A Poem I Wrote About Dorm Life at My Conference

1940 Dormitory
A Series of Three Lists
(Inspired by Sei Shonagan's The Pillow Book)

List Number 1
Things the Dormitory Does Not Have

Toilet paper
More than one washcloth
laundry detergent
A thermostat that can be adjusted
Warm carpeted floors

List Number 2 Some Reasons I Am Glad I Did Not Get an RA Room
A Series of Three Knocks
(Based on a Conversation I had with Jule Wallis after 2 or 3 glasses of wine)

Knock Number 1 11 pm

Question: Can I get more than one sheet?
Answer: Honey, I'm sorry I wish I could help you, but I can't even get another one myself

Knock Number 2 midnight

Question: Where can I smoke?
Answer: Just go ahead and smoke in your room.

Knock Number 3 1 am

Question: I'm having some boyfriend issues. What should I do?
Answer: Just dump him and sleep with his best friend.

List Number 3
Things the Dormitory Does Have

Broad shouldered football players
-- very broad shoulders
A fifth floor lounge that has wireless
Starting after 9 pm -- a fifth floor lounge with some very friendly people

Philadelphia Conference

I'm in Philadelphia at the moment. Just finished the IWCA summer institute. International writing centers summer institute, that is.

The Long Season

Just finished Jim Brosnan's The Long Season -- his journal of his life in professional baseball in the 1959 season. It's funny to see how much baseball has changed, yet remained the same in fifty years.

Last Trip

Yesterday we had our last trip outside of Beirut before we leave Lebanon for America. We saw the Beiteddine Palace and the Chouf Cedar reserves. The mosaics at the palace are quite impressive.

Up in 3-D

We saw the movie Up today; it was very good. The kids liked it a lot too. Although I do have to say that I don't really see the point of the 3-D; I could hardly tell the difference most of the time.

Detroit Red Wings

Today, my hometown of Detroit made it to the NY Times:

DETROIT — The Motor City has been hit by pretty much every crisis imaginable this last year, save for famine and a plague of grasshoppers.

A nonprofit group failed to stop the demolition of Tiger Stadium, but that hasn't stopped the Tigers from tearing their way to the top of the American League Central.

Its mayor resigned and went to jail. Two of its three car companies wound up in bankruptcy. Unemployment soared to the highest level for any metropolitan area in the nation, and the wrecking crews showed up to take apart Detroit’s beloved Tiger Stadium.

But this week, sports is providing a much-needed lift to this beaten-down city.

The Red Wings face the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals Friday night, and Detroit is hoping for a repeat of last year’s championship.

The Detroit Tigers are also first in the American League Central.

Tanka of the Day

Two hundred two steps
from apartment to office.
Still another trip.
Palm, cypress, pine trees obscure
the Mediterranean.

Haiku of the Day

boxes on stairs, sweat
hardcover paperback books,
back to America

Hardly Worth It

Yesterday or today we realized that it is not worth it to ship all our things to America. The shipping companies want something like $2000 to ship everything from our apartment in Beirut to Grand Forks, ND. And we decided that it would cost less to replace most of the things than to ship them.

But that meant that we spent much of today unpacking boxes and trying to decide what to do with all the things we will not ship. In addition, that means we'll have to buy even more things once we settle in Grand Forks: clothes, books, toys...

Tanka of the Day: Pirate Tanka

bandana: pirate hat
where is the hidden treasure?
handwritten map shows
Marta steals Michal's treasure
Michal finds it and hides it

Haiku of the Day: Morning Haiku

breakfast on the table
birds chirp outside our window
anger becomes joy

Haiku of the Day

Blue sea with slight breeze.
One, two, three, four tanks roll by.
Elections come tomorrow.

Tanka of the Day

Elections Sunday.
March 8: pro-Hezbollah?
March 14: pro-West?
Today the sea has no wind.
Who can predict the weather?

Haiku of the Day

Wynton Marsalis'
new book from the library
shows the joy of jazz.

Page 572

That's how far I got in the book Cryptonomicon before I decided, this afternoon, to give up. Interesting, but there's still about 350 pages to go. I'm sure I can find another book to read.

My First Tanka

So, I've learned about a new type of poem: tanka. The characteristics of tanka are, as I understand them:

• 31 syllables
• arranged serially 5-7-5-7-7

Here's my first one I wrote at lunch:

Fish, green beans, carrots.
Wind blows brown and white placemat.
Water drips from glass.
No American coffee;
double espressso instead.

Haiku of the Day

First day, new school year,
backpack harbors a fossil...
last June's cheese sandwich.

-- Kristine O'Connell George
Published in the book A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms.

Exam Haiku

Taking an exam
on a hot day violates
basic human rights.

(written by one of my students, Darim Khouja, slightly edited.)

Waking Up Early to Come to the Office and Grade Student Work

Sound of birds, cool sun,
even when not in the shade.
Campus gate still closed.

A Haiku Written After a Trip to the AUB Beach

Crab hunting with Chas
small striped fish swim in the sea
sharp rocks hurt my feet

Haiku Written at Lunchtime While Taking a Break from Grading

Shade: no heat, no glare.
Shish taouk is delicious.
Lunchtime is over.

Haiku of the Day

The writer Richard Wright, in his final year of life, grew quite fond of haiku and wrote hundreds of them. Here's one I particularly like:

It is so hot that
The scarecrow has taken off
All his underwear!

Trip Haiku

Yesterday we were invited to someone's beach club chalet in Tabarja. Michal and I wrote a haiku about it:

Trip to Aquamarina 2 Haiku
by Michal and Me

Bright sun, swimming pool.
Pizza for lunch: delicious.
Sandwich takes too long.

Poetry and Frustration

Just five minutes ago, a former student of mine emailed me and sent me a poem. Since I was just writing about poetry, I thought it would be good to post it. (Slightly edited.)

[Class xxx} problems seems to never end
Registration gave me hell of time
Yet tuition fees got me out of mind
What to do other than to petition
Out mind soon I will be

Haiku Economics: part III poetry as a tool for teaching science

Related to this question of haiku in an economics class, here's a nice excerpt from a paper on the value of writing an occasional poem in a science class:

What Good is Writing Poetry in a Science Course?

Science teachers are fully justified in asking that question. Many science courses, especially at the introductory level, enroll too many students to permit much writing of any kind. If the teacher’s precious time is going to be taken up with reading student work, shouldn’t it be more explicitly scientific writing, or at least expository (i.e., explanatory) prose?

     Most of the literature locates the value of writing poetry in the student’s general development rather than in course specific learning. So Joseph Moxley, quoting Dave Smith, points out that “creative writing is one of the few formal opportunities in education for self-discovery and self creation” (1989, xii-xiii), and Gorman, Gorman, and Young cite James Britton’s assertion that “poetic writing encourages students to explore their own feelings and values” (1986, 139). While no one would deny the value of self-exploration and discovery, we are asking how writing poetry can help students learn science.

     In the first place, most poems are short. This makes them useful for focusing intensely on specific processes or ideas and also means that teachers won’t have to read prohibitively long papers in large lecture courses. In the second place, poetry is relatively dense for its length; often, a great deal of thought goes into the production of just a few lines. Some of this thought may be expended on purely poetic questions of rhyme, meter, and so on, of course, but some of it will inevitably go to better understanding the scientific processes the student is writing about, to choosing the word or image or analogy that most exactly expresses the understanding the writer wishes to convey. The tendency of poetry to encourage precision—because it is not expansive and explanatory, one naturally wants to get each word right—is also an effective device for helping students focus on the intricate details of, for example, the Krebs cycle, as we shall see, or the electron transfer chain.

     Besides its brevity and focus, poetry also encourages the careful observation of physical details (imagery), a habit of mind particularly valued by the sciences as well as other academic disciplines. In Researching and Writing in the Sciences and Technology, for example, Christine A. Hult devotes a whole section of chapter one to “The Importance of Observation in the Sciences,” and every lab manual for introductory biology courses stresses the importance of careful observation in the formulation of questions that lead to hypotheses and in the monitoring of actual experiments, as well as in the discussions of their results. Furthermore, the analogical nature of poetry, with its metaphoric and similistic comparisons, promotes careful, detailed thinking about the nature of biological processes. If you compare electron transport to riding in a cab, for example, as one of our students did, thinking about the ways the two kinds of transportation are similar as well as different means that in the end, you have thought a lot about electron transport. Generally, then, poetry focuses attention on the fine details of scientific knowledge in a limited space where other kinds of writing might require many pages.

     Poetry also has value for students in the way that it promotes imaginative and emotional connection with the subject matter, as has been well recognized. In several places, for example, Art Young has argued that poetic expression helps students engage with a subject emotionally and appreciate the values at issue (1982; 1997; 1998; 1999; 2000. See these same sources for his discussion of poetry’s ability to help students “engage the fine details of the information.”) The ability to visualize the implications of a process like cloning, for instance, and to respond to those implications emotionally, out of their own values and beliefs, helps students establish a framework in which everything about cloning, from the mechanics of nuclear cell transference to the ethics of therapeutic cloning of humans for stem cell research, is more clearly understood, as we shall see in one of the poems we consider below.

     Finally, we would like to add that the role of creative thought in the sciences is sometimes forgotten by the rest of the academic community. Most scientists, though, are familiar with stories of dream-like, visionary inspiration in great discoveries like those of Rutherford (atomic structure), Kekule (the benzene ring), Loewi (chemical transmission of nerve impulses), Watson and Crick (structure of DNA), and Curie (radiation). At a dinner given in 1998 in honor of the great Australian biologist Howard Florey, who first developed antibiotics for use in human beings, Michael Wooldridge, then Minister for Heath and Family Services (Australia), remarked: “I . . . hold to the view that there is no essential difference between artistic creativity and scientific creativity” (1998). Many scientists feel the same way, although those in the humanities tend to see more of a gulf between their subjects and the sciences than scientists do (see Standler, n.d., for example). Writing poetry about biology helps to call attention to the creative impulse present in both areas.

Haiku Economics: part II

Take a look at Stephen T. Ziliak's web page, incuding his Haiku economics of the day and a paper on using haiku to teach economics.

Haiku Economics: part I

Recently on NPR's Planet Money blog, they had a recession economics haiku contest. As they said:

We're assigning you a challenge: Write a haiku for the recession and drop it in the comments. It's 17 syllables, in three lines, with a pattern of five syllables, seven syllables, and five more.

Here are a few of their favorites:

How much are apples?
Don't recall caring before.
Little things add up.
-- Aaron Rosenthal

Technical writer
Moved to Haiku Department --
Still paid by the word.
-- Thomas Lanaghan

Put off surgery
it's not that noticeable,
if you wear a hat.
-- Deanne Witkowski

Granny rolls over
On her mattress
Filled with twenties.
-- Trey Bien

more travel

We took a trip to Anjar this weekend, an Armenian town near the Syrian border. Shortly after we left the town, there was a story about Armenians in Lebanon in the NY Times. The picture below shows the main tourist site -- some ruins of the Umayads.

An Unexpected Holiday

Yesterday and today I got the following email messages. So, even though I was not expecting it, Monday is a holiday at the university and at the kids' school. I'm not sure what the resistance and liberation refer to, but I can't help but wonder about an unexpected holiday celebrating resistance and liberation shortly before national elections.

Dear Parents:

The Ministry of Education has announced that May 25, 2009 will be a holiday for all schools private and public schools in recognition of the Resistance and Liberation Day. Please plan accordingly.

George Damon
Headmaster

Dear All,

In accordance with the decision of the Council of Ministers, there will be no classes on the National Liberation Day, Monday, May 25, 2009. Quizzes on this date will be rescheduled by the concerned instructors.

Moueen Salameh
Registrar

Packing is Difficult

It seems that we are all struggling with the moving and packing process. We have decided (mostly to save time and money) that we will not ship everything and we are all giving up some things. But we also recently heard that in Grand Forks the administration could provide us with a two bedroom apartment, but NOT a three bedroom one. It's not the worst thing that you can experience, but moving a family to another continent takes a toll on the soul.

Trip to Byblos on Sunday

We went to Byblos yesterday. Nice town. Michal likes the castle from the Romans there. A rather expensive seafood restaurant for lunch -- although it did include this view. But it was too hot 30C (about 86f) and on the way back the bus driver tried to cheat us by trying to take more money than it should cost for the trip. It will be nice to return to America

Jack Kerouac's Baseball

I never knew that Jack Kerouac was big fantasy baseball player. He filled notebooks with stats from his team as can be seen in this New York Times article. Interesting names for his teams in light of current auto news.

Things to Get

I started thinking about things involved in our move from Beirut, to Detroit, and, then, to Grand Forks. We still need to buy plane tickets and arrange to have our possessions sent. In Detroit, we would need to buy a car. After we move to Grand Forks we will need to get/buy:

• two twin beds
• one double or queen bed
• a kitchen table and chairs
• a couch and probably at least one chair
• plates, bowls, silverware, dishes
• pots pans and other things to cook in
• miscellaneous kitchen electrics such as a blender and food processor.

Less essential, but probably important:

• both kids would like bicycles.
• And we'll probably look for some toys or sports equipment such as soccer ball, baseballs, or other things to play with
• two or three chests of drawers
• a couple mirrors
• two or three nightstands.

The nice thing is that we can avoid buying booksimmediately and use the public library.

Chrysler Shedding Dealers

Chrysler today announced that they will close almost 800 dealers. In my hometown of Detroit, quite a few are closing. The NYtimes has an interactive map if you are curious to see where the dealers are that will be closed.

In June we are hoping to buy a car. Probably not a Jeep or Chrysler though. Monika had discussed a RAV4 as a likely choice. But who knows, perhaps a Ford Escape. No matter what brand you talk about, they are not selling a lot of cars and trucks in the US now.

Been a Busy Weekend

This weekend we went on two different hiking trips.

1. On Saturday, we went with a friend to the Tannourine Cedar Reserve.
2. Then, on Sunday, we joined the Cyclamen Hiking Club and went to Kobayat Akkar, in the north near the Syrian border. Definitely one of the most remote areas of Lebanon. There we went looking at the wildflowers.
   

In both cases, it was tiring, but good to be reminded that Lebanon, in addition to having the traffic of Beirut, also has beautiful green mountains.

Pink Taxis for Women in Beirut

I haven't actually seen these, but I just read that such things exist here in Beirut this morning.

Some Excerpts from AUB's Presidential Inauguration Speech

I was rather impressed by Peter Dorman's speech yesterday. Here are some excerpts:

You will all have seen that the New York Times named Beirut as the world’s number one travel destination for 2009, a ranking that astonished everyone—except those of us who live here.

At AUB we encourage students to ask themselves: how am I bounded? How am I free? What values do I choose to embrace? For what causes do I devote my energies? These are questions we cannot answer for you—we can only place them before you, along with the invitation to formulate your own response. This is, in essence, the subversive nature of the liberal arts experience: it affords you the gifts of critical thinking and positive skepticism.

Although it’s possible—superficially—to view AUB as a collection of buildings and people and classes and research labs, it is in essence a series of dialogues, relationships, and interactions. I hope you will feel challenged during your time at AUB. I hope that, from time to time, you will even feel uncomfortable by the choices placed before you by your professors and friends as you strive to understand the common threads that connect us as human beings.

The commonality of humankind is hardly a new ideal. It is recognized even in an instructional text from ancient Egypt, the “Maxims of Ptahhotep,” written some 4000 years ago. The words are placed in the mouth of a vizier of the Old Kingdom, who offers as a guide to proper behavior, the following advice:
"Don’t be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the unlearned man as well as with the learned, for no one has ever attained the perfection of skill; there is no artisan who has fully acquired the mastery of his craft. Good speech is rarer than malachite, yet it may be found even among the women at the grindstones."

Damascus (again) and Palmyra, Syria

Just came back from a trip with my family to Damascus and Palmyra, Syria. Perhaps I'll be able to post some pictures later -- Michal took a lot -- but, in the meantime, some good images can be seen on the web.

Presidential Inauguration

In twenty minutes, I will begin marching with other AUB faculty for the inauguration of Peter Dorman as president of the university.


This is the first presidential inauguaration at AUB since 1982. Since then, one president was murdered and one was kidnapped; a terrible war engulfed the city and the country, and the armies of Syria and Israel came and went. Many things have happend in Beirut and at AUB since 1982. And I do honestly believe that, looking back, we can see that the world is becoming a better place, and AUB along with it. The university continues to attract the best and brightest students in the region who later go on to great things.

Here is what Peter Dorman had to say about the event in an interview:

Inaugurations are kind of strange and to some extent unique things. Very few institutions other than colleges and universities carry these inaugurations out. You rarely hear about inaugurations in banks or big companies or engineering firms, for example. But universities hold them for a variety of reasons, and AUB is very much in that stream. Inaugurations are a way to link the present activities of a university with its history and tradition, as it's been observed over the past. It's a way of acknowledging important transitions at the University.  Inaugurations generally involve ceremonies or symbolism that reflect [a university's] history. We want to reflect on our past and discuss what we are doing now in the light of our 140 year history..., and we want to look around the region and place AUB within its present context in light of what is happening in the Middle East today. It is also a way for us to cast a wider eye over the educational landscape...to confirm the fact we are more than a faculty and their students. We have a much longer tradition with alumni who feel very strongly about their university.

Trip to Syria: Part II

Unlike in Beirut (which really does not have that many westerners, truth be told) we were treated like the exotic foreigners a couple of times when we were in Damascus. Two examples:

• At the national museum, a huge group of kids were there and most of them wanted to say, "hello, how are you?) Many of the girls wanted to touch and kiss Marta. At one point, there were so many that Marta broke into tears.
• In the Umayayd Mosque, one woman with a six month old baby asked my wife if my daughter could hold her baby so that she could get a picture of Marta (barely 5) holding this little baby. She seemed unaware that Marta might drop her.

I should mention that Marta has blond hair.

plane tickets

Our plan for the summer is:

1. Pack and ship things
2. Take a plane from Beirut to Detroit around 22 June
3. Stay with my parents for a couple weeks
4. Drive to Grand Forks ND
5. I go to a conference July 11-18 at Temple in Philadelphia
6. Start my new job at UND 1 August
7. Perhaps we'll have a chance for a camping trip sometime in July?
   

Visiting the Cedars

Back in the fall, we were going to visit the Cedars, but Michal got sick, so only Monika and Marta went then. Today, a friend was going to take us there, but we hit a large pothole on the highway and couldn't go because she got at least one flat tire. Perhaps another day we will go.

Reason to Eat Less Meat?

Mark Bittman had a link to this graphic today. It is something.

Trip to Syria: Part I

We took a service taxi from Beirut to the border of Syria. It was an ailing Chevrolet Caprice from about 1986. We shared it with two Lebanese ladies (a bit squished). It was 75000 Lebanese pounds ($50).

At the border, the soldier said it would be at least an hour or two before they could process our visas. Something about sending faxes. So, the taxi driver left us there, assuring us we could walk across the border and catch a ride there for about $1 per person. So, we had lunch at the duty free station and let the kids play at an indoor playground there. It was clean and mostly empty.

About 90 minutes later, I went back and the soldier was ready to process the visas. I paid $16 for the three American passports and $28 for Monika's Polish passport. After that, we gathered the kids and our bags and walked across the border.

We expected to ride in a bus, van, or taxi after crossing, but, soon after crossing, a young man in a Kia stopped, opened his window, and asked where we were going. When we said Damascus, he asked us to get in. He told us there was no charge for the ride, just a gift. His name was Ibrahim, and, based on the crosses and icons in his car, I would say he was an orthodox Christian. He spoke very little English.

Ibrahim dropped us off at a taxi stand at the edge of the city, and we negotiated that the driver would take us to the city center for $4 (few prices are fixed in this part of the world, especially taxi fares). The driver brought us to a hotel and we checked in. It was $55/night and it had a double bed, a twin bed, and they brought a fold out bed.

We walked to the old city and saw a little bit of it before having dinner and walking back to the hotel.

next time: we were the exotic westerners...

Countries I Have Visited

Just came back from Damascus yesterday. I will write more about that later, but, on the way back, I started thinking about all the countries I have visited in my life:

1. Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City)
2. Poland (lived in Poznan for three years)
3. Germany (one day in Berlin)
4. France (a few days in Paris)
5. Czech Republic (conference in Prague)
6. Puerto Rico* (campus visit to U of PR in Mayaguez)
7. Bulgaria (lived in Blagoevgrad and taught at AUBG for one year)
8. Romania (three day trip to Iasi for conference)
9. Spain (a few days in Madrid)
10. Lebanon (been here in Beirut since August teaching at AUB)
11. Syria (a few days in Damascus)

Related to my foreign travels, I recently came across this quote from Mark Twain on Roger Ebert's blog:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

*part of the US, but, as an island a long ways from the mainland it is very different. Spanish is the official language, they can not vote in presidential elections and do not pay federal taxes (although they get benefits from federal government).

taxes today

So, I finally started working on filing taxes today. Somewhat complicated with income from two countries and two states in the US

Poetry Cafe

Michal's school is having something called Poetry Cafe soon. In light of that, he and I started looking at some poetry books lately (and even writing a little). Here's one I liked by Jack Prelutsky:

Bleezer's Ice Cream

I am Ebeneezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
there are flavors in my freezer
you have never seen before,
twenty-eight divine creations
too delicious to resist,
why not do yourself a favor, try the flavors on my list:

***
COCOA MOCHA MACARONI
TAPIOCA SMOKED BALONEY
CHECKERBERRYCHEDDAR CHEW
CHICKEN CHERRY HONEYDEW
TUTTI-FRUTTI STEWED TOMATO
TUNA TACO BAKED POTATO
LOBSTER LITCHI LIMA BEAN
MOZARELLA MONGOSTEEN
ALMONS HAM MERINGUE SALAMI
YAM ANCHOVY PRUNE PASTRAMI
SASSAFRAS SOUVLAKI HASH
SUKIYAKI SUCCOTASH
BUTTER BRICKLE PEPPER PICKLE
POMEGRANATE PUMPERNICKEL
PEACH PIMENTO PIZZA PLUM
PEANUT PUMPKIN BUBBLEGUM
BROCCOLI BANANA BLUSTER
CHOCOLATE CHOP SUEY CLUSTER
AVOCADO BRUSSELS SPROUT
PERIWINKLE SAUERKRAUT
COTTON CANDY CARROT CUSTARD
CALIFLOWER COLA MUSTARD
ONION DUMPLPING DOUBLE DIP
TURNIP TRUFFLE TRIPLE FLIP
GARLIC GUMBO GRAVY GUAVA
LENTIL LEMON LIVER LAVA
ORANGE OLIVE BAGEL BEET
WATERMELON WAFFLE WHEAT
***

I am Ebeneezer Bleezer,
I run BLEEZER'S ICE CREAM STORE,
taste a flavor from my freezer,
you will surely ask for more.

Marta's Birthday

Yesterday was Marta's fifth birthday. She had a party on the playground in front of our apartment building and I would say that about fifteen kids (plus some mothers, nannies, and siblings) came.

Poetry in Class

Today I put students in groups and asked each group to look at a speech from Plato's Symposium. After that, I gave them two tasks:

1. As a group, write down the main ideas of the speech you have been assigned.
2. Now, write a poem about your speech.

I heard some of the poems in class, but I asked the students to email them to me later. Hopefully they will because I am curious to see them. I think the students had fun. At least I hope so.

Places I Have Worked

Yesterday I read some line about how many jobs the average American will have over their lifetime. This got me to thinking about all the jobs I have had. Here is a list of places where I have worked.

1. Westland Eagle
   
2. Detroit Free Press
3. Clyde Smith and Sons (gone now)
   
4. Spring Arbor College
5. Houghton College library
6. Houghton College custodial
7. Camp Barakel
8. Burger King (do you really need a link?)
   
9. Mike's Coney Island (gone now)
   
10. Wayne County Library for the Blind
11. Wayne County Sheriff's Department
12. Adam Mickiewicz University School of English
13. Purdue University Department of English
14. Purdue University computer science department
15. University of Michigan English Language Institute
16. American University in Bulgaria
17. University of Minnesota Crookston
18. American University of Beirut

and, in August, I will start a new job at the University of North Dakota

Baalbek

Yesterday, Michal and I took a trip to Baalbek and saw the Roman temple ruins. We got there by bus which was quite an experience. If it were me driving, I would never drive that fast on mountain roads. But it was worth the trip.

workshop for faculty

This weekend I attended a writing across the curriculum workshop for teachers hosted by Linda Bergmann of Purdue University. It was quite a valuable experience for me.

Flood News

I see that the University of North Dakota now has a flood blog. Lots of information can be found about the coming flood in Grand Forks and Fargo from there.

Abbott & Costello

Last night, we watched Abbott and Costell Go to Mars on DVD. As far as I know, this was the first time that Michal saw an Abbott & Costello movie. I think he liked; at least he agreed to watch another Abbott & Costello movie tonight.

Last Night's Reading

The argument is not about just any question, but about the way one should live.

Plato Republic 352d (book I) translated by Allan Bloom

Kicking a Student Out of Class

Today I kicked a student out of class for the first time this year, if memory serves correctly. Today, I passed out a document about a teacher who accepts ads on his handouts, quizzes, and exams. I happened to think it was quite interesting and relevant since the class has an exam on Monday. I was reading it aloud as the students followed along. But, after a paragraph or two, I noticed that one student was looking at something else. She had a book for another class open on her desk and was actively sending a text message to someone on her cell phone. I told her, "please leave."

Exam Preparation

Next week my undergraduate applied linguistics students will be taking an exam. So, today we are doing exam related activities. I am particularly excited about this one (borrowed from Toby Fulwiler's book Teaching with Writing):

task 1
Design an essay examination based on the readings and class discussion. Write your questions on the sheets provided. Leave room for the other group to answer when we do task 2. Hint: you want to think about questions that both a) determine whether or not someone has kept up with and understood the material and b) questions that are not too difficult to grade. (12 minutes)

task 2
Exchange questions with the other group. Now answer the questions that have been given to you. Divide responsibilities so that all questions are answered in the time provided. (20 minutes)

task 3
Return the answered questions to the group that wrote them. Correct the answers. (15 minutes)

Final task
Turn in the questions and corrected answers to the instructor at the end of class. On Friday we will take a look at what you did and talk about how it relates to the actual exam.

The Rhythms of Life

There are many ways that people note the passage of time and move from one event to another in their lives: sunlight and sunset, alarm clocks, the Islamic call to prayer, among many others. Here in Beirut, I know what time it is because the electricity goes out at regular intervals -- usually at 9, noon, 1500, and 1800. Luckily, living on campus, someone switches on a generator and in two or three minutes the power usually comes back on. However, if one lives in a village or a building without a generator, then there might be only four hours of electricity per day in Lebanon.

In Defense of Food

I finished Anthony Storr's Solitude and started another good book. In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan. Worth reading.

weather

There was a rather fantastic thunderstorm on the Mediterranean and in Beirut last night. Lighting and thunder much of the night. Strong winds.

Related to weather, I see that, once again, the floods are moving into the red river valley of Minnesota and North Dakota. Some think that the coming flood in Fargo/Moorhead might exceed that of 1897, the largest they ever experienced. Floods are also expected in Grand Forks, farther north, but after the great flood of 1997, many changes were made to the infrastructure to protect against further floods. In addition, the flood is not expected to be as severe in Grand Forks as in Fargo this year.

Travel Ideas

Monika and I talked a couple days ago about the possibility of going for a few days (five?) somewhere during the easter break. Should we try to go to Aleppo, Syria, Damascus, Syria, somewhere in the mountains of Lebanon? The Bekka valley?

Of course, we have to figure out how to pay for this as well...

gardening and journals

I came across this entry on Mark Bittman's New York Times blog. I've been in love with journals for a couple years, so I was intrigued. Now I'm wondering about the possibility of starting a garden, although probably not until July and on a balcony at that. Here's an excerpt:

I urge all new gardeners to start a diary. Hang onto your notes and sketches. At the beginning, save seed packets and those plastic spikes that come in nursery plants. Draw diagrams, take photos, and decorate with color if you like (we find visualizing on paper both helpful and entertaining). Be sure to jot down bug sightings, the symptoms of sick plants and the anomalies of the weather.

Solitude

I checked out a fascinating book from the library yesterday. Solitude by Anthony Storr. Here's a nice section from the end of the second chapter:

It appears, therefore, that some development of the capacity to be alone is necessary if the brain is to function at its best, and if the individual is to fulfill his highest potential. Human beings easily become alienated from thier own deepest needs and feelings. Learning, thinking, innovation and maintaining contact with ones' inner world are all faciliated by solitude (p. 28).

Not Driving in Beirut

Today a couple of my students came by office hours and happened to talk about driving. One of them, who lived for years in Dearborn, Miachigan, said that her father has to learn how to drive upside down again every time he returns to Lebanon after a long trip to America. That is, after being a driver in Michigan, it takes some time to get used to Beirut drivers.

Just to give a few examples. In Michigan, drivers generally:

• stay inside their lanes while driving
• stop for red lights
• are capable of driving for three minutes without using the horn
• do not make left-hand turns from the far right-hand lane.

This Afternoon

I usually try to avoid coming in to the office on the weekend, but here I am. Several things I ought to accomplish, but one of the main ones is responding to student papers. Luckily, it looks like I got some interesting ideas. I do rather like this writer's autobiography assignment.

Now, back to work...

almost done reading another book

So, I'm on the last chapter of Technopoly.

Anyone who practices the art of cultural criticism must endure being asked, What is the solution to the problems you describe? Critics almost never appreciate this question, since, in most cases, they are entirely satisfied with themselves for having posed the problems and, in any event, are rarely skilled in formulating practical suggestions about anything. This is why they became cultural critics (p. 181).

Birthday of the Prophet

This semester I am sitting on a seminar on early Islamic history taught by my colleague Tarif Khalidi in the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES). He's written a book (he wanted to call it the invention of Muhammad, he tells me) on how the prophet has been viewed throughout history that is set to come out in August. In case you missed it, Monday was the prophet's birthday.

Plato and Postman

Here at AUB, only some of the books came in for my classes. For one class, one book came in that will keep us busy for the first half of the semester, but now I need to think about the second half. I'm trying to decide whether to ask students to read Neil Postman's Technopoly or several works of Plato that focus on rhetoric.

Trip to the Mountains

On Saturday we took a taxi with another family to Faraya to see the moutains and play in the snow. Some images here.

Censorship in Lebanon

Someone recently sent an email to all the faculty at AUB with this information:

I am one of the faculty advisors of AUB's book club, whose student president decided to focus on biographies this semester. In keeping with this theme, she chose the Diary of Anne Frank for our first reading. When she tried to order some copies in English from the AUB bookstore, she was informed that it had recently been banned by the Lebanese government.

I later spoke to someone at [a local bookstore] who told me that all the English copies (although not French, for some reason) in the possession of the local distributor had been destroyed.

[After hearing this], I went around to several bookstores and managed to come up with a few incomplete lists of things that are banned.

DVDs that are banned include Schindler’s List, anything with Paul Newman in it, the television show The Nanny, The Life of Brian, Manhattan, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Clockwork Orange, Independence Day, Battle of Algiers and season 1 disc 2 of the Sopranos.

The reasons given by General Security range from “homosexuality” and “sexual content” to “offensive to Arabs” and “offensive Christianity.” Apparently Paul Newman and Jane Fonda have become rationales in and of themselves. Otherwise, the most shocking categories are “sympathy for Jews” and “Jew content.” It is important to remark that there are separate categories for “sympathy for Israelis” and “publicity for Israel.” In other words, General Security is making a distinction between Israelis and Jews yet is nonetheless banning material like the Diary of Anne Frank and Life is Beautiful, because they might cause the Lebanese public to have “sympathy for Jews.”

As for music, much of what is banned is heavy metal, although Frank Sinatra albums are also on the list. As is the case for other media, however, the bans are highly inconsistent. For example, most Metallica albums are banned, but none by Iron Maiden. The DVD version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall is banned, but not the album itself.

Catching up on Reading

Last week I turned in my first semester grades and have a few days before the spring semester starts. I found a couple books by William Carlos Williams in the library; I haven't read a word of his in nearly twenty years. I particularly liked this passage:

Five minutes, ten minutes, can always be found. I had my typewriter in my office desk. All I needed to do was to pull up the leaf to which it was fastened and I was ready to go. I worked at top speed. If a patient came in the door while I was in the middle of a sentence, bang would go the machine -- I was a physician. When the patient left, up would come the machine. My head developed a technique: something growing inside me demanded reaping. It had to be attended to. Finally, after eleven at night, when the last patient had been put to bed, I could always find the time to bang out ten or twelve pages. In fact, I couldn't rest until I had freed my mind from the obsessions which had been tormenting me all day long. Cleansed of that torment, having scribbled, I could rest.

-- William Carlos Williams Autobiography

Re-reading Thomas Merton

Recently, I finished the first semester of teaching at AUB and found a little time for reading. Here's something I particularly liked from a book I first read 18 years ago.

Indeed, the truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering, the more you suffer, because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you, in proportion to your fear of being hurt. The one who does most to avoid suffering is, in the end, the one who suffers most; and his suffering comes to him from things so little and trivial that one can say that it is no longer objective at all. It is his own existence, his own being, that is at once the subject and source of his pain, and his very existence and consciousness is his greatest torturer.

-- Thomas Merton The Seven Storey Mountain (p. 91).

Two Haikus

I asked my students in my graduate academic writing class to write a poem. They have been given a technical article to read and write a summary of. The articles are about second language writing and writers. I decided to try and write poetry like I asked the students to. I responded to an article called Second language writing, up close and personal: Some success stories. It describes the struggles and joys of five people writing in their second language. Here are my two poems:

hours on an essay
solitary corrections
stop, wait, then, revise

***

my dictionary:
a friend who shows me the way.
always the right way?

Faculty Workshop

It's just been confirmed, on Friday 23 January from 1500 to 1830 I will be giving a workshop for faculty at AUB on using writing to enhance learning. I've already started pulling together materials. One interesting thing I found is on creative response to learning and poetry across the curriculum. Here's one and another article on the topic

Facebook Has caught up to High School

Within the last two weeks it seems that a number of people I went to high school with have signed up for facebook. People I haven't heard from in twenty years, in some cases.

Ola Arrives

A few days ago, Monika's mother, Ola arrived in Beirut. She'll be staying with us for a month. Marta and Michal are pretty excited about this.

Already, Ola has found many things she likes about this place. One of them is the fact that flowers bloom now, in December.

new class for spring

Today I had a couple graduate students come to my office because they were wondering if they should take my graduate class next semester. They are literature students and were concerned that they would be swimming in reading they don't understand.

I think that we all have fears. But acknowledging those fears and taking chances is something deeply impressive. Sanity and growth as a person, ultimately, depend on doing such things. At least in my opinion.

Beirut Type Writer, Urban Dictionary

Last night I went the Bierut-Type Writer Open Performance here in the neighborhood. (Facebook page here.) I read a section from Hank the Cowdog (book 1). Many people read their own work. A good time was had by all.

And, unrelated to that, a colleague recommends the Urban Dictionary. Check it out; it changes daily.

Frank McCourt on Teaching

I've been reading Frank McCourt's Teacher Man. Great Book. Here's a nice section that I read last night:

In 1966, after eight year at McKee, it was time to move on. I still struggled to hold the attention of five classes every day though I was learning what was obvious: You have to make your own way in the classroom. You have to find yourself. You have to develop you own style, your own techniques. You have to tell the truth or you'll be found out. Oh, teacher man, that's not what you said last week. It isn't a matter of virtue or high morality (p 113).

Roger Ebert on Writing and Happiness

Interesting post on Roger Ebert's blog recently. He says, near the end "By losing the ability to speak, I have increased my ability to communicate. I am content." He points out that since he has lost his ability to speak, he has become more productive as a writer. I was thinking my students might like to read it because what Ebert has to say about becoming happier because he is writing again might inspire them to want to write more themselves.

A Colleague Responds

I sent the list of best foreign books you never heard of to a colleague and asked her what books from the region she would include. Here is her response:

It is interesting; it would be good to know what their criteria for "greatness" are. Some books I would include are:

Abdelkebir Khatibi, Love in Two Languages
Leila Abouzeid, Year of the Elephant
Ahlem Mosteghanemi, Memory in the Flesh
Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North
Salwa Bakr, The Golden Chariot
Nawal al Saadawi, Woman at Point Zero
Elias Khoury, The Little Mountain
Ghassan Kanafani, Men in the Sun
Mourid Barghouti, I Saw Ramallah

Best Foreign Books You Never Heard of

On npr the other day, there was a story on the best foreign books you never heard of. Here's their list:

Britain

• Jonathan Coe, The Rotters' Club and The House of Sleep

Russia

• Victor Pelevin, The Sacred Book of Werewolf and Buddha's Little Finger

• Boris Akunin, The Winter Queen

• Ludmila Ulitskaya, The Funeral Party

Albania

• Ismail Kadare, The Three-Arched Bridge and Spring Flowers, Spring Frost (Read Excerpt)

Hungary

• Imre Kertesz, Fateless, The Pathseeker (Read Excerpt)

Portugal

• Antonio Lobo Antunes, What Can I Do When Everything's on Fire?

Norway

• Per Petterson, Out Stealing Horses

Egypt

• Naguib Mahfouz, The Thief and the Dogs (Read Excerpt)

• Muhammad Yusuf Quayd, War in the Land of Egypt

• Alaa Al Aswany, The Yacoubian Building

Japan

• Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Mexico

• Carlos Fuentes, The Death of Artemio Cruz

First Day of Classes

Yesterday I taught my first classes here in Beirut. They went pretty well, students were animated and were interested in writing what I asked them to and they were willing to share what they wrote. And I met a few more colleagues who teach the same class as me. Meeting them reminded me of a research project I'd like to do in the future -- a project on second language writing teacher narratives. Of course, that will take some time to get started.

Boxes Arrived

Finally, our boxes we sent from the US on about the 15th of July arrived in our apartment here at Beirut. There was a catch though; there was a (rather frail looking) person who drove the truck, but there was no one to unload. So, Monika, a neighbor, and I unloaded and brought it all up to the fourth floor -- at least there was an elevator -- on our own. Now we have boxes everywhere.

Tech Tips

Time for something completely different.

On today's NYTimes, David Pogue has some tech tips that he thinks everyone ought to know, but he has come to realize, many don't. Here's his whole post.

October 2, 2008, 12:22 pm

Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User

By David Pogue

Last week, I wrote an entry on my blog that began like this:

“One of these days, I’m going to write a book called, ‘The Basics.’ It’s going to be a compendium of the essential tech bits that you just assume everyone knows–but you’re wrong.

“(I’ll never forget watching a book editor at a publishing house painstakingly drag across a word in a word processor to select it. After 10 minutes of this, I couldn’t stand it. ‘Why don’t you just double-click the word?’ She had no clue you could do that!)”

Many readers chimed in with other “basics” that they assumed every computer user knew–but soon discovered that what’s common knowledge isn’t the same as universal knowledge.

I’m sure the basics could fill a book, but here are a few to get you started. All of these are things that certain friends, family or coworkers, over the years, did *not* know. Clip, save and pass along to…well, you know who they are.

* You can double-click a word to highlight it in any document, e-mail or Web page.

* When you get an e-mail message from eBay or your bank, claiming that you have an account problem or a question from a buyer, it’s probably a “phishing scam” intended to trick you into typing your password. Don’t click the link in the message. If in doubt, go into your browser and type “www.ebay.com” (or whatever) manually.

* Nobody, but nobody, is going to give you half of $80 million to help them liberate the funds of a deceased millionaire…from Nigeria or anywhere else.

* You can hide all windows, revealing only what’s on the computer desktop, with one keystroke: hit the Windows key and “D” simultaneously in Windows, or press F11 on Macs (on recent Mac laptops, Command+F3; Command is the key with the cloverleaf logo). That’s great when you want examine or delete something you’ve just downloaded to the desktop, for example. Press the keystroke again to return to what you were doing.

* You can enlarge the text on any Web page. In Windows, press Ctrl and the plus or minus keys (for bigger or smaller fonts); on the Mac, it’s the Command key and plus or minus.

* You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the wheel on top of your mouse. On the Mac, this enlarges the entire screen image.

* The number of megapixels does not determine a camera’s picture quality; that’s a marketing myth. The sensor size is far more important. (Use Google to find it. For example, search for “sensor size Nikon D90.”)

* On most cellphones, press the Send key to open up a list of recent calls. Instead of manually dialing, you can return a call by highlighting one of these calls and pressing Send again.

* When someone sends you some shocking e-mail and suggests that you pass it on, don’t. At least not until you’ve first confirmed its truth at snopes.com, the Internet’s authority on e-mailed myths. This includes get-rich schemes, Microsoft/AOL cash giveaways, and–especially lately–nutty scare-tactic messages about our Presidential candidates.

* You can tap the Space bar to scroll down on a Web page one screenful. Add the Shift key to scroll back up.

* When you’re filling in the boxes on a Web page (like City, State, Zip), you can press the Tab key to jump from box to box, rather than clicking. Add the Shift key to jump through the boxes backwards.

* You can adjust the size and position of any window on your computer. Drag the top strip to move it; drag the lower-right corner (Mac) or any edge (Windows) to resize it.

* Forcing the camera’s flash to go off prevents silhouetted, too-dark faces when you’re outdoors.

* When you’re searching for something on the Web using, say, Google, put quotes around phrases that must be searched together. For example, if you put quotes around “electric curtains,” Google won’t waste your time finding one set of Web pages containing the word “electric” and another set containing the word “curtains.”

* You can use Google to do math for you. Just type the equation, like 23*7+15/3=, and hit Enter.

* Oh, yeah: on the computer, * means “times” and / means “divided by.”

* If you can’t find some obvious command, like Delete in a photo program, try clicking using the right-side mouse button. (On the Mac, you can Control-click instead.)

* Google is also a units-of-measurement and currency converter. Type “teaspoons in 1.3 gallons,” for example, or “euros in 17 dollars.” Click Search to see the answer.

* You can open the Start menu by tapping the key with the Windows logo on it.

* You can switch from one open program to the next by pressing Alt+Tab (Windows) or Command-Tab (Mac).

* You generally can’t send someone more than a couple of full-size digital photos as an e-mail attachment; those files are too big, and they’ll bounce back to you. (Instead, use iPhoto or Picasa–photo-organizing programs that can automatically scale down photos in the process of e-mailing them.)

* Whatever technology you buy today will be obsolete soon, but you can avoid heartache by learning the cycles. New iPods come out every September. New digital cameras come out in February and October.

* Just putting something into the Trash or the Recycle Bin doesn’t actually delete it. You then have to *empty* the Trash or Recycle Bin. (Once a year, I hear about somebody whose hard drive is full, despite having practically no files. It’s because over the years, they’ve put 79 gigabytes’ worth of stuff in the Recycle Bin and never emptied it.)

* You don’t have to type “http://www” into your Web browser. Just type the remainder: “nytimes.com” or “dilbert.com,” for example. (In the Safari browser, you can even leave off the “.com” part.)

* On the iPhone, hit the Space bar twice at the end of a sentence. You get a period, a space, and a capitalized letter at the beginning of the next word.

* Come up with an automated backup system for your computer. There’s no misery quite like the sick feeling of having lost chunks of your life because you didn’t have a safety copy.

What are your favorite basics-that-you-thought-everyone-knew? Let us know in the comments for this column at nytimes.com/pogue!

Eid al-Fitr

So, today in Beirut is the beginning of the holiday ending the period of fasting. I knew that there would be two days off at the university, but I did not know if it would be Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Thursday. I thought that there might be an email to all employees or an announcement on the web site, but there was none. I began seeing if today was a holiday by calling my department, and I thought it was because no one answered. I got final confirmation that it was a holiday when I called the campus protection (police) office; I thought they would know because they monitor who comes in the gates.

I don't fully understand this holiday, but there are lots of fireworks near the sea which is close to our apartment.

Birthday Party

Marta went to a birthday party for one of the kids in her class with Monika today. I don't know how much Marta liked it, but Monika says it was very loud and that, after asking if they could turn the sound down, no one did. Apparently there was a person using a microphone even though the kids were right in front of them.

In other news, Michal and I got a ride to a big grocery store today and loaded up on lots of things. We're having a party tomorrow, and we needed a lot of supplies.

Things Moving Out of the Port

Yesterday I met with a customs clearing agent that a friend recommended and it looks like our things could be moved to our apartment within a week. And it looks like it will be done for a reasonable rate. We shipped our things on about July 15 and haven't seen most of our books, clothes, toys, and kitchen things since then.

Rain

Today was the first day I have seen rain in Beirut since we got here five weeks ago. Apparently it does not rain in the summer. We happened to pick this day to join some neighbors for a walking tour of the city, so we had some rain on our walk. Luckily the rain only lasted for a few minutes at a time.

Help with French Homework

My son Michal had some French homework, but he had trouble doing it, so we went looking for some help. We tried our neighbors Ayad and Miran first, but they were out. And we also tried our other neighbor, Souhad, but she said she didn't know much French and recommended another neighbor.

So, we rang the other neighbor's door. Rihad and Wissam and their two children had lived in Paris for several years and were glad to help out. In fact, they asked if Michal might want to see Jasmina on a regular basis so she could teach him French and he could teach her English.

There was quite a crowd in their apartment because they had several relatives visiting. And, after Michal finished his homework, they were having dinner and insisted that we join them. We happened to mention that Michal had a birthday recently, and, after dinner, they brought out a huge chocolate cake, lit a candle, sang happy birthday to Michal, and gave us and everyone else a big piece.

We thought we were just going to hope to find some help with French. We got that, a meal, and cake. The generosity and openness of some of the Lebanese people we have met is one of the good things about living here.

The Adventure Begins

Now our things are at the port of Beirut and we need to clear them through customs and have them delivered to our apartment. Everyone I talked to says that this will be a real adventure. Perhaps tomorrow I will have my first taste and hire a clearing agent to start the process.

New Faculty Reception

Last night I joined the new faculty at a reception hosted by the president and his wife. I got a chance to talk to several new colleagues and even spent several minutes talking with Peter Dorman, the new AUB president. It was a very enjoyable evening.

New Faculty Orientation

Had my first day of new faculty orientation today -- listening to one person after another talk about things at the university. Perhaps the saddest for me was listening to the IT director talk about the limits we should expect when using the Internet. Apparently the university has to buy bandwidth from the state owned telecommunications company, and it is expensive and slow.

Also, for several hours today I could not use the Internet anywhere on campus or at home today. Apparently I had exceeded my 1 gb limit per month (uploads and downloads combined).

New Writing

Today I used my cell phone I bought in Beirut for the first time to call someone to make an appointment. A few hours later, that person sent me a text message to say they could not make it. I wanted to send a short message back, but this was my first text message; I did not know how to make capital letters, commas, or periods. Funny how after all these years of writing and writing on computers I was struggling to compose a simple message.

Furniture and Moving an iTunes Library

Yesterday I tried to find some furniture (desks and bookshelves) for our apartment from the salvage/surplus furniture area of the university. However, when Monika saw it she told me there was no way she would be willing to live with those things in our apartment.

In other news, I bought a package of DVD-Rs and it looks like I should be able to move all, or at least most, of my iTunes library from my laptop to my office computer.