Yesterday the English teacher who invited me for pasta was back from her holidays, so we had some interesting (and hilarious) conversations about her cat (technically her husband`s cat, because she wanted birds, but whatever), who is absolutely adorable. This teacher is also adorable, in a totally non-patronizing kind of way. She`s a very happy lady, always smiling and laughs easily, like me. And then she apologized for bothering me with pictures of her cat! As if! A) I`m pretty sure if there was a job in which I got paid to look at pictures of cats all day, I would do it, and B) you`re definitely not bothering me! I always have my school work and my Japanese studying open on my desk, so it looks like I`m working on important stuff, but given that I still have only a vague idea of what I`m doing and have done all the prep work I can at this point, I`ve been working on my attempt at planning a novel for the past week and a half. The upside: I`m getting paid to write a novel! The downside: I`m not supposed to be writing a novel in order to receive this paycheck.
It also rained Monday, yesterday, and today (though Monday was more like heavy misting). I have to either bike or walk to work. I bike 95% of the time, even though I strongly dislike biking, because it takes less than half the time. Do you know what`s worse than biking? Biking uphill in the rain while wearing jeans. I see everyone around here wearing full rainsuits while they bike (jacket and splash pants, usually matching). There`s one in my entrance closet, but there is no way that`s ever going to fit me in this universe. I doubt any of the stores around here are going to carry anything in my size either. So wet jeans it was (today I was smart and walked with an umbrella instead). At least I had the foresight to bring my rainjacket (that`s really more of a windbreaker because the rain kind of comes through anyway). I need to learn how to bike with an umbrella. Given that I can barely let go of the handlebars long enough to brush my hair out of my eyes without being in danger of careening into something (car, light post, mirror post, wall, rice field...), I`m thinking I`m a long way off from ever being able to do this.
Fun fact: Biking is where the singing happens. And not necessarily just in the rain. Or out loud. So okay, it`s not really singing so much as `the iPod in my head.` But every time I get on my bike, one of two pieces of music begins running through my head, and it doesn`t stop until I finish my ride. It`s either Do Re Mi from The Sound of Music, or the theme music for the Wicked Witch of the West/Ms Gulch from The Wizard of Oz. Usually Oz. Oh god I`m such a nerd.
I had a meeting today with the four teachers who teach 1st Year (Grade 10 equivalent) English to discuss the upcoming term. This was both awesome and terrifying. I presented to them my official plans I`d done up for the first lessons and the open house lesson next week. They were really receptive to what I had done, which was great because it means I don`t have to scrap everything and start over. Then came the terrifying part wherein they pulled out the calendars and told me which textbook lessons had to be worked on during which weeks from now until midterms at the end of October. I`d been working on some stuff on my own based on our brief conversations before and what I thought we would be covering in that time. There`s ... a lot more to cover in one class than I thought there would be.
I think the best part of today was when two of the teachers and I went over to the Language Lab (where English class happens) to check out the equipment, since none of us knows offhand how to use the projector in there, and I`m hoping to use it for my self-introduction lesson. One of the teachers had a list of the instructions, and when we got there we also noticed some instructions in English on the board. But that wasn`t the good part. The good part was when we we actually looked at the equipment. No word of a lie, this stuff is from 1988 (it says so). It looks like the things you saw in the movies in the late 80s and early 90s, with all the military stuff and complicated buttons and whatever. You know, in the locked down control room the villain is trying to break into so that they can fire the missiles? And it`s all built directly into the desk, with a dual cassette player on which I`d really love to play Peter Quill`s mix tape. It would look perfect in that machine. Seriously. I need to take a picture of this thing and post it so that you can understand how ridiculously complex and deliciously retro it really is.
Until then, imagine this, but with more buttons so that it takes up the full length of a desk.
No comments:
Post a Comment