embujen, embujen! is a song we hear a lot around here, where dora is one of our two-year-old's favorite movie choices. we don't get television, but we do watch the same movies over and over; the five-year-old has been running through batman movies. in the dora movie a passel of young children yell embujen! repeatedly as they push a large boat into the sea. it just goes to show, little kids can do anything if they put their minds to it...and if they unite, in spite of racial and language differences. and, if you hear a song a dozen times or so, it tends to stick in your head. one little fellow on the show, tico, speaks only spanish, but it's ok, dora translates for him. my five-year-old, who comes home from a bilingual kindergarten class, is trying to adjust to the fact that these languages are used by real people also. he gets mad at me for singing in spanish.

at work, it's endless politics, a deadly time-eater (embujen!). but part of the emotional rubble. a good point of the new term: i ride my bike a lot, in spite of the heat. i have more time freedom; i might get my swim more. i don't have to adjust to being around, teaching 18 hrs/wk; i've been doing it all summer. many of my students have one foot in academic classes and don't complain about being in my class. new students are in town- many come from chicago, and haven't experienced this heat before (i remember moving to kansas and having the bright sun press my eye-pupils so far closed that it hurt -embujen!- here, the humidity does the same thing). i'm beyond complaining about it, though...but i have taken to removing most of my clothes whenever i have to ride in it. and i've noticed some leaves falling, dead early- they couldn't take it.

would like to finish my wal-mart stories- one for each month, like haiku- but, i've taken a breath, made progress on some other things. zeitlich kein marmota, as the yiddish speaker might say in argentina- i won't translate this, but i'll only say: pace yourself. bring water. don't fall asleep while swimming, or riding a bicycle...and, love your family......embujen!