Teacher, Entertainer, Boo-boo healer.

I love my job for the silly things I get to do. I realize it's strange that for me, growing up meant acting like a kid. I had to stop trying so hard and let things come naturally. There was second grader in my class who hit his head pretty hard on the board and started crying. I went over to him to make sure he was okay but I feel really helpless not speaking the language to be able to comfort him more so I pretended to inspect him (take his pulse, check his ears and his eyes), then I put my hand on his forehead and yelled, "ABRACADABRA ABRACADABRA BOOM!" and he and the class started to laugh. Then I told everyone to also say it so all the second graders yelled, "ABRACADABRA ABRACADABRA BOOM!" I asked him if he felt okay and he nodded and smiled and wiped away his tears. It felt so great to cheer him up like that.

Looking at all colors on the spectrum and even the blended bits in between.

It's been a crazy busy few weeks since I've come back from holiday. I'm trying to apply for new jobs, do my taxes, do my current work, read, study, etc. The days are far too short and I spend too much time at the computer. Even when I take breaks, they are at a computer but at least I get to chat with someone I enjoy, like my friend Mladen. We were discussing the Olympic opening ceremony in Sochi. I missed quite a bit of it due to my inability to find a good connection (and maybe my inability to stay awake while laying on a bed in a warm room). But there are of course some things that couldn't be missed. For example, the conditions for athletes, the whole anti-gay propaganda law and the mishap with one of the rings during the opening ceremony. I also stumbled across a fake Facebook film for President Putin. It gave me a chuckle but my friend seemed a little more bothered by it. I don't like to get too much into politics since I'm far from an expert and it's also not exactly the whole point of my post but I think people tend to blow things out of proportion. The media keeps portraying Putin and Russia as this mysterious, crazy evil force threatening our current way of life. Doesn't this sound all too familiar? Feminists, Muslims, homosexuals, the list goes on. There will always be some "evil" that "the good guys" must protect the world against. We can't allow ourselves to be so blind. I'm not saying the Russian president is without fault but we can't just assume we are the good guys and everyone else who goes against our ideas are bad. Without getting too much more into creating political debate, my point here is this: we usually create our own villains. There are some things that are universally agreed to be bad but for the most part things are not so black and white. I was thinking about this because I called someone a bad friend because I felt they were being really rude and unfair. After calming down and thinking about things I realized I didn't really understand what was going on. In some cases even if I try to understand, I just can't. Then who's the insensitive jerk? We're not perfect and we never will be because we are incredibly biased beings but we can at least try to do better. We need to open our eyes, read, think, try to understand and don't just follow something because we don't want to appear uninformed.

Anyway, I enjoyed what I did see of the ceremony. I did get a chuckle about someone's theory that the ring mishap was a big "screw you" to the U.S. since that ring once-upon-a-time represented the American continent.

In other news: I'm going to Istanbul! Rini and I booked our tickets yesterday.