So it has been a long week.

Chats with Kris, with Brian, with Steve, with Dan again, but no Thet.

Ran off to EVill with Rob to make a 16 bean soup (types, not tokens) with Mesclun greens (missing the toasted pumpkin seeds) and colombian-chorizo pupusas as croutons.

PB has ended well enough, but not a single Asian all season.

I've become a lover of tea.

It's good to be back to work.

So more and more in my old age I realize I should have been some species of a sociologist. Rob and I went snowboarding yesterday, and I finally understand why the Japanese are so damn good at kendo.

The representation in terms of New York City-ers was relatively low despite the perfect weather, coldly crisp and still lightly snowing with no wind to attack my delicate pores. What was interesting to watch throughout, however, was the ways in which the teaching of skiing and boarding was taught, the socialization throughout.

I started out in a group lesson, with three kids whose combined age just might have exceeded my own. My instructor couldn't even shave, and the emphasis was on language (toes, heels) rather than on the real effects, and on communication, something I paid especial attention to since there didn't seem to be all that many ELL's hanging out on the slopes. The idea of a group lesson and the lack of reiho were notable, in that the goal was transmission and all learning was at a distance, done by speech.

The difference might have been the ways in which the local parents were training their little ski-kids with harnesses or cradled between their legs, steering their way, and yelling out things like, "Pizza slice" (in order to slow down, apparently), which of course as a culturally-sensitive/relevant/responsive teacher I find offensive to our Sicilian students, or even weaving down "Lover's Lane" holding a little kid's hand, exclaiming, "Isn't this fun?" Of course, private tuition costs a lot more, and there was a mix of parents who were doing their own teaching and a stable of redcoated instructors who of course got preferential treatment in line.

From the point of view of teaching and Mountainous Education, however, I found it helpful to look at these contexts with fresh eyes, and thinking about the ways in which the "model" or philosophy of instruction is far different from the transmissionist ways in which we are still stuck in schooling. Further, I'm deeply jealous of the ways in which little kids can just take things up, in ways that they have a hard time describing or even articulating (as my instructor shows), with a confidence that adult learners like me lose in our self-questioning and doubting....

So the standard part of my evening adventure was pints with Michael at the local pub, amidst talk of politics, operations research, and faux communities of practice.

But after some delays I finally managed to meet up with Hat, a Taiwanese emigree on the closeted side of things, whose life is crazy enough that he is quasi-nocturnal, always running across the boroughs and impossible to pin down especially when his cellphone is dying and the 7 trains are all running local rather than express which made our attempts to meet on a train car not only twice-thwarted but very slow before we finally reached Flushing because the train skipped Corona and eventually eating with GBF.

That's not the story, though, as much as the fact that I've been chatting up on MSN Donny, a decent, grounded masculine/bi guy whose renounced his family's wealth and is trying to figure out balance in his life and how to be independent in the city while working for himself, and we'd made some sorts of plans to maybe hang out in Flushing, but it was very indefinite, and up in the air.

But as it turns out, the friend Hat was heading to see was none other than Donny, and so it was outside on the street that we ran into each other for the first time, unsure whether or not to actually acknowledge one another. In the end we didn't...

Who knew the gaysian community was so damn small?

So as my annual trip "home" draws to a close, I find myself again anxious to return to New York and the more normal course of my life, as busy as that is going to be right when I hit the ground. It's been more of the same, I could tell the same stories of sweat pants, pirated wireless, procrastination, overeating and underheating that I have been for years. Things never change, until two grandparents pass.

I'm looking forward to the future, though, vaguely contemplating an April trip to Venezuela and a July-August thing to Taipei/Taiwan, all mediated by plenty of kendo.

I feel like almost everything in my life has come together except a couple things I used to take for granted back in the day which now I don't at all. It's gotten better and worse and now I just continue on, plenty fine for the most part, alternating with silences that stretch indefinitely.

Still, it's been nice to be clean from booze and tobacco, even though I'd much rather be eating less than what I'm doing now. Time to get back in shape--I need a new gym routine for sure!

So I haven't written a sonnet in years, and even then that was by accident. Anyway, this one's for Thet:

We walk our weeks in lives which are disjoint
with only -ends when we might meet with cheek
to cheek. And still the rush may disappoint
our plans—my days pass by and still I seek
a day when we, without a sacrifice,
can be both close and close without a phone
which lets us wander all around, entice
with winding chats—and leaves us still alone.
Yet when I see and feel and hear your voice
my doubts are calmed and stroked all smooth again.
I know that we can wait before a choice
of where to go, or how, with whom, for what, and when.
So I pursue, not rush, and set my pace
for miles to come, and just enjoy the chase.

Since the last post, one long sentence per day:

Th: managed to get a nap in before winning my shiai match with two kote after having my men taken. See the other blog.

Fr: didn't get a date, went home and passed out, was already observed in class, and managed not to chaperone the school dance.

Sa: woke up, dim summed with gbf in the F-shing, walked to the Horace Harding Expwy, went to the mall, bought some bars and china, hit keiko and drew, No Country, stood up Rob.

Su: keiko, losing horribly, bought some incense and did a BBB run, slept, but had a two-hour conversation with Thet that cleared a lot of things up--we're moving forward, but he's dating other people, but that's okay.

M: blindsided at work and furious, I feel like a first year teacher again, try to nap but fail, go the the GC and get some reviewing done, reunite with HS chum, come home. Have a date tomorrow--and not at the expense of kendo!

Smiling

So I was watchin the coverage tonight and was truly pissed. This is because American Samoa was a caucus that went to Hillary, and on ABC they spent several moments (Gibson, Sawyer, Stephanopoulus) making fun of how no candidate has ever visited for the three delegates, despite the 30 NFL players, to keep Obama from a clean sweep.

So two things: first an Asianboi roundup (thanks to reviewing my blog from four+ years ago):

DoEun has gone dark, but I've gone matchmaker.
EnDee has finally arrived, but I'm not helping him enough.
HoEn has graduated, but still wants more.
PeeTrk has plenty of nice clothes, but still worries about everything.
RoCh has painted his room, but might miss tomorrow night.
xyFee has a new secretary, but is still on Guam

Thet has got me wrapped around his little finger but doesn't know it.



The shocking thing is looking back how much was captured by this blog, and how much I've lost in the interim. For example: the two Sundays past:

Sunday last: got up early, went to practice, Sensei in fine form, getting up from Sensei I twist my back and am in excruciating pain. I use all my kiai and tanden power to make it through practice. Run to duane reade and buy patches. Rob is showing his apt and so I go to the GC to internet for a while. Join my classmates (two mothers and a layover) for drinks (3 guinnesses), before meeting up with GBF for the usual crappy but adequate sushi. Then off to Rob for drinks at the pub (2) before to USQ to write my kendojournal. Run into Andy before my drink of the night. Stagger home.

Sunday this: got up early, went to kendo, back burning but i make it, somehow. Contact GBF and Andy about Flushing, planning for the LIRRst, but make it, somehow, way too early, hanging out waiting around for Thet's call, but knowing I don't really need it. Meet up eventually and go to a subpar Thai place, followed by hitching a ride with GBF's fugly ex to the mall. Purchase energy bars, antenna, router (not necessarily in that order). Come home to talk to fam, watch the Giants pull it out, heart it out with Andy. Then drink again and now here. Sundays can be pretty great.