Happy Thanksgiving

On each grain is written the name
of the eater.
The giver is the one.
The giver is the creator.

Sometimes, just to feel productive I make an origami box. It only takes a few minutes but then I can add it to the list of boxes I know. My schedule is kaput. But then again I didn't know this energy-sucking malaise would hit me at exactly the time when the Waldorf Community wanted me "back in the saddle" again.

Camp is going to kick my butt.
That is, if the ladies in my Waldorf support group don't, (I have promised to host a workshop on Waldorf Education focusing on math and a NUMBER of other things).

!!!

A lot of activity on the homefront. A few more "campers" have registered, which makes the group more lively. So far, the girls outnumber the boys 2-1. I guess since it is a "Craft" camp, more girls would come. But is that it? Hmmmm.

I took some pictures today of my walk between home and the train station. It is a walk I enjoy, even when it is so hot I am using an umbrella for protection. I think it is because I like alleyways and canals. Singapore is full of these sort of hidden passageways. Where the laundry hangs and the foreign domestic workers cook and things are not all sterile and the ladies gossip tho' I know not what they say. But I know they do because our helper M tells me.

Picture 1: Alleyway off Swan Lake Avenue on the way to Bedock station.
Picture 2: The reason I wait in the public restroom for the ONE non-squatter toilet.
Picture 3: Our convenience store.
Picture 4: Our take-away.
Picture 5: No car in the driveway.

Waldorf Camp

My camp is up and running as I now have enough campers registered for everyone to get paid, (me, an assistant and space rental).

What with the useless medication (that only makes me tired) and the flu, I have been utterly without purpose this last week. Sorry.

Interesting stuff to read (watch) about H1N1 though. If you want to read Teresa Forcades presentation.

Or watch her on Youtube:

flu.
bla.

Tonite I am excited about going to this talk at the Waldorf School that is in my neighborhood!


Waldorf Steiner Education Association Singapore
Presents:

Connecting With Your Destiny
A Talk by Hans van Forenstein Mulder

Hans van Florenstein Mulder
Hans was born in Sumatra. He served as General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in New Zealand from 1992- 2006. He and his wife Ineke were involved in founding the first Waldorf High School in New Zealand. Hans was also director of the one-year diploma course in biodynamic agriculture at Taruna. Since 2006, he has been assisting the Executive Council at the Goetheanum in Dornach to foster the life of the General Anthroposophical Society and the School of Spiritual Science in Asia.

I think the joke is on me.

Last week I started researching post-graduate school and online courses. There are many universities (like UMASS) that are offering degrees online. I started to get excited about this. Being productive. Improving myself!

This week I was persuaded to step back into the Waldorf community and agree to offer some time. My friend RR has offered to co-teach a two day morning program for 2 to 3 year olds with me. And after attending a very intense Anthroposophic mother's support group I believe I will be busy next year starting a 1st grade and supplementing main stream curriculum.

So much for career advancement.

Booty and I took the train into the city with Mr.D and stayed on the train when he got off to go to work. In order for Booty to be able to sit safely I kindly requested a young gentleman to get up (after waiting for him to offer for 5 minutes) out of the seat reserved for disabled, elderly and people with young children. We got off the train at Jurong East, a short walk to the Singapore Science Center. I had been told a number of times from one of the dads at our Friday playgroup that this was one his 2 year old twins' favorite places to go.

We weren't impressed.

Most of our time was spent pushing buttons.
But alot of the interactive exhibits were broken. And could not be physically reached by a 2 year old, (and mine is TALL). And this is besides the point. Nothing was appropriate for toddlers. No musical stairs. No spaceship to play in.

Not that the elementary school classrooms visiting today were truly taking advantage of the fine knowledge and demonstrations of science all around them. What we saw was a lot of students chasing each other through hallways or unthinkingly hitting buttons or levers without reading the explanations.

When we walked in I asked the ladies taking tickets what exhibits were good for young children. They looked at each other as if I asked them to recite the quadratic equation.And declined to answer.

How about nothing, ladies? Would that about sum it up?

It started to pour when we were leaving the building and there were about 6 large groups of children sprawled at the entranceway, completely blocking it. No-one seemed to notice nor move when they saw us with the stroller. We had to turn around and go out into the rain and back in to find a spot near the taxi stand.

At the entranceway before you pay your admission fee there is a huge T-Rex that grumbles and moves his head and eyes. Booty wanted to "ride it" and continued to ask me if we could go see the dinosaur while we were inside the Science Center.

When we left the building 2 hours later and walked past T-Rex again she was so excited and wanted to get all up in his face as if this was what she had been waiting all day to see.

Once we were back home we opened the 'brella and stood in the rain.
"Very unhygenic!"

Finished.

PONYO
Today is review day and I haven't thought too hard about the movie I am going to review but it is a movie I was waiting to see for a long time.

Ponyo on the cliff by the sea

Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki out of studio Ghibli

A beautiful film, no surprise there but how beautiful? Not to be believed until you see it. A lot of water scenes and a number of fabulous storm scenes. Imagine a young girl with red hair running and jumping on top of huge fish/waves in the middle of a storm while you are trying to escape the storm in a small car, driving on a coastal road. This is where the tension of the movie exists most- before Ponyo meets Sosuke as a human.

Sosuke is a confident boy who befriends a fish with a human-like face. He calls her Ponyo and loses her when her sorcerer father reclaims her to the sea. When she escapes again chaos ensues.

The end of the movie was sort of anti-climatic but this is probably because so much of the movie is a wonder. One has to come down from the high at some point.

Prehistoric fish. A sea goddess.A town under water. The moon falling to earth. Millions of tiny ponyo-sisters shooting up like un-falling stars.

wow.

Here is the trailer.