Playing soccer with the local kids here is one of the happiest experience of my life. I have a completely new understanding and appreciation for the beauty of the game now.
Teaching for the moment is exciting and challenging. I prepare nearly two hours for all my classes. I only have only four classes a week though so the load right now is very light. The kids are incredibly well behaved and respectful. I am teaching junior highschoolers for the most part and I can confidently that (in general) this same age group is NOT this well mannered in the states. I never have to deal with disciplinary manners here, it is completely a non-issue. What I like best about the class right now is how interactive it has become. I am managing to get all the kids involved which I did not think I would be able to do. Again, the preparation for me is the key.
My amount of writing I've been doing is SKYROCKETING through the utlization of pen and paper. We don't have power to work by computer but this obstacle may be the single greatest thing that has ever happen in relation to my creative writing. I spend hours and hours of my free time now writing handwritten letters, building stories, poems, recording my dreams and exploring my memories. For the first time in my life I am attempting to build the foundation of a novel. The source of all this inspiration is steming from my estrangment in this foriegn place along with my solitude and isolation. This displacement in a totally new and different environment is illiciting a defensive reaction in my unconscious to crystalyze and instensify memories and images both experienced and dreamed in an attempt to re-establish meaning in this world where so many of the definitions of Things I have come to accept are shifting and collapsing.
I have been reading Rilke each night over and over. It is becoming a kind of meditation for me and I am learning to embrace-to love: the silent, still, and hollow spaces of my soul. I am confronting an inner void within myself, but instead violently reacting to this emptiness; instead of running from it or becoming alarmed or excited I am calmly beginning to explore and nurture it.
I am starting to really appreciate the food here as well. I love a particular dish called fufu which consist of mashed yams and pepper sauce. French is coming along gradually and this week Greg and I scheduled a 4 hours of French classes a week with the schools French teacher and I think this will be really beneficial for us. I am hoping to get a few photos posted today as well. I should be able to post once a week now every Wednesday. I hope this is sufficient to whoever may be reading.
Once a week is sufficient, Cote, as long as your posts are brimming with insight and delightful anecdotes to sustain me the whole week long.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your relative isolation has inspired your writing. Rilke seems appropriate for the situation. Keep it up, brotha.
Your posts truly inspire me and make me proud to be your friend.
ReplyDelete:)
Keep it comin'.
hey, I'm conor's friend, but I've been reading this, and rilke is definitely one of my favorite writers. I'm glad you're taking your isolation in stride and using it as a chance to explore yourself more fully.
ReplyDeletein the midst of so many people I know at sjcsf I've felt lonely so many times, particularly this year but also in the past, but it's been so healthy for me to attune myself to that and really embrace it rather than push it away. we're reading the moderns since it's senior year, and so much of it is about how we come to terms with isolation when "we are not at home in the expounded world."
I hope your views keep broadening. I've really enjoyed what I've read so far.
emma
Colin- When you are honest and content with the writings you produce during times of solitude, i feel an appreciation for the surrounding kind people who grant you this isolated creative energy. It's fantastic to hear you are thanking them through your dedication in teaching and playing soccer. :) Keep on keeping on with those mad skills of yours.
ReplyDeleteg.
You are a treasure.
ReplyDeleteKeep it up!
"This displacement in a totally new and different environment is illiciting a defensive reaction in my unconscious to crystalyze and instensify memories and images both experienced and dreamed in an attempt to re-establish meaning in this world where so many of the definitions of Things I have come to accept are shifting and collapsing."
ReplyDeletemy brother, you and Herman echo one another in this. well done colin, well done.