Sherm Davis's Blog, page 4

Hypermodernism and Old Vienna

As an international teacher, I get the opportunity to lift myself from one fishbowl and deposit myself in another. Although airplanes make traversing the planet a matter of time and money rather than physics, I am not so sure our genetics have caught up to our technology.

But even while sleep-deprived it is easy to see the grandeur, the cleanliness, the organization, the accessibility, and the incredible beauty of Vienna.  After the slate and concrete of Shanghai, the majestic old trees and the green spaces augment the crisp, clean air and the blue skies. The ceilings are three to four meters high and the architecture gives the city a regal carriage unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been — and I’ve been to a lot of places.

Stay tuned for more as I get to know the city better. To teach music in Vienna is a dream, and I definitely have not woken up yet…

 

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Guatemala in Peril

Not only is Lake Atitlan spewing with algae and cyanobacteria, but the political corruption has taken center stage. The VP was charged, the president is denying wrongdoing, and the people have had enough of the same old BS.

Just my luck to be leaving the country on a morning where a paro nacional was called for 6am. Instead of a 9am shuttle and a leisurely breakfast at the hotel, my ride was rerouted to 4am and I got to the airport at 5am for a 1pm flight! Of course, in classic Guatemalan style, most of the demonstrations and roadblocks never materialized, and I wound up waiting at the airport for 8 hours for nothing.

Corruption and impunity are taken for granted in Guatemala, but recent events have given the populace reason to rise in anger. We’ll see how it all turns out. There is a presidential election slated for September anyway.

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Stuttering on Skype

This weekend I had a surprise interview on Skype. After telling myself I was going to take a year off from teaching, I sent ONE application out in July to a school that seemed perfect for my skill set. They emailed me a month later with an emergency hire situation, and asked to talk to me on Skype.

Skype and the art of stuttering gracefully

I will admit that I have made a lot of progress with my speech over the years, and that I am not scared or intimidated by a Skype interview anymore. But job interviews require poise and the ability to get the intangibles across to a potential employer. So what can a person who stutters do to improve his/her chances of communicating in a positive, successful manner? Here is my short list.

1. Use the video! Much of our communication, even if we stutter, is non-verbal. It is important for the person on the other end to see you. I will elaborate on this theme in another post.

2. Maintain eye contact with your webcam, even while you are blocking. If you block, don’t close your eyes or turn away. Keep your eyes locked on the target, exhale the block, inhale, and try it again.

3. Advertise your stuttering. This will be obvious anyway, but it is important to show up front that you have a healthy attitude about your stuttering, and that you are not willing to hide behind it, use it as a crutch, or let it control your decision-making process.

4. Speak more slowly than you would in real life. Skype sometimes has a lag time anyway, so don’t feel the need to rush. Fluency is generally higher when speaking in a more controlled, deliberate manner.

5. Listen and respond rather than trying to steer and control the conversation.  This seems obvious, but we can get so wrapped up in our own stuttering that we can forget that conversation is a two-way street.

6. Smile! Self-confidence is the number one factor in another’s perception of you. So you stutter, big deal. You have a lot to give, and that is image you are projecting through Skype.

I’ll post and let you know how the interview turned out!

Sherm

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Time and Space at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Time and Space at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.

 

Sometimes it seems to stand still, and when you’re at the market or walking on certain streets, it seems to flow backwards. So it’s no wonder that in 3 weeks I still feel jumpy and hyper, like my brain is moving faster than the aquarium in which it finds itself. I’ve been passing the time by sanding and restaining some wooden things we use in the house – shelves, a coat rack, a rocking chair –and I’m watching the hummingbirds when they come to feed. Still, I’m asking myself when my Shanghai-addled internal clock will sync to ‘Pana time,’ because it definitely hasn’t happened yet.

As an aside, Facebook might be trite and ridiculous, but it was still cool getting birthday wishes from all over the globe…

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Slowin’ it down?

Here in Atitlán, time moves slowly.  Sometimes it seems to stand still, and when you’re at the market or walking on certain streets, it seems to flow backwards. So it’s no wonder that in 3 weeks I still feel jumpy and hyper, like my brain is moving faster than the aquarium in which it finds itself. I’ve been passing the time by sanding and restaining some wooden things we use in the house – shelves, a coat rack, a rocking chair –and I’m watching the hummingbirds when they come to feed. Still, I’m asking myself when my Shanghai-addled internal clock will sync to ‘Pana time,’ because it definitely hasn’t happened yet.

As an aside, Facebook might be trite and ridiculous, but it was still cool getting birthday wishes from all over the globe…

Birthday Giving

This has been a tumultuous time for my hometown, who lost a personal hero suddenly and shockingly. The outpouring of grief and support has been deeply touching, even from half a continent away.

So this year for my birthday, instead of going out to dinnner or spending money on something fancy, I gave an impromptu show with Cush on drums.

Thanks to Matt for his notoriously blurry photos. I just wanted to leave it out there for people, and some will take it, and others won’t. On every level.

Then my cuñados took me out dancing till 1AM when things here close down. Today I’m reorganizing and feeling grateful. Sharing this incredible view with my virtual friends. Looking deep into the heart of time.

 

 

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Makin’ It Count

This has been a tumultuous time for my hometown, who lost a personal hero suddenly and shockingly. The outpouring of grief and support has been deeply touching, even from half a continent away.

So this year for my birthday, instead of going out to dinnner or spending money on something fancy, I gave an impromptu show with Cush on drums.

Thanks to Matt for his notoriously blurry photos. I just wanted to leave it out there for people, and some will take it, and others won’t. On every level.

Then my cuñados took me out dancing till 1AM when things here close down. Today I’m reorganizing and feeling grateful. Sharing this incredible view with my virtual friends. Looking deep into the heart of time.

 

 

Poverty & the open heart Chakra

After two years away from Guatemala and Lake Atitlán, it’s easy to dwell on the negatives – the disrepair, the corruption, the petty theft, all of it. But the most important intangible, something so easily lost in a metropolis like New York or Shanghai, is the openness and sincerity of the people who live here. This obvious truth came to me loud and clear – walking the streets and chatting with locals I’ve come to know, simple dinners with Sheni’s family, or hanging out with friends here. The people who choose to live here have consciously abandoned pretensions of wealth as happiness (or they’re just misfits!), and the people who were born here have never known any other way. As for the locals, they look at you when they talk, and they smile even when they’re overcharging you for their services.  As for the small group of transplants, the majority from other places in Guatemala and the Spanish-speaking world, they are boisterous, sincere, and they like to party. But within that partying there is the attempt at true conversation, connection, and meaning. Life here is far from perfect, but the lake brings home the perspective that we all sometimes lack, and reminds us that our petty desires are not larger than the needs of the planet that sustains us. Translating that perspective into political action and environmental conservation, however, is a political question which an extranjero can never truly answer.

Between Worlds

Met a publisher today, an older guy, and he basically confirmed that the indie author path is the right way for me to go, at least for now. My website for the book should be up in a few more days, and then the true marketing can begin. He also suggested Google Ads and Facebook Ads, neither of which I have looked into yet. At this point, I am still only selling the book to people within my immediate circles. Obviously, that’s not going to get the project launched. I need to find my audience. My readers are out there, I just need to learn how to reach them.

In the two years in Shanghai, my social/conversational Spanish definitely took a beating. Hanging out with G and some other friends up at the Peña, and though I could understand everything in Spanish, my tongue was slow to catch up, and everyone was talking so fast! I’m fine 1-on-1 with anyone, but in a noisy, crowded room with everyone speaking Spanish quickly, I was a little rusty, for sure.

I am 9 days into my 30-day stretching program, and last night I even played mini-fut (indoor/outdoor soccer) with my ex-students, all of whom have graduated high school. Am I bragging if I say I scored 3 goals against guys less than half my age?

Next blog post, poverty and the open heart chakra…

 

Old Sights, New Eyes

Walking around Panajachel and a few other towns on Lake Atitlan this week, seeing the same old thing with a new set of eyes. Same old holes in the roads, the same old separation between the people with money and the people without. Poverty in Guatemala is not hidden and shamed the way it is in the urban centers of the USA or China, it’s right out in the open, and people deal with it together rather than in isolation. The demographic in Pana has skewed noticeably toward retirees, while San Pedro across the lake seemed brimming with youthful, transient travelers.

It was my suegro’s birthday last night, and as I taught my sobrinas a little English, their father was talking to a tía in Kaqchikel.  I guess it’s only fitting that my first gig back will be at Gringo Loco on Sunday night for 100 quetzales, dinner, and two drinks. That’s about 13 dollars for those scoring at home. Summary? The global village concept is a cute cliché, but moving between worlds requires the ability to tolerate the superficial for the sake of the depth that lies beneath.