Oof. Well, Maria and I didn’t get much sleep last night… Since it was her last night here, we figured we would rather spend our time talking than sleeping. So, after the movie, we ended up talking until 3:30am. And then the alarm went off at 7am. So, needless to say, we were a bit tired.
After a quick breakfast, Maria said goodbye to Catherine and Margot and then we walked to the train station. The train arrived fairly soon after and we quickly hugged goodbye and she departed. Sniffle. It felt like the week went by SO quickly! Of course I wish she could have stayed longer, but I’m excited for all the adventures she’s about to have! I just hope her travels today went smoothly!
I walked back home and prepared my classes for a bit. I managed to slip in a 45-minute nap before I had to teach class. It went okay and then I came home for lunch. I wanted to get some more sleep, but I had to do more class prep (because I didn’t want to waste time when Maria was here, so I didn’t do any over the weekend).
The afternoon classes all went really well! I worked on colors with the little kids and they are catching on really fast! I also had them work on responding to the directions: “stand up!” “sit down” “hands up!” “hands down!” It did feel a little bit bizarre to be telling a bunch of seven-year-olds: “HANDS UP!”
When I finished my last class, I ended up talking with one of the English teachers who gave me some more lesson ideas and websites. We also discussed the issue of the trouble-child in my CM1 class. They are trying to deal with him and hopefully this week there will be a big meeting about what they’re going to do with him. And it’s definitely not just me—the teacher has been out sick for a month now and her sub just left because she couldn’t deal with this student! He’s a demon-child. I don’t know what the issue is, but he deliberately tries to mess up any learning and is really awful to all the teachers. He needs help and I’m glad the issue is finally being addressed.
I got home around 5pm and, after a quick tea and a short skype chat with Mark (who was nice enough to listen to my sleep-deprived and depressed self talk about how sad I was that Maria had to leave), I headed over to lead a conversation class. It was organized by the lady who is part of the assistant program (and was my contact person) and it’s free for any teachers in the area. Tonight there were 6 teachers (I know 2 of them) and we just introduced ourselves and chatted in English. Some of them are considerably better than others (and talk considerably more than others), but I think when they relax a bit, it will go just fine! I had fun and it’s nice because we are just talking—I don’t have to prepare lessons!
When I got home, I made dinner for Ralf, Margot, and I because Catherine was taking care of Chantal’s kids tonight. After dinner, Margot wanted me to watch a TV show with her and it was okay…I only fell asleep for 10 minutes of it!
It’s a bit sad to be going to bed with no roommate—it was nice getting to talk before going to sleep. Now it feels kind-of lonely. But, I am really looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow!
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