Feelin' the Fall

'Tis the season of falling leaves, changing colors, Thanksgiving, pumpkins, children dressed as Native Americans, Pilgrims and the odd ghoul an gobblin. Here are some shots:

The anonymous Native American for the Thanksgiving feast at school.

Some of our cool pumpkin heads for the scarecrow we made.

The door of my classroom... those falling leaves are their handprints.... clever, huh?

The picture graph we made of the fall vegetables that we like.

The scarecrow that we made!!

Dealing with Dialects

One thing I've been dealing with here, that I hadn't thought I would is the dialects. I am aware that there are loads of different dialects in a country this big with this many people, but I really hadn't thought that my kids would have such a wide variety. Most of the kids speak with little to no accent but then I have one special little guy that has a thick accent and uses some southern dialect words that I don't always understand. Here is a prime example:

Me: Okay, "Joseph" why don't you try writing your name.

"Joseph": 'Kay

He proceeded to write a backwards J and then say to me: Dat mai naaaaame!!!

Needless to say, I almost fell off my chair.

Elections USA

I know it's a lot late to post my thoughts and observations about the elections in the US, but here you have it. I've been watching this race for the last 2 years from Korea and here in the US and it has consumed my attention at times. Being a Canadian, where our elections are not so much of a celebrity event as a political event, it's been odd to see the fanfare, the rallies, the commercials, the hub-bub as it were. The only thing I can compare it to, that may come close is the elections in Korea where there are trucks blaring campaign messages in the streets both day and night, where candidates are colored-coded and followers wear that color to show support, flyers are handed out and so on. But still, it doesn't come close to what it was here.
Personally, I am glad that Obama won... I know, my Christian friends are now praying for my soul because Obama is NOT a Republican... but you have to understand that I don't view it on party lines, I've never held to a party for political issues, I hold to the issues and the people I think have the answers that make sense to me. And for me, Obama made more sense. And being more of a global citizen, it made an impression on me that he was raised internationally, in a bi-racial environment...
However, I will tell you what does get to me... it's the reference that Obama is the first "black" president... hm... did I miss it? I am pretty sure that his mom was WHITE. So, wouldn't it be more accurate to say that he is the first bi-racial president of the United States of America? I think so... But that brings me to another observation about this country that I am living in: Race is everything here. People are continually asked and made to identify their race, like it is what defines them as human beings.
Okay, I know that this has been one rambling post, but that is kind of where my mind is these days... rambling.