A Big Move (aka Major Differences) part 2

     Like I said when I ended my last post, there are a lot of things down here that are awesome. Something that has really stood out to me is the music – it seems like every Friday and Saturday night (and maybe Thursday night too), every bar has a live band (or 2, or 3) to come and play music for the crowd.

     This phenomenon manifested itself best in Memphis – the night of July 3^rd, we were on Beale St. (which is like the Strip in Vegas, but replace the casinos with bars) at the Jerry Lee Lewis's bar. The band was playing Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis covers, and they were a real treat to watch. One of the coolest things I’d seen was when the singer poured out some liquid on top of the piano and lit it on fire! He then proceeded to do the same to a set of cymbals and some counter space at the side of the stage. Of course the fire lasted just about ~10 seconds, but the novelty of it combined with fire’s ability to inspire fascination made it really cool. It also helped that he made a good 7-10 foot line of fire in front of the stage. I know I’ve been gushing about the fire, but the music was awesome too. People would get up and dance and the main singer was skillful at engaging the audience. At one point, he said something like “Y’all are at the best bar on Beale Street,” which drew a response from a particularly inspired young boy,

     “More like the best BAND on Beale Street!!”

     I could only laugh about this kid’s enthusiasm (he’d been dancing very vigorously throughout the band’s set) and agree.

     Next, we headed to BB King’s House of Blues where they had – you guessed it – more live music. This venue was much larger, with a band to match. Whereas the last group had a main singer (who played guitar and piano), another guitarist (or bassist, I don’t remember), and a drummer, this next group had: someone on the keyboard, a drummer, a main singer and back-up singers, a trumpet player, a guitarist, and a bassist. In other words, they had so many people that they even swapped people on and off stage. As for the music choice, it was largely oldies – stuff that I wasn’t too familiar with, but there were definitely some tunes I could sing along to: September, Beat It, and My Girl, just to name a few. If I thought the last band was great, this band was even greater. The main singer belted out the tunes with a level of vigor and soul that was absolutely thrilling to witness. Accordingly, a great number of people came out in front of the stage to dance out their inspirations.

     So yeah… you could see why I’d love the music down here. It’s not that there isn’t live music in San Jose – but here, it’s everywhere. Not to mention the music down here just seems better. It might be the musicians themselves that are actually better, or the atmosphere surrounding the musicians; it seems like everyone here really enjoys live music, and that’s something I can definitely get behind. This is the perfect time to get into the next thing that’s made my experience such a pleasure – the feel.

     It’s felt more heavily depending on where I am or what I’m doing, but being here just feels different. I can’t give you anything but examples because I’m not too certain of what this feeling is or where it even comes from. Heck, “this feeling” is probably actually a combination of a whole bunch of feelings.

     For example, just this past Thursday I went to a place called Po Monkeys to hang out. it’s a spot that opened up in 1961, where “farm workers could relax, drink beer, and listen to music” (I pulled that from the wiki). There was seating for about 30 people, maybe 40 tops. The ceiling was probably somewhere between 7 and 8 feet, so it wasn’t very tall either. In other words, a pretty cozy place. Also, I forgot to mention that this place is nestled at the edge of a corn field, about ¾ of a mile off the paved road and just accessible by a gravel path. We had a couple beers and listened to some music (which, by the way, was not live, oddly enough. However, there was a DJ that would work the crowd and create breaks in the songs for people to sing to.).  I also forgot to mention that this place was BYOW (Bring Your Own Whiskey). Sweet deal, huh? Just don’t try to bring beers in. (Trust me.) The coolest thing about the place was its historic feel.

     Knowing that this was the watering hole for locals for 50+ years was pretty special. There was writing on the wall too – like what you’d see at Boiling Crab. The only difference was that at Po Monkeys, even the writing on the wall looked old. The faded color of the wood and smoothness of the surfaces definitely pushed the image of this place as something that’d been around for a long time. Just being in there gave me a good feeling.

After we were finished hanging out, we went to the shack outside where they were serving food so I could grab some BBQ rib tips. While we were waiting, the state senator who owned the business that was serving the food came out to talk to us. I think we chatted for a good half hour, at least. We talked about this and that and joked around, and it was just absolutely amazing to me. To meet and engage with somebody of his political clout as if we were old buddies – that is something special.

I’m not sure if I’ve done a very good job of portraying it to you, but the feel of the place – to me, at least – has a lot to do with the history of the area and the closeness of the people here. Not just physical closeness – but a social closeness that some places have and others don’t. This leads to my final point of major difference between here and San Jose: the people.

I left this point for last because it’s the most significant. The climate, the music, the distance – all those and everything else are secondary when it comes to the people. They make this place. On a grander scale, people have always been what my life is about. I’ve spent the majority of my existence making them laugh and smile. I don’t think that will change any time soon, if ever. People are why I hope to be a teacher for the rest of my life – I love to see people flourish, and this is one way I can directly help them do that. So let’s talk about these people.

From my time down here so far, the people have been very welcoming. I’m sure part of it comes from being with TFA – it seems like everywhere we go, people have a positive view of the organization. Parents, community members, and school staff – everyone just has words of encouragement and kindness for us. I know that’s not always the case for all TFA members, so I’m very grateful to be placed in a region where I feel both wanted and needed. Furthermore, I think it has more to it than just being with TFA; it sounds cliché, but I think people down here might just be better conditioned at looking out for each other. Whatever the reason, the locals are very inviting and seem more than happy to share their home with us.

Besides the locals, there’s another group I’ll be spending a lot of time with – everyone that’s in TFA, which consists of the other 14 corps members, the alumni/2^nd years, and our regional staff. Since there’s so few of us in all, it seems like we bonded very quickly and deeply for such a diverse group of people. Although we come from a lot of different backgrounds, I guess it just so happens that our personalities mesh really well together. Besides the fortuitous chemistry, we’re also bonded by what we all signed up to do – to work our hardest in providing a quality education for those who might not otherwise get one. Being surrounded by like-minded and motivated people is really quite thrilling. The energy we each bring to the table seems to be multiplied when we come together, which really sets the tone for how I want to work: with enthusiasm and perseverance (while remembering that having some fun along the way just makes the work easier). The people here have driven me and will continue to be there along the way as I (inevitably) struggle through my first two years of teaching, and I can’t be more excited about that.

So that’s it – through 2 posts and somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,500 words, I think I’ve covered the great majority of what’s been different between here and San Jose. I’ve shied away from saying “home” too much when referring to San Jose because it will always be my HOME home by default. It’s where I grew up, have great memories, and where (most of) my family lives. However, after just 7 weeks I can already feel the fondness and warmth in my heart that I associate with the 2 other places I choose to call home, and that’s something that really excites me. Here’s to 2 more years! 

A Big Move (aka Major Differences) part 1

     7 weeks ago, I hopped on a plane that took me from San Jose, California to Monroe, Louisiana. When my parents dropped me off at the airport, Daisy came with to say goodbye. After grabbing my things (1 luggage, 1 carry-on, and my backpack), I turned around to say goodbye to Daisy. We hugged, we kissed, we exchanged some words, and we shed some tears (it was tragic, seriously). Then I turned to head into the airport with my mom to check my baggage while my dad made a loop around the airport. After checking in my baggage, there was nothing left but to head on up to the security checkpoint. I hugged my mom goodbye and cried some more. I wasn’t really sure what lay ahead of me at that point– the only thing I knew for sure was that I would be leaving everyone and everything that I had known in my life up to that point. Tough to do when you lead a life you enjoy surrounded by people that love you. This was very different from leaving to San Diego.

     When I went to San Diego to start school, I drove down with a friend to a place that I had already been to and where I knew I was going to see at least a few familiar faces.  Louisiana was a complete unknown – I had never even spoken to whoever was picking me up at the airport, let alone met any of the staff in person (we’d had conversations on Skype or the phone). I didn’t have any expectations for the place besides knowing that it would be a lot more hot & humid than California. Turns out even that expectation wasn’t completely right – I think San Jose’s hotter, it’s just the humidity down here that makes me sweat so much. In fact, I knew so little about the place I didn’t even think it rained down here – which, in retrospect, why the hell wouldn’t it rain down here?? I moved to the South, not the goddamn desert. If that doesn’t give you a good idea for how unaware I was coming down here, I don’t know how else I could show you. I really didn’t know anything. Heck, I still haven’t* even made comparisons between the temperature here and in San Jose to conclusively tell you which place is hotter!

     Anyways, back to my flight to Monroe. First off, I didn’t even go there directly. I flew to Phoenix for a short layover of about an hour, after which I travelled to Dallas, where I slept over at the airport. Finally, I woke up for an early flight out of Dallas to Monroe. When I got there, I waited for about an hour before I was picked up by a fellow corps member. I hopped into his car and we drove to Tallulah, a city with a population of – get this – a whopping 7,500 people. At this point, I was a good 1,500 miles further from home than I’d been in San Diego.

Before I continue, let’s have a quick rundown of the perceptions of my new home:

• So humid I could just stand outside and still sweat.
• A population that is literally less than 1% of that of San Jose’s
• Waaay way far from home. As in, a one-hour drive and a 7-hour flight to get home, whereas before I’d been a 20-minute drive and 1-hour flight from home.
• I hadn’t realized it immediately on my first day, but my God – the mosquitos. There are hordes of them, and they just feast on your flesh. Sometimes, even coating myself in bug spray hasn’t been enough L.

     All in all, not a very flattering list. Oh, and did I mention? I went from being just another Vietnamese person in a city absolutely teeming with Asians to being one of less than a dozen Asian people that I had seen in the entire city. Like, when I saw the family that ran the town’s Chinese buffet, I actually felt a sense of kindred with them – just because they were the only other yellow people I’d seen all week.

      I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been particularly conscious of my skin color growing up, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times in the past 7 weeks where I felt like I stuck out just for being the token Asian in the area. For instance, students where I taught summer school asked if I was from China, if I could speak Chinese (typically accompanied by the “ching chong ling long” used by those who are too unaware to know any better), or if I was really from California. The worst part of it all is that I don’t even blame them for their questions – I would bet that for most of the people around here, Asians account for less than .01% of the people they’ve encountered their whole lives. Why wouldn’t they assume I’m Chinese, considering they’re the most populous of Asians? I’ll probably be the closest a lot of these people will ever get to Vietnam, period. As in, yes, I am rather exotic. I never thought I'd be describing myself as such.
     I’ve never really paid attention to it, but people still do – it shows when they ask me where I’m from (y’know, with that particular tone of inquiry) or where my parents are from. And I can’t help but do a double-take or make a mental note every time I see an Asian – as if to acknowledge that, oh yes, there are other Asians here. Also, the 9-inch hair tied up definitely isn’t doing me any favors either. All in all, the racial difference has definitely been an interesting part of the experience down here.

     I’ve touched on a good number of the features that have made life down here different – the climate, demographics, the extreme distance, and those pesky mosquitos. However, there are still many differences I haven’t addressed yet. These differences include the music, the unique feel, and most obviously, the people. Those are the things that make me excited to live down here, and I’ll be covering those next.

               

* I checked after writing that. The average temperature is 4 degrees hotter in Tallulah than SJ and the amount of rain here is about 3.5x greater than in SJ. The temperature difference doesn’t sound like that much, but consider that the lows are lower here. The highs have to be higher (on average) to make up for that – in the summer months, I’m not sure if the highs ever hit as high as they are in SJ, but the majority of the summer is spent in the high 80s and 90s. At least that’s what I concluded, looking at usclimatedata.com

Welcome Back to my Blog!

     I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. After I'd finally nailed down a name for this blog, I thought that having a framework for my ideas would make it a lot easier to sit down and write. And it does! I just haven't had the chance to be alone with my thoughts in quite awhile now.
     For the past 6 weeks, I've been spending all my time with other prospective teachers to get a taste of teaching and to prepare for the upcoming school year. I just wanted to write about it to process it better. I analogize it to watching a movie or reading a book again - your brain will probably focus on some other details that seem new just because you didn't pay them proper attention for the first time. This way, you really get the most out of the material as you can. Similarly, I'm hoping to get the most out of life by programming in occasional periods of review. It's like watching film of yourself to learn from events that just recently happened. That being said, let's move on to what's been happening since I moved away from California!
     For the first week, I spent time to get to know the 15 other people placed in the same region as me; we traveled around the community and met people/explored places. This included some community service (a major clean up of a park), meeting and talking to parents and other community members to get to know the area and our work in it, and a lot of team building and reflection activities to share out about ourselves and get to know each other better - after all, we will be spending the next 2 years together.
     For 5 weeks after that, we joined with 400+ others from the surrounding regions to participate in a variety of things during our summer training (referred to as "Institute"): teaching summer school classes, engaging in discussions on culture and teaching, and planning our daily lessons. It was the definition of routine, at least from Monday through Friday. Specifically, my days went like this:

• Wake up at 5:15, get dressed & head out the door at 5:30. 
• Go grab a bagged lunch and have breakfast 'til 5:55
• Walk over to the bus, which leaves at 6:10.
• Get to school at 7, head over to the classroom and prep for the day (clear the board, sharpen pencils, etc.)
• From 7:30, spend time with students in the gym until classes start at 8
• 8-9:40: Fine-tune my lesson for the day or work on tomorrow's lesson 
• 9:40-10:40: Small-group instruction (practicing math with 3-4 students, it's pretty self-explanatory)
• 10:40-11:05: Sit and spend time with the students during lunch
• 11:05-12: More lesson-related work, meeting to discuss lessons and the classroom, observing others teach. Come to class during my co-teacher's block so that students get more individual attention.
• 12-1: My 1-hour block to teach Algebra.
• 1-2:30: Getting back to campus
• 3-6: Classes on teaching, culture, management, etc. etc.
• 6-10 or 11, sometimes 12: Cramming in dinner, lesson planning/printing, exercise, and socializing.
• Rinse & repeat

Phew! We got weekends to ourselves, which consisted of hanging out/going out to get to know the surrounding area (I went to Memphis for 4th of July weekend, which was awesome).

     It's weird to write out that list and see just how planned out my existence has been during Institute. People are creatures of habit anyways - it just so happens that this routine was largely given to me as opposed to being set by me from the start. 

     As far as the bigger picture goes, that's what I've been doing for the past month. The last day of Institute was yesterday, and afterwards I drove back down to our regional base at Tallulah. Everyone but myself and 2 others headed home until we start back up on July 22 with a week of professional development. Until then, I'll just be hanging out in the general area (hopefully sliding down to southern MS for a few days and then around New Orleans for a few more). I hope to get some more writing in during this time.

     Even though I've given you a snapshot of my life for the past month, there's still so much I haven't gone over yet - ideas coming from the discussions during our class sessions, visiting the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, my experiences in class as a teacher, and so much more that I'm pretty sure I won't even get to it all (for instance, I haven't even touched on moving from California to Louisiana [or more accurately, Mississippi]). Stay tuned for updates in the next ~11 days!