our SoC meetings always inspire me to refocus and
remember why i started in the first place!!

it feels amazing to create a network of
alliances and trust that you are
supported because we all created
this vision together and that this all
is a collective effort, struggle & journey
to push for real change to empower real people.

then, i wandered around in the rain & found

myself having tea with my wonderful friend vesna.

i sipped a banana chai smoothie while

we chatted about language, asian diaspora
and the Khmer Rogue.

HELLO GLORIOUS SUNNY WEATHER.

i bused south to vanessa's hometown today and she

showed me around the places she grew up

and we played with her pup, Barkley

(who indeed barked at me...alot)!

 we went to an adoption transparency justice

poetry event with her mom, aunt and cousin
(they are so incredibly down to earth, nice & lively).

the space was powerful, emotional and inspiring.

wo0owh0o0o for nice people

who are eager to connect

me with orgs, people, and places.

~*~*~*~**~*~

how amazing it has that

bumping into someone

at the airport can change/enrich your

career possibilities.

i'm "wearing many different hats."
i am:
a student, a teacher, an advocate, a colleague,
a peer, and a voice for Students of Color.

i am passionate about teaching, but i
need a mental and physical break after completing
this frustrating, unsustainable but still amazing program.
i've been looking into my next big adventure

(after relaxing, traveling and gardening~).

there are SO many organizations out there that i want
to be involved in: ones that delve into social justice,

community engagement and empowerment, global issues,

education, children, multicultural dialogue,
human rights, anti-oppression and anti-colonialism.

i think i now have more of the

skills, education, experience,
background and maturity

to make a + difference.

;) 

one org that i'm looking into is the one
i researched for my project on the
education and rights of refugee children
in the united states.

i'm gonna make it happen.

vanessa and i met up for brunch

(and ate some a-a-a-amazing food),

browsed around for sales downtown,

then sat on aquatic themed mosaic steps

and watched cargo ships sail across puget sound. 

we chatted about the usual (our dogs, somali pirates

and how schools can dehumanize people).

springtime weather is magical~

ashley and i went on a grand

hiking-beach-park adventure!

beautiful day on the

waterfront~ ~ ~

one.

day.

away.

from.

spring.

break.

it's nice that dominique

believes in me "lots and lots."

and that nadya "held her breath due to

such a welling of pride in me".

and that vanessa is my friend
and we're suffering through TPA together
but still making time for picnics on the lawn,
bahn mi, and real conversations.

and that i have 20 wonderful students

who i adore and i think i am slowly but

surely doing something good with them.
~

this is much more interesting than

how the actual lesson went.

i accidentally got black marker on my shirt and when
i tried to wash it out, i was surprised it bled
into rainbow colors! apparently, this is called
"chromatography."

16/19 of my students are non-native english speakers

and the linguistic diversity of our class is AMAZING.

i'm experimenting to see what happens

when i encourage them to speak in/share their

home language throughout the day:

*counting in somali when jump roping.

*A-B-C math patterns in amharic.

*singing happy birthday in mandarin

(i joined susanna for this one).

*sight words in spanish.

*and some phrases in vietnamese in the cafeteria.

ps: i now know how to say:

grandma, bird, and butt in Somali.
 ~

"i dream my painting

~

then i paint my dream."

"my mom has a hat with your picture on it."

 "how did she get my picture on her hat?"

*pauses, then with a bright smile*

susanna explains:

"because, when you were sleeping,

she took a picture of you outside your window.
 then she glued it on her hat."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
then, out of nowhere,
susanna pulls out a bag of confetti sequins,
and gives it to me.

today, at the library, when we were reading a book

about marine animals, i told the kindergartners
that male seahorses give birth to babies,
instead of the females.

you should have seen the look

on their faces.

:O    :O    :O     :O    :O

during my jog today, i turned a corner and

suddenly ended up on a street that looked like

a slow motion snow blizzard.

there were so0o0o0o00o0o0o0o0o many

white cherry blossom trees and thousands of

flower petals were floating in the wind.

i think it was the most beautiful
thing i have ever seen in my life.

i can't resist mega sales at bookstores...

 i was so drawn to the cover of this children's book

and as i was reading it, i decided to buy it

because it reminds me of myself/how i think i think:

then i also got this ^ graphic garden guidebook because

i plan on spending part of my summer

"creating a fantastic yard" and then 

sunbathing and drinking lavender lemonade in it,

with mops lying next to me ~ ~ ~

just realized i can now snapchat

my kiwi friend james...
KIA ORA

!!  ^____________^ !!

everytime i'm about to do

something big or make a decision

that i will have a GREAT day,

i turn on dirty paws and think about snowy mountains

of Kazakhstan.

CRAZY HAT DAY

i deliriously designed this template hat

at 12:30 am last night:

i love projects where you lay out

materials and first model for kids how to

twist/twirl/fold things and then let

them go wild. it was so FUN to
see how different everyone's turned out.
their personalities/spirits totally came out,
which is what i hope school can
do for all children. 

or as fijians would say:
 "yaloqu, lesu mai"
~ ~ ~

package from maryna-na-na!

she sent me wool socks,
home-made dehydrated apple chips,
and a beeswax candle with pressed flowers
(made in the santa cruz mts!)

THANK YOU! :) ) )

coffee oreo with salted caramel

+ purple ube with chocolate!

$1 tulip stems are one of my favorite things.

i cleaned the entire apartment just so
these flowers can look good in a clean space.

explored some new places today!

i sat in the "educational center"

at the SAM asian art museum and

read all these darling colorful picture books.
i want [almost] ALL of them for my future classroom!

"Growing up in Toyko" inspires me to design a

unit that explores what it's like

to be a child growing up in various countries.
I'm thinking it would be fun to learn about:

Japan, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Iran, Guatemala,

First Nations of Canada, Brazil, India,

Fiji, France & Sweden.

then, i stared at stunning puget sound while

eating my piroshky and holding my tulips.

exactly one year ago, i was standing right here,
wishing i could be admitted to UW,
so i could live here and have this view :~)

today's recess felt like a dream.

puffy white clouds in a bright blue sky.

children picking blossoms, making wishes

and prancing through the blooming fields.

this is the evergreen state.

this tumbling king can cartwheel

nonstop down a grassy slope.

 this has been the LONGEST week,

soOo good, but still:

T G I F

~seattle~
you're always the best commute view after a long day.

"are you checking her hair for....lice?"

"yeah...it's lice season."

my CT was out again, so i taught

another day of kindergarten by myself!

~*~*~*~*~

we crammed in a ton of reading, writing & math,

but also made time for dr. seuss, skittles,

drawing, surveys, songs and watching youtube

videos of newts (we are studying letter 'Nn.')

t i l a p i a
today, our class experimented with gyotaku

(Japanese printmaking with fish!)

it was SO fun and something new. what a great

launch into our fabric unit!!

it's that time of year again!

SPRING IS COMING.

row row row your umiaq boat.

on the field trip, i had to manage my group of

10 children on a boat........... 

eventually, i just sat back and took pictures
 while they rowed me around lake union.

celebrating finishing our 3rd quarter at UW

with yam tacos, drinks, bookstores

+ earl gray/honey lavender ice cream!!

somali folk tales,
jumping rope with 5-6 year olds,

waiting for the bus,

and coconut everything.

^ what my life consists of now.

adventures in
canada & hawaii

just gotta finish these last few assignments

and i'll be doneeeeeee

with my masters degree coursework.

drjslkrjeslkjerkldsflsjeresjfkj!!
!!!!!

then gotta find a way to
sustain myself for the next 3
months of full-time student-teaching,
TPA work, and staying sane
and have fun while doing so too. 

then i hope i can have some time
to relax & sleep.

H A I K U

We brainstormed topics about nature

that we can write a haiku about.

they came up with:

FISH

BUNNIES

THE SUN

LADYBUGS

BEES

GOATS

then we tried to count syllables to follow

the conventions of 5-7-5 syllable lines in haiku poetry.

coconut shrimp in a shack at the

bottom of waimea canyon!

daffodils + crocuses are blooming,
mr. a's turtle laid 3 eggs,
and it doesn't get dark at 4pm anymore,

which all means spring time is coming!!~*~