Monday, October 10, 2011

Monday 10/10: A sunny day off!

No observing today!! Since I don’t start teaching until next week, I am just preparing classes this week. The school never gave me directions (other than attending a meeting tomorrow afternoon for lesson planning with the other English teachers) on what I was supposed to do, so I am just working on planning at home.

This morning I worked on the plans for my October break and I discovered that airline ticket prices were going up. Not good. And, one of the flights I was hoping to take was sold out. Not good. So, I went ahead and bought a ticket to London and a return ticket from Glasgow—at least I know I’ll get there and get back! Now we’ll see what happens while I’m in the UK…

It’s really lovely working in my room because I have a large window (no screen—no one has screens here) and today the sun was pouring in all day! There’s plenty of fresh air and I can hear the kids playing whenever they’re on recess at school. I spent a while trying on iTunes going through “150 Favorite Children’s Songs”…ah, so many classics. But, it’s amazing how many are too complicated for the language level of my student here. There are a few, though, that should work out!

I had lunch with Catherine (when she came home from work) and afterwards we looked at some ESL sites online. We found some that used songs to teach English (Three Blind Mice, Mary Had A Little Lamb, etc.) and others that allowed you to print off free worksheets. I’ll definitely need to spend more time exploring those tomorrow before my meeting.

This afternoon I biked to the post office to pick up a package for Catherine and also check the prices for boxes to the US. The cheapest (500g) is €9.60, then there’s one for €14.20 that’s 1kg, and the bigger size (6kg) is €36.50…I didn’t even bother asking about the biggest box! Man, it’s expensive to ship things overseas!! Ugh. Hopefully I can figure out a way to send food without them asking what’s in the box! The last time I tried (in 2009) they informed me that it was illegal to send food into the US. Ugh.

My friend, Candice, is also a teaching assistant—but she’s living on the other side of France, near Switzerland. She’s in a town called Besançon, which (from the pictures I’ve seen) is very beautiful. We’re hoping to meet up in Paris after my trip to the UK at the end of this month, so we had a quick skype chat this evening to figure out potential Paris hostels. It’s so difficult because one has to take into consideration the price, the location, and the reviews. We thought we’d found a good one: not to expensive, in the center of Paris…..but then we read the reviews and discovered that a majority of them mentioned having had a problem with bedbugs. Nope! Not staying there! We (hopefully) have found a good hotel and I will soon be reserving us a room (her roommate is coming, too…and possibly a few other friends).

Dinner tonight was green beans cooked in a light tomato sauce with raclette cheese melted on top—delicious! And, of course, bread. That’s an essential for every meal and we always have a baguette or two around the house! After dinner, Catherine, Ralf, and I watched the film, “Juno.” I’d forgotten how much I like that movie. Neither of them had seen it, so it was fun to hear their reactions. They both liked it a lot.

Today was very exciting…..I received a letter from Chelsea!! :)

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