Oh Where Oh Where Have I Gone?

I have almost been gone from the blog for a month. That's indicative of my work schedule and weekend obligations which have kept me from the blog. To justice to an entry, I feel like I need to upload pictures, set up hyperlinks, and have someplace interesting to write about.

Since my trip to Seattle, I've gone to LA for my brother's birthday. That's about it. The soccer season ended at the middle school, so now I have 90 minutes back to my planning time after school. I still end up leaving school around 7 pm each night. I am slowly getting out of the habit of just preparing enough for the next day and onto week-at-a-time planning.

And it seems like I can't write anything without talking about school. I've made an effort to keep up a weekly posting at my teaching blog. That was mostly for the sake of my proposal to present at the TESOL conference in NYC. But, alas, our proposal wasn't accepted. A little bit of a let down, but there still is hope. An identical proposal was submitted to the UK's TEFL organization and accepted.

Life's duties and chores haven't been put into little boxes lately, either. My living arrangements still feel temporary. The apartment's furnishings bare. Somehow, my lack of roots has translated into a scant blog for the past month. Given some grounding, I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis. Until then, brief notes will have to do.

Bob Marley: soccer player

I subscribe to a daily posting of blog entries from the Caribbean. It helps me to keep in touch with my "roots" in Jamaica. Being that I now live in Japan and am in the best position to write a bridge blog for English readers interested in Japanese culture, I normally don't comment on links to other regions. But considering that it's World Cup time, I thought you would enjoy this blog entry from author Geoffrey Philip about playing soccer with Bob Marley.

Geoffrey is from the generation in Jamaica that came of age before the high crime rate and socialist flirtations gave genesis to the '80s brain drain. During that time, one could have these casual encounters with world famous people and it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, it's an island and eventually you're going to run into the same people again and again. To some degree, you still can have encounters with famous people, but there's a lot more security to get through. I high-fived Beenie Man at a soccer game; met the Ted Kennedy of Jamaican politics, Edward Seaga, while wearing the political colors of his opposition; chatted with Sean Paul's cousin; and sat next to the members of Black Uhuru on the plane. There's no cult of celebrity in Jamaica that keeps famous people from interacting with the public like a regular person. So that's why this blog on playing soccer with Bob Marley is so unique. Enjoy!