30 in the Blue Ridge Mts.

I took D on a surprise birthday getaway weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The cabin was built in the 1700's and is a magical spot in the universe. We did a whole lot of hiking, relaxing, bird-watching, and eating. The Redbuds were blooming in their purple splendor and the mountains were huge! We also saw a bazillion deer, got up close and personal with a vulture eating a dead racoon, had a strange encounter with some cows with staring problems, found the greenest river, hiked next to a tall waterfall, explored the quaint town of Lexington, and pretended we lived 200 years ago in our dreamy cabin.

Poem

I wanted to post this beautiful poem that our friend Yang You wrote for us. She is a dear friend and an amazing poet. We miss her because she's all the way in Taiwan. Hope you enjoy!

Farmers
white snow
quiet and Acceptance.
silver mirror
reflect and whole come back to true image.

Diversity of seeds.
waiting for changes.
Farmer! Farmer!
Please come.
I want to grow up and become mature.

Many words in my soul.
Haven't come out.
Maybe a poem?
Maybe a song?
Maybe a golden apple?
who knows?

After being cared by teacher farmer.
A great nature forest of students.
A beautiful garden of students.
A wonderful clear sky will be there.

A fruitful life will come!!

Beware the Ides of March!

The title of this post was chosen because we are now diving into Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, a play in which Caesar is betrayed and assassinated on the 15th of March. My students read Shakespeare's lines as if they are riddles with meanings they can't quite decipher, but they seem to enjoy the concept of murder, betrayal, and dictatorship. Everyone is eager to play the role of dictator even though they disagree with the concept. Oh how power influences... We can't believe that there are just 4 teaching months left in our first year. We are certainly busy, but this new world for us is, at least a little bit, more comfortable now. I must admit my frustration however; the standardized test mania that my students and I have been enduring is outrageous. I feel that I can now confidently testify that the art of teaching resides under a heavy dictatorship of scores, accreditation, and performance which measures nothing in the realm of critical thinking, the love of literature, or ways to be practically successful in the world! Even Caesar might have objected!
We've been having some fun lately, which was largely due to some wonderful visits from some wonderful people including my mama one weekend and Danielle and her sweet pea Andy the next. What a pleasure it was to have such dear guests grace us with their presence! We went to Jamestown, the original settlement that was established 400 years ago, with my mom. The picture is a statue of Pocahontis that was erected there. It was so great to have good friends and family around. Thank you for you; we miss you very much and are so grateful to have you in our lives.
We've been out mountain biking and have had some amazingly warm days. Virginia is gorgeous! We are now trying to figure out our summer plans and I think something abroad may be in store for us again. We are itching for a good trip. I'll let you know what we decide, because weighing our options this time has proven difficult. There are just so many fascinating places to see...and of course the price of a plane ticket makes an immeasurable difference too.
Damien is turning 30 on March 30th! Certainly it will be a celebration of sorts. Another orbit around the sun. We are thankful for every beautiful day of our lives, which are accented with challenges, 5:30 am alarms, police presence at school, the reality that success depends on the circumstances of what situation you are born into, moments of unexplainable beauty and compassion, and of course, without exception, the amount of love that we can bear to give which seems to exponentially come back at us in disguise.

The Many Faces of the James

This is the foggy, gray, and contemplation-inducing side of the James' personality. Damien sits in this very spot almost every day on his way home from work. I think his peaceful outlook is enhanced through his relationships with nature.

We had a fantastic weekend in West Virginia with the Lisowski brothers. We had Jimmy's cabin which is perched on top of a mountain and overlooks a breathtaking valley full of trees. We spent our days hiking, exploring, biking, eating, reading, and making various paper mache birds for Chris' art show, which we hear was a great success in Pittsburgh!

We also went snowboarding on a 50 degree sunny day in the Blue Ridge mountains last weekend. And this weekend we went mountain biking at Pochahontas State Park. Being outside in the winter here is less frigid, and the temperatures certainly make it easier to enjoy the outdoors.

Teaching is going well for us. It is utterly exhausting, both physically and mentally, and it's rewarding beyond explanation. We typically work either at school or at home on school stuff, on average, for 12-14 hours a day. I constantly feel overwhelmed, but I also feel nourished in a way I have never experienced before. The high schools here are a bit insane and totally stressful, but they are also a source of joy for us. Sometimes I forget who I am during the week, and on Saturdays I breathe in the world and notice things like clouds and can actually here my inner voice saying, "hey!" I'm still searching for the right balance.

Well enough of that. The Superbowl is this evening and I'm rooting for the Patriots! Go New England! Bwa ha ha...

My Beautiful Dining Room Table

Well, our beautiful dining room table of course. Our apartment has been graced by the workmanship of an extraordinarily talented woodworker. His name is Norman Johnson and he is Damien's amazing Grandpa. He has given us a gift that will be cherished by our family for the rest of our lives, and likely longer than that too. This is a big thank you to him and Ozzie (D's Grandma), who worked so hard and so carefully to give us a table made out of equal parts Red Oak, love, and fine skill. Thank you also to our parents who both splurged and bought us gorgeous matching chairs, which were stained by Norm to go with the table. Lastly, we now have a beautiful set of place mats & napkins to compliment our stunning dining room (the perfect x-mas present, thank you n&o). Here's to many meals remembering your kindness and elegant talent- we are honored. P.S. And of course thank you David and Tully for driving all the way to Virginia to deliver the goods! What a pleasure to have you here...

A Low Carbon Emissions New Year

We both had the typical resolutions in mind: more exercise, worry less etc., but ultimately, Damien and I have resolved to try and reduce our personal carbon emissions this year. We hope that perhaps you will, or already have, embarked on the same path to attempt to be a part of the movement to curb the urgent climate crisis. If you have any questions, watch Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, or National Geographic's State of the Earth (thanks Klug!) You can stream 5 excerpts of this film at www.nationalgeographic.com. It's interesting to see your own impact on the state of the earth: calculate your footprint in terms of your carbon emissions at this website: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/

or at this website:

http://www.bestfootforward.com/footprintlife.htm

There cannot be anything possibly more important than this. But, as you may already know, there's hope if we all work together. Wanna know some simple changes that can help? Go to: http://www.nativeenergy.com/more_you_can_do.html#1 Let's be guardians of the very near future.

I Heart New York

Aww shucks. 12 beautiful days in Buffalo. We spent our time with our friends and families, (once again the Schlaffs and Johnsons were together for another unforgettable Schlonson experience). We gathered from all the corners of the country, we cooked, we hiked in the Niagara River Gorge, we went to Jamestown, we played lots of music, we spoiled each other, we learned how to recover a hard drive, we took care of Trevor the Wonderdog, we read books, we crocheted, we ached with laughter, we smelled the earthy aroma of Norm's woodworking studio, we watched Rudolph with three little boys in pajamas awaiting Santa, we ate ice cream for breakfast for our first snowfall this year (which certainly wasn't Buffalo's first), we held Pete & Alie's new baby, we painted ornaments, we danced to Babik in a crowded bar, we stayed up until 4 in the morning, we ate chicken wings, we threw parties, we went to other peoples parties, we were caroled to, we cheered for the Sabres, we were thankful, we saw Fred Slacks play, we made cookies, we hopped around waterfalls at Chestnut Ridge, we told stories, we were cold, we were cozy, we felt so lucky. Thanks everybody! We miss you!

Crazy Old Massachusetts

I was debating whether or not to stop this whole blogging nonsense. I thought that since no one left any comments on it anymore, no one was reading it. But, I was pulled back in (easily I have to admit) after my trip home to find out that people were reading it after all. So my mute friends and family, here's the next chapter, and please don't shy away from cyber-dialogue (it helps me to know somebody is out there).
We are well into the second quarter at school. It's still crazy, but we've become one with the chaos. Fights, lock-downs, fires, and run-on-sentences made up entirely of four letter words are just companions to the roots of education. My writing students are in the midst of researching strong leadership figures, and they truly have some wisdom and insight to what makes up a just world. Still, I can't help but cringe as I realize how they, like many teens, so easily buy into what's fed to them by the media. I guess it has to do with them being so image-conscious and so connected to pop-icons (we all remember identifying with our musical idols and Hollywood heartthobs). Luckily by nature they question and object to everything(at least that I say or do), and certainly this must be the basis of a critical consciousness. I hope they can eventually direct it toward their media literacy, because their icons seem to glorify violence to no end.
Thanksgiving in Massachusetts was wild and wonderful. We had an awesome people watching experience in the JFK airport during our 4 hour delay on the way home. We saw my parents who are amazing, and my elderly dog Trevor who is still so cute and stinky. The whole Johnson clan came too; from Buffalo and Boston which was entirely wonderful. The crew on Thanksgiving day was huge with family & friends from Colorado, New York, Michigan (a surprise to boot!) Boston, Northampton, & Agawam. It was totally sumptuous and topped off with a musical smorgasborg (how do you spell that?)- all were involved until late in the evening. I got to hang out with my homies whom I miss so dearly. I saw my friends Tracy & Ben get married on Friday, which was beautiful. We visited my Grandma & Grandpa on Saturday in New York, and then attended my 10 year H.S. reunion on Sat. night! I saw about a million old friendly faces in way too small a time period. Now we are back down here, feeling a little alone, a lot busy, and very thankful.

Damien & Nepali Paper

Give Damien some handmade paper and you wouldn't believe the beautiful things he might do. Right now he's working on a trio of Shakespeare's ladies: Ophelia, Juliet, and Desdemona, which is who you see here.

The leaves are peaking only now down here, and we took a fun day trip down to historical Williamsburg yesterday.
It was a gorgeous, colonial town; picture-perfect and a little too touristy, but we enjoyed the outing back in time. There were some giant trees there, certainly around well before those white settlers came and set up camp.

The nights have been cold and the days are crisp and sunny, and teaching is a whirlwind. On the weekends I blink slowly and remember the world again.

Kayaking the James River

We spent a beautiful fall day on the river Saturday. It alternated from flat water to some pretty good sized rapids. Our states were peaceful, exhilarated, peaceful, exhilarated. It was all big clouds and falling leaves.

Saturday in the Swamp

This is a Bald Cypress swamp whose tree limbs are draped in Spanish Moss, and whose knobby "knees" stick out of the water all around them. Those "knees" are actually a part of the Cypress' root system, not the remnants of dead trees. It was a beautiful forest with a fairy tale ambiance. After exploring this area, we went across the road and wound up on a long stretch of beach which overlooked where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic.

Nearing The End of Week 7

Time is passing by, and it's measured in chapters of The Outsiders, and stages in the essay writing process. It's measured in the times I erase the date each afternoon and scribble tomorrow's with a chalky screech. Things are going well, and teaching is like what I imagine hang gliding might be like: exciting, nerve racking, and even beautiful when you get the nerve to relax the muscles around your squeezed eyes and take a look at the breathtaking scenery. And that's about the same moment that you realize you're a vulnerable land-mammal plausibly about to fall furiously like an anvil. But somehow you don't, even though it might feel like you will, and your heart breaks a thousand times in a second because it's so overwhelmed with everything.
Pictures of Biggie Smalls and 2Pac are taped to my wall as onlookers and game pieces if needed. They are not only a testament to my students that I am indeed not only hip to their musical legends, but I am also a hell of a lot older than they think I am, because I could actually drive when those two were still alive. This is a good thing when they say "Ms. S., welcome to the ghetto," and I smile and say, "you should see India."
I have learned so much already.
Virginia is beautiful; fall is gentle here. We mourn the loss of all those centry-old trees in Buffalo. Tully was still out of power when we talked to him on Tuesday! We are always thinking of our loved ones and you give us strength and a deep sense of gratefulness. Mom came for a long weekend and it was so wonderful and so grounding....
We'd love to hear from you all so leave a comment or drop us an email! Love E & D

Teachers should be Gajillionaires

I must say I've worked harder in the past two weeks than any effort I can clearly remember, although perhaps my memory is being replaced with the methodical plunking on the keyboard of lesson plans, which is the ouija board of my future. The actual school part is a whirlwind of madness; I'm throwing out all my education and resorting to any tactic possible to restore even a sliver of control, to find a needle in the mountains of paperwork, and every now and then, it works. And even though I dream constantly of school, like about a giant pencil sharpener solving all of our problems, I awake to find real, grinning teachers telling me the first year is always the hardest. I pleasantly thank them and wonder what in the world was I thinking? But after two weeks of really hard days, I'm finding that I'm actually growing to like the kids. This positive connection is quite contrary to what I thought possible in those first days which felt like light years, and I'm half dreading and half curious to see what the third week will bring.

Kayaking the Spine of VA Beach

We took advantage of our last couple of weekdays off and drove east to the ocean. Damien had researched a remote place to camp in the state park on Virginia Beach called False Cape, with no vehicle access. The choice was to either walk 6.5 miles to the site, or our favorite, kayak 9 miles to the site. We kayaked on Back Bay, following the shoreline which so narrowly separated us from the open ocean. The day we started the waves were raging, so we were thankful to be on the calmer yet still wavy side, with, fortunately, the wind at our backs. We made it there in about 3 hours and were astonished by the beauty we found there. We camped under an ancient Live Oak, which do not grow up north, and walked less than a mile to the ocean side to play on the beach. Not a soul was around. It was amazing. It rained a bit, but it was nice. In the morning the bay was still and glassy like you see in the picture. We had a calm paddle back, though we still can feel all those miles in our shoulders and traps. We were so hot when we got back to the car we decided to take another dip on the ocean side at a public beach, which was fun, until I started feeling all these sharp little stings on the inside of my suit. I found that about a billion little sand-sized critters had gotten stuck in there and were pinching me. It took a long time for me to remove every last one, and it certainly cut my swim short. I haven't been able to identify them yet but they were kind of like a tiny spider crossed with a tiny shrimp the color of sand with eyes that were black but looked green in the light.

Anachronistic Entry

I meant to put this pic on a while back- this is up in Canada (Mud) when David and I flipped the catamaran and I never got wet-kinda like running on a log. We were helped back into upright position by some local friends. We then proceeded to have one of the most exhilirating rides ever in the very windy afternoon. Thanks David -what a time!

Making Richmond Home

Well y'all (ha ha not yet), here we are in Richmond, Virginia. We are really enjoying it so far and are starting our pre-service training on the 21st of Aug, and the kids come back to school on Sept 5th. Here are a couple of pictures- our backyard, front porch, and a spot in Shenandoah National Park, which we hiked around in yesterday. I'll post some of the interior of our apt as soon as we finish hanging up our art. We moved in during that incredible heat wave. Dante surely would have designated the inside of our Penske truck a whole new level in Inferno, wherein those who collected too much stuff during their lifetimes would be tortured accordingly.
Fortunately, my parents drove all the way down here to help us get settled and it was a wonderful time. Happy Birthday To You Mom! Today's her day. Anyhow, we started exploring the city with them and were sad to see them go. Richmond is full of pleasant surprises, and our neighborhood is really historical and hip, boasting lots of cool restaurants, cafes, old churches, an Edgar Allen Poe Museum, cobblestone streets, and even a quirky farmer's market that looks like a flea market on Saturdays. We live atop the steepest hill and riding our bikes up it in the heat has been something to celebrate every time. The James River is right here, flowing east through the city and there are many rocks to sunbathe and play on, and lots of swimmers, kayakers, and rafters are seen floating around in the mid-day humidity. The water is so warm it's borderline refreshing. We've been out kayaking once and saw a lot of bird and animal life. The southern lifestyle has been easy to fall into; everyone is pretty laid back and very friendly. It is a southern rule to leave your porch light on all night, and the meat department at the grocery store reminds me more of Asia than anything: chicken necks and feet, pig hooves, gizzards and various glands. And no Frank's Red Hot, but many other spicy concoctions are to be had for sure. Damien bought a car- a 2003 black Ford Focus Hatchback that gets 37 miles to the gallon! That really beats my trusty purple robot. We hope for some more visitors soon! Ahem... I think we're heading out to the beach tomorrow (this piece of info is meant for enticing). I'll keep this blog updated. We miss you!

Guess Where This Is

Nope, you're wrong. It's Michigan! Damien and I were surprised to find ourselves in what felt like another country, but what was actually Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. We spent our time there running down giant sand dunes (and plodding slowly back up them), snorkling in the gorgeous blues, and camping in a lush forest. An insane storm came in one night and the whole area lost power, which was still without watts when we left. We extended a trip to Michigan to celebrate my cousin Mike who sadly passed away two years ago. We stayed up until 4 am with my mom and my cousins and my aunts & uncles catching up and having fun around a bonfire.....then in the morning it was blaring Polish music and people drinking more beer, the sign of a party with stamina. Thanks to my totally rad family, to a state with a lot of hidden secrets, and thanks to another beautiful memory in my cousin Mike's name.

fish

the fish thought our snorkles worthy of inspection.

July 4th

This year I had the best view of fireworks I've ever had. The water mirrored the sky's fleeting ornaments while the heart-stopping booms traveled over the surface and a million tiny lights rained down over our enamored heads. After the show was over we saw fireworks down the river further and I said that must be in Canada. It took a minute to realize that was impossible considering July 4th celebrates independence for the United States. Brilliant as a firework.

Richmond or Bust

We have finally decided upon, or it was decided for us (various factors fit together, some that we had control over and others that were precariously and blatantly out of our powers, proving that the universe works in unexplainable but wise ways and thankfully, I have learned the valuable lesson that stressing out gets one nowhere but deeper into a frenzy which was wholly unnecessary because it always works out in the end, etcetera, etcetera) on our next destination (this was my point, drumroll please): Richmond, VA. With two jobs in two high schools, a new mountain bike, and the sum of all our experiences, we head for the South as official English Teachers.
All we know is that there is whitewater kayaking right in downtown Richmond, and with that thought we rest a little easier, knowing we will at least become better paddlers in the rapids. And of course we now have the chance to have our own classrooms full of young people who's greatest chance for life success depends on what skills they learn and how they view the world. My goal is to foster compassion and critical thought.
Buffalo has been especially beautiful lately. This is due to the glorious spring we are having, and also that it is being viewed through departing eyes. My parents in-law just moved into a house around the corner, and it's been so wonderful to see them so often. We went to Pine Lot last weekend when my parents came to visit (miss them!) and we saw a huge bear running through a field. He stood up on his hind legs which showed his impressive height and a belly I wished I could touch. We all went to the Allentown Art Festival too, which was full of some great art as you might imagine.
Buffalo went through a time of hockey mania recently, when the Sabres fought it out to game 7 in the semi finals of the Stanley Cup. They lost eventually to N. Carolina. It was a treat to see Doug Janik, one great player who I went to high school with in Agawam, playing for Buffalo, and even scoring a goal! After they lost this city seemed a little unsure as to what to do with itself. But since then things are back to normal, and there are farmer's markets, glasses of wine on cafe patios, bike riders of every sort, flowers galore, rests in the grassy city parks, dogs catching each other's aromas on soft breezes, music festivals, camping expeditions, gay pride parades, barbecues, friends, and a plethora of gatherings. Buffalo: nestled in between two great lakes, on the gorge that divides the US and Canada, a place where no buffalo ever roamed, and where the Niagara just keeps raging and raging.