Disconnect and Connect

Here I am, one week later, at a time when days feel like weeks. Lately I've been trying to get out of my room as much as possible.

Some highlights:

• I visited a Sammon Lukio (a Finnish high school) for the second time, and was asked questions by students in two English classes like why did you move to Finland, what do you think about Finnish guys and what kind of food do you eat in Hawaii. An English teacher arranged for my American friend and I to sit in on a radio class and band class. The school has a strong media program, and students who complete it are basically prepared to enter the workforce. In the band class, I was impressed by the comfortable level of interaction between students and teachers. Finnish high school students have chosen to be there rather than at a vocational school, and they have relative independence to choose their course schedule and assessment. At the end of the day, S and I spoke with the English teacher about the values and concepts of Finnish high school system. Here's an interesting article about its success: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/12/what-americans-keep-ignoring-about-finlands-school-success/250564/ and a video Uz linked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qlOfZL_J5f
• I saw the Slovakian movie Gypsy, "the story of Adam, a boy who, after the death of his father, struggles to cross the boundaries of his settlement and tries to change his siblings’ lives. He finds himself in a conflict with racial, social, and cultural prejudice and the unwritten laws of his own Roma community." More info: http://www.scanorama.lt/en/%C4%8Digonas
• I saw another Slovakian movie House, "a rare glimpse of life in rural, post-Soviet Eastern Europe, and it makes subtle comments about the unfamiliar quandaries of property ownership and the emergence of a new middle class in that part of the world." More info: http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=24339
• Live rock performance at Jack the Rooster
• Live performance of Burning Hearts (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXOcOUQIRrk) and Avasaxa at Doris
• (Awesome!) live performance of Stringpuree (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Vnxu9qFwws) at Telakka
• 5 euro BBQ burger, one of the best I've ever had
• Snow is melting away. . .
• School is mostly a highlight

I'm happy!