A Luminous Halo

"Life is not a series of gig lamps symmetrically arranged; life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning of consciousness to the end." --Virginia Woolf

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Location: Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Smith ’69, Purdue ’75. Anarchist; agnostic. Writer. Steward of the Pascal Emory house, an 1871 Second-Empire Victorian; of Sylvie, a 1974 Mercedes-Benz 450SL; and of Taz, a purebred Cockador who sets the standard for her breed. Happy enough for the present in Massachusetts, but always looking East.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Back to School: Chinese

Chinese homework
My 12-year-old self didn't bother to write in her diary on January 26, but my current self is trying to be more consistent with her 21st-century equivalent, her blog. It's odd that over 50 years have passed and not much has changed in my life. OK, maybe not so odd. Still keeping a diary, still wondering if anyone wants to be friends with me. And still in school, staying up too late working on my homework!

This year, it's Chinese, plus another web authoring course. Chinese is awesome! We students might as well be in kindergarten....we are learning to say hello, introducing ourselves to each other, bowing, and chattering away about any experiences even peripherally related to the class. Like when the six-year-old raises his hand in the middle of language arts and announces, "I went to Holyoke Mall with my dad and I got a new shirt!" And our brilliant and beautiful teacher replies, "Oh, how wonderful!" and goes right back to the lesson, instead of scolding us. This is Chinese the way I would teach it, if I knew any Chinese.

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