Back in the 21st Century

The Room 12 Meeting
Hey all,

Sorry to have dropped off the "blogosphere" (if that is where we are). Thanks to AT&T, I lost internet for two weeks. It's amazing how much your life slows down without all this communication.... Rather than shelling out tons of cash for the latest, greatest relaxation/de-tox/de-stress/re-juvenation techniques, maybe we should all just hide our cell phones and unplug the cable modem?

Naw, too hippie.

In any case, having a gathering sounds like a lot of fun. I'll be in town from the 23rd to the 28th.

Hester, I was vegg-o for a while. I think it was the John Robbins (was that his name?) talk that we went to as a class. You know, when we first learned about the food pyramind. Now I try to stay as veggie as possible, but it's hard to resist the occasional bacon. Sizzly, sizzly, bacon... yummmmm....

Mr. D, if you send me the email list then I can send around an invite once we settle on the day. Carmen, thanks for offering your place!

Kate

If you go for it . . .

I have an email list of nearly everyone that was in the class back then. I have promised not to post the list (spam prevention), but if some of you want to arrange a get-together, I'd be happy to send along any invite you write. I'd say that more than half of the class is either living in Seattle or is going to be visiting during the holidays. I will be in New Mexico part of the time, so I might not make it, but who knows?

Judging by the infrequency of the posts to this blog and by the fact that a good number of former Room 12 students have decided to just lurk and not post, it might be hard for you guys to motivate everyone to get together. My suggestion would be that someone needs to take the lead, exchange phone numbers with a couple more and then get together and start trying to contact people in person to encourage them to come to any event you might arrange. DO NOT DO ANY OF THIS ON THE BLOG! Especially don't publish addresses or times. It's dangerous. Use the phone or IM. I wish you luck and if you go for it, I hope you can pull it off. It could be quite fun, or at least quite interesting.

Just a thought

Can I just say that I'm really impressed (but not all that surprised) with the work that you all are doing... and that I'd love to find a time in the schedule to do a mini-reunion thing. Typically, the time between X-mas and New Year's is pretty quiet unless you're travelling (that's me in Boston). Thoughts?

a few questions

now that we're all connected and everything, how about having a get-together of those of us who are around in the seattle area? i bet that some of the out of towners in the group might be coming home around the holidays, too, so if we time it right we might be able to get more people. comments? how does that sound? if you're traveling to seattle, when are you going to be here (leave specific dates)? anyone got a house that lends itself particularly to parties? we could use mine, but it is maybe a little on the small side if most of the group were to show up with partners in tow.

also, i mentioned my animal welfare group, chrysalis animal welfare society, which was created to build an animal sanctuary on the island of dominica in the caribbean. i'm stepping up our efforts over the next few months and i'm looking for volunteers on the US side to help us meet some of our objectives. we need everything from legal help (setting up a 501(3)(c)) to graphic and web design to grantwriting and fundraising. i'm totally open to other ideas that you might have if you've got a skill or expertise in something that you think we can use. this is a remarkably talented group, and i'd really appreciate any help that you can give. our seed money is enough to get us the property where the sanctuary will be located, but we have to raise money for the rest of the process, and we're going to need a lot of help.

-- jenny

David checks in from Thailand

Hello everyone!
It's been great seeing your pictures and hearing your stories over the last couple of days. It has added significantly to my emotional return to my new quasi-hometown of Phu Khieo, Thailand, where I have spent a good chunk of my post-college years. I just spent a day at the school where I taught English for a year and then had a marvelous dinner with the girl's basketball team that I coached to the National tournament about six months ago. You probably don't remember me as a little Asian girl like Patricia, but over the last few years I think that I have spent almost enough time with them to qualify as one myself, as you can see in the picture (all my girls have their game faces on, but I'm the one doing the classic Asian girl picture pose). I can't even begin to describe how well people treat me in this town. I'm the only white person who has ever stayed in this town long enough to learn the language and become part of the community, and am thus treated like a celebrity. Anytime I walk anywhere, everyone stops their motorcycles to give me a ride. When I eat at restaurants, the owners won't accept my money. Everywhere I go all of the children greet me with "Hello David!" usually followed by adorable giggles. I try to treat them as well as they treat me, but they set a high standard. I left this town in March, after leading the "Hoosiers" of Thai girls' basketball to a 7th place finish in the country and returned to Seattle after a couple of months in a Muay Thai camp (kickboxing) in order to study for the LSAT and GRE (actually that was just my excuse for sitting around at home and reading without getting a job). After the exams I thought that I would try something new and go teach in Indonesia in a vain attempt to make a small bridge in American-Islamic relations, but it was very short-lived due to pretty intense alienation and resultant boredom. I ran away from that job and returned to Thailand despite threats of a $1000 fine for breaking my contract in Indonesia that I never signed. So here I am now with about 10 months with which to do as I please before entering academia once again. Starting next week I am off to go teach English in a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand for yet another attempt at bridging the gap in American-Islamic relations by giving the Islamic refugees from Myanmar a marketable skill that they can use to get some sort of jobs in tourist areas in Thailand to improve their situation. As much as I love hanging out with the children of Phu Khieo, they have absolutely no desire to learn English, so I feel that my services will best be applied elsewhere.

This brings me to yet another use for Mr. D's wonderful blog: After a few months in the refugee camp, followed by another shot at the Thai national basketball title, I have no plans and would love to hear more about the work that Sharla is doing in Vietnam and Cambodia. For those of you who have never been to this part of the world, you would be astonished by the amount of awful people from Western society that this part of the world attracts. Everywhere you look you find fat old white pedophiles trying to satiate their repulsive sexual appetites by preying upon the children of this continent. Their is at this moment nothing in the world that upsets me more than this scum of Western civilization that congregates out here. They provide a marked contrast between their worthless, graceless, immoral selves and the beautiful, impeccably well-mannered and graceful local people of Southeast Asia. During my time out here, I have pretty much decided that the children of Southeast Asia are my favorite people in the world. I haven't quite been everywhere yet, but I have definately done some laps around the globe over the past few years, and I can think of no better way to spend my life than to help out these children in any way that I can, and I believe that my capacity for doing so could be greatly enhanced by getting a law degree and working in the fields of International human rights and labor laws. In the meantime, however, I would love to help Sharla out in any way that I can. If your work happens to bring you into Thailand or Laos, I would be delighted to serve as a translator for you or the organization that you are working with, and if not, I would love to help out in any way that I could, after, of course, my basketball tournament in March(we'll get it this year!). Anyway, send me a reply if you read this blog and you think that I could help in any way.

Abrupt change of subject...

I can't say that my elementary school experience or any of my classmates have crossed my mind in the last ten or so years, but after this recent reminder I've thought about some of the ways that it subliminally influenced who I am today. It was interesting to read about all of the vegetarians who came out of Mr. D's class and those discussions made me think about the values that Mr. D taught us, particularly those concerning the natural world. Well I am afraid to say that I am not among the ranks of the vegetarians due to my love of meat and the fact that meat and rice is pretty much what's for breakfast, lunch and dinner out here, my college years were basically a love affair with the natural world (along with some dabbling in intoxicants and school work). I pretty much blew off school to pursue rock-climbing, mountaineering, snowboarding, fly-fishing, etc. during the school year and spent my summers maintaining trails for the U.S. Forest Service. I loved living in my tent in the woods day in and day out and keeping the trails from eroding into the surrounding wilderness. I have been very conscientious ever since I was ten years old about how all of my actions affect the world and what I can do to minimize that impact (still working on the vegetarian thing. Sorry). It's good to hear that Mr. D seems to have had a similar influence on many of my classmates.

I would love to hear more from everyone who has already posted and anything from the people who haven't posted yet. I'm glad to see that we've got a fair amount of creative energy flowing out of Madrona elementary. If anyone needs an average hack-guitarist and sub-par vocalist to join in on your band, I'm your guy. What I lack in talent I make up for in enthusiasm. And Jenny, I feel you about the dogs. The dogs out here aren't in such good shape either. I was attacked by about a dozen of them walking home today. Fortunately for me, however, they're in such bad shape that they can't keep up with me. They could use your help. Okay, enough from me. Good to be in touch with all of you. Over the last two days you have all become more than a very foggy memory. I like it.
Much love,
Dave

Patricia Y. Checks In

If you don't remember me, I was one of the little Asian girls (Hi Miye!) that was pretty quiet and really shy. In 4th grade, I used to always wear leggings (usually pink ones) and didn't even own a pair of jeans. I can happily report that I have fully grown out of that phase. Well, I suppose that I am still Asian and little, ha.

My path after Room 12 has been pretty typical and tame. I went the WMS, GHS route like so many others. Post-high school, I went down to Claremont McKenna College (in a suburb of L.A.) for two years before coming back to UW and finishing a B.S. in Math. Lots of theory, lots of proofs. I was able to get away from all the numbers for awhile when I did a study abroad in Ioannina, Greece, complete with a visit to Albania! Northwestern Greece is very distinct from Athens or the Isles; we faced adversity for being Americans, and had to learn Greek to communicate with anyone (hardly anyone spoke any English), but ultimately, had an amazing experience.

After college, not only was finding a job way more work and effort than filling out grad school applications, I wasn't quite ready for "the real world" yet. So I decided to continue my education and went out to the cornfields of West Lafayette, Indiana and Purdue University for a M.S. in Statistics. I actually had a wonderful time out at Purdue with the Hoosiers, but wasn't ready (nor willing) to continue onto a Ph.D., so graduated with my Master's in May 2006.

A job brought me out to Boston, where I am currently working as a statistician (surprise, surprise) for a consulting / technology firm that provides market research solutions. I've been in Boston about four months now, and so far have been enjoying the city and my job. While I don't think I'll be here permanently, it's great to see another city and part of the country while I still have the flexibility to do so.

Reading about the lives of my former classmates is so inspiring and brings back so many great memories. I wonder what the rest of you are up to???

All my best,
Patricia

(Patricia asked me to post this on the blog for her. I just cut and pasted her exact words. I had to go out to the Internet to find a picture. It's of her graduation from Purdue. If you want a different picture Patricia, you know what you have to do --send me one. K.D.)

Time to step up

OK. It's time to name names. I have heard from or contacted all but three of the students who were once in Room 12. I know for a fact that many of you who have not posted are reading this blog because it is getting a lot of hits. Where are those people who were so full of ideas back in fourth and fifth grade: Amy, Seelye, Ben, Rachel, Miye, Lia, Elisabeth, Patricia, Ariana, Nicolas, David, Sarah, where are you? I know you're all reading this. I have heard from a number of you that the reason you don't post is because you worry about what to say. This blog is not a place to be judged. You don't even have to talk about your life since Room 12. It would be great to hear about your ideas now. What do you care about or think about? If you look at some of the comments people have made to each other's posts, you will see lots of opportunities to get discussion threads going. Add your own comments to each other's posts. Anyone can comment. You don't even have to join the blog. Hester has the right idea too (see post below). She's trying to start a discussion by making a new post on a topic that was frequently discussed way back when. And what about Carmen's idea? Did any of you get a picture of yourself in costume? It looks like Daniel must be a rooster ;) Here's another idea: What did you think of Enigma? Most of you have your copy by now? Did you read it? Did anything stand out or make you think about anything? What about politics? Surely you have thoughts on the current political situation. Wouldn't it be fun to read what each other has to say?

I'd like to encourage all of you to start a real discussion here. You'd find that with 25 people (3 cannot be located) with a common past, there are a lot of shared experiences and interests and this is an opportunity to explore that degree of connection.

One last thing: I also encourage you to leave an email address in your Blogger profile if you want to have a way to get contacted directly by other former classmates. I have almost everyone's email address now, but I'm keeping it private. It's up to you if you want to make your email public. I hope to hear from all of you.