travel lessons from bilbao

How much more rewarding do you find it when traveling and you try the road less traveled rather than the road the other travelers seem to be taking? 

I was in Bilbao recently. If you are unfamiliar with Bilbao, it is a city in Spain or the Basque Country or both (depending on your politics). Typically, when you go to Bilbao, the assumption is that you will visit the Guggenheim Museum, seen here with Jeff Koons' "Puppy" out front and Louise Bourgeoise's "Mother" out back:

The museum is the city's most famous landmark, and it's an art museum, so surely it must be on anyone's travel itinerary when visiting Bilbao. It costs 13 Euros to get in and see the collection. Lots of people do it. Why? Because it's well known and lots of people do it and what else are you going to do in Bilbao?

Look around. How about that as an alternative? When you're in a new place, the simple act of just looking around and noticing things can be enough. Why settle for what you're supposed to do in a place designed to attract tourism (it is a really cool-looking building, in all fairness, and they did have interesting-sounding exhibits, including a visiting exhibition by Andy Warhol) when you could just ...wander. Find things you're not expecting. Allow other possibilities that you don't even know exist yet.

So, here are pictures of a few things I noticed around the city when I wasn't going to the Guggenheim:

This is under a bridge. There is artwork pretty much everywhere you look in Bilbao. I love public art. It makes places happy. And you get to discover it --it's like a treasure hunt!

Street scenes like these. The whole point of traveling is to see things that don't look like home. The street in Bilbao doesn't look like the street in Seattle --not even close. This is a good thing because, if I had wanted to see Seattle, I would have looked around Seattle.

Interesting architecture, again in unexpected places. This may be peculiar to Bilbao. The city began with the Guggenheim building back in the 1990s, but they take a lot of pride in other innovative architecture --it's Bilbao's "thing". Every place has a "thing". Do yourself a favor and figure out what the locals are most proud of. Chances are you'll make a discovery when you try to see the best of a place through the eyes of someone who knows it.

Alternatives to the big attractions. At the Azkuna Zentroa (admission free --yes, I said free), I discovered the work of Jeremy Deller. He's pretty cool, as you can tell. The woman's face up there? You can walk through the mouth. I know! Very cool. I had the chance to discover an artist's work I was not familiar with before because I went to a different museum. Try new things: the whole point of traveling somewhere new.

Also seen were things like Basque independence banners hanging from windows in the Old City (el casco nuevo), puppeteers rapping out rhythms with their puppets' mouths for fun and profit, Art Nouveau tiles in swirly patterns, parks, people strolling or hurrying, ... . There was a lot going on everywhere. Bilbao is fun, if you get a chance to go. Highly recommended. And travel is fun, if you get a chance to step outside your front door --you don't have to go far away from home to see the world with new eyes or to try a different path.

Enjoy your travels, wherever life takes you.

ode to friday night

I am ecstatically happy that it is Friday night. Like the rest of the world that has a work week of Monday through Friday, I feel the relief of time to recuperate. For me personally, there's a bit of an adrenaline kick on Friday afternoons that I could have used Tuesday midday, but I'll take it however I can get it. It feels great.

To celebrate this joyous occasion, I'll attempt to write an ode to Friday night --an actual ode on an actual Friday night. If you are unfamiliar, an ode is a formal poetic structure. It sounds like I know what I'm talking about, but I really don't. That's why we have Wikipedia, right? 

According to Wikipedia (which is never ever wrong), the most common rhyme scheme for the ode in English is ABABCDECDE. It's also apparently written in iambs most of the time, too (ba-DUM). Since I never ever question anything I read on the Internet, and since it's Friday night so who cares if it's right or not, we're going to go with it, people. If you have a problem with this approach or have more information than Wikipedia, please keep it to yourself --I'm relaxing here.

Okay, so any ode to Friday night must contain the following references: Friday night, something naughty. That's about all that needs to be there, really.

So, without further adieu, let's try it. In iambic tetrameter. And a-one, and a-two:



ODE TO FRIDAY NIGHT

Oh, Friday night! Let's get it on!
Can't tell you how much you've been missed.
The working week has up and gone --
To celebrate, let's go get pissed! 

If Monday's chaste, and Tuesday's pure,
And Wednesday's sweet and innocent,
And Thursday's not for the depraved,
I'm glad you're here --and that's for sure.

Let's make sure all the money's spent
On deviance, and nothing's saved!



...

That should just about do it! Keats is rolling over in his grave, no doubt. 

Enjoy your Friday night (unless you're reading this on a different night, in which case, hold on! Friday's coming!).

[Update: It's Friday night again, in a new era. Friday night & poetry mean more than ever now. Nothing wrong with enjoying either. Take care of yourselves.]

book of birds by l.m. bryski: a review

DESCRIPTION

"In post-war Canada during the late 1940s, Elly McGuinty and her younger sister, Dot, are newly orphaned. The girls are sent to live with their grandparents in a small prairie town. Still grieving the loss of her parents, Elly chafes at the responsibility of helping care for Dot and struggles to find a place for herself in her new life. When a travelling circus comes to town, Elly’s desire for new experiences leads her, Dot, and new friend Stammer - a shy boy mocked for his halting voice - down a path where lives are altered forever."

REVIEW 

I have asked the author for permission to use quotations from the book in order to review Book of Birds. The book description (above) is a wonderful introduction to the content of its pages, but to really appreciate how well written this book is, and to get at how authentically Bryski captures the voice of a pre-teen girl (the book's narrator, Elly) as she experiences her life, you have to see her words.

A brief passage on being forced to wear a dress, for example, shows off the humor found throughout the book:

"Dresses itch. They ride up and make me worry I’m exposing my underpants. They don’t let your legs move the way they’re supposed to. And people always want to talk about them. Oh, you look so nice. Why don’t you dress like this every day? Then they complain that I roll my eyes. I don’t see how Dot can stand them. The dresses, that is. Or maybe people. I have a hard time with both."

Another short passage shows off Bryski's ability to inhabit Elly's more serious thoughts about everyday occurrences without feeling overly literary or showy:

"No matter how hard it is to see kid tears, grown-up tears are worse to watch. The walls they break through are that much thicker, so the damage that caused them must be disaster indeed."

There are many more examples of Bryski's talent, but I have to prevent myself from quoting the entire book because she'd probably like to sell a few. She has an engaging writing style that makes for a very easy read, but it still contains profound, thoughtful little gems throughout.  Humor mixes easily with the serious in this little slice of life from the Canadian prairie.

In addition to the quality of the writing, the story itself is also engaging, with twists and turns and mystery. It is a whodunit with literary leanings. Book of Birds tackles some serious topics, but does it in a way that draws the reader into the narrative. The characters, even the minor ones, are thorough and complex. In short, it is a very, very satisfying read and is now available on Amazon. Please read and enjoy. You'll be glad you did.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

L. M. (Lisa) Bryski, MD, is Canadian, convenient since her home is somewhere in Canada. She could reside most anywhere though, as she spends considerable time living in her own head. Lisa is a real doctor, but doesn’t play one on TV. She gets to wear a lab coat at work, and she likes to fix emergencies, not cause them.

Lisa has many proclivities, including a love of pancakes and all things breakfast. She enjoys reading and writing, and is very proud of her pronunciation of difficult words. Her humor is horrible, her punctuation abysmal, but she always finds a way to end her sentences with a period piece.

The Book of Birds is Lisa’s first novel. The narrative is a 1940s coming of age story inspired by many childhood visits to Saskatchewan, a love of ornithology and the Marx Brothers movie, ‘At the Circus’. Somehow in Lisa’s oddball mind, it all came together in the form of a book. Lisa’s novel tells of Elly and her sister Dot, newly orphaned girls who move to a small prairie town to live with their grandparents. Elly’s struggles to fit in lead both girls into danger. The consequences are unfortunate, and hopefully well worth the money to read about.

You can find L. M. Bryski on Twitter as @LMBryski. She also has a website, www.lmbryski.com, and can be reached by email, lmbryski.writer@gmail.com.  Enquiries about the author may also be made through Moran Press. 

don't give up on your day job

You know how people say, "Don't give up your day job"? I have no plans to, but I find myself in danger of giving up on my day job.


This would be unfortunate, for several reasons: 

• The idealistic reason: special education is needed --imperfect but necessary for those kids who need outside-the-box approaches to learning so they can bring their best to the world; 
• The social reason: my colleagues deserve a colleague who is as committed & hardworking as they are (& they are extraordinarily hardworking!); 
• The existential reason: fourteen years devoted to the same work, & a lot of personal growth during that time, has to mean something; and
• The pragmatic reason: a paycheck. I need one to support my family, & it is my paid work. If I have to be there anyway, why give up? It's an opportunity.

I won't go into details about what is behind what feels like looming burnout. It won't change my situation. In summary, since you have no idea what the job entails (and like sausage making, it might be better if you didn't know), I will say that what I am being asked to do well & what I am being provided resources to do are not in alignment. This is the same for many people in many lines of work. I am not unique in this. Unfortunately. 

What I will attempt to do, &  what I would encourage you to do if you find yourself in a similar situation, is to try to look for examples --concrete examples --of times when you felt fulfilled in your work or pieces of the job that you appreciate. This can be done with any line of employment, I think.

Let's see ...

• I have the opportunity to watch really brilliant people at work. Each has strengths: some are really good with people, some are really good with technology, some are very creative, etc.. And they work with the common purpose of wanting to make the world a better place, one child at a time. I have particular colleagues in mind & situations where they showed their stuff, but I'll tell them in person rather than in a blog. I will tell you that they do everything from making special costumes for 'their kids' (because educators tend to feel strongly about their charges), to pursuing grants in their spare time to get materials, to following their kids' progress long after they leave their classroom & school, to working with community agencies in their off-work hours to make sure kids have what they need to feel safe & healthy.

• I get to see amazing things happen when everything comes together. I have one particular student in mind who went from using behavior instead of words to communicate to using his words & language to talking about advocating for himself when we did a lesson on Martin Luther King, Jr. It was one of those things that you hope for, but reality far exceeds your hopes. There are others, but that example still makes me cry happy tears to think about it every single time I think about it. My part on his team made a difference for him in a way that will benefit him long after he leaves school.

• Recently, I began working at a new school. A teacher at the new school has the same last name as me, so he remembered my name when he was speaking to an in-law who has the same job as me. He asked if she knew me. She didn't, but she went to school with a young woman I trained as an intern (mentorship is a perk of my job --if you can mentor, I highly recommend it) about five years ago. I saved the quote back from her: "I owe so much to that genius lady."  Most of the time, I feel like an idiot, so it meant a lot that she remembered me well. I've trained quite a few interns at this point. The profession gets better with more talented people entering, & I had a small part in a bringing a few in & making them feel welcome.

I'll stop there for now. I'm sure I'll have to revisit that way of thinking when the work week starts again. I'm glad I was able to come up with a few things. That's a good sign. I can do this.

If you find you are frustrated with your paid work, please know you are not alone. Try to find a few things you like about it. If you can't, no one would fault you for beginning to move toward doing something else. Take care of yourself as you either accept your situation or work to change it, & best of luck to you. And many thanks to the people who have been taking care of me this past week. I'm going to stick it out & work through this rough patch. We'll see how it goes.