May 31, 2010

May 31, 2010

I understand these day to day ramblings of mine may become a bit tiresome. Me whining about how much I miss Andrea or how jealous of Andrea I am may just not be worth reading. However, it is what is going on in my life and hopefully soon I will be able to spice up the posts with some fun adventures of my own. This is now the third day and still nothing to exciting has happened though.

I did finally get a chance to hear Andrea’s voice today. And not just once, but twice, the first time we were able to chat briefly before I started one of my last classes of the day and then again I got to speak with her over Skype. I actually got to see her face, it was only for a minute or two, but when you miss someone as much as I miss her it will do. She told me about the plans for her big welcome home party. It sounds like a lot of people will turn out and she is really looking forward to it.
Talking to her about the welcome home party reminded me of something Andrea and I have discussed several times. We have plans on just continually leaving Michigan for a year or two throughout the rest of our lives. We could at least get a couple of parties thrown for us every couple of years. It will work. When we left for Arizona there was a party thrown in our honor, a going away party. Then when we got back from Arizona there was a party thrown in our honor, a coming home party. Then when we left for the Czech Republic once again we got a party thrown for us, another going away party. Now with her returning from the Czech Republic she is getting a welcoming home party, and hopefully, when I return back to Michigan I will get the same. Then when we leave again for Chicago I am expecting another going away party. It can become a fun tradition. After Chicago, wherever we land after it, we will have to come back to Michigan for a month or so just to get our parties. It is nice that we have such great families who are so happy, I think, to see us.

I will probably be asleep before Andrea’s party really gets going, but I had a not so bad day. School was a little tough today even though I only taught three classes. Here is how it went; I had all my plans set out for my first class, which I teach every other week, when the teacher who also teaches this group asked if I minded if we switched groups for the day. My lesson was thrown out the window because the lesson I had planned I had already done with this group I had already taught the week before. So, the class was a wreck. It is a 6th grade class and of course the girls were good and polite, but the boys in the class are just ridiculous. So, just to make them mad and since the girls had finished their work, I let the girls leave early for their break while I held the boys and made them miss their entire break. After this class, I had a conversation class and I know this is bad, but I am having them watch the movie Avatar (My excuse, I was told by several of the cooks I worked with at a Mexican restaurant that that was the way they learned English). I didn’t prepare anything for the class besides having the movie in my bag ready to go. I walk into the school five minutes before the class is set to begin and I discover the teachers are having a meeting in the media room, the only room I can show the movie. I was left with a complete blank mind as far as what to do with them. With that mind completely devoid of any ideas I had all of them running up to me shouting out their ideas. “Can we go to computers?” “Can we go outside?” “Can we play basketball?” Not one of their ideas had any relation to learning English of course. One of them did say that basketball was an English game. So, it counts as learning English. I had to laugh.

I took them to the computer lab, I went blank, and I had to take these kids somewhere. I had written for them on the board, “No Facebook, No PC games.” And I wrote the address of website with English learning games on it for them. Low and behold, half of the classes’ internet was not working. They all started whining to me. I caved horribly, I wrote on the board, “Forget it, you have a free class today.” They all start sharing computers and playing PC games. Sorry Mom. There was one bright spot to this whole debacle. As I watching these children’s brains melt into mush as they played shooting games and what not, I noticed one girl, in the back, was still on the English-learning website and she was enjoying herself. I know, a small triumph, but a victory nonetheless. For my final class of the day, an optional class for advanced students at the other school in town, I had only two students show up. We played a game, I think they had a good time, but it always is tough gauging if they learned anything.

That was school though, I have my good days and I have my bad days, it’ll happen. After school, typically I have one tutoring lesson after the next until 8:30 at night, but I didn’t have the first because we had met the day before, then the next called and cancelled, he was too busy at home. Then I got a text from the girl who is typically my final lesson of the night asking to switch her lesson to Wednesday. So, in the end, I only had one of the four lessons I typically teach. It was a good lesson, it was interesting, and it is with two women, one probably in her late twenties and the other in her late thirties. They are both extremely fun to talk with. Our conversation shifted toward politics because the election for parliament and prime minister had just taken place over the weekend. The conversation was captivating as listened to their opinions, several I didn’t agree with, but I am not going to start a heated political debate with people paying me to teach them English. Anyway, the most fascinating thing I learned was that in the Czech Republic people are given two days to vote and the voting happens over the weekend, smart. Definitely something I think the United States should adopt. Which brings me to another thing they mentioned, which blew my mind, they told me that only 62% of the population turned out to vote and they were extremely surprised at the low percentage. When I told them that would be a high percentage in the US they were shocked.

That was my one tutoring lesson, but all the cancellations did have a benefit. I had told Andrea before she left I was going to start waking up before school and working out in the school gymnasium. Last night before I fell asleep I set my alarm for five in the morning for that purpose. However, for some reason or another I awoke at one in the morning and made the decision to move my alarm back to eight, thus no workout. However, with all the cancellations, my afternoon was free. I packed up a bag before I left my apartment and on my way to my one tutor I stopped in the gym and got in a good work out, it was refreshing. One thing that is obvious, but funny to realize, is what fatigue will do to a jump shot. As part of my workout I take twenty jump shots, chasing the ball down after each one in an attempt to get my heart pumping. Well, the first round of twenty jump shots I made about 60-70 percent of them, the second round, I made one.

That was my day summed up. Nothing special, but full, which is always a good way to make a day go faster. So, now with the sun is gone from me and I am left with nothing to do, but sleep. I am going to grab my book probably get through a page or two before I can’t keep my eyes open any longer and I will be one day closer to coming home again.