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| since i'm now 27 and a full-fledged adult, i'm moving to a sleeker, sexier, more grown-up site:
mrfngo.wordpress.com
and since i'm not a teacher anymore and have my life back, i'll hopefully be writing and updating more often.
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| spirited away to the other side of the world! it's crazy all the places you can be in a week. (last week = crazy).
the updated summer schedule, in case you're wondering where i am:
newly added:
aug 12-14: tokyo!
i'm getting too old for this. sometimes i just want to lay in my new blue room in oakland and sip hefeweizens all summer. but i suppose there's a world of discovery awaiting and you gotta get out of bed to find it.
***
here's my prayer letter update:
Somehow I made it through a tumultuous/joyous/nonstop final week of school, and find myself sitting on a plane to Tokyo with the other Trek directors to catch our connecting flight to Bangkok, where Orientation begins in about 36 hours.
Fortunately, I love airplane rides. I know many of you loathe them but I find them to be one of the most restful things I do (maybe that’s why I’m addicted to planning travel). As I sit here on this particular plane ride across the Pacific, I’m finally able to mentally, emotionally, and spiritually prepare for the Trek. (Believe me, there has been no time since the end of April). [Edit: I've arrived in Bangkok]
My major dilemma has been double-mindedness. The end of the school year is generally very exciting and makes me excited about the next school year. Our staff retreat ended on optimistic and sentimental notes this past Saturday, leaving me with the desire to just prep and plan curriculum all summer long. It’s hard to feel that energy and have to squash it into a box until August when I return. I love my school, and I love the Trek. The summertime pits them together in conflict, and the double-mindedness is taxing.
So I ask for your prayers at this time. Help me to be present during Orientation and when we get to Cambodia. I really do want to run a quality program that is a conduit for Holy Spirit-inspired transformative work. But I know I need God’s grace and mercy to do that. I’ll also be increasing my responsibilities during Orientation, including being the logistics point-person for students, running a few cultural trainings and simulations, leading our Solidarity Fast, and walking students through a spiritual realities exercise in a red-light district of Bangkok. And all of this while Diana, David and I meet our students and begin the process of trust-building, team-building, and getting down and dirty in their personal lives. Please pray for us Trek directors and staff as we lead out in the Gospel and challenge students to think differently about the world we live in and their place in it.
I’ll be sending updates and my usual journal reflections. Please read Tracking the Trek on the Global Urban Trek website to follow student experiences for the Phnom Penh Trek and other Treks around our beautiful but broken globe.
Much love,
Fred
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| hello.
it's been a while.
here's the update, bulleted:
- saw Carrie and Keith in San Jose, and as expected, we were 4 of 10 Asians at HP Pavilion that night.
- staying in oakland next year, after deciding not to move to Cambodia
- B.P. is now in my life (not british petrol), which is...lovely.
- spring break in Oaxaca/DF - the coolest bar/lounge I've ever been to, food, la casa de sin mezcal, and who'd ever forget our favorite game Spotty-spotty!
- went to NYC for a math teacher's conference - free!
- cambodian new year in the LBC - i <3 my family.
- our school district is forcing us out of our building because they believe that we are PROBABLY not earthquake safe. there is no proof, just hunches. it was a draining fight, but rewarding in the end, as we did get them to at least keep us around this part of Oakland. it was beautiful to see the community struggle and prevail.
- put on a pretty damn good prom, i must say.
- PP Trek '08 starts in less than a month.
- math class is over - dancing has begun. as of day 2, i want to be teaching math instead :(
- finished a semester of espanol at laney
bulleted like that, it doesn't seem like much. but it was a CRAZY spring season, with my head in so many different places. I'm mellowing down now before the trek, but am eagerly anticipating being in SE Asia again.
6/18-6/22: Bangkok, orientation
6/23-6/26: Phnom Penh, trek
6:27-7/31: Bangkok, orientation
then begins the post-trek vacay
7/31-8/4: Hanoi, Vietnam
8/4-8/8: Yogyakarta, Indonesia
8/8-8/12: Kuala Lumpur
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| a little birdie told me that my posts about school make it seem like i hate my job/students/school/district...
NOT TRUE (except for the last one - OUSD truly BITES).
my posts are fewer because frankly, i don't have as many issues with students as i did in year 1. things in class are going pretty well and students are learning. i just like to write about the unbelievable occurrences in my day to day work, just as most teachers need a place or space to vent about their stresses (though standard protocol for this venting would be over mojitos and shots of patron at luka's).
to prove it, here's one for you idealistic ones. it's a news story done on two of my students (i taught them sophomore year), who have truly risen above. they're great kids, even coming over to my house a few times to help make community dinner.
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Students Rising Above: The Ziegler Twins SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ¯ Wendy
Tokuda shares the inspiring story of teens from a troubled past who have
excelled against the odds, finding themselves on the honor roll.
Video story: http://cbs5.com/students/ziegler.twins.honor.2.617790.html
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| JS is in my 6th period, the most horrendous period of the day. everyday. it's a bunch of really large sophomores not sure of what's happening with their bodies - who are spastic and can't sit still after a long day at school - and then they have geometry, the most abstract of subjects, for their final hoorah. they're not loud, and they're not mean, they just make a lot of noise. chairs moving, pencils tapping, murmurs, high-pitched noises, giggles here and there. it could also be a heightened sense of irritation on my part by the end of the day, but most of the time, it's just HELLA ANNOYING.
but today, there was a different sort of distraction. JS, a rotundish, always smiling, awkward, and likely in el ropero boy kept flashing the inside front cover of his notebook at the people at his table and having shits and giggles after the fact. what, i wondered, could be the cause of such hilarity? what would be causing these pubescent teens to blush and flutter eyes and arms and interrupt my lecture on similar triangles (oh, it's great - please ask for an excerpt)?
i quickly confiscated said notebook and said "JS the next person that's going to see whatever's in here is your mother."
JS: [silence][inward shrieks of horror, personal fable quickly becoming undesireable reality]. Nooooooo!
i looked later, after class, and what was it other than a giant penis drawn in no.2 lead, a la Superbad.
yes, this is my life. it's the JS's that make it all the more worthwhile.
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