’t just write it out quickly though, I’ll have to explain it.

Front Yard - Mike's Sacrament House

When I had my house in Sacramento, it was at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in an inactive neighborhood filled with diverse neighbors and a bunch of old ladies.  When I first moved into my house, I was so comforted by the ambiance of the listless neighborhood and the out of the way nature of my house that I wouldn't even lock my truck door. I did have a motion light though, and more for exercise than concern, whenever the light went off due to a cat or blowing leaf, I would get up and peer out the window to see what’s-what. One time it was a man opening the door to my truck. Wisely, I opened my front door and give chase in house clothes and socks. As I chased after the man, I was informed that I was going to be stabbed, at which time I reevaluated what I would do if I caught this man and gave up my chase in favor of a cell phone with 911 access and a compensatingly large, big black Maglite.

Back Yard - Mike's Sacramento House

For the rest of my years in that house, whenever I would wake up in the night, I would perform what I called security checks.  Not really for any reason other than I was up, but also just to see if, on the off chance, I’d get lucky enough to stop someone from doing something that they shouldn’t.

Now I live in Albania in an apartment on the 6th floor.  I have an equivalent of the chain on my door like hotels use, so even when the maid has a key she can’t come in the room uninvited. Having this device on the front door to my apartment means I can hear loud noises, but that I never have the urge to get up and see what it is. There are no security checks for me in Albania because everything I have or is under my domain of responsibility is behind a door, which has security features that would take an amount of noise that would direct my attention to what was happening before it happened.

So that’s my greener grass for right now - metacognitive powers in play.  Maybe if I make it back to California, and the drought has run it’s course, I’ll be able to again have a yard filled with even greener grass that I will of course check on each night whenever I wake up and perform my security checks.

Visual Analysis - Teaching Peace: 50 Years of Hard Work

Commemorative Print - Shepard Fairey (2011)

Inspiration photo of PCV Catrin Martin, Senegal, 2009

Teaching Peace: 50 Years of Hard Work

By Michael D. Winans

On March first, 1961, John F. Kennedy signed “Executive Order 10924: Establishment of the Peace Corps” (1). 50 years later, Shepard Fairey would produce a print to commemorate that act, supporting 200,000 Peace Corps volunteers who have served in 139 countries - one of which was his sister who served in Togo ( Peace Corps, “50th Anniversary”). The commemorative print depicts a white Caitrin Martin, a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) who served in Senegal (Peace Corps, “Caitrin Martin”), and a black boy in the thick of crops looking deeply into a flower cupped by the PCV. The flower’s petals surround a peace sign, that radiates a yellow sunburst. The background contains three cultivated fields of crops before the eyes meet a tri-peaked mountain. The image is flanked on all sides by thick line of a muted orange, which at the bottom is also used to form the words “Peace Corps” separated by Peace Corps logo in yellow and muted black (Fairey). This image depicts that peace needs to be primary in our lives and be taught, understood, and accepted if we are to progress and attained mutual respect across cultures, races, and genders, and that Peace Corps is doing the hard work to further this idea in developing countries.

As the woman and boy are looking deep into a flower, the flower is radiating its yellow light onto everything that is living - the humans and the plants. In this way, peace is represented in place of the sun where it is a primary need in our lives, but unlike the sun that hangs in the sky, unconcerned with what is happening on earth, peace is represented by a flower.  It is delicate, and precious but can also create an environment where life can thrive.

Several binaries exist in the image since binaries are a simplified representation of social thinking. These binaries help to show our starting point, and then hard work needs to work, to progress, away from this point and attain mutual respect across cultures, races, and genders in pursuit of development. The first obvious binary is male-female, with the female in the traditional role of teacher. There is also the binary with the white volunteer who is showing the flower to the black boy who has his hand on his chin, depicting genuine interest. This racial binary is built atop perceived cultural and developmental differences: North-South gap, first-third world, developed-undeveloped, or even civilised-uncivilised.  It seems, in an effort to move past neo-colonialism, we are sending our men and women out to these developing countries to help them and teach them about this novel new concept of peace. Lastly, it invokes the us-them binary, one seems to support the Peace Corps’ model and may become a new starting point for progress in the future.

The image tries to show that education is also key to the Peace Corps. The PCV is showing the boy something, he is genuinely interested in what she is saying. It seems that despite contradictions of the Peace Corps, their mission and volunteers are on the ground doing the hard work of educating about development with a message of peace. These two people are in a field, learning together in isolation. In the role of teacher, she is educating the boy, not just about development, but also about herself because the boy has to first respect her and her situation before he is willing to be engaged and taught. She is also wearing a bandana which is used functionally to keep the sweat from your eye during, and representative of, hard work. Bandana on, like Rosie the Riveter before her, she is ready to do the hard work required to get the job done.  Teaching peace and development so that it is understood and accepted and the global community can progress together.

This image is very powerful in the way it represents so many important themes for the Peace Corps.  The yellow that is depicted as a sunburst from the center of a flower represents peace as a life-sustaining need. The powerful binaries that contrast difference also work to represent the point from which progress is moving. Finally, education is key. It is only when we understand that peace is primary in life, that we are able to mutually respect one-another and value our differences. Education can be the catalyst for this understanding and the Peace Corps’ 200,000 volunteers have been on the ground in 139 countries, bandanas on, ready to do this hard work.

Works Cited

Fairey, Shepard. 50 Years of the Peace Corps. 2011. Silk-screened print on French Cream

Speckletone paper.

Kennedy, John. “Establishment of the Peace Corps.” Executive Order 10924 of March 1, 1961.

Print.

Peace Corps. Peace Corps Releases 50th Anniversary Commemorative Print. 2011. Web.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/media/forpress/press/1729/  

Peace Corps. Caitrin Martin in Senegal. 2009. Digital Photography.

I've Been Teaching + Apt. Photos

This key hurts in the pocket.

So we're on a five-week break from the monotony of training, and we'll go back to a two-week super-session where the PC volunteers will get all they need to know to be successful for the next two years.  During this five-week break, we're to figure out what we would like to do where we're placed, and I wanna teach.  As if those of you who know me would think any differently.  Teaching is draining and you spend many hours away from the classroom grading - sometimes spending seemingly more time grading or giving feedback that the student originally put into whatever you're looking at.  That said, I wouldn't have it any other way.  I just want to teach.

I quit my teaching job at California State University, Sacramento, so that I could join the Peace Corps and teach. So, during this five-week period where we're supposed to integrate and develop relationships with our counterparts and other community members, I'm teaching. I have taught seven classes so far and it's really been a good time.  The students are interested and mostly engaged - there's a gender break-down in engagement here in Albania where women make up the vast majority of attendees at the university.

I just realized, this blog post has not been cohesive. I would demand (from a student) revision and some idea logical flow of ideas - how is this a good text? With that said, here are some pictures of my apartment and more views from my balcony!

Serving in Times of Hardship

Me with my host gma and gpa in Elbasan

What good is a blog that is never updated… I ask myself as each day passes, and my blog becomes more of an artifact than a living document that portrays my journey through the Peace Corps.  However, here I sit in the same apartment, at the same desk, and at the same computer (hopefully) which will serve as my physical setting for the next two years as I update this blog.

Since I do not have access to the Internet at the moment, I have to try and remember what my last blog post was about and have so far been unsuccessful. But, I can tell you what has been new and exciting that I don’t remember posting yet - Reader’s Digest version.

I have finished my language assessment and have met the minimum standards, which is Intermediate-low.  Now that I’m here with just the selected remnants of the original group - namely Bill and John - I hope to have real opportunities to develop my Shqip (the Albanian language, pronounced Ship or Sheep - I think).

Peace Corps Albania - Group 18 Swear-in.  Elbasan, Albania

I have sworn in as an official Peace Corps Volunteer. We almost all made it, except one.  That was Monday, Tuesday we went to the coast, Durres, where we stayed at a half-decent resort where only the bravest, including me, jumped into the pool despite the cool temperatures and wind.  None though as brave as me, who jumped in with my phone, which I’m sorry to say didn’t make it.  

Photo of Elbasan - in front of Castle

Around noon on Tuesday, John and I headed back to Elbasan, and John’s counterpart showed me where my apartment building is located.  Let me just preface my whole experience here in Albania, and the following description of my apartment, by stating one of the core expectations of Peace Corps: Serve in times of hardship. To which I say, accepted!

View from my apartment - night

View from my apartment - day

My apartment is on the 6th floor of a newly constructed high rise building.  I don’t have much here, but I do have a two-bedroom place with a balcony that overlooks all of Elbasan out to the cliffs and mountains. It came with a sparse selection of dishes - 3 bowls, 2 forks, 2 glasses, 1 knife, and 3 spoons. I have a queen-size bed in my room and two twin-beds in the spare bedroom. I have a bathroom with a western style toilet, bidet, and hot water heater.  There is also a washer in-unit.  Now for the hardships, my fridge is rather loud and woke me up twice last night. There’s no shower curtain. The elevator is slow. The water supply to the washer leaks (but there’s a drain, so I don’t have to do anything about it). But again, I agreed to serve in times of hardship, so I’m going to get the landlord to fix these things and move on to the good work of the Peace Corps.  

Site Assignments

This week site announcements came out.  I will be (stuck) with Bill (his blog) for the next two years in Elbasan. Also, John will also be here with us for the next two years (See the picture of the three of us below). Elbasan is the city that I've been in since I arrived in Albania, and so I already know that it's a wonderful city, in a bright green cultivated valley, surrounded by terraced hills and mountains.

They kept everybody wait for some time the day these announcements were handed out. They decided to hand them out in the afternoon. They had stacks of white envelops with our names and sites.  They called you up to pick up your envelope, and you knew then and there were you were going to live for the next two years.  In your envelope, there was a description of your position and the contact information for your counterpart.

I will be a University English Professor at Aleksander Xhuvani University. I will get the opportunity to teach several subjects:

-American Studies
-American Literature
-SLA Research
-Composition
-Reading
-Listening and Speaking
-Presentation & Pronunciation
-Sociolinguistics

I am looking forward to building my CV and enjoying the recursive processes of teaching and learning.

The Up-side to Two Showers a Week

So there is an up-side to taking only two showers a week.  I wouldn’t at first think this is the case since a am a shower-everyday kind of guy, but after three weeks and six showers, I have found something out.  When I realized that there was this hidden up-side, I thought about what the obvious up-side would be, and I came up with saving money on soap. Yes!  It is true; you do save money on soap. In fact, the only brand I know that is available in Albania is Dove and it’s only 50 cents a bar (and not that super-hetero, grey box manly Dove either).  On a side note, I also use Dove antiperspirant (women’s) since they only really have a selection of spray and pump deodorants. And NO! You do not save money on soap because you are spending that money that would have gone to soap on baby-wipes since this is what you use to clean yourself on non-shower days.

So what then is the up-side? It is that you feel incredible, deep-down clean after a shower.  It’s the feeling that every part of you is clean and there is that baby power smell that reminds you that you’ve been reduced to wipey-showers.  So pure and clean - that’s the up-side to two showers a week.

Also, here's a pile of 50 chicken heads - ENJOY!

A Day at the Beach, is a Beach.

Currently I'm in PST - which is pre-service training, so there aren't many fun and interesting things to write about. This weekend however, we set off to different locations around the country to meet with a current PCV.  I went to Durres, which is an ancient port city, aka the beach.  It really isn't warm enough to go to the beach, but it's the 2nd largest city in Albania, and I was looking forward to getting out of the small town for a bit and into a big city.

It has rained almost non-stop since we've gotten here.  The first day we went on a tour of the archaeological museum, which was filled with artifacts that have been found here in Durres.  We also saw the ruins of a marketplace in the center of town and and amphitheater, which is proposed to be the most endangered ancient site.

The next day we went out for Pizza - my first of many in Albania, I'm told.  We then went to a really fancy coffee place where the prices were 3x the normal.  Normal is 50 Leke, and these were 150 Leke - at 130 Leke to $1, that's highway robbery.  I didn't get a drink, just took some photos of the others and theirs.

After that we went to watch a Roma band play some classical music - they were practicing for their performance at the Model UN, which will be held in Durres next week.  They were quite good.

Then we made our ways back to the same place we had lunch to have dinner with some other volunteers and their visitors from my group. While we were in the restaurant, the brute force of the storm that had been peeing down on us all day hit with force. The down pours were peppered (or salted) with pea-sized hail and continued until we gave up on it giving up and left in the flooded streets.  The streets continued to flood even more the closer we got to my hosts apartment, except one random dry street, and we hit water that was at times knee deep on the sidewalk. It was not fun, but the worst experiences are the best stories.

10 Things to Know in Albania

Here are some things that I've been told since arriving in Albania:

1. Eat regularly & Yogurt is a drink
2. Don't drink untreated water/Drink untreated water
3. Report bloody stools
4. Don't wash your eggs
5. High School kids can carry guns to school
6. Money is always told to you x10 (100 Leke is said 1000 Leke)
7. Shaming is okay
8. Syncing stuffed animals will protect the house from evil (blue) eyed people - as will garlic, ram's horns, and the traditional Turkish evil-eye. 
   
9. If a girl makes eye contact, she wants to be invited to coffee. Coffee isn't always coffee.
10. Women shouldn't sit on the ground, floor, or grass - there's a torn piece of cardboard for that.

First Classroom Observation

The second week is almost over. It has been filled with language learning and topics which seem to be under the category of “must be covered”.  In this category, I include how to deal with a sprained ankle, or the symptoms of diarrhea.

I have been with my host family now since Saturday.  I have a total of one (1) shower. The Peace Corps negotiated two (2) showers per week.  I had one of my showers on Sunday night, fresh and ready for school.  It is now Thursday, and I’m going to try to cash in for that second shower.  I have been using baby wipes to shower each day, which with the lack of heat (meaning I’m not a sweaty mess), is not a bad option - but yeah, two (2) showers!

As far as my teacher-training is concerned, we were able to go to a high school here and observe two English classes.  There seems to be a very traditional approach to language, and I am going to keep the exact location of the class anonymous so that I can publish my feedback here for you to read.  So, feel free to give me feedback on my feedback (which was a rushed, unedited or revised email). The teacher was professional in teaching the class and open to suggestions. He took the time to email me after I told him that I'd provide some feedback if he was interested. Just taking the steps and being open to feedback shows a level of professionalism that is indicative of the past and present of the collective Albanian attitude: Always ready and open to change.

Dear Teacher,

Thanks for allowing us to observe your class.  I know it's an obvious burden to have native speakers observing and critiquing your teaching.  I myself welcome feedback as you do, even when I don't agree with the feedback - and I'd like to set that premise. I am an outsider.  I do know know the normal style of teacher here in Albania, nor do I know your classroom dynamics or the attitudes of the students.  My feedback should be seen in that light, as a point to consider not to accept as if I am telling you how to run your classroom After all, it's your classroom and you should consider my feedback in the light of what you think would be best for your situation, but you have also shown a great acceptance of the process by reaching out and being open to feedback in the first place, which I commend you for.

With that super-hedging out of the way, I would like to first tell you that you English is really good - especially your usage of idiomatic expressions. The use of these is really good for the students since they are a part of many native speaker conversations.

The major thing that I think, and I discussed this with some of the other teachers, should be looked at is student focus.  I realize there are limitations, meaning you have a book that must be used and probably followed. With that said, I think one change that could be beneficial is to make the class more student focused. What I mean is that your students will probably never go to New Zealand, so why not make the itinerary about a weekend at the beach.  I realize this might take a bit more time, but I think a modification like this would make the English real.  Perhaps they could even talk about a real trip they are going to take in the future, or read the NZ trip in order to create the basis of their own. These are just ideas, but language is better acquired when the context is real and the content is meaningful to the students.

Point of consideration 1:  Make the content student-focused.

The other thing, that is often a point of departure of American Education and other countries is the use of group work. The fact is that group work creates a low-risk situations for students to use and be innovative with language. This will give the students who aren't that good at speaking a low-risk situation in which to speak.  Then when they speak in front of the class, when they're called upon to answer a questions, they will have already used the language and be more confident in their production.  This production is also then cosigned (supported by) the other members that was in his or her group.

Point of consideration 2: Implement small-group work

These two "points of consideration" could be implemented together.  With students utilizing their own meaningful content within the small groups and then presenting it to the class.  This would also mean that none of the other groups would have the same information to present because each group would have unique information to present with their own innovative language.  This would be both student-centered and communicative (a best-practice), while allowing the students to work in low-risk small groups.

Again, I want to say these are only one person's perspective and are only presented as points for you to consider. You have shown a great willingness to be open to your professional development, both by allowing us in your classroom, and then further reaching out to me. I appreciate that you, and Albania welcome us into your country and are willing participants in any assistance we, as Peace Corps Volunteers, might be able to provide.

I am going to be in Albania through the summer of 2017, so if you have any questions that I might be able to help with, or any questions about what I wrote above, please feel free to contact me.  

Take care and thanks again,

Michael D. Winans

Peace Corps Trainee

English Language Professor

Albania/Shqipëria 2015-2017

Fotos and Phamily - Albania the Beautiful

And so I’m here.  I am now living with a host family in Thanë, Albania, which is a small town just 15 minutes to the south-west of Elbasan.  I am in a house at the top of a hill where I can see almost all of Albania, or at least the valley in which Elbasan is contained. The house is tidy and clean. There is a great room downstairs where the family seems to gather, and there’s a kitchen in one corner of this room making it a nice spot to get-together.

That paragraph above, that was from yesterday.  Today is Sunday and there are some initial impressions that I’d like to change, or at least expand upon. First, the house is tidy, because it’s a show house.  They may sleep here and bring guests here, but I don’t think this is their true living area.  I’d like to compare it to a family room and a living room, where the living room is where the family spends their time watching T.V., talking, eating, and maybe playing games.  I have not yet seen the living room. I seems that they want to put their best food forward because I have met the grandfather, the daughter, the son, and the wife, but I only ate dinner with the father.  It was just him and me sitting down in a beautiful and modern great room to feast on a dinner of rice and chicken.  The host mom stood by and got us anything we needed, but did not eat.

So where did the others eat? I think they were probably in the grandmother and grandfather’s house which is situated just behind this show house.  It is the old style house with the clay tile roof, and it interests me just as much as this concrete, three-story, modern house. The one point that this does make to me though is that I’m the guest. I hope as I’m here longer that I’ll become a member of the host family.  I mean, I’ll always be the American, but if integration is the goal, I’d prefer to be in the grand’s house eating dinner with the rest of the family.

They are always away too. This might be because they told them that Americans expect a higher level of privacy than Albanians. But most often, there’s nobody around, and I just wander aimlessly around the house.  It was nice that last night my host mom explained how to make coffee for myself in the morning.  This was very helpful, but I think I’m going to get myself a super-pack of instant so I can make more than a four ounce glass of coffee.  

My room itself is a two twin bed room, where one of the beds is serving as my closet.  They also saw how wrinkled some of my dress shirts were and lent me a iron. I also have a balcony off my room that overlooks the city of Elbasan, which is an amazing view.  The third floor is tiled, but unfinished with windows so it’s like one huge balcony, and it has the best views. The host dad keeps wanting me to go up there and read.  

With that said, what I’d really like to do today is some laundry.  I have not seen one in over a week, and although I now have some fresh clothes to choose from I don’t want to be surrounded by piles of dirty clothes. I don’t know what the rest of the day holds because I don’t understand anything, but I’m going to try to get some laundry done.

Writing later that same afternoon, I have all my laundry out on the balcony on a clothes hanger. I doubt that they’ll get dry though since it’s been raining all day, including onto the balcony.  Tomorrow’s another day though, and so I’m hoping for sun even when I saw some news I think was local that was calling for rain.  I don’t have any Internet, so I can’t verify.

On an off note, I hate white light in homes.  It seems that white light is cheaper that yellow light, but it makes everything feel cold and sterile.  In my case in particularly, the light isn’t even strong enough to light my keyboard.  But I’m going to type on because I’m waiting for another twenty minutes so I can take a shower. They have a solar hot water heater, so I’m not real sure why I’m waiting except that it hasn’t really been sunny all day and I think I understood that might mean that the water isn’t warm. The end result is that I’m not sure what I’m waiting for.

I went on a walk today through my village.  I was on the hunt for a market so that I could buy some instant coffee. I wanted something warm to drink, and there are no coffee bars around.  They are every other building in Elbasan, but there aren’t really any around here.  I’m sure I’ll sniff one out by tomorrow when we have access to our English Teachers, and they can ask some of our questions for us. I couldn’t find a market though, so I just stomped around through the mud and made my way back to my host house. I did made tea twice today though. They called it mountain tea, and my host mother added Chinese lemon to it, which is the color of an orange and made the tea delicious.

I also came across a couple of stuffed animals guarding against evil spirits. I took these as I plan for an upcoming blog post about how to keep away evil spirits in Albania.  Stay tuned because I just stumbled upon another one - a weird one - today.

5 Ways to Say F-you in Albanian Body Language

Yesterday we got some culture training. Of course we need to be able to tell someone to F-off/you at any given moment, so we learned 5 ways to do just that. Really, we learned 5 gestures not to accidentally make and offend an Albanian.  So without further adieu, here they are:

1. Whenever you separate the middle finger from the rest, you're saying F-you!

 2. We know this one as the old fashion American flippin' the bird. Here, when used, you're saying F-you

3. What's "okay" in the states, when used in Albania, you're saying F-you!

 4. This one is usually used in association with the bird back in the land of the free. However, when used in Albania, you're saying F-you.

 5. Under the red, white, and blue, this is used to bide your time and is usually associated with a snap. Here though, when used, you're saying F-you... with or without the snap.

This has been my lesson on 5 ways to say F-you in Albanian Body Language - use at your own risk. 

The World's Smallest Cup of Coffee

I hope this isn't what coffee in Albania is going to look like all the time.

And Into the Peace Corps I Go!

And so it has begun. Here is a quick and dirty break down of what I’ve down from leaving home until my arrival last night in Albania.

On Wednesday night, fly from Sacramento to LAX to Philly to arrive at the hotel at 7am, first Peace Corps staging sessions started an hour later. There was a lot of ass time over two days, but we did a lot of ice-breakers and got to understand what the core expectations and goals of the Corps are. We also got to meet Kerri, the director of the Peace Corps who came because we will be the first group who will implement Let Girls Learn - a US program that is not just involved with the Peace Corps.

Love Park in Philly, PA

Liberty Bell and Peace Corp Albania Volunteers, Group 18

On Saturday morning we boarded a bus bound for JFK in New York City at 10:30am for a flight that would take off at 7pm for Vienna. We arrived there the next morning for a 12:45 departure to Tirana, Albania. We touched down and boarded some buses headed for Elbasan, and arrived at our hotel at 5pm; dinner was a 6pm.

There are a lot of time shifts in that description, which now leads to a 8 hour difference between where I will be living for the next 27 months and the west coast of the United States. The temperature is mild here and the mountains are towering. I’ll include some pics if the Internet comes back on.

Elbasani, Albania

I can’t say that I’ve had the best experience so far. This is not to say I’m unhappy, but the way that you’re sometimes treated does not represent how, a group that includes a high level of experience and education, should be treated. There is an expression that “we” trust you and then they tell us to be somewhere at 8:25 so that we’re there in time as though we cannot be “trusted” to figure out that we needed to be somewhere before the actual point at which we were required.

My bags came into Tirana opened with things missing out of them.  As far as I can tell, there are about $300 dollars worth of teaching books, new clothes, my graduation regalia, and a knife that I bought specifically because I’ve been told there are no good knifes here that has gone missing.  That is my current understanding, but that bag has yet to have a full go-over since it has been put in storage.

The people who made the report kept trying to explain where the bag had been gone through and who had done it - crazy speak. I don’t care what they think happened, I wanted them to do what they were supposed to do and file the reports so that if something was found, which I’m sure it won’t be, I could get it back. I wasn’t interested on how you think the Americans shook all my stuff out and that I was sure to find a note one day somewhere in my luggage to know that they had confiscated my new set of boxer-briefs.

There’s also a sour taste in my mouth where things, in general, seem very contradictory. The Peace Corps is constantly asserting this anti-one-story narrative and then they turn around and insist on the same thing within our blogs. They say that we are not to tell our whole story or our whole experience in the country, we are not to do this because this would… be more than the one positive story? Some how people will just latch on to our bad experiences and not our good? It doesn’t quite matter to me though because I have yet to get blog training, other than a brief exposure to this fact that we’re encouraged to spin a single narrative.

It is currently 6am and I’m down in the dining area typing. The country seems very similar to Costa Rica as far as development and is really quite stunning with the houses and mountains jetting into the sky in the background. I can’t wait to get back into the classroom.

Tomorrow Comes Mighty Early in the Morning

(Students of Grammar & Composition Level 6 - from Saudi Arabia, Korea, Libya, Israel, Mexico, Japan, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, and Thailand)

Here is the photo of my final Grammar and Composition Level 6 Class at the English Language Institute (ELI) at California State University, Sacramento.  It has been a tough class, but the students have put in a lot of work and it's going to be over tomorrow when they take their grammar final. They took their Composition final yesterday, and I have every confidence that each student who took the time to do the homework assignments and took the time need to complete their final portfolio will pass on to the next level.

My students will tell you that I'm a hard teacher; and I am. I am this way because I had a teacher, Dr. Fiona Glade, who was hard on me. I didn't like the class so much because it required that I do twice as much work as the other graduate classes I was taking at the time. With that said, I was amazed at how much I learned during that class, and I now hold the maxim that when things are hard they're often more valuable. When education is demanding and requires you to develop problem solving skills and engage in cognitive processes, the payoff is well worth the effort. For these reasons I am hard. I think my students will come away from my classes having learned a lot and developed their writing in a way that will prepare them for the next level of English Composition.

Not all students are able to meet my demanding requirements, and some of them give up along the way. That's okay too, they will have chance to take the class again and meet the requirements, ultimately engaging with the level's material twice as much, which I should hope will also prepare them for the next level. My method is not stopping those students; it is ensuring them adequate skills for the next level and ultimately success. This may not be all my students' perspectives, and it may not be 100% true for all of them, but it is my teaching perspective and the reason why I require so much work out of my students.

Tomorrow will be my last day here at ELI. Tomorrow will be my last day in this job, which has been a wonderful experience. Tomorrow will be my last day in Sacramento, and tomorrow comes mighty early in the morning.

Less Thank One Week To Go

So it's Thursday, which means that this time next week, I'll be in Philadelphia taking my first class for the Peace Corps. I just found out that the dress has been changed from business to formal. I guess some folks from Peace Corps in D.C. will be there so we've got to put on our formal wear. Only problem is that I packed my suit already and so it's probably shar-peied. That's okay though, I will adapt and overcome.

On another note of Peace Corps news, I been assigned to my host family.

The village is Thanë, and it is about 10-15 minute drive to Elbasan.

Grandmother - 80 yrs

Grandfather - 85

Host father – 50 yrs

Host mother – 46 yrs.

Three  daughters age 23 (student in Tirana), 20, 11

A son age 19

I'm becoming increasingly excited and increasingly stressed, all while coming to the realization that the life that I've built in Sacramento is going to end - bitter sweet. 

I Speak Hyper-Correct

It was great, in a not-so-great way.  I used a hyper-correct construction while talking to my students, in front of the class.  I had just explained to them what hyper-correct is, but it was cool, in an embarrassing sort of way. I said, "Her and I are..."  Since "her" is an object pronoun, it should not be in the subject place (before the verb).  I should have used "she", and it should have been, "She and I are...".

The example I usually give is something like, "Tom went to the store with John and I."  This is also hyper-correct because "I" is a subject pronoun and should not be in the object place (after the verb).  The correct construction should be, "Tom went to the store with John and me."  Me is the object pronoun and is correct.

I guess I haven't said anything about what hyper-correct actually is. Hyper-correct is when you use a construction that seems more formal; you want people to think you're a smarty. And then you make a correction that seems formal, but in reality you end up being wrong... at least as far as standard English is concerned.