Arrrrgh!

I just got around to printing the immigration form to remove the conditions from Jeff's permanent residence. It's actually a very easy, short form, and I was pretty content about the whole deal until I saw the notice on the info page about the filing fee change....Currently, it's $205 + $70 for biometrics. Starting on July 30 of this year, it goes up to $545!!!! That does include the biometrics fee, but it almost doubled! I mean, come on, people. What are we doing, single-handedly funding that dumb fence they want to build on the border? Of course, I'd love to just file it before the change, and it would be easy to have done by Monday if I wanted to, but I can't, because it has to be filed in the 90 day period before his current card expires, so I can't do it until August. So there goes about $300....sigh....

Of Socialism, Communism, and Terrorism (Ah, the -isms!)

Today was the last day of summer school, so now I have about 6 weeks until school starts up again that are pretty much work free! (I have a half-day training in Rosetta Stone in July, and a full day Leadership Retreat in August, and I will be doing some reading, decorating, and planning in the meantime, especially in early August, but quite little compared with how much I normally work. And I can have lots of days with no working at all if I want.) Not to say summer school wasn't fun. But I kind of wished it would have started an hour later so I could have slept more. Oh well.

Yesterday, after the first hour of class, I ended up talking to one of the ENL students relating to the essay he'd done on his test about foreign policy and the military. He asked in particular why the US and Venezuela have such relationship problems now. (For those of the uninformed, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently called George W. the devil, and Bush, while not so colorful in his language, has been very strongly disapproving of Chavez.) I tried to explain it the best I could, because I do have what I believe is a pretty good theory, though I'm sure my explanation came across much less articulately in Spanish than it will as I try to explain it in English here:

As I see it, the main problem is that Venezuela, in contrast to the US, is very socialist. Chavez is a socialist. Most news outlets refer to Venezuela or the Chavez government at some time or another as "leftist". I don't think the problem is really a left/right one, though it seems slightly suspicious that Bush ("right wing") is anti-Chavez ("left wing") and vice versa, and in contrast, I'm more progressive (read "leftist") and am much more approving of Venezuela's policies, though I don't consider myself informed enough to really speak specifically to any of them.

Actually, I think the real issue is the leftover ethos of the Cold War. As I tried to explain to my student, adults just a bit older than me grew up in the Cold War, with fallout drills and this desperate fear of communism. Rather than being just an alternate political system, or even a bad alternate system, it was taught as a monster, a bogeyman of sorts, the demon that could destroy the world if we didn't "contain" it. While communism and socialism are not the same thing, they are deeply linked in people's minds, and this primitive childhood fear overrides a lot of adult reason. And the majority of adults today lived through the Cold War; a very significant portion of adults today were in their formative childhood years during the Cold War. I think this leads to a deep, innate, illogical distrust of all things socialist in a large percentage of the population. My student made the logical jump to how today we fear terrorists. That is the communism, the "bogeyman" for today's children.

In contrast, I grew up in the 80's, in the "detente", when the tension was beginning to cool off. We didn't have fallout drills; there wasn't the same fear of nuclear annihilation. It's true I did somehow or another still absorb some of that attitude. I don't even know who or what taught it to me, but I remember being deeply shocked learning about communism in 7th grade social studies. The basic tenet of communism is equality of all and that no one should lack basic necessities? Where's the evil part? However, I'm sure my indoctrination was much less intense, and I was able to think more logically about communism than my older counterparts. I don't particularly want our country to become communist, but I would like it to be more socialized.

In many ways I feel I am in a lucky in-between generation. Not old enough to be indoctrinated into anti-communist thought, but old enough by 2001 to not become perpetually afraid of terrorists. My formative years were relatively calm and relatively free of those sorts propaganda. Of course, it may just be my individual attitude and deliberate attempt not to be manipulated by the fear-mongering our politicians and media seem to push on us today. I was talking to a teacher at school recently who is older than me but was deeply affected in the bias kind of way by 9-11. I personally resent how politicians try to control us through fear. It doesn't make us a better people. I believe it makes us worse.

That's my sermon for now. It was an interesting thing to think about, one reason I enjoyed teaching the class this summer.

Meet T'Pol!















Here's T'Pol, the newest member of our household/family. She's about 7 weeks old, picked up from a litter that a stray cat had in the yard of a person I work with. (Follow that sentence?)


















She's extremely cute!!!!







Simon's, well, less than pleased with sharing his turf, but he's tolerating her for the time being.

Apocalypse Ponies

So, if you've seen me, Jeff, or Ryan in the last two days, you've probably heard us singing the "Apocalypse Ponies" song. (Or "Apocalpyse anything-else-with-two-syllables" - we've kind of progressed.) That's due to this video I stole from Becky's blog and forced them to watch. It still cracks me up after 4 viewings! It's quite funny, just for its surrealness, but even funnier if you're old enough to remember "My Little Pony" commericals.




If you'd like further comparison, you can search for "My Little Bantha" on Youtube. There's also original My Little Pony commecials to compare - the first one is very similar.....

End of the Year!!!

Yikes! I can't believe I've just finished my 3rd year of teaching! It's going eerily fast....well, there is summer school coming up, anyway.

So, Thursday I went to Cedar Point with high school and middle school ENL and high school Spanish Club. I spent about 8 hours of my life that I will never get back on a crowded school bus, but other than that it was pretty fun.

I spent most of the day with a couple of students from the middle school. I went on some rides that I had never gone on before (ex. Demon Drop, during which I screamed the whole time). I also found myself much more prone to headaches from some of the jerky roller coasters which made me feel very old. Sigh.

One new one I went on which was really fun was "MaxAir". Basically it's a big circle of seats on a long pole, which then goes back and forth, higher and higher, while spinning. So at some points, you're looking literally straight down at the ground and at other points, straight up, all while going at 70 mph. I'd never gone on it before because I thought it would terrify me, but it was really quite fun. Though it did occur to me during the ride that it's pretty weird people pay money to strap themselves down and be hurtled a 70 mph through the air! It was also slightly surreal because it was at the end of the day, and I'd taken my contacts out because they were dry and I didn't think I was going to go on any more rides, but then this line was short. I had to take off my glasses because they weren't allowed, so the whole "view of the park" was sort of blurry and weird.

I also got a fun "temporary tattoo" which you can see in the picture below (along with my not-so-fun, but hopefully also temporary sunburn):



Yesterday totally felt like Saturday because I slept in and just did errands and stuff. And now today feels like a repeat. It's very weird. Also it's weird that I have absolutely nothing to grade. Well, look out summer, here I come!