Back to Reality

My gawd, winter vacation went by entirely too fast. All things being relative, I'm sure anything short of an entire month of vacation would've seemed inadequate, but that's neither here nor there. Like many others, much of my valuable vacation time was spent with the valuable people in my life. Can I just say, aside from the fantastic ice cream, I love going home to old friends--it's really like picking up right where we left off when the hilarity and ridiculousness kicks in (typically, by the 5th or 6th drink). Hopefully, the pictures won't surface to ruin any hopes of a political career in my future.

What I love about my friends: despite how brilliant, ambitious, professional, & intellectual they might be by day, together we have absolutely no qualms against displaying the utterly and embarrassingly ridiculous nature within us all. In an age when we've become obsessed with our own images, it's so refreshing to lose that superimposed necessity to perpetuate facades. But now I'm just talking like a crazy person... then again, crazy is relative.

Being crazy just means you're not doing what everyone else is doing. Being crazy is doing something that you're not supposed to be doing, and I can't find much fault in that.

Tis the Season

Today marks the first day of Winter Break, woohoo! To all of you non-teachers... suck it! As a teacher, I can safely say that I look forward to snow days, holidays, and vacations more than I ever did as a student. Though, for all of you going through your internship/residencies... you definitely have my sympathy. After comparing horror stories, I am now firmly convinced that I wouldn't be able to hack it as a doctor. Though, in our own ways, we really are saving lives every single day.

At one point, I remember wanting to be a back-up dancer for hip hop music videos. I also remember seriously considering moving out to the Pacific Northwest and becoming a forest firefighter. I could've been "Mr. Chengsaw" doing that too, I think. If there's something I've realized in my old age, it's that we never stop growing, and we never stop learning. I'd like to believe that I've got some things figured out, but man, Socrates really was spot-on about that whole "really, I dunno shit" thing. Maybe "growing" really is just a process of internalizing our prior experiences and learning from them. I'd also love to grow in the more literal sense as well. I've been this height since the 7th grade. At one point in my life, I was considered relatively tall. But hell, like I tell my kids when they bluntly observe "Mr. Cheng, you're short"--luckily, respect isn't measured in feet and inches.



I'll see some of you very soon! Can't wait!


xoxo

Facebook-freeeeeee and It Feels So Good

Maybe it's because of the onset of winter, maybe it's because i'm staring 30 in the face, or maybe it's because i dropped $35k and a year of my life at UPenn doing it, but I've found myself reflecting a lot lately. Life...work...fantasy football... it's been a very holistic process.

I think it goes without saying, and I think I can speak for many of us when I say that I am desperately looking forward to winter vacay. While work has definitely gotten better, whether this is because I just don't care as much or because things have actually improved remains to be seen. I do want to come back to Tech Prep. When I see some of these kids running around like they run the place, I cannot wait to get my hands on them (speaking figuratively, of course!). When I see something that's broken, I want to fix it. And yes, there's an implication there that my school is very much broken. I firmly believe that at the core of any successful school, you will find a group of committed, invested, and incredibly resilient teachers (budding alcoholics). In my vast experience as an urban educator, I've learned that it's not just about the kids or me or lesson planning--it's also about the people I work with, the people I struggle with day-in, and day-out, just to get by until that next 3-day weekend comes around. I try not to dwell on the bad things, but it's become so difficult to keep my head above the water when the day-to-day crap just keeps dragging you down. I try to remain optimistic, and I truly believe that with the right people and the right supports in place, my school can become a school to be proud of.

Outside of work (or what little remains of my life outside of work), I'm enjoying my move down to DC--no offense to those of you still in Baltimore, but dude, that place is ghetto as shit! I've worked in some rough 'hoods, but Baltimore takes the cake. No, really, if you had a cake in Baltimore, someone would take it from you.

I'm not really sure how long I'll end up staying here in DC, and factoring in historical trends, this time next year I may end up in Miami. Miami would be nice, I think. Lots of sunshine and old people. I enjoy one of those.




<3

A (mostly) Memorable Night

I'd like to thank everyone for comin out in style and celebrating dan's belated birthday/my going away this past weekend.  gonna miss you kids terribly.  seems not that long ago when we'd roll almost 20 strong.  we're dropping rike fries!  i'll likely stay out in Seattle when/if i come back in august, and then it's off to graduate school.  i guess this means Goodbye, Ohio.  i really hope we can coordinate some sort of reunion in the future.  anyways, some highlights from this past weekend.  having 14 people pre-game then roll up into a bar reminded me of freshman year all over again!  just... i'm older.  and fatter.  ah well.  after some shots (yikes, but keeping with the freshman year theme), found our way to High Beck's (on High and Beck, duh) which turns out to be a pretty sweet bar, i have to say.  big, not cramped at all, and they had REAL dartboards, pool table, and a PING PONG TABLE.  if i were around longer, i'd try to get some beer pong going there.  i say "mostly" memorable, in that after reviewing what sort of pictures and videos were on my camera the following day, i realized there were some significant gaps in how i visualized and recalled that night unfolding.  but hey, that means it was a good night, right?  it was definitely a bittersweet night, and i'm terribly sorry that i didn't get to really get to say goodbye to some of you.  wish i could have grabbed lunch/pho with you guys one last time (i blame derek and dan for being so inflexible in their itinerary).  in retrospect, i should have driven to columbus separately, i guess.  oh, and joon, you're an asshole for not coming out for my last night around.  eh.

Just ONE Normal Picture, Please.

some people are born photogenic.  some people can be made photogenic.  now, i know it's like some sort of social, on-going joke that everyone's driver's license and passport photos or any sort of public, official, identification photos generally suck.  i think i've had like, one that i've been pleased with my entire life.  and, as some of you know, i've had my fair-share of rather embarrassing photos.  maybe, more than my fair-share.  anyways, here's my latest, beautiful representation.

yeah.  so, here's what happened:  i go to my local fedex kinko to get these pics taken, and the dude who's gonna take my picture is like, all "oh where are you going?  china?!  wow!  that's sooooOOOoo cool!  what are you gonna do there?  teach?!  awesome!  for how long?  uh huh?  READY 3 2 1!"  click.  so yeah, that explains the weird half-smile/sneer and the kinduv deer-caught-in-headlights look.  laugh it up.

One Last Hurrah (well, until the next one)

as some of you may have heard, i'll be leaving for Shanghai in February.  if you haven't heard, you mean nothing to me.  while i've never really been one to plan my own extravaganzas, one final night of mayhem is certainly called for.  it's tentatively looking like Saturday night (31st) will  be started off at Bristol Bar--i wanted somewhere relatively low-key but still fun.  that and they serve cans of PBR there.  suggestions are welcome, of course, if you're like, allergic to PBR.  afterwards, BEER PONG!  woohoo!  last chance to skunk me.  i'll make sure to wear my cute undies.  

on a side note, i think the anxiety of such an imminent and drastic departure is growing.  i know i'll be in for a serious culture shock regardless, but tack on the underlying apprehension i still feel about getting scammed/abducted/murdered... shrug.  guess i'm just worried that something about this teaching job is gonna go terribly wrong, with all of the horror stories i've read.  if everything goes according to plan, i'll be teaching oral english at a finance university and also part-timing at a startup marketing company, as opposed to giving oral entertainment at the local boy-toy massage parlor and part-timing at the local sweatshop.  call me skeptical.  at the very least, i will be able to stay at my parents' apartment (which, by the way, is totally PHAT.  it's on one of the premier golf courses just outside of shanghai, so if any of you koreans wanna stop by and party, lemme know) and just find a job in person.  hopefully the visa issues will work out too.

anyways, hope to see some of you this weekend!  if not, happy life.

The Macbook Wheel!

haha, gotta love The Onion.