Bowling With My Thais and a White Russian

My citizenship students/new US citizens and I are maintaining our friendship outside of class.

As my loyal followers know, my students included people from Thailand, Laos, Russia, and Mexico.

This is a photo of Pawn, Mei, me, and Marina at the bowling alley. Cool, huh?

We had chatted about what to do for fun other than feasting on Thai/Laos/Russian food, and Mei/May suggested bowling.

Since my husband Jim has his own ball or two and loves to bowl, and I think it's okay, and everyone agreed, that's what we did. One of us couldn't make it; we may have to do it all again sometime.

Had a hoot. The tiny one, Mei/May, was the women's champ. She got many strikes; I just struck out. Someone finally asked what two gutter balls in a row was called, and I said, "Oh, shit!" Up until then they thought it was "Son of a bitch!"

The boys came too, and we had a good time. But we girls realized we wanted to talk more, and a bowling alley is not the best environment for chatting. Yelling was more like it. But we had fun...which, as you know, is one of my main goals in life.

So, success! Having fun, maintaining friendships, and swearing in context. Life is good.

Mei changed her name legally to May when she became a citizen, so I love calling her Mei-May. It makes her laugh.

May came here and spent six years in her apartment because she felt so disoriented and isolated. Then she began studying English at the library's Literacy Center and then ended up in my citizenship class. Her progress has been remarkable, and her outlook and enjoyment of life has grown exponentially. What a story.

If she can do all that, surely I can conquer the WWW. You think?