Boring pictures

I decided to show my students some of my spring break photos, something I do whenever I return from a trip, something I do for two reasons:

• to get them interested in the world outside of their neighborhoods
• to use up valuable class time

Of course during second period, as I was mid-way through my slide show, the principal walked in. Probably was wondering why it was so dark and quiet in my room. So I scrambled to come up with an "educational" rationale for my photos.

"And who does this picture remind you of?" I asked the class, clicking to the one of me reading on a rock. Lucky for me, several kids yelled in unison: "Christopher McCandless!"

"That's right," I said, "the guy from Into the Wild." I actually had taken this self-portrait with the intention of looking like the character in the book we had just read.

The principal, of course, got into it and started asking about specific places I visited and talking about East Bay restaurants he's eaten at. The kids eventually got bored.

But there was one picture that they enjoyed, one of a street scene with the Bay in the distance. And one thing they could easily understand--something neither the principal nor I could do--was what's written on the side of the van.

So here's a challenge to my readers. Who can actually read the graffiti? Don't cheat by asking a teenager. First correct response in the comments gets extra credit.

click on picture to enlarge