email

Subject: 11th chew words, fall leaves, stamps, thankgv/mafia
Date: Tues, 16 Dec 2008
dear mom and dad,

no plans for x-mas, not officially. im not sure if i work that day or not.

i sent you a photo of the thanksgiving dinner i had w/the brothas & sistas, yes? it was so wonderful, the food was soooo good, i ate so much that i hurt my back and took a nap. i cooked nothing, of course, but i pitched in money for groceries. everyone kept asking zha (our host and cook) over and over just HOW did she get a turkey so friggin juicy. she said she covered it w/like 3 layers of tin foil for the first few hours of cooking, i dont know, i just know it was delicious. and the greens, oh my god! my homegirl camille cooked them, and dad i'll get you her recipe b/c they are the best greens ive ever had in my life. anyway, thanksgiving was wonderful all around, we ate and then played mafia, it was a perfect day.

so fall has come and gone and it's winter. *sigh* i was talking to alan the other day about how quickly fall went. i didnt notice last year, but the leaves changing color is really something to see. it almost doesnt look real, like alan said, it's like what you see on tv. to see these leaves so red or yellow in real life, we swear it must not be a real tree, it must be plastic or painted, or something. i wish i'd observed it more at the time, b/c now all the leaves are gone w/the arrival of winter.

work is going well. one of my favorite classes from last term is almost still all together, now my friend bryan is their teacher. one day i walked by the class room at the tail end of break, and all the kids ran out chasing me, shouting, "sister shaaaaaa!!!!" i couldnt stop smiling, i felt so loved. But of course, it's really just kids liking familiarity, but i still let it stroke my ego a little bit. when i was still their teacher, there was one little boy in the class, joseph, who would talk to me in class constantly, every so often he would do so out of turn, in which case i would turn to him and say, 'Joseph, guess what im going to say?" and he would stop, b/c the words following would've been, 'shut up.' In a kind teacherly way, of course :) He was one of the best students, but b/c he's so fast, he finishes early and yaps on forever. if i wasnt listening, he'd yell, "Teacher, why you chew my words?!" which means "why arent you listening to me?" I'd tell him, "Joseph, you see that jenny is speaking to me right now, sweetheart, please wait until she's finished, and then i can give you my attention." and then he'd sigh and pout while waiting, friggin adorable!

can i ask that you guys maybe check out pic&save (or whatever it's called now) and send me stamps and stickers? ive included pictures of what im talking about. i have some that ive bought here, but i'd prefer to have some that have some english words on them, or anyway, just something different. {the picture w/the stickers has a dvd in the photo, for no reason, i just forgot to move it out of the way}. thanks for putting up w/my constant requests.

im very cold here!~daughter