Sunday, September 23, 2012

Life (as of now)

Well, I haven't updated in awhile because, well, there's not much to say. I see cows in the street everyday, my dog follows me to my outhouse, I struggle with the language, and I have a lot of free time. That's about it. I started observing classes last week. I have one week to go. I think I will be teaching 5-7th and 10-12th grade. I will be working with both of my school's English teachers. I will try to remember to take pictures of my school and put them up here. I have still not gotten use to taking pictures so other people can see what I see. My school has 3 floors but only 120 students. I am lucky in that regards. While I don't have a class over 14 students (and my 12th grade has 4), other volunteers have classes upwards of 30+. Eek! Most of the kids I will be teaching seem like they want to learn, so we will see how it goes. In other news: there isn't much. I am reading bunches. Here are the books I have read since I have been to my permanent site (starting around July 20 something):
All 3 in the Hunger Games Series
Jesus Land,
Future of Freedom
Brave New World
Young Stalin
Jarhead
 Getting Stoned with Savages
A Walk in the Woods
The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Cathedral (collection of short stories. Not my favorite)
Grapes of Wrath
Edit Add the following:
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris (hilarious)
Naked (also funny and by David Sedaris)
The Caucuses: An Introduction (good overview of the region where I live)
A Witness To Genocide (about the war in Bosnia)
Them
Mao II (easy read but hard to understand the symbolism)
UPDATE 7-30-13
I've read a bit since then.
Middlesex (good, but long. Fiction)
Skinny Legs And All (funny and thought-provoking)
The Geography of Bliss
Auschwitz (very thorough)
Guests of the Ayatollah
An Underground Education
Broker Trader Lawyer Spy
Cheating in Schools (a bit self-righteous)
The European Dream
Sin, Sex, and Democracy
The Beach (also made into a movie)
Tomorrow Will Be Too Late (very thought-provoking)
Flight From The USSR (a story about young Georgians in 1980s USSR)
No Easy Day (about the killing of Bin Laden)
First in His Class (about Bill Clinton up to the 1992 Election)
Omnivore's Dilemma (about food production in the US. Makes you think twice about what you eat)
Prozac Nation (a very depressing but well-written memoir)
The Purity Myth
The Hours
White Teeth
The Truth About Sex (a bit too religious for me)
The Indispensable Zinn (writings from radical historian Howard Zinn)
The Lexus and the Olive Tree
Fahrenheit 451 (a classic)
Other People's Children