The Beatles are Magic

I think I have come up with a perfect, teenage friendly, semester long plan.

Every week I have classes with 11th graders and 12th graders who have no textbook to speak of.

I'm photocopying Coraline for them to read. Most like it but its a bit fantastic for some.... thus....

Beatles lyrics!

How did I not think of this before?! Later Beatles lyrics are rife with consistent tense usage, parallelism, fun teenage themes... Then! at the end of the semester they can be rewarded with an absurdly angsty film featuring all the language they've already learned: Across the Universe. Thus rendering it long term pay off for all their concentration! hell yes!

I'll let you know how it goes. We're starting with All You Need is Love.

A Note on Food

You may have heard me complain about food in the past.

As a child, my mother actually had to take me to the doctor to check on my picky eating habits; essentially I refused everything but yogurt.

Now, snug in my room, distilling water acceptable to the bacteria in my intestines, I reflect on my previous two weeks of eating...

A varied diet of serrano ham, various cheeses, various alcohols, coffee, tap water, sewer water, bottled water, water with bubbles, water without bubbles, bacon, toast, scallops, squid and sushi has made me realize I must one day live forevermore in Spain.

Returning to various sorts of potato and various sorts of bird and maybe a stewed tomato for flavor, has made me realize that I will never again (after I leave in a year and a half that is) eat potatoes and birds.

That right there... That is a sewage opening telling me it is safer for me to drink water from under sidewalks in Barcelona than it is to drink water anywhere in my village...