Vegan Victuals: The Blog |
Teachers College Reading & Writing Project, Summer Reading Institute
Completely overdressed and over-caffeinated, I observe the group I am amongst in Columbia University’s auditorium as we wait for the keynote speaker. I like watching the dynamics of a room, measuring the energy levels, riding them quietly and internally. The collective roar of the hundreds of conversations at once is comforting. It sounds like an [...]
Goodbye C.U.N.Y.
After a long relationship with the City University of New York system, I join the towering halls of academia at Teachers College at Columbia University this Fall for my masters program. Being admitted was no small feat. The school received a record number of applicants for the term. My application, which I toiled over for [...]
Canarsie Vegan (Part I)
I am currently teaching in Canarsie, Brooklyn at the infamous South Shore High School. The school has a sorted past that includes race riots in the late 80′s and a few murders in the early 90′s. Despite its history, the towering building is eerily quiet and the metal detectors at each entrance seem unjustified. It [...]
Lil’ Thai Guys
The first grade boys get a bit zany as the morning progresses. Experimenting with different means of grabbing their waning attention, I have found they love to be photographed… that the mere act of taking out my camera congregates them in a excited but orderly line in front of me. After which, they’re calm for [...]
Back to School
I’ll be teaching at Wat Kanham School, in the Uthai district, all week. Like the name implies, the school is on the grounds of a Buddhist monastery. It is also located next to a factory where most of the students’ parents work. Without the Buddhist monastery providing space and resources and the close proximity of [...]
But I tried, didn’t I? Goddamn it. At least I did that.
After months of preparation, my graduate school applications were submitted to meet the programs’ early deadlines. Teachers College at Columbia University and the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison now hold my fate, my brain within their admissions committees. Madison is ranked numero uno in the country for my program, Teachers College is [...]
5 O’Clock High
I have a research proposal due Saturday for my conservation biology class at the Bronx Zoo. The pressure of this assignment is sitting on my sore trapezius muscles. I can’t seem to think of a worthy research question that doesn’t commit me to massive amounts of work or structure a plausible research methodology, especially difficult [...]
My Letter To Leopold, bcc: Muir
Dear Aldo, I write to you from an abandoned farm in an indescript rural town about 15 miles or so from Interstate-80, the massive throughway that stretches from New York to California. Yes, our great country is completely engulfed in a web of asphalt now and it is difficult to find a land that is [...]
Today is the First Day of the Rest of the Semester
My Summer, for all intents and purposes, is over. The Summer II session starts tonight which delivers me, acclimated and in the routine of things, to the Fall ’06 semester in late August. To further dampen my summer-y disposition, my class is about Death & Dying (Debbie Downer). So on the remainder of these lingering [...]
The People’s History of Yo Mamma
If it isn’t obvious enough to you, my two faithful readers, taking stock of my past (archiving!) is something of great importance to me. I like things clearly stated, in their place and in neat labeled pocket folders. Otherwise these persons/places/things (ok, we’ll call them nouns) exist in a kind of purgatory in my head, [...]
