One of the photos from my blog featured in the Herald

“Please please don’t write anything awful,” I begged the reporter over the crackly cellphone line.  “I just got this new job and I really like it and I’m not trying to get thrown out!”

Darren chuckled and calmly replied, “I’m a reporter.  No one would talk to me any more if I violated their trust.  This will be a positive, inspiring story, really.”

The Herald reporter was true to his word, and what follows is the link to the article about my transition from Boston Public Schools, to a journey around the world, to Boston Public Schools again: “Intrepid Teacher Back to School with ‘Eye of Tiger.’”

Read and enjoy… and please do also get the cheese-tastic song “Eye of the Tiger” stuck in your head as it now is in mine.  (“Ba ba BA!”)

It’s rather interesting that this article came out the very first day students returned to Boston classrooms… including my new one!  I’m happy to report that the first day of school was exhausting (as can be expected from waking up at 5:15am and seeing 7 different classes of up to 31 students in the course of 6.5 hours), but it was GREAT.

Also featured in the Herald, from Ghana

Darren summed it up well: traveling for 9 months was amazing, and so is being back here teaching.

My mother reminds me that we are now entering the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.  Indeed, as I hoist up my new-job-work-filled backpack and head off to sign a lease on my new apartment (so long, for now, nomadic lifestyle!) there is a glittering feeling that one turn of the Earth has ended and a bright new one has just begun.

So: L’shanah tovah! Happy New Year!  May we all have new starts as sweet and delicious as the apples and honey we’ll munch tonight.

Curious about the story behind me petting that GIANT tiger? Click here for my Thai Tiger Temple article!

Graduation at the school where I taught before traveling!

Tomorrow, after a year-long Leave of Absence to circumnavigate the globe, I return to being an English teacher in the Boston Public Schools!

I am super, super psyched.  A year away has given me massive new appreciation for living in beautiful Boston, for the great people here, and for being a teacher in BPS.

“But,” some of you may be asking now, sniffling slightly, “does this mean the end of this blog?”

No, no, and NO!  Most certainly not! This is self-declared “Educational Travel Blog,” and as such, it is a PERFECT fit to keep on creating as I resume teaching in America.

Here’s why:

1. Teachers work extremely hard, but we are happily rewarded for this not only by the joy that comes from helping society, but also by a ton of vacation time and a steady salary.  Ergo, my traveling will most certainly continue, unabated.  I am scheduled to visit at least 4 new countries in the next year (during December, February, April, and summer vacations), and you can bet that this site will take you along for the ride!

2. This is America: one of the most heterogeneous countries in the world.  Simply by walking into my classroom in Boston Public Schools, I will be instantly surrounded by wonderful young people from dozens and dozens of different countries and cultures.  Though I will be extremely careful of student and school privacy, lively articles exploring International Education will, without a doubt, keep on coming!

3. Did you like the ESL Student Life Stories? Did you enjoy the updates about Youth Creating Change of Ghana’s students and their thrilling educational exchange to London?  Good!  Because there are still a bunch more of those articles coming.

Graduation. Ahh, American public schools...

4. Discovering and sharing the hidden corners of one’s own hometown is a perfectly acceptable Travel Blog topic, and so get psyched for more wonderful places to explore in Boston!

5. It’s so much fun to teach writing, but we English teachers often harbor a deep desire to do our OWN writing and have it read, too.  And hence you will all be doing me a lovely favor by continuing to read what gets written on these glowing computer pages.

I am so excited for what the coming year will bring, and so thankful that you’re still along for the ride.  Do please continue interacting by leaving comments and sharing these articles around.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must now sleep, given that I will be waking up at 5:15am for the next 180 school days of the year. Back in the saddle, baby!  Be in touch.

The three lovely international students in this story

The world’s relationship with Muslim culture is one of the most intense and important topics around these days.

And thus it is with joy and hope for all humanity that I bring you an absolutely beautiful story from last week in our multicultural ESL class.

Let us allow the story to unfold through the words and pictures of three women in our class: Mafer from Venezuela, Yuri from Japan, and Meaad from Saudi Arabia.

By Mafer, from Venezuela: Before coming to Boston, I disagreed about the idea that Muslim girls have to use scarves on their heads, mostly because I thought that it was a rule with no choice.

But then once I joined our language school in Boston, I got to know Fatima and Meaad from Saudi Arabia. They told me that it was their decision, and they wear headscarves because they want to, not because they are obligated to do it.

Yuri, Meaad, and Mafer on the day of this tale

I like to keep my mind open to new things and learn as much as I can about other people.  Last week I brought a scarf to school because the weather was very cold, but when I entered the classroom, I felt hot and I took it off.

I don’t know why, but suddenly I wanted to learn how to put on a scarf like a Muslim woman!  So I asked Meaad if she could teach me how, and she did.

I wore the scarf all day to know how it felt and to see if made me too hot.  But was ok!  It was not as hot as I thought.

When Yuri (a friend and classmate from Japan) saw Meaad putting the scarf on me, she asked Meaad to do the same for her.  It turned out Yuri had a scarf in her bag, too!

I am very happy to be able to learn so much about other cultures and I am always asking other students questions about their religion, though sometimes they laugh at me because my questions are so much.  A few days ago, I asked Fatima to read me their holy book, the Koran.  It sounds like singing.

Such studious, kind, and world-minded women

By Yuri from Japan: The day you see in these photos,  Mafer and I learned from Meaad.  I had never worn scarf on my hair, but I was interested in Islamic culture and I wondered why Muslim women cover their hair.

My classmate Meaad, who is my first friend from Saudi-Arabia, helped me put on a scarf when I asked her if she would.

I am an unbeliever, but that day I felt something holy.

Because I now live in America, I meet many people who have different religions, and I like to understand and respect other cultures.

By Meaad from Saudi Arabia: “I want to wear a scarf!” said Mafer to me.  I was so surprised when my friends Mafer and Yuri told me they wanted to wear a headscarf.   A scarf, or like we say in Arabic, a “Hejab,” is an important Muslim tradition.

Living and studying English in Boston, I have made friends  from different countries and different cultures. We’ve spent good times together and have shared our backgrounds.

May we learn from the openness of these students!

When I came to school on that day, I found my friend Mafer had brought a scarf!  She asked me to help her put it on.

When I wrapped the scarf on her head, she was excited and happy.  Then Yuri asked me to put her scarf on, too.

We were excited and fascinated and took so many pictures.  My friends spent the entire day with scarves on.  It was such an interesting day, that day when they shared my culture.

Now, I want soon to try to wear kimonos from Yuri’s culture, and traditional Venzuelan clothes from Mafer’s!

Lillie’s Note: Please do leave a comment for these wonderful women.  Headscarves can be a very heated topic of debate, but let’s really embrace the positive power of this story!

The stunning Reading Room of Boston's Public Library at Copley... with free Wi-Fi Internet!

Are you a diligent student seeking a place to study that doesn’t smell like your little brother’s socks?

Are you a tourist to Boston who enjoys lovely spaces which photograph well, but don’t charge a tiresome entrance fee?

An awed tourist gapes at the grand marble entrance

Are you a hip 20-something questing for a quiet space to rock out the Internet?

Are you an economical human who is sick of spending money on music and books, or on that obligatory coffee which will allow you to sit in a nice cafe?

Step right up to Boston’s sexiest combination of history, beauty, and functionality:

The Boston Public Library Main Branch at Copley!

I have been a total Copley Library groupie lately, sprawling for hours in the glamorously gorgeous Main Reading Room (how much do you love those green lamps?) on any free moment between work and evening engagements, lapping up the free Wi-Fi and swimming in the delicious studious silence that swirls around the marble arches.

Ooo, the excitement of being in a hushed room alongside over a hundred other people, all delving deeply into the delectable task of productivity!

Who’s here in this grand Reading Room with me as I type this now?  Everyone, really… or rather, anyone who has a need to be quiet and work in a beautiful environment.  Yet despite the sheer number of people here, it never feels crowded.

Smooth stone lions guard the staircase!

As we tap away at our computers or leaf through our books, awe-struck rivers of tourists flow by, snapping photos of the sky-high marble columns, stately lions, and sea-green lights.

Everyone looks content and impressed.

It’s hard to find a free and fantastic tourist attraction these days!

Some families decide to take a seat for a time to rest, take it all in, and gaze at guidebooks without being harassed by the crowds outside.

This library is a sanctuary… and it has freeee books and music, too!

Copley Library's luscious open-air courtyard

Here is another super-sexy feature of Boston’s Copley Library: the Courtyard.

Want to pretend you’re a Emperor or Empress for a few hours?

Stride to the middle area between the old and new wings of the complex… and suddenly you’re staring at a what feels like your own personal palace: a bubbling fountain, sculpted greenery, arched stone columns, and the open sky!

Tasteful tables and chairs line the sides of the Courtyard, and take heed of my words now: this Copley Library Courtyard is turning into the hot place to see and be seen among the city’s studious yet good-looking population!

As of now there’s not Wi-Fi Internet signal in the Courtyard, but plenty of people still have their laptops out, banging out papers.

Others are holding business or pleasure meetings, and still others are just drinking in the sights with their eyes.

Tourists get their bearings in the library's lovely halls

Wait, did someone mention drinking?  How lovely that there’s both a cafe and restaurant right smack dab in Copley Library’s Courtyard!

And continue back inside to take in art and photo exhibits and a bevy of cultural events in the various meeting halls.

So there you have it: I’m hooked on hanging out in Boston’s Copley Public Library.

I love it for how it gives me a gorgeous place to chill out while being productive.

I love it for how it gave my close friend a sanctuary to study when she was growing up, paving the way for her successful trajectory from a Boston Public Schools student to an accomplished doctor.

But most of all, because I have a truly superficial streak, I love the Copley Library… simply because it’s beautiful.

For more Sexy Architecture, click here!

Sweet Reading Club students from Living Faith

We have discussed where clothes you donate might end up, but what about the BOOKS you toss into the “Donation” bin?

Me, I only had a hazy idea of how my old tomes might be used.  Did they find a second life as firewood?  Toilet paper?  Food storage? Sometimes I worried about my cast-off literature’s fate.

And thus it was with absolute joy, during the three months I volunteered in Ghana, that I learned of Youth Creating Change of Ghana‘s genius Reading Club program.

Listen to how this Reading Club program works, because it’s a format that could conceivably be replicated in any youth center from Boston to Bolivia… and beyond!

1. Organizing a Central Library: Instead of just giving the donated books away to individual students, never to be seen again, YCC  meticulously organizes all its literary donations on handmade shelves in one central “YCC Library.”

YCC student, Shine, in front of YCC's library!

Hard-working Ghanaian YCC volunteers carefully track each book that is checked out and returned.

If you haven’t been to West Africa, it’s hard to realize how important this grass-roots library is.

Why?  Because Ghana, though it strongly believes in the power of education, has painfully few libraries.

And thus just like this, YCC has changed the face of its town for the better.

2. A systematic “Reading Club” structure for school groups. YCC has developed strong ties with 5 different local schools.  Few schools in Ghana have resources for books beyond government-issued academic texts, so they are thrilled at YCC’s offer to have up to 20 students check out one book each, per week from the YCC Library.

One of YCC's Reading Club schools: Sanity International

YCC then uses Ghanaian and international volunteer teachers (like me!) to lead discussions of the books twice per week.

On top of this adult-led literature time, Reading Club students are expected to meet on their own time outside of school at YCC classes to further analyze the books… and they do!

3. An giant incentive to really read. YCC’s Director, John, knows that sometimes people need a concrete reason to do something, even something as important as reading and discussing books.

Therefore, he and the YCC staff devised the brilliant Grand Quiz of Reading: an annual competition among all the 200 or so YCC Reading Club members in Sogakope, Ghana to see which students could answer the most questions about the library’s literature!  Do read the article if have a chance, because it was one of the most remarkable educational demonstrations I have ever seen… and it had a dancing intermission!  Ever since the first Grand Quiz, Volta Region schools have been scrambling to join the Reading Club program.

Hooray for YCC's genius Reading Club program!

And thus, let this article leave you with the following thought: there are remarkable people in this world who are working extremely hard, for very little (or no) money, in order to boost the education and opportunities for hundreds of youth in their small town.

And know this: if any of the books you’ve donated had the luck to be matched with a program as great as the YCC of Ghana Reading Clubs, and if books had the magic power to smile… your books would be grinning from spine to corner right now!

1.) The rules of the hot dog-eating challenge at Spike's!

Pop quiz:

You’re an ESL teacher at an accredited English language school in Boston’s posh Back Bay.

Where do you take your students for the final field trip of Session 8?

Obvious Answer:

First to bowling, then to a hot dog-eating contest, of course!

I’ve written a photo essay about Laos, but what follows is far classier: a photo essay documenting a hot dog-eating challenge!

To be frank (haha!) I think you’ll dig the tale’s shocking twists.

And you’ll have to wonder: would YOU be up for the hot dog challenge???

2.) Teachers Ed and Dave order 6 dogs each. Laughter!

3.) Could they beat the reigning champ: 17 dogs?!

4.) Dave and Ed dig into hot dog #1 with gusto!

5.) Dave begins to see the enormity of the task ahead

6.) The dogs leer cockily at Ed and Dave. Who would win: Man or Frankfurter?? Who could gulp down more dogs: Dave or Mike?

7.) Business continues as usual. They're so used to this!

8.) SUDDENLY, student Mike enters the race! Could such a petite, mild-mannered man even eat one dog?

9.) WHOA! Mike has a technique: dog first, buns after!

10.) Ed pushes onward, scoffing at Mike's challenge

11.) But Mike plows forward with laser-like focus

12.) Ed's life begins to swirl before his eyes

13.) Dave starts to hate planet Earth and everything in it

14.) Ed asks "Is there an an anti-hot dog sauce?"

15.) "YOU BETTER NOT QUIT!" screams Ed to Dave

16.) Mike reaches his final hot dog!!!!!!!

17.) "NOO!" shreiks Ed in anguish, "How is he doing it?!"

18.) Mike daintily cuts and swallows dog #6... and WINS!

19.) "This was the worst idea ever," sobs Ed.

20.) The rest of us slurp up the remaining dogs, joyful

21.) It was a proud day for hot dogs everywhere!

Exchange Place, I love you soooo much!!!!

Today is my ONE YEAR anniversary of taking that first flight out of Boston into the 9-month journey that would ultimately span Japan, Southeast Asia, Ghana, Iberia… and a whole heck of a lot of learning and fun!

How to celebrate?  By sharing with you my absolute FAVORITE building in Boston.  I am panting a little as I write this, I love this structure so much.  Please honor my love and read attentively.

The building I’m most in love with in Boston is called: Exchange Place.  It is smack-dab in the middle of the financial district of Boston, by Downtown Crossing and Government Center and South Station.  It’s deep in the heart of my city… and deep in the heart of me.

Haven’t heard of Exchange Place?  Few people have, even though it’s big and stunningly sexy.  To the distracted eye, it just sort of blends in with the other towers.  But gaze at it with me for a moment.  Is your breath quickening with lust, now, too?  Indeed: this is one luscious building, when you give it more than a quick glance.

First, there are the ripples.  This building is as if a thousand-foot mirror became a draped dress: undulating like a skirt along a woman’s legs as she walks.  Swish… swish… silvery swish…

Second: there is the tight embrace with the old, revered edifices at the base.  I am ignorant of the history of this building and in fact likely won’t research it in depth, because sometimes we prefer the imagined, idealized versions of our crushes to reality.

Ogle how its silver folds rise above the new and old!

But I imagine the discussion about building Exchange Place went like this…

Genius Architect: “I want to build a shockingly sexy glass building.”

Conservative Man: “Honor the heritage of Boston, dammit!  Down with modern monstrosities!”

Genius Architect: “Fine… I’ll slap the whole thing on top of that old, famous building so we don’t have to knock down your precious Stock Exchange Building from 1896.”

Conservative Man: “Sounds good to me.  So… um… Do I get to lovingly stroke your new building?  It looks so preeeetty!”

Genius Architect: “What kind of freak has crushes on buildings?  You’re weird.”

Lillie: “Shut up!  People like us aren’t weird!  We just really become weak in the knees in the presence of a sexy building!”

Conservative Man: “Exactly!  Can we have a three-way marriage with you, me, and One Exchange Place?”

Lillie: “Yes.”

Aaaand now it’s two in the morning and time to go to sleep so I can administer my ESL final exams to students in the morning.  But I feel good having spent the early hours of my year anniversary of taking off to travel around the world by sharing with you one of my biggest (inanimate) loves!

For more Sexy Architecture, click here.

The author of this dramatic article

My mother was crying and we didn’t know what had happened.   I came to my mother, then she said, “I have been calling your father for two days, but his phone is off I don’t know why!  There must be something bad that occurred to him.”

Later on we received the news: he had been lost in the Saudi Arabian desert.

My father worked for the biggest oil company in the world for 30 years as an Inspection Manager.  At the start of 2002, he got offered a job in the biggest oil-producing factory in a place which is called Shaybah.  The job would last one year.  My father accepted the offer, because therefore he could get better paid.  If you work in the countryside, you get paid double salary in comparison to working in a factory in a city.

Anyhow, my father went out to Shaybah and started his job as usual.  In the first five months, the work was going all right and the workers felt comfortable.  Then one day, my father received an emergency notification that there was a leak in one line of the oil pipes.  So he called up the maintenance men and took them to the leak.

When he got there, they easily fixed the problem.  Then they went back to their camp.  While they were going back, however, they saw a car broken down and a man sitting beside it.  My father stopped and talked to the man about his problem.

Shaybah's oil center... in the middle of the desert!

The man said, “I have been stuck here about 5 hours, and I couldn’t find anyone who could help me to fix my car.”

Hearing that, my father anchored the man’s vehicle to his own car and towed it to his camp where the workshop could fix it.

My father started asking the man about himself, and the man said, “I am originally from Dubai but I spend all my time with my camels.  I stay with them sometimes for two or three months, then I go back to visit my family, and they visit me, too.”

My father took the man into the living room, where they spend their time watching TV and playing cards.  Then my father invited all his neighbors to greet the man and to have dinner together, because that’s what we always do in my culture.  Hospitality is extremely important in Saudi Arabia.  The dinner was made by my father.  He bought a whole lamb and cooked it.

An oil worker in Saudi Arabia

After dinner, the man was so grateful, and strongly wanted to invite my father the next day to have a dinner meal at the man’s own camp.  My father accepted the man’s invitation.

The next day in the early evening, my father and his friend, Nasser, went together to the man’s camp.  Even though they were at work, they could still have a meal with the man.

The disaster started after dinner.

After they finished their meal, my father said to the man, “We have to go back to hand our shift to the next people.”

The man replied, “No, you can’t go!  It’s too late and you will get lost if you go through the darkness.  Hey, you should sleep here until the sun rises, and then you will be fine to go.”

Unfortunately, my father didn’t listen to the man’s advice, and he set off in his car.  While he was driving, he became confused between two ways.  All directions seem the same in the desert in Shaybah, and the navigation system didn’t work.  My father said, “It’s this way!” and Nasser replied, “I guess it’s that way!”  My father decided to follow Nasser’s guess, and so they drove for an hour and a half… and then they were lost.

My father said. “Lets wait until the sun rises, and then we will ask around if we find someone in a camp.”

The desert goes on and on!

Then, suddenly, their car went down in a huge hole, and my father couldn’t lift the car from the hole!

They slept inside the car until the first light of dawn, when they woke up.  They decided to go in different directions by walking, and would each look for help.

So they walked, but they didn’t go so far from their car because the didn’t want to get completely lost.  And for the next two nights they came back to sleep in the car.  Fortunately, they had food and water in the car.

My father started to write a message about their story, when suddenly a plane was flying around them!  My father began to signal to the plane.  When the pilot saw the signal, he sent a message to the oil company that he got a signal.  All the staff of the company came to them and picked them up to return to the camp.  None of them got hurt, but they were disappointed the disaster had happened.  The had thought my father and Nasser were dead, because the place is very difficult for cars and people to survive.

To conclude the story, I think that has to be the point which let us know the value of our lives, family, and friends.

Lillie’s Note: What a story!  Please leave a comment for Faleh, stating your geographical location.