meine Studentin

This is Aliya (not her real name). She's Cambodian, and she's glowing because she just went to a "non-prom prom" the previous night: she got together with some of her Southeast Asian peeps and had a ball eating dinner at a very nice local Thai restaurant, completely blowing off the actual high-school dance.

Aliya had painted her fingernails black, so when I told her I was tempted to take a picture of her nails, she offered the pose you see below—a pose that both reveals and hides:


Aliya, tiny as she is, is blessed with an amazing radio voice. I can totally imagine her sitting inside a studio, headphone on her ears and a mike in her face, jawing about news, weather, or the weirder aspects of American culture.


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