Candid shots - Take 1

One of the great things about Summer Abroad (and there are many) is that I get to know students I wouldn't otherwise come in contact with, since I only teach graduate students and English majors. And I get to know them through this two week process in ways that I would never get to know them in a traditional classroom setting.

In a class in Locke Hall, I would never get to her Mariah singing as she walks down the hall.

I wouldn't know that Ernest is as thoughtful and gentlemanly as he is cool (as we exit or enter a boat, or a bus, or a door, he says "women and children first," jokingly, but he really does mean it, so he makes sure everyone is in; then he saunters along).



I wouldn't know that Angie is as much a genius on the computer as she is in the books. I want to be as smart as she is when I grow up!

Surely, I wouldn't have Brittany's stories (she has a wild imagination and can keep a straight face while she renders fiction as fact, and makes you believe she's telling the truth!). So, today when she told me there was a bat in the elevator, I thought she was kidding or exaggerating; she wasn't!




Clarice's personality would never come through fully in class. (Amid a long line of "I ready to..." (lay out by the pool, eat lunch, hang out in the lounge, get out of this heat), she says "I'm ready to learn," with such feigned enthusiasm that we all burst with laughter.




Spending 12-15 hours a day with someone for 2 weeks lets you see so many sides of a personality. In so many ways, they are already great people. Watching them grow is an added bonus.



So, as I'm getting to know them, I'm looking for moments & candid shots that speak to their personalities, sometimes after a tough hike up to a temple, sometimes after an emotional moment, sometimes after a hearty laugh (usually after Nijeul has let me have it or Toria has rendered a movie line word for word through two scenes).





Here are some candid shots... take 1.

Ernest, Dana, Nijeul, Maria, and Marcy...