mila's daydreams

kelly d. emailed me the link to this blog, and then i saw that whitney had linked to it through her blog, and you guys, IT IS THE CUTEST THING EVER.  EVERRRRR.  (i say that a lot.  i have been lying to you until this point.)

book club update

in the course of a couple hours, my sister's book club project is fully funded!!  of the seven people who donated, she only knows who four of them are...here is our email exchange when i checked back on her project and saw that it was complete:

me:
OHMYGOD YOUR PROJECT IS FULLY FUNDED - WHO THE HELL ARE THESE NEW DONORS?  How did they find you - can you do a search on donorschoose for projects that would interest you? Or do you know these people??


I just got REALLY EXCITED for you!  Like, why aren't you online so we can talk about this?? Ahhhh!!!


Love!
Claire

her:
Um, I have no idea who these people are. But they gave A LOT of money...I needed like $200 and then all at once it was funded...Someone is from NJ...and someone is totally anonymous! WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???? I am so excited and touched and confused...they don't know me but they gave me money!


Okay, let me know if you figure anything else out about my mystery friends...


I am PUMPED!!!!!!!



(aww - she got all her books!  also: we like exclamation points and all caps when we are excited.  we are sisters - what can i say.)

if you are late to the game and like the idea of donorschoose.org and want to help out a teacher who you don't know (since you can't help becky any more), i'm sure they will be just as thankful as becky was to get a donation from someone who just wants to do a good thing.  go to http://www.donorschoose.org/, click on "projects" in the upper righthand corner, and find one that speaks to you!

a cool study

REALLY interesting article about the importance of teachers in elementary school...again, i have no idea if the cause and effect is as straightforward as the graph indicates (scroll down and click "graphic" on the lefthand side), and it's been a while since i had a math class, but that looks like a pretty startling correlation to me.  my favorite line:

"The economists don’t pretend to know the exact causes. But it’s not hard to come up with plausible guesses. Good early education can impart skills that last a lifetime — patience, discipline, manners, perseverance."


bottom line: the article is definitely worth the 5 minutes it takes to read.

book club

"I would be most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves."
--Anna Quindlen, author
(anna quindlen: are you inside my head?  and inside nora's head?)


so i'm on facebook the other day, reading through my friends' status updates, and one came up for my sister, becky, that was a picture of her classroom and the tag line "book clubs make better readers!"  so i clicked the link, was taken here (click "more" to read the whole proposal), and when i stopped being teary-eyed about how sweet this idea is, i donated a little money.  (i was also like, "wait, why am i finding out about this via facebook?" and i think her desire not to pressure anyone into giving by emailing them added to my desire to help out her class.)  i visited becky's class in october and i know what a special place it is.  i also have a very vivid memory of reading when i was in 4th grade: my 4th grade teacher gifted teacher assigned us my brother sam is dead to read, which was the first book i'd ever read that contained the word "damn" and i couldn't believe we were allowed to read it.  i really liked that book, and my friend joe and i both read ahead even though we were NOT SUPPOSED TO READ AHEAD because we wanted to know what would happen.  looking back, perhaps it isn't a coincidence that i remember this book (historical fiction) so fondly and then grew up to be a history teacher.

but anyway: i hope becky's kiddos are making memories like that, too, and if you want to make a little donation, i'm sure she and her kids would be thankful.

MIA

i've been a little MIA recently - apologies!  those of you who have worked at a summer camp before will understand...some days are easy breezy and some are so hectic that when you get some free time you (a) sleep, (b) spend it all with your friends, or (c) can't put together a coherent thought that would be worth blogging about.  that has been me recently, and it probably won't get any better anytime soon.  the kids leave on saturday (!) and then we spend two days packing up before the admin staff leaves on monday (!!).  i really really can't believe that my time in oxford is coming to a close.  it feels like it went by so much faster than last summer (which we've taken to calling "swine '09") and i'm really sad that i won't be around this group of people any more after monday.  we had so many returning staff that it was easy to fall into those friendships again and in some ways it feels like i've been here forever.

enough of that, though.

your procrastination of the day: the killers' "mr. brightside" performed by tommy reilly, who won a british show much like american idol last year.  we were talking about music a couple days ago and a friend of mine showed me this link.  on the first listen, i really liked it.  on the third, i was in love.

imports

one of the best parts about working in our office is the ability to buy fruits, crisps, biscuits (cookies), and other random snacks - and have the program reimburse you.  we all snack on it while we're in the office - some days, like today, you work an 8 hour shift, and that is a lot of sitting around and waiting for things to happen.  strike that: sitting around, snacking, and waiting for things to happen.  i was struck recently, while buying fruit, of where it was grown.  in the US, most fruit we eat is grown in the US or in central or south america.  obviously that isn't true when you're buying fruit in the UK, but i didn't exactly realize that before i sat down to think about it.  here is my most recent fruit purchase:

clementines and apples from south africa
pears from holland
grapes from morocco

(just like in the US, all fruit packages here are labeled with the country of origin.)

somehow grapes from morocco seem so much more exotic than grapes from central america.  all a matter of perspective, i guess...

to remember

“Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
—Howard Thurman

[from here - they send me a quotation a day...some lame, some wonderful.  this falls in the "wonderful" category.]

my love of ken and trivia

you know ken jennings?  the guy who won 74 games of jeopardy! in a row?  i love him.  when he was on his run of 74 wins in a row, i was working at TIP (nerdy summer camp that i worked at for six summers from 2001 to 2006), and jeopardy! was on at a time during the day when we had to run activities for students.  ann marie had a tv/vcr combo in her room, and she would tape jeopardy! every day and then we would play the tape after the kids went to bed.  and ken just kept on winning and we kept on cheering him on.  (it was awesome.)  so i have this great memory of watching the show with some really good friends at a summer program that was one of the best experiences of my life (for the following reasons: 1 - it made me realize i wanted to be a teacher, which i now am and can't imagine a more perfect job for me; 2 - i made some of my best friends while working there; 3 - it began my love affair with night swimming, mix-your-own-six-packs, the rough ridge overlook on the blue ridge parkway, our daily bread, staying up obscenely late, and boone, north carolina.  what am i forgetting?).

i read ken's book and occasionally read his blog, and i'm telling you all this (get to the point already, claire!) because he's got a great trivia quiz that he sends out to your email account every tuesday if you subscribe on his blog (lefthand side, scroll down).  so: trivia lovers: subscribe!

crisps vs. chips

my sister loves potatoes - mashed potatoes, french fries, potato chips.  i mean, everyone loves these foods, but becky LOVES these foods.  we talked on the phone yesterday and i gave her a quiz - what does this british word mean in american english?  in addition to words like "loo" and "courgette" and "ta," i found myself giving her all the words for various potato products, totally on accident.  after "crisps" and "chips" and "mash," she said to me, "ooh these are very important words for me to know" and we both laughed a lot.  one thing i have really enjoyed in england is going into the grocery store and just walking the aisles.  in a nice grocery store like marks and spencer i can spend a lot of time looking at sandwiches and cheeses and desserts and crisps and noticing the differences in the food between british grocery stores and american grocery stores and trying something new.  getting sandwiches and crisps from a grocery store is definitely something we will be doing when my family comes over in lessthantwoweeks.  is this dorky?  probably.  but i've already looked to see if there is an m&s in edinburgh, and there is.  and i'm excited.

my day off, week 3: torrential downpour version

this picture doesn't do it justice.

why yes, i will be going to the movies this afternoon.  hmm...inception or toy story 3?

red vs. blue

this article really resonated with me.  you should read it.

#1: i was (am?) a middle class rural white kid, and there weren't a lot of other people that fell into that category at duke when i was there.  that part of me identifies with what he's talking about in this article...and if most rural middle class whites are conservatives (which they probably are), they aren't highly represented at selective universities.

#2: this is what my conservative students tell me that they don't like about affirmative action programs in higher education - that it isn't a meritocracy and that they are the ones being excluded.  i'm very okay with higher education not being 100% a meritocracy, but then again, i think i did get into college based on merit, and maybe i'd think otherwise if i hadn't gotten accepted to my top choices and i wanted someone or something to blame.

#3: in my gut, this article makes a lot of sense to me and i like things that make sense.  particularly this line:
"Among the highly educated and liberal, meanwhile, the lack of contact with rural, working-class America generates all sorts of wild anxieties about what’s being plotted in the heartland."
ohmygod yes.  sometimes i find myself defending where i grew up and what it was like - giving the "inside scoop" on living in red america - to blue america.  i get what he's saying.  i agree with what he's saying.

#4: but sometimes i'm a little afraid of the politics of red america.  can you love red america AND be afraid of red america?  and this author?  um, i think he might be a conservative.  AND HE MAKES SENSE.  yikes.  in fact, i've found that i regularly like what he writes for the new york times - he has such a weird, comic-book-guy-from-the-simpsons meets jazzy/really-bad-professional-photographer, and i notice when i'm reading an article written by him.  so rock on ross douthat.  even if you did write a book about how the republicans can rise again.

secret crush of the week:

sam kass, white house assistant chef.

swoon.

and yes, i discovered him because he was a guest judge on top chef.  on rainy nights i've been watching an occasional episode of top chef that i've downloaded from itunes. 

[picture from here - with a little blurb about him if you want to read more.  apparently i am slow on the uptake and people have been crushing on him since last year.  note: this does not make him any less cute.]

another pub added to my list of favorites: the perch

for my day off last week i decided to go on a long walk and get far far away from tourists (it was a saturday, and oxford is full of tourists on saturdays - italian, spanish, japanese, and americans, mostly - i think tour buses come here for a day trip from london) and far far away from our students.  i had a really delicious sushi lunch with some coworkers and then set off with my ipod and a book.  i decided to walk through port meadow, public grazing space in oxford, to a pub called the perch (click "history" to learn more about port meadow, if you're interested).  the pub is accessible by car and road, as well, but it seems much more exciting when it just appears down a path in the middle of port meadow.  so that's the way i got there.  i'd seen the signs before, but never ventured down the path and to the pub.  here's port meadow, or rather, some clouds above port meadow:

40 minutes or so after i set off from our college in oxford, a sign indicates the way to the pub - at this point you are literally in the middle of pasture land, walking along a dirt path next to the thames river:

the path is gorgeous - covered in green:

and you emerge and can see the back garden of the perch, which was SPECTACULAR.

you go inside to the bar and order a drink - i had a ginger beer, which was so gingery it made my lips tingle - and then find a seat inside or at one of the dozen or so picnic tables scattered about the back garden.  there is a playground for kids and a stand where you can order barbecue.  i just sat in this garden in what felt like the middle of nowhere, and had a drink and wrote postcards and read my book and was totally at peace.  one of those moments where you think, "i'm pretty happy to be a human being on this planet right now."  (do you guys have those moments?  i definitely have those moments.)

my picnic table was under a huge willow-like tree.  if i was 5, this tree would have been the coolest thing i'd ever seen.  at 27, it was close.  the branches hung down to the ground all the way around the circumference, so under the tree you felt like you were in your own little universe.

after an hour and a half or so of reading and people-watching and writing, i set off through port meadow to the city of oxford again.  i kept thinking: i wish someone from home were here so i could share this with them.  pubs here are already such a different experience than going to a bar in the US (mom/dad/beck: get excited), and this is a really special pub.  (trivia!  what is "pub" short for?)  so, even though it's cliche to say: wish you readers were here!

you can try to hold the breeze

the avett brothers, "die  die die"

this is my current i'm-in-a-bad-mood-and-need-to-get-over-it song.

also my walking-around-england-with-my-ipod-on-and-people-watching song.

i'm not in love with this video - i don't really get it -  but i hope you enjoy the music.  i absolutely do.  especially the last minute of the song.  can't you just picture me walking through the busy streets of oxford and getting away from it all with this in my ears?  because that's what i do...


(thanks to colin, who has really similar musical taste to me and who introduced me to the avett brothers and burned me this CD.  colin: you continue to rock.)

typical day

i don't know if i've told you guys what a typical day looks like for me while i'm working in england, so here's an attempt, if you're interested:

10am - wake up, lie around, check emails, take a shower, tidy up my room, etc.  [i'm on a sort of three day rotation: one day i'll be on duty from 8am-1pm, the next from 1pm-6pm, the next from 7pm-midnight, and then it repeats...so most days i can sleep in.]

12 noon - check in with the office to make sure there are no crises for the day, walk around town running errands and picking up lunch for myself (usually a sandwich and crisps [chips] and a bottle of water...sometimes a savory veggie pie...sometimes falafel and couscous and hummus), walk back to the office.  eat lunch with random coworkers/friends sitting around the office.

1pm-6pm (let's pretend that's my shift today) - on duty in the office.  answer phones, respond to emails, respond to random inquiries from kids who come in (i've locked myself out of my room/do i have any mail/where is the lecture this afternoon/etc.), deal with issues that faculty members have (can i use the copier/where do i find this form/can you get a message to this student/etc.), read a magazine during slow times, deal with any crisis that comes up.  i'm always on duty with a PA (program assistant - an oxford undergraduate who works for the program), so i have someone to hang out with.

6pm - eat dinner in the dining hall

7pm - do nothing and LOVE IT

9pm or so - get (or send) a text message related to having a drink at our staff's favorite pub, the three goats heads.  check in with the office on the way out to make sure there isn't a crisis that's come up.  go to the pub.  sit in the same booth we always sit in (if it's free).  have a pint or two with my coworkers/friends (they're really the same thing).  laugh a lot.

11pm or so - walk back to college.  go to bed.

moral of the story: it's not a bad job at all.

yep: definitely don't have it memorized

on thursday i met my sister's friend sarah for a drink.

she's in oxford working for a summer program for american high school students and i'm in oxford working for a summer program for american high school students.  however: not the same program.  i've met sarah several times when visiting my sister in new york, and we're definitely friendly.  sarah emailed to ask if i wanted to get a drink and share stories of how dumb kids can be, and of course i agreed.  we met at the old tom, a pub near pembroke, had a drink in the back garden, and talked for two hours.  very fun, and we're planning to do it again soon.  at some point during our conversation i got a phone call, which when you have my job you can't ignore.  who has my phone number?  only people i work with.  and i have to answer when they call.  so i talked for a couple minutes, apologized to sarah, and before putting my phone away, said, "it's so funny - only people i work with have my phone number, which i don't even have memorized - the assistant director of the program wrote my phone number on my phone and taped it on the back - she did that for all 5 americans who are working as deans."  i flipped over my phone and showed her.  AND SHE PULLED HER PHONE OUT AND SHOWED ME EXACTLY THE SAME THING.  two separate programs doing pretty much the same thing have both provided their american staff members with phones and just know that they aren't going to memorize their phone numbers.

it was hilarious.  i said, "ohmygod we have to take a picture!," as she was pulling her camera out to do exactly that.

(i've blurred out the last two digits of each of our phone numbers so you can't stalk us.  fun fact: british phone numbers are read as 07717-323-3xx [all phone numbers appear to start with a zero], instead of 1-234-567-8910.  only one of the many differences between our two countries...)

i heart kittens

anderson sent me this link, showing how well he knows me - i could not stop saying, out loud in my room by myself, "OHMYGOD THESE KITTENS ARE SO CUTE."  and i love that they seem to be providing joy and softness to people in hard circumstances...

the meteorologists really have no clue

earlier today i looked at the BBC's weather report for the weekend in oxford, and this is a direct quote from their website:

Saturday to Monday


Dry and bright on Saturday with only a few showers around and some sun. It may remain fine on Sunday and Monday, possibly getting warmer too.


favorite bits:
"ONLY a few showers" - like we should be happy that it is only a few
"it MAY remain fine on Sunday and Monday" - translation: "we really have no clue, but let's give sunday and monday the benefit of the doubt"
"possibly getting warmer too" - oh, okay - so it will be like this OR WARMER.  so specific - thank you, BBC.

nestled

water lilies from the man-made lake at blenheim palace.  and there was a swan swimming around near them.  i mean, seriously?  if you wrote this landscape into a book it would seem cliche, but i saw it with my own two eyes.  and it was just as picturesque as you'd imagine...

true story

ring, ring.
ring, ring.
"hello, this is bob barnes*..."
"hi, bob, this is claire [last name] from the oxford tradition summer program that annie is attending?"
"yes..."
"first, everything is FINE.  annie's sitting with me right here.  but...she got hit by a bus today."
"WHAT?"
"um, yes.  she was crossing the street and she looked left instead of right and she got hit by a bus."
"OHMYGOD!"
"she's okay.  i wasn't there when it happened, but a couple students came running back to the office to tell us.  by the time we got there the police were there and some EMTs.  they checked her out in the ambulance, and she's totally fine - just scratched up her leg and her arm.  we went down to the police station so she could fill out some paperwork, and now she's back here at the office with us.  she's right here - do you want to talk to her?"
"YES.  OHMYGOD."

this was my tuesday afternoon.  visions of a dead child in the street, replaced by a sobbing child with some scrapes and bruises, but nothing bad.  so scary for 10 minutes, and then so relieved.  ben, one of our program assistants, SPRINTING up the street to find her...when i arrived at the scene (and it really was a scene...four policemen, an ambulance, the bus driver being interviewed) he was emerging from the ambulance to say, wide eyed, "she's fine.  everything's okay."  some really really nice policemen who drove us back to the station in their car and made her a cup of tea while she filled out the report.  [note: station was not terribly exciting.  i had visions of meeting inspector lewis, but of course he wasn't there.]  back to the office to let her parents know.  me: "should we call your mom or dad?"  annie: "DEFINITELY my dad.  my mom would freak out."  me: "do you want me to call and talk to him first?"  annie, through tears (she cried for two hours straight): "YES PLEASE."


*names changed to protect the silly american involved.  AND I WAS NOT THAT SILLY AMERICAN.  i know you're impressed.