First Week Back: Monday / La primera semana: Lunes

El Lunes fui al trabajo durante un par de horas por dos horas para saludar a los alumnos y organizarme un poco para la vuelta. Mis alumnos estaban muy contentos de verme. Tuve mucha suerte de que han estado con una sustituta muy buena, Ms. Walsh, que les ha enseñado mucho. Ms. Walsh va a seguir en la escuela como sustituta de otras maestros asi que tendremos oportunidad de verla seguido.

Cuando volvi a casa me dio tiempo a decir hola a Emilio y a Steve y me fui enseguida a mi grupo literario. Desde que nació Emilio no había asistido a las conversaciones pero esta semana fui. Cuando aparecí sin Emilio, una de las maestros me pregunto:” Por qué no trajiste a Emilio?” Aquí nos encantan los bebés” Tal vez, la próxima vez lo llevo para que empiece a escuchar conversaciones literarias.
Charlamos sobre el libro Un Millón de Pedazos (A Million Little Pieces) que supuestamente son las memorias de un adicto a las drogas y el alcohol y sobre las semanas que paso en la clínica de rehabilitación. La polémica surgió cuando se descubrió que casi todo lo que cuenta en su libro no ocurrieron de esa manera. Incluso parece que la mayoria de las personas de las que habla tampoco son reales.
Cuando leimos el libro todos sabiamos ya sobre la controversia. Yo, para poder disfrutarlo, lo leí como si fuera una novela pero no pude evitar preguntarme a menudo: “Será cierto esto? Será real este personaje?” Ahora sé que hay un lugar de internet donde te cuentan todo lo que es mentira y lo que es verdad. Sin embargo, al leerlo me distrajo e incluso me puso de mal humor.
Estuvimos de acuerdo en que la descripción de la vida del adicto y la vida en la clinica fué bastante realista.

I went to school on Moday for a couple of hours to get organized and say hi to the kids. I was successful with the latter only. I think it will take me a few weeks to get into the swing of things again. Fortunately my students are wonderful and love to learn and they have a great teacher, Ms. Walsh, these past weeks who made them work hard. I’m glad she’ll be around substituting in other classes this year so we will be able to see her often.

I came back home, say hi to the boys, and headed for Rochelle Lee to attend my first book discussion since Emilio was born. When I got there, some teachers were disappointed I didn’t bring Emilio. One of them said: “We like babies here” “ If you bring him, we’ll take turns passing him around” Maybe next time, when we discuss The Love Wife, I’ll bring him to his first book discussion.
Our book this week was A Million Little Pieces, the controversial “memoir” of Frey about his recovery from drugs and alcohol addition. As many of you probably know, the website www.thesmokinggun.com uncovered the fact that most of the events and characters in this book are fabricated and that very little is actually true. As you might know also, Oprah picked this book for her famous Book Club and actually defended Frey in Larry King saying that it was his struggle what matter and not the details. When the truth came out, she invited him to her show and confronted him. She was upset and apologized to the viewers for making them believe “that the truth doesn’t matter”.
During our discussion we talked about values in our society, what makes a memoir and how much leeway does the author have and about addiction. Several people including myself read the book as a work of fiction but couldn’t stop wondering “is this true? Was this person real?” At times I felt angry thinking this guy had lied so much to make himself look tougher, better, stronger than he already is. I haven't look at the website yet and part of me wants to forget about this guy, Oprah and move on to better books.