Well I didn't post in January or February, but I still interesting things here and there, so I thought I'd write a couple of them down. The best are at the end, so if you're not interested in my stories of teaching, I'd just skip down towards the skiing and saunas.

These months were mostly interesting from a professional standpoint - now that I'm a bit more competent, my mentor teacher has been providing me with awesome opportunities to design and run classes. I've had the opportunity to teach Hemingway, Shakesepeare and storytellling, and each of these experiences has been incredible, at least if you're the kind of person who's really into teaching literature.

Before the Hemingway class, my students had read "The End of Something," probably the most-read Nick Adams story. I love the Nick Adams stories - like many emotionally stunted high schoolers (especially those from Michigan), they have a lot for me to relate to. They're also great for teaching literary analysis because the language is simple enough to understand its literal levels quite quickly, but complex enough that its more interesting content remains hidden without looking closely.

So we looked closely. I tried to channel my inner SPS teacher, and led my students in a discussion of subtext, repression, and how imagery externalizes internal struggles. I was amazed at how perceptive my students were - not because I think they're dumb, although sometimes I do wonder - but because their insights were often interesting, well-supported, and new to me.

My Macbeth class was much the same, although we faced a different challenge: my students cannot easily read Shakespeare. It's hard for anyone, especially high schoolers, but it is doubly hard for non-native speakers who mostly know English from movies and tv shows. Unless they're watching the Tudors, there's not a lot of opportunity to learn Shakespearean English.

We worked with the "Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow" speech. I would have liked to read the whole thing, but that would have taken far too long for my students. We spent an entire class translating the passage into modern English - a process that involves a remarkable amount of interpretation. When we compared translations, it quickly became evident to my students that there's no one way to read a speech like that - what makes Shakespeare so amazing is how many (amazing insightful and profound) interpretations he includes in a single speech.

We spent the rest of our time with Shakespeare working on creative projects. There were some excellent ones, like these skits:

One of my students. I wonder about him sometimes.

My storytelling project was the simplest and the most fun - students had a choice to write or tell Native American stories. They were excellent, and perhaps when I've gotten their permission, I will post one or two videos so you can see for yourself.

The other big event of January and February was the Fulbright ski trip. First, we had the Fulbright Seminar, which I was dreading, but ended up enjoying immensely. Everyone's presentations were incredibly interesting, especially the science ones. I know very little about science, but I'm very interested in it, and so every science presentation opened up a new amazing world to me - I had never considered the different ways ice breaks, or how trees react to warm days in winter, or how early implantation of cochlear implants makes a big difference to little kids who can't hear. Here's a picture of me looking smart and stuff:

After the seminar, we all piled into a bus and headed for Skeicampen, a ski resort north of Lillehammer. It was a wonderful weekend, though if I went back, I would never recognize it - the snow/fog never allowed seeing anything more than about 100 feet, and sometimes much less. This made skiing difficult, but at least I had skiied before - many of my fellow Fulbrighters had not, and so their first skiing experience was plummeting off a Norwegian mountain, completely unable to see anything ahead of them. I have nothing but admiration for them, and I think they had a fantastic time. Here's some pictures:

We also drank beer, played silly games, and spent time in the spa. I had never been inside a spa before, and so I was excited to try the steam room and the sauna, which are very Norwegian things to do.

I tried the steam room first. It was not a good experience. I wasn't fully prepared for how steamy it would be (really, really steamy), and I was also not prepared for the psychedelic blue lighting, or the nearly naked (but only dimly visible) Norwegian men. I felt like I was in one of David Bowie's nightmares. It was also unbelievably hot. The air burned my throat and the steam made me feel like I was drowning. I stuck it out for a few minutes, eventually determining that it was marginally easier to breath if I put my mouth next to the floor. Then I decided that if I have to come up with survival strategies, it is evidently not an effective relaxation technique, and I should just leave.

The sauna was better in that it was less steamy and more normally lit, but it was actually hotter. I think saunas would actually be a very effective torture device - after about 30 seconds, I would have given up all of the military secrets I know just to escape. I then realized that I don't know any military secrets, and that I could just leave, so I did, never to return.

It was a great trip, and I wish it had gone on longer.

Oh yes, before I go, a couple quick warnings if you ever go to Norway. Do not put your chapstick in the bed light attached the wall, no matter how convenient it is. Also, do not turn on your bed light while your chapstick is in there, but if you do, and find your chapstick has melted inside its tube, do not open it. Especially if you're shirtless and lying in bed. Your chest/sheets will be covered in superheated liquid chapstick, and you will never stop smelling like soothing herbs.

Anyway, that's just a thought. Thanks for reading! As a reward, here's a picture I took in the park near my dorm: