Argh!!

So, this week while nice seems to have gone by quite slowly. And now, thanks to the collective efforts of Matty stix and Eileen I have acquired yet another cold. I am so sick of being sick. I think I have enough cough medicine to last me for this run but if I get sick again before I go home, I'm screwed.
This morning I woke up to find that one of my fish died and when I got home this afternoon another decided to keel over. The second one dying was sorta my fault. I didn't change the water after the first one. I just took him out but I didn't have time to make the change. I guess the second one couldn't wait until I got home so that I could change the water and ensure his long life. Anyway, I got home and found that second guy and promptly changed the water. The last guy is in there just swimming around now. I really don't know if he'll last but I plan on getting more fish anyway.
Today I sorta made plans to go to Giano's to dinner with the others but at the last minute I changed my mind. Instead, after school I went to the hairdresser. Winnie helped me. I was going to get my hair straigtened again but then I decided to just get it coloured instead. I dyed my hair red as soon as I got home to Canada this summer and the colour was starting to do funny things in addition to the fact that I could see my roots for miles and that's not something I'm used to. So I got my colour freshened and after I left the salon, I decided to do some walking. It's been a long time since I walked in my old neighbourhood at night. It felt really good. I did some window shopping and made a mental note of some things I'd like to pick up. After an hour or so, I hopped on my bus and was back home. Tomorrow, I don't know what the plan is. I think I might want to do something but with this cold (which I suspect is only going to get worse) I'm not sure I want to do very much of anything. I'll see how things go and I'll see how I feel. This weekend may be a quiet one though.

TTFN

Show lessons galore

Ok, so the bad news first. I still haven't made it to DVD mecca. We made all these plans to go. We had a nice trek to get out there. We were on walking street shopping and window shopping. We even stopped and had some coffee at this great coffee shop. We discovered after the fact that we no longer had the time to make it to DVD mecca. We wanted to go to the buffet (to celebrate American thanksgiving) but we had to be there around 7pm so that we could have dinner and not be kicked out after 10 minutes. We realized this at 6pm. So we left Hankou and headed back to Wuchang to go to the buffet. We got there at a decent hour and had a really nice meal. Of course the all you can drink wine was a bonus. After a few glasses we all thought it was a good idea to go out and party a bit. The only ones that followed through on this idea however were myself, Maya and Lisa. We came back home, got changed and went out to Vox. I was the dancing queen. To be honest I can't really remember what happened for a lot of the night but I came home with a free CD from some heavy metal band that was playing that night. I have no clue who they were and I'm not usualy into that kind of music but when they were playing I was their biggest fan. The affects of alcohol, as you can see, really fuck you up. Anyway, we all got back home safely and that's the most important thing. It's good when you have girlfriends that look out for each other.
Sunday. HANGOVER!! This was especially bad because, I asked Winnie to come over to the appartment to spend the day with me. You know, just to hang out. I wasn't much of a hostess but with her and I being so close, she understood and I was lucky that Klaver was around to help keep her entertained. We all hung out in my room for a while then we all hung out in his room for a while. Then I somehow ended up back in my room and it wasn't until later that night Winnie told me that she was gonna go. Lucky for me she was very forgiving. I have to make it up to her one day.
Anyway, yesterday I had my show lesson for the parents for one of my grade 1 classes. That went pretty good. I still don't know the names of a few of my kids so when some of them who never put their hands up otherwise, decided to raise their hands to answer a question, I have to be honest I was stumped. The parents seemed ok and I tried my best to keep the lesson in between what I would normally do and then a kicked up version of that. I was happy that the class didn't make me look like an ass. These students in this class aren't the brightest but we made it through. Then I had the whole morning off and decided to use the time to sleep. Then I taught my grade twos in the afternoon.
Today I had the show lesson for one of my grade two classes and that went great. It was probably the most fun I had had in that class in a long time. The parents seemed to enjoy it as well. I always have fun with that class in any event. Then, once again, after that lesson, I had the rest of the morning off and I decided once again that I should use the time to sleep. Again I went up to our rest room and slept on the couch for something like three hours. I actually felt pretty good. I'm not one for sleeping in the day but I have to admit that it was pretty refreshing. I woke up around 1pm and then went for lunch. In the afternoon I had my grade ones do some in class work and I did nothing. Tomorrow I'll be giving out tests so that'll be another day of easy. Plus it's Wednesday and I don't think we have any show lessons this week to attend. I think this entire week is shaping up quite nicely. Then I get paid on Thursday.
Anyway, my fish are still doing pretty good. They are really fiesty and are always swimming around. I'm thinking of possibly getting them a bigger bowl. Don't get me wrong, the one they are in is more than adequate for their size but they are always so busy swimming around, I think they may like the extra room. Anyway, that's it for now. I'm gonna try to go to DVD mecca this week or sometime this weekend. Also, when I get paid this month I'll be looking into buying my ticket for Thailand and possibly starting to get my money saved for getting me back home. Not much time left. I'm looking at less than 3 more months in China.

TTFN

New addition

Ok, the weather here has really been sucking lately. Today was rainy and pretty cold. I had to take out my gloves. My hands are very sensitive for the cold, so if I need my gloves, we're getting into serious coldness. Anyway, Eileen and I today were pretty bored so instead of lunch we decided to go for a walk to a park not too far from the school. Despite the rain we were out there. Anyway, in the park they had a line of plant shops. Eileen went crazy buying plants. I decided that since plants come to me to commit suicide, I really shouldn't go that way. However I did see some fish and figured that that would be a good idea. So I bought these three fish. I actually don't know what kind of fish they are but the best way to describe them is the following. They are like gold fish but with black and silver on them as well and they have these two big inflated bubble things on the side of their faces. I haven't given them any names and I don't know if I ever would but it's kinda cool to have them. Colin says that he'll take them when I go since he already has two goldfish on his desk at work. I had a hard time getting these suckers home but I think they'll make good company for me while here. We're not allowed to have any pets but fish and plants are allowed. We'll see how it goes. I hope fish don't commit suicide around me.
In school news, on Monday I'm supposed to have the parental show lesson for my grade one classes and the same for the grade twos on Tuesday. My co teachers are trying to get me into this frenzy of making sure that everything is perfect and trying to get me to go out of my way to create "a eally great lesson/show" but I told them both that I wasn't having any of that. I told them that it would be the same lesson that I would do on any other day and that the only difference is that I would have a few more teaching aides and I would be wearing something nice. I'll let you know how that goes.
This weekend I'll finally make my way to DVD mecca and I plan on just keeping my weekend qiet. I don't know what's been going on lately but I just don't have that party vibe anymore. I used to party every weekend 2 days in a row. Now, not so much and I don't even realy miss it. I'm guessing it's the weather but who really knows **shrug**.

TTFN

Work..... if you could call it that

Well today my kids had their mid-term exam. First I'd like to say that chinese people shouldn't write english exams. Especially when they themselves haven't really mastered the english language. Anyway, I decided to sleep in this morning. Which for me doesn't always work as planned. My parents used to always wake me up early, even on the weekends so now I'm not much of a "sleeping in" person. 9am is sleeping in for me. So I was up at around 7:30 but didn't really do much. Then I got ready for school and got there just in the nick of time. I did my grade one classes first and discovered that there just are some stupid kids out there. Then Matty stix, Eileen and I went out for lunch. Then after I got back to school, I did my grade two classes. I almost got into a fight with my co-teacher for grade two. This girl can speak the bare minimum of english and is fresh out of school and she has the nerve to tell me how I should read the information. I told her several times (and I've been telling her this for a while but... whatever) that I've done this before. I know what I'm doing and my students know me. After I was done with my grade two classes I was outta there. I was at the school for a total of 5 hours. Minus 2 hours for lunch and an hour of doing nothing, I "worked" for 2 hours and now I'm home. Early for a change.
Anyway, the weather here has been pretty crappy. It's been raining alot and it's starting to get noticeably cold. Sometimes I can see my breath. Lucky for me, I'll be leaving when it's in the middle of the really cold time. Some of you may be thinking though... "Tish, you live in Canada. Ain't it mad cold out there? Even more so than China?" and to answer your question "yes" but the difference is, in Canada we live in insulated rooms with insulated windows and properly installed heating units. Not concrete rooms with windows that lack insulation and heating units that don't quite do what they're supposed to do but you somehow make it work.
Meh

TTFN

Meh meh meh

I'm just gonna give you Coles notes version because I haven't got the strength. Friday night we went to Vox and I had a great time. The boys almost left without me but then they recovered. Matt has this thing about going out for noodles after a night out regardless of how late it is or who's passed out or not. This time it was super late and his brother Alex was passed out. He convinced Klaver to go with him which wasn't hard because Klaver was drunk and then I had to take care of his passed out brother. Luckily when I got home, Moose was coming in at the same time and he helped me get Alex in. I went to bed.
Saturday I was thinking about going out but at the last minute I changed my mind. I sent a text message to Klaver letting him know I wasn't coming and then I was in bed by 9pm. Sunday was a lazy day and I can't say I really did much of anything but when Monday came I just wasn't in the mood to face the school. I called in sick (which I'll probably regret later) and stayed home that day. Klaver apparently was out all night and came home just in time for morning coffee. He too, feeling the affects of an all nighter, didn't feel like going in and also called in sick. Him and I had the best day. We spent it just really hanging out, watching tv, laughing at stupid things and just getting to know each other more and it also provided him greater opprtunity to bother, annoy and nag me about the fact that I'm leaving in February. Also it gave him opportunity to provide me with the most assinine reasons for staying. All in all it was such a great day. I got to work yesterday and was in a contact state of rolling my eyes. I just didn't want to be there and both my co-teachers annoy me. They seem to annoy more and more everyday. Anyway, today wasn't too bad. I had my morning and found that in grade one, out of my two classes, one of these classes has a collective IQ of minus 7.
Anyway Colin and Matty stix had show lessons today and that was ok. Fun to watch. I'm hoping I won't have to do one. Time wise I may not fit in there but they may do it just to spite me. I taught K1 today and I think they're really starting to like me. Understandably it has taken them a while to get used to me. Heck last year it took my grade ones something like a month before they got used to me.
Anyway, I just got it. I'm pretty tired. It's raining outside and the weather is starting to get colder. It's sweater and light jacket cold but definitely not gloves and coat cold.

TTFN

Rough stuff

Well the past few days have been hard with me making up K1 classes but it will be worth it in the end when I get paid for 10 classes as opposed to the usual 8 for this month. My K1 kids are just so cute. For the past few weeks, I didn't have a name to them. Now I've moved up in the world. They call me waigou laoshi (why-go lao-sure <--- the closest I could get phoenetically) which means foreign teacher. Soon, they'll learn my name and it'll be end of the semester. Anyway, next week I go back to my regular 2 days a week.
In other news, everything is steady at my appartment. I had a strange leak that appeared and then disappeared and the mustyness is gone. I have to keep an eye on things.
I waited almost 3 weeks for the school to reimburse me for the money I spent on the things for my kitchen. I did everything I was supposed to do, following the channels I was supposed to and nothing happened. I got fed up and emailed Mr Ye about it on Monday. I told him I needed his help and ACCORDING TO MY FUCKING CONTRACT THE SCHOOL IS SUPPOSED TO PROVIDE THIS SHIT TO ME. Don't worry, I didn't phrase it like that and I didn't use the capitals. Today, finally after a long wait, I got my money back. Mr Ye was very apologetic and explained to the people at this branch school that they obviously didn't understand the situation that the returning teachers had at the main school. He made them understand and got my money. The only sucky thing about it, is that he decides to bring the money to me in the middle of one of my classes, in front of my kids and my co-teacher. All my grade one kids were in awe that I was getting this money and then my co-teacher had a million questions as to why Mr Ye was giving me this money. I kept it vague and laughed it off but I could have killed him for doing that. What can I say, the word 'tact' just isn't in their vocab.
Anyway, we should be having a pot-luck on Friday or Saturday for American thanksgiving. I got a package from home a little while ago (and while I'm on the subject, I'd just like to say I love my mom) and I got Kraft dinner, aka the Canadian delicacy. I might make that. No fuss. No must. Also, we have plans to go out to Soho with some of the chinese teachers on Friday. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I'll make it. Soho is ok, but it's not my favourite place. I suppose I could just go since I haven't been since I've been back.
Today, I did the thing I never thought I would do. I went to a hair salon and actually let them do my hair. I had my hair braided for the past six weeks. I finally took the braids out (which was a til 1:30am job) and went in today. I got my hair washed, a head massage, a shoulder massage and they did a fair job of flat ironing my hair. All of this for Y12. That's just under 2 bucks Canadian. My hair looks and feels ok but obviously my hairdresser at home does a way better job. But considering the fact that they probably have never ever worked with my type of hair before, they did pretty good. I may or may not get it redone for my night out.
So that's it so far

TTFN

My weekend was a disaster

The end...... but here are some pics of the people I live and work with.


This is Eileen and Matty stix coming out of the closet. Mind you they were drunk but this event was noted nonetheless.

This is me and Alex. I like to call him sexy as a nick name. We don't see alot of each other but when he's drunk, he's all mine. He's drunk here.

This is most of the gang. The big guy on the left is Matt (Alex's brother) then next to him is Lillis. The girl standing on the bed is Maya. The guy in white is Alex again. Then in the background is the back of Klaver's head and Mustafa (aka Moose) at the computer.

This is Klaver and Maya. Klaver almost always has one of the following in his hands at any given moment. 1) a beer, 2) a woman and 3) a cigarette. As things go and only having two hands, as you can see, he's 2 for 3.
This is Colin and I. Colin is my favourite 12 year old. This night he was quite drunk as well. Colin is at his best when drunk. Like a kid on candy but funnier.

TTFN

Another couple of good nights

Well after a long day of teaching and then having to teach a kindergarden class that I had to make up because I missed it, I hoked up with my friend Chris. I feel like I haven’t seen him in a decade or something. I was having lunch on Monday and I decided to call him and basically broke his arm and told him that he was meeting me and we’d go for dinner on Tuesday. Anyway, he met me at school just after my kindergarten class and we headed out to eat. We had so much catching up to do and he was really happy because I’m pretty much his only foreign friend and he was put in the happy position of not having to dumb down his english in order to keep a conversation. It was so good to see him. He came over and saw the appratments and met everyone which was great. I think after those meetings and swimming in the companionship and conversation of a foreigner he knows, he made a decision to come out to see me more often. This ofcourse makes me very happy. It’s not just about having another foreign friend but someone that you’ve known before you came to China is very comforting. On Wednesday I had another night of catching up with friends. My chinese friend Jason was another on my rampage when I made a bunch of calls on Monday. We agreed to meet up after school again and once again go out for dinner. After school, I met him at the university and we walked to a little hole in the wall type of restaurant. We got this dish that was probably the best tasting thing I have ever had since I’ve been in china. Apparently the dish is native to the north west region of china in a province that I can’t remember. It was the pot of chicken and potatoes and all kinds of yummy yummy. It was really fantastic. Then him and I walked over to East Lake and played a couple games of pool. We had an audience for a while because we were speaking english of course and I’m this strange foreigner playing pool with a chinese person. Him and I had a good time though. At around 9:15 or so, I had to call it a night. I had to write two tests and I hadn’t even started outlining them. Needless to say, I was up until after 1am putting those bad boys together. On Wednesday during the day though, I stuck around a few minutes at lunch and then after not hearing anything, I went home because I wasn’t told by anyone that we had anything to do that afternoon. When I got home, Klaver told me that there was a meeting at 4 o’clock. I pretended that he didn’t say anything and in protest I just didn’t go to the meeting. Klaver and I returned to the school in the aftenoon. I opted to go to the office, mark a few books and then head over to kindergarten (here as known as K1). I later found out that they were trying to call me but I figured, if they really wated me to be there, then they would have found a better way to notify me. If Klaver wasn’t home, and just happen to mention it, I would have never known. Anyway, the meeting basically talked about the shit I mention in my meeting with Mr Ye. Basically they said that the show lessons were part of our contract but they will cut back to every other week as opposed to every week. You can’t fight city hall. But we found out through the grape vine that the chinese teachers were taken on a trip last weekend and they never invited us. I asked Mr Ye about this in my meeting with him but I never got a response. In this meeting apparently they said that they didn’t think we would want to go and we may not have liked the traffic. My point was, you didn’t even bother asking and then giving us the option to accept or decline. You just chose not to invite us. apparently the Bartoloni brothers and Maya from the second branch school were invited and then disinvited for some reason. To make up for this, they are taking just the foreign teachers out to a hot spring resort on Saturday. It’s apparently somewhere just outside of Wuhan. Neither Matty stix nor myself are gonna go. Matty stix is jokingly but almost seriously not going out of protest and also, he’s not to thrilled with the idea. I just don’t want to cut into my party time tomorrow so I’m gonna pass. Besides, been there, done that. Next on the agenda, Matty stix had his meeting with Mr Ye. Basically, Matt followed up with everything I had to say and then added the fact that he felt like us foreign teachers weren’t getting any respect. We felt like we weren’t being treated like teachers at the school. He made it clear that we weren’t visitors and that we should be treated like any other teacher at the school. Also, he touched on the fact that communication had to be better between the school and us. He let him know that we understand that we are in a different country and there are a lot of things that we let slide but in some cases it’s just not acceptable. They had to understand that we are foreigners and there are somethings that we need of them. Whenever something important is coming up, there are whispers that we’re lucky to over hear between the co-teachers. Noone ever seems to notify us directly. Case in point, the meeting and the fact that it even existed wasn’t passed on properly. I never knew and if the other guys at our main school weren’t at school at the time, they wouldn’t have known either. Anyway, I think that’s enough bitching for the night. I have to go and get ready to party down. Tonight is CC with a BS chaser and then tomorrow, hopefully it’s Vox. Then I have a big day of scouting a new purse on Sunday and I’ll be meeting Harry for dinner after that.
TTFN

Put your dukes up

Well I had my meeting today with Mr Ye and I went in with guns blazing. I listed all the valid reasons why we hated these Wednesday afternoon show lessons and gave suggestions as to what else we could do instead that would be more beneficial and less time consuming. The problem is that Mr Ye isn’t the decision maker. He has to go to two principals and let them know what we think and then those two principals have a meeting and they get back to him and then he’ll get back to me. I don’t know how promising the situation is but if he comes back to me and tells me that the principal agrees with whatever but still insists that we continue with the show lessons, I will make it very clear, that speaking only for myself and not for the other teachers, but I will not be attending these show lessons.
Anyway, once I was done that meeting everyone was very excited to know how it went. I gave them the scoop and now everyone is waiting to see what happens. Next up on the docket, Matty stix batting for Team Foreign Teachers. Matty stix is gonna have the same meeting with Mr Ye, basically explaining the same things but mostly to let Mr Ye and the principal know that we’re not joking. We want to be taken seriously and we want this to stop. I think with Matty stix having the same meeting with Mr Ye it will really push them to do what’s right by us. If Nick were still here, he would have put them in their place a long time ago and we wouldn’t have had to deal with this whole mess to begin with. The advantage that Nick has is that he speaks fluent Chinese and isn’t the kind of person to put up with bullshit. These are 2 major assets to have in China. Anyway, I was told that my kindergarten class from last week never happened so now I have to make up the day. This week I’ll be working three kindergarten classes instead of two. Other than that things are pretty much as cool as can be. This morning we had our first breakfast morning and it went well. I was all over the place insane for about 20 mins but for the most part it went smoothly. Colin thanked me about a million times and continued to do so even after we got to school. Colin is my favourite 12 year old and always seems to maintain that attitude. I love it. Anyway, I have to get going. I haven’t eaten since noon and it’s 7pm. I’m famished and it’s been a long day.

TTFN

A couple of good nights

Friday night was really nice. Lillis, Eileen, Matty stix and myself had a movie night. We all piled into my room and on my bed and watched a whole mess of movies. We had munchies and beer and good times laughing at every possible joke in each movie. In the wee hours of the morning we called it a night but it was probably one of the best times any of us had had in a long time. It felt good to just stay in and cuddle up with your friends and watch TV. It was like a slumber party, except we didn’t all sleep together. Saturday morning I woke up and had a long day ahead of me. I had a small breakfast and then I got to work. I pulled everything out of my room, and I mean everything, including my bed. Just about everything was covered in mold. My bed was covered in mold. My cupboard was covered in mold. My bedside table was covered in mold. Anyway, I took the vacuum cleaner to everything. Once the room was cleared, I threw some baking soda on the carpet, let it sink in and then vacuumed the hell out of that. I even vacuumed my curtains. When that was done, I made sure everything was cleaned and then I brought it all back in. This also provided me with the opportunity to rearrange my room and it’s now in a configuration that makes it look bigger. My next task was the kitchen and I bleached everything to high heaven. Basically, I spent 6 hours doing all this work and it was well worth it. I went to the store and bought some new sheets and pillows, cause God knows, the old ones were covered in mold too and now I feel so much better in my room. It’s bigger, cleaner and nicer. After this long day of cleaning I just wanted to relax but then I had some unexpected guests. This turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Matty stix and Eileen came in and took extreme enjoyment in my “new” room. So much so that Matt couldn’t leave my bed made and had to use my sheets as a cocoon. That’s a long story. If you knew Matty stix, you would know why he would do something like that. Anyway, we had a good time just hanging out, doing ridiculous dance moves, taking pictures of this nonsense and making up stories that made no sense. Believe it or not, this was a very good night too. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before I had to go to bed.
Today wasn’t half bad either. I decided to make a good breakfast and invited Klaver to join me. On Friday, I made a trip out to Metro after school and purchased some eggs and bacon. We had decided that every other Monday or so, we should have a nice breakfast with our coffee. I swear this coffee thing has a life of it’s own. It started off us just Matty stix and I, then Colin was added and then Klaver. Anyway, we decided that it would be nice to have eggs and bacon and toast with our coffee every other Monday or so. Today Klaver and I had a good breakfast and it was the first time that either of us had had a western style breakfast since being in China. This wasn’t so profound for Klaver since he hasn’t been here that long, but for me, it was quite odd.
Anyway, after breakfast, I started the second shift and made lunch for Matty stix. And yes, if you are wondering, I do spoil the boys quite a bit but it’s only because I love them. Anyway, we made plans to go to a karaoke bar for fun. Sometime this afternoon, Eileen, Matty stix and I went to a local karaoke bar. I’ve been to better ones, but this one was ok. The music sucked big time but we made the best of it and had a good time. After that we went to the buffet for dinner and just got home about an hour ago. Tomorrow we have breakfast, I have a long day at school including kindergarten and I sent Mr Ye an email letting him know that we needed to talk. I’m pretty much going to be laying down the law and letting him know that these Wednesday meetings/show lessons need to stop and list all the reasons why and also let him know that the conditions we (especially me) live in suck huge donkey balls and also let him know that I haven’t heard anything about my reimbursement. It’s been over a week and that bitch hasn’t gotten back to me. If these people think they’re gonna get away with not doing right by me, they got another thing coming. I am not the bitch to be messed with. Especially when it comes to my money.
That’s the scoop so far
TTFN

Opportunities

My kids fascinate me on almost a daily basis. Today we were learning the present continuous tense and I feared it would be too much for them but they took it like champs and I can see more confidence in them. Now they can have even better conversations with me in English. I’m just having so much fun with them now. I’m really going to miss them when I leave.
In other news, I had a weird breakfast this morning. I have the same thing pretty much every morning but today something just wasn’t sitting right and I had that odd feeling. There is only one thing that can cure stomach problems (or in some cases a really bad hangover) and that’s Mc Donald’s. So today instead of going to the restaurant for lunch as we have been doing everyday, I opted to go to Mc D’s. I sat there alone, thinking about whatever and not really eating my fries but out of the corner of my eye, I could see this girl sitting a few chairs away from me, looking in my direction. I’ve pretty much gotten used to the staring so I didn’t think much of it. After about 15 mins of her doing that, I guess she got up the courage and started to write a note. She slid it across the table to me and it said, “Excuse me. May I talk with you?” I said sure and invited her over to sit with me. We did our introductions and I discovered that she was a university student, was trying to learn English and it was her birthday. She’s twenty. She was the cutest little thing. I told her about me and she had the look of “Yay, I hit the jackpot. She’s an English teacher at a school not too far from here” We spoke to each other for a while, sometimes in Chinese and sometimes in English and sometimes we had to write things down. Many Chinese people have a problem with oral English. They can write the language but to speak it, they find this difficult. For us, it’s the opposite, once we get the hang of it, we can speak Chinese well but to write it, is a task none of us are ever to eager to get to. Anyway, her and I exchanged phone numbers and I gave her an English name as my birthday gift to her. She expressed to me that this was the best birthday she could ever have. I told her that in a couple of weeks, I’ll bring her over to the apartments and she could meet some of the other teachers. She also told me that I was the first foreigner she had ever spoken to. Anyway, we talked for a while longer and soon I told her I had to leave. I told her to call whenever and we’ll hook up at the Mc D’s again. She seemed very happy. Now I have little Melanie to mould as my protégée. I think her and I would have a lot of fun together and we can also learn from each other. We’ll see how it goes.

TTFN

The devil is gone

There was this kid in one of my grade one classes. I called him 'the devil' because he was just that. He was an evil child and I was powerless to stop him. So I've been home the past couple of days and today got back in. I was handing out the results from the test my kids did last week and when I got to his, to my surprise, Kelly told me that he was in another school. I was so happy I was almost in tears. I actually took a moment to stop and savour the fact that I no longer had to deal with this kid. don't get me wrong, I generally love my students but for the most part I hate kids. I hate being around them. I hate the annoying things that they do, the noises that they make, everything and this kid wasn't doing much to put a positive spin on his generation. I know you're probably thinking "Litisha, if you hate kids so much, why are you teaching at a primary school and why are you thinking about getting into teaching?" Both valid questions that would take me too long to answer. But I'll tell you this. I adore the fact that my kids adore me and watching them grow and learn is amazing.
In other news, during the sports day on Thursday, the school basically volun-told me for an interview with a local morning paper. i answered a few questions. They asked if I was supportive of students speaking english in english class and I agreed that it was best. Then a few more questions I don't really remember. Then they asked me if I had a funny or interesting stories about my fellow foreign teachers. I thought about it. Then it occurred to me that that question was really ambiguous and the only funny stories I could think of started with "well we were all drunk one night...." I politely told them that I couldn't remember any but we did try our best to have fun. Kelly told me today that the interview was in yesterday's morning paper and one of my kids' parents' saw it and the kid brought it in. I didn't get a chance to see it but even if I did, it really wouldn't matter. It would all be in chinese.
Anyway, I dodged the bullet today. No awful show lessons and I got Colin to cover my kindergarten class this afternoon. I was able to come home early and will now go in for some much needed rest. I feel better than I have in the past 2 days but I still feel pretty wiped, as well as my chest and abs still hurt and my lungs still feel messed up. It's a long road to recovery it looks like for me.

TTFN