Truffles from Dhaka

Follow That Rickshaw!

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Looking out the window,
watching all the people go,
feeling the congestion flow,
why can't that rickshaw go ...
glad I'm not driving.

Watching bootleg movies is a two-tiered enjoyment as you never know the quality or hidden surprises half way through a movie: strangers talking in the seats in front, laughing that is delayed because of it takes Asian audiences time to read the subtitles, sudden scrolling of messages of warning (for awards purposes only) , or cuts to black and white, but the real fun is the subtitles which can range from bad translations to having absolutely nothing to do with the action. U-571 subtitles began at the titles with a conversation someone was having on the phone
"hey!" "how's it going?" "Yeah, I'm going out tonight" "where's everyone at?" ... I left it on as long as I could stand it but always wondered where it went. I just became too distracting. Another of my favorites is The Four Feathers where "whore house" was subtitled as "waffle house". Tonight we watched the Forbidden Kingdom and I jotted a few down for amusement purposes ... I'll have to bring some home this summer to enjoy.

Jackie Chan and Jet Li are fighting and one of them busts out the praying mantis
"Praying mantis? Good for killing bugs but not tigers."
subtitles say:
"Religious blankets? Good bugs of hunting. nontigers"

After taking a beating the kid states:
"I've had enough"
subtitles:
"I'm already full up"

Sometimes there is meaning making in the words:
"she was assassinated by an arrow from the warlords bow"
becomes:
"mother that assassinated by the shoots with the arrow of the arc of the general"

Sometimes I think they just can't figure it out:
"kill them"
becomes
"mjtenlios"

Wow ... wow ... wow

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I just learned something from Lauren (an amazingly interesting high school English teacher from Chicago) that absolutely blows my mind. Literally I'm wordless.

The author of the ACB? In Dhaka? Teaching me educational strategies?

Read more here ... and Lauren, as a real licensed writer, gives a fabulous account and another perspective of living in the big B. When you get to Wikipedia be sure to click on his name to get more information. PASSION!!!!!

http://landolulu.blogspot.com/2008/09/passion.html

Night Ultimate in Dhaka

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Ultimate is now a night activity on the AISD artificial grass field (one of the only of it's kind in the city) and is a nice outlet for the crazier expats. It's still very hot and humid at night here and there's quite a lot of running around. Europeans that normally play soccer are usually breathing heavily in a short time. These sweaty blurry pictures are a first attempt at night action shots.

SMART Boards

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There are a few SMART Boards at the school and this year I've tried my best to expose the kids to them. Out of the three times I've taken the kids into the library room that's it's set up in, it's frozen up exactly 10-15 minutes into the use of it. Projector, board, and laptop all being issues and then I spend 10-15 minutes trying to get it working again. The kids have dubbed it the "DUMB board" and say "it's lost it's brain" and several other unfunny jokes and comments that didn't help while I was trying to get the stupid technology to work. I told the kids I'm giving it one more chance and then I'm waiting another 5 years. Ohh and that's Gwen the California valley girl in the picture ... the kids don't understand her too old for her age language and attitude.

4 Day Weekend!!!

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Normally our weekend is Friday and Saturday and this coming Thursday we had off for the Eid holiday. But there was a chance that Eid would fall on Wednesday depending on the sighting of the moon on Tuesday night. The buzz at school is that we might have a 4 day weekend but would have to wait to get that sms or email on Tuesday night. The overseas staff remained positive while the Muslims at the school told us it would never happen. Imagine working Christmas Eve and waiting until the evening to see if you are going to celebrate Christmas the next day. Walter Plotkin, our wise leader, has seen fit to preemptively give us Wednesday off. There was literally dancing and shouts of joy heard throughout the halls as the news filtered around. My kids screamed and spontaneously broke into song and dance. I was a good day! Especially for all the support staff that have to shop and travel long distances to celebrate Eid with their families in their villages.