Thursday, December 1, 2011

Thursday 12/1: Happy December!

Alison stayed over last night, so I got up early with her. Catherine, Alison, and I all had “porridge” (oatmeal) for breakfast—made by Alison, who eats it nearly every morning. Catherine found it extremely heavy for breakfast, but I thought it was pretty delicious!

I headed back to bed for a little while (my stomach was hurting—not because of the porridge, it had been hurting during the night), but soon after the doorbell rang! I went down and found that a lady had come for a meeting with Catherine, who had forgotten and went to her office. So, I had to call Catherine and then I talked with the lady until Catherine got home.

My class (8-9 yr olds) this morning was just so-so. I taught them the colors and how to say “What color do you like?” “I like purple!” Not too hard, but some of them still get confused.

During my lunchtime, the doorbell rang again! This time it was the mail lady… with a package from my mom!!! Yay! It was filled with the presents I am planning to give to my host family, refried beans, tofu, amazing fruit bars, American candy, a Christmas CD, and candy canes!! :) I am so excited to make a burrito and a stir fry!!! My mouth is watering! It’s been waaaay too long!

Photo: HAPPY!HAPPY!HAPPY!

I had to teach at the other school this afternoon and it was not so great, as usual. I am actually getting used to it being frustrating and us not getting much done. The younger kids are so hard—I told them we were going to sing a song and that if they worked hard, they could do some coloring at the end. When I saw some of them starting to color immediately, I told them (very firmly) to put their colored pencils away and repeated that it wasn’t the moment to be coloring. About 2 minutes later, I turned around and saw one of the most disobedient boys coloring again! So, I confiscated his colored pencils and put them on my table at the front and I told him he needed to sing with the rest of us. You’d think that would have been the end of it, but no. I turn around a few minutes later and he’s coloring again! Yep, apparently when I wasn’t looking, he ran up to the front and grabbed his pencils back! Aargh! It’s so hard to keep them all under control while trying to teach a little bit. And it doesn’t help only having about 25 minutes for the class! Sigh…

I stopped at the supermarket on the way home to pick up frozen green beans (for dinner). Since I didn’t have any more classes this afternoon, I had a nice bike ride home, trying to relax my mind and let go of the frustrations of teaching. I have noticed that I am biting my lips now…not sure if it has to do with getting frustrated a lot? Perhaps not, but it’s not a good habit…

I was considering going running after having tea with Margot, but she requested we play ping-pong. It was so fun! She’s really good at it (better than me) and we had a lot of great volleys. When the sun started to go down, we hurried up to my bedroom to enjoy the view. Tonight’s sunset was particularly vibrant and colorful. Unfortunately the camera doesn’t really capture it’s amazingness, but I figured I’d take a picture anyway!

Catherine turned on lamp that changes colors and has an orange sent, but for some reason the house now smells more like warm eggnog…I love it! It makes me think of home! Margot and I sat by the fire and watched Dr. Quinn until it was time for dinner and we had to turn on the news. We had green beans with tomato sauce, bread, cheese, and a mandarin orange for dessert! I like that dinner!!

After dinner, I went upstairs to grade papers and listen to Christmas music. My oldest classes did a listening exercise in class (the one where I read a text and they filled in a table) that I had to correct.

Tomorrow will be a long day, so I’m hoping to get to sleep early tonight…

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