Where They’re From

It is approximately the third question we ask each other.  Unless we’ve found something interesting in the answers to “What’s your name?” and “What do you do?” we move on to “Where are you from?” It’s the most universal of the first-conversation questions.  After a while you just can’t tell if someone should be in…

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Time and Space

“Ms. Dahlstrom… can you read my paper?” -Everyone English 11 has a paper due in an hour and a half.  Originally, I hadn’t intended that they would turn in their first literary essay at 10:00 PM on a Friday night.  It had been Tuesday morning, at the beginning of class.  Later, remembering that our department…

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This Week, I’ve Learned

One of my hopes for life is to keep learning forever.   This week of continuing to grow up seems like an appropriate time to celebrate that I’m learning more now than ever.  Here are a few lessons, some serious and other less so, from this week. This Week, I’ve Learned: Recycling is financially profitable in…

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The Western Front

“Comrade, I did not want to kill you…. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response.  It was that abstraction I stabbed.  But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me.  I thought of your hand-grenades,…

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Seasons

I’ve never been in Europe in autumn. I’ve spent several summers here, two weeks of winter, and one spring.  But all of my autumns, my favorite season of all, have been in Washington. I’ve come back to Austria for the weekend–truly just for Saturday–to attend the going-away party for Julie Johnson, a fellow instructor from…

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The Canadians

It’s about pace, the First Nations versus the European explorers.  Like shopping.  If you’re just looking, you might spend ages in the store, trying everything on and deciding if you need it.  If you want a white tank top, you go to the store, find the tank tops, pick up the right sized white one,…

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Parents

“Oh hey, I met your mother yesterday!” I know this observation won’t make me any cooler.  As “the new English teacher”–a title that makes me feel like I’m teaching in a small homesteading town instead of an international Christian school–I could probably use some credibility points.  But it’s been ages since being cool was my…

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The Attic

“I’d have a stable full of Arabian steeds, rooms piled with books, and I’d write out of a magic inkstand, so that my works should be as famous as Laurie’s music. …. I think I shall write books, and get rich and famous; that would suit me, so that is my favorite dream.” Louisa May…

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E11 & CH

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. James 4:13-14 “So you teach English?” “Yes.  Eleventh grade.” “And… you’re not Canadian?’ “Um……

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Loslassen

“Nevertheless I am continually with you; You have taken hold of my right hand.” Psalm 73:23 “Einfach loslassen!” We’re playing on the slackline at Family Week II, and the two girls on the sidelines squeal it with the self-confidence of those who watch.  Just let go. A slackline is a tightly stretched piece of webbing,…

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