L had an anti-bullying day at her school recently. Then later on in one of her classes, a teacher broke down crying. She explained to the class that the session had brought back memories that she herself was bullied every day at school during her childhood. She had been a recent immigrant from Iran. L says she has a very stern, off-putting personality and dresses a bit differently, with shirts tucked into pants worn high on her waist . She's never married.
Last night, M briefly brought home a co-worker visiting from the company's California office. He was a tall, lean Chinese man (about 6 ft 2 ins) in a nice black suit. He had an elegant Australian accent and I'd guess early thirties. So he's an Australian that is now living in the U.S. and in fact recently married an American girl and they're in no hurry to have kids. For some reason we got talking about investments and he said he's fared well in the recession as most of his investments are currently in Australian real estate. He dabbled a bit in mining stocks which at one point were riding quite high and he seemed to have a systematic, timed way of unloading his stocks, never being greedy. (A skill I have yet to learn, I'm a buy and hold forever kind of person). Then I asked him what part of Australia he's from and he said 'Sydney' at which point I interject 'Oh that's not the capital, is it? It's Canberra!' Ok, I'm showing off my newfound intelligence compliments of Lilly. Albeit, I pronounced Canberra with the emphasis on the second syllable and he said it with the emphasis on the first syllable. He said a lot of Australians tend to visit the western part of Canada (British Columbia) for the skiing. All in all, an interesting evening for me.
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8 comments:
I was bullied in Jr. High too...by this one girl..finally turned around and punched her! hahaha :) Not a solution, I know, but sometimes, I woman's got to do, what a woman's got to do! =D hee
And WTG on your newly found Australian wisdom! Lilly rocks. :)
That is sad about L's teacher. But maybe it will be a breakthrough for her?
Interesting about your Australian visitor! And that robot article caught my eye.
Paris, that's so great you were able to punch her out, must've been a great feeling. L and her friends were really upset for this teacher.
Japra, I thought the same thing, that it was good for her to let it out, a sort of healing.
I am on the anti-bullying committee at The girl's high school. It is very interesting and sad at the same time. I feel bad for the teacher.
Interesting indeed! An Chinese man from Australia with an American wife. I love diversity.
So sad to hear about the teacher who broke down and cried. Bullying has such a profound effect on a person years later!
I was the target of bullying in Junior High. I still have nightmares about it, and I am far far away from those people as well!
Have a good one! :)
Enthusiasts of the films of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski (Blind Chance, Dekalog, The Double Life of Véronique, Three Colours Trilogy, etc) are invited to drop by my chatroom at the Brasserie Alizé on the anniversary of the director’s death, this coming Friday evening, 13 March 2009, from around 1800 GMT. Please pass on the invitation to others and hopefully see you there!
Poor lady. She must have suffered all her life from all that bullying.
good for you being on that committee, Mom.
Bibi, glad you survived the bullying.
Barbara, it seems from this small forum that bullying is a real problem here.
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