Nether-catch up

Monday was a very short day for me. I taught the 5th years at 8:15 am on the text about hugging. Like the other 5th year class, they enjoyed all of the hugging that I demonstrated. For the next class at 9:30, they had a listening exam (because the exam is tomorrow!), but I read more of the text in the WASP report for words and idioms that the students might have trouble with. It's more like a Vocabluary Word List where students will be tested after reading the different articles. Since the 4th years had their volleyball tournament this day, they didn't have class and our day ended at 10:45. However, I did help my mentor teacher grade some papers. She was stressing out about all the stuff she did, and I told her that my job is to make sure she's not as stressful so throw everything at me. :)

Tuesday was yet another short day for classes but a long day for me at the school. I taught another teacher's class at 9:05 about healthy food vs. junk food. The class was for 1st years, and two students were very uncomfortable with their English - therefore they acted up instead of listening. This was another success story - the students seemed to enjoy themselves, and the other teacher complimented me on my directness (which comes as a surprise for me since I'm never direct or strick with students.) After teaching that class, I had to teach another lesson for the 4th years. We had to finish the short story because we ran out of time on Thursday. Like expected, the students didn't read so I actually had two lesson plans - one for which they read and one for which they didn't read. I was ready. :) I also brought in my iHome and iPod and had music playing in the background as a way to manage classroom talking. Students loved it, and I had a couple of requests. :) After those two classes, both of my 5th year classes were cancelled due to teacher meetings.

The first one was about incorporating more sports in the school and the second one was a meeting about the HAVO students. My mentor teacher advised me to skip the first meeting so I did, and attended the other one where they talked about Project Day, Christmas Activities, Year Planning, students' personal problems, test week, and what else teachers could do for the students. This meeting happens once every 6 weeks. :) So I was at school until 5:30. However, I did find out that the school already ordered our bikes, so it should be coming any time soon! Yay!

Tuesday, I also joined a gym to get my swole on. I have to keep my mind off of a lot of things that bother me. I let myself listen to other people, when I should have trusted him all along. I turned into psycho ex-gf which was a bit embarrassing. So now, he doesn't even want to talk anymore. I have to take it day-by-day. That was the reason for my last blog.

Wednesday, I decided to take the day off and just relax. I worked on lesson plans, and booked the trip to Paris and Barcelona. I realized that I had problems committing to booking things because I couldn't change my mind anymore. Another realization is that this little thing led me to think that I am scared of commitment, period. I went for a run to Tattoo Bob, because I've hit rock bottom and needed to get a tattoo to cover up one of my stupid tattoos. Come to find out, the tattoo I want will cost 250 euros ($351!). So probably not. The run was great though...I got lost so my run was a bit longer than I suspected.

I got home, and worked out in my room. I worked on my abs and buns. For the next three months, I will be working on feeling good about myself. :) I'm also planning on joining this dance class to meet more people. I just have to keep myself busy and entertained.

Wednesday night, I went out to dinner with the English Department, and it only ended up being 5 of us. It was a great night though. The restaurant was gorgeous, and the waitors were very pretty to look at - all of them were Dutch boys. Finally! Ha. We each had four course dinner with wine - so I had this salade van krab, scallops, lamb (I've never had lamb before), and white chocolate dinner! Yea! I also rode with my mentor teacher on her bike! Very Dutch! It was pretty exciting! The weather was rainy, but it was a great ride. I can't wait to have my bike....

I was also supposed to go see the caretaker for laundry tokens, and I thought that her office hours were from 10-11pm...apparently it's from 8-9pm. I'm still getting used to the military time here. So no laundry for me...which means I have to buy more underwear and socks. The caretaker is here only once a week. AAAHHH!!

So that's the gist of my week so far. I will write about today later....