6.22.12

Oh, Friday…

I only have two classes on Fridays, but, wow.

I had been fighting a sinus infection this week. Mostly, this just meant that my face filled with junk while I was sleeping. Didn’t really effect me during the day. Today, it did.

My first class went smoothly. While I had them practicing with each other, I ‘practiced’ with one of the girls, Amanda. Patricia and I both have her in a class. She had come off a bit cheeky previously. After speaking to her, I realized that she must just be bored out of her mind. She has a much higher level of English than most of my other students in any of my classes. I chatted with her for a bit and she was able to hold an extemporaneous conversation with me. Found out that she lived in Canada for six months. Well, that explains it. I think I will have her visit with me next week so I can find out what might be more interesting for her. Areas that she might actually like to work on.

My second class… Keep in mind this is the class that I had taken over last week from Patricia. Where I had two boys leave class and not come back. I crossed my fingers that they wouldn’t be in class today. No such luck. What makes me mad about their behavior is that there ARE kids in this class who really want to learn English and these two boys make it so difficult for them because I have to constantly interrupt myself to tell them to sit back down in their own seats on opposite sides of the room. I don’t even know how many times I had to yell in class to get the kids to settle back down. One incident involved one of them getting up to show his friend something that he had drawn on his homework sheet. It got quite a laugh from his friend and the students around him. I walked over to try and confiscate it and he very quickly headed back to his seat while shaking his head and his hands like “No, no, don’t worry about it.” When he sat down, he furiously started trying to scribble out whatever it was he had on the paper. He wasn’t quick enough. I took it back to my desk to take down to Pi Len later. The only thing I understood on it was the obscene picture he had doodled.

After class, I took it back to my office to show to Frista before I took it to Pi Len, so that I had an idea of what it said. She told me it wasn’t very nice. That’s what I thought. She told me what it said, but I won’t repeat it here. I went down to the basement to Pi Len’s office. She had a headache already. I felt kind of bad talking to her about this right then, but it had to be done. I was still shaking a bit from frustration. I sat down at her desk and her male counterpart came over. He spoke and understood English better than her. I handed her the paper and explained the situation. Her counterpart told me that these boys were trouble in all their classes, not just mine. I told them about the constant disruption and blatant disrespect. And that’s where I left it.

I went back to my office and worked on getting all my classes organized so I knew what each of them had been taught already. Would make it easier to write their quizzes. I decided that I wanted a soda and a water and went down to the commissary. I had to walk past Pi Len’s office and saw that ‘the boys’ were in there. Nice. When I was headed back upstairs, one of them stopped me and indicated that Pi Len wanted me to come in to her office. They had me sit down and then both the boys got on their knees and wai-ed me and apologized. I told them that it was forgiven, but that they needed to come upstairs so they could get the handouts from me (I had confiscated Baem’s and I am pretty sure Kam’s was the one I found crumpled on the floor after class). They were escorted by one of the hall monitors. I made sure that they understood that we would have a test next week and that they needed to study what we had learned already. They apologized again and indicated that they would be better. I wait with bated breath…

My voice was progressively going out by now. Started to get really froggy. At least it was Friday and I had no more classes until Monday. I decided I would need to stop by Big C Extra on the way home and get some Zythromax. I guess it was just a matter of time before it was my turn to be sick.

Foreign Language hung out in the office for most of the afternoon. They came over and said “Teacher, how are you doing?” (they had just learned this in class). I finally got to use the response that most of my students had given me that week. “I’m sick.” And my voice backed me up on that. They sat on the floor around my desk and spoke to me and Pat for the rest of the day. Luckily, they did most of the talking so I could still rest my voice.

We had worked out with Pi Long that, since we don’t take more than 30 minutes for lunch (if we take lunch at all), we could leave 30 minutes early. Yay! I grabbed a motorbike (sounded easy but I had to walk for a half mile before I found one) and had him take me to Big C. I knew I could get a mini bus home from there after I got my drugs. I should have gotten a new backpack while I was there. The straps were already pulling out of the top and the teeth on the zipper missed a lot. Oh well. You get what you pay for.

Was happy to be on the bus home. I was sitting towards the back and worried that the driver wouldn’t be able to hear or understand me when I told him my stop. Which he couldn’t. So, the guy sitting in front of me repeated my stop for him. Got my motorbike home and was handed my key to my NEW ROOM.

Even though I was dead tired (sinus congestion does that to me), I wanted to get unpacked and settled in. I rearranged the only furniture that wasn’t secured to the wall (the fridge) to maximize my space. They had placed it next to the TV, in front of the sliding glass door. That wouldn’t do.

Since I was no longer staying in a nightly room, I would have to provide my own toilet paper. I had forgotten about that. Damn. Luckily, they do provide a roll in a dispenser for blowing your nose and such. Good. I didn’t want to have to go out shopping tonight. It felt so amazing to get everything out of my suitcase and set things up and know that I wouldn’t have to put everything back IN my suitcase for a very long time. Put my family picture on the side of the fridge and put up a little wall hanger that my mom gave me. “She packed up her potential and all she had learned. Grabbed a cute pair of shoes and headed out to change a few things.”

The next morning, I was awoken at 6:30am by a rooster (who may not be long for this world…). I probably wouldn’t have slept much longer anyhow. Got a call from Patricia saying that she hadn’t gotten much sleep because she found out a friend had a heart attack and passed away. We decided to postpone our trip to the beach. Probably for the best. I needed to rest my voice and try to get over this illness.

I did need to get some groceries. I finally had a place where I could stock up some food. Around 12:30pm, I grabbed a motorbike and had him take me to Aek Liquors. It really didn’t contain much liquor. Mostly, it is an ex-pat grocery store. It was wonderful. I got peanut butter, caramel corn (mixed with cheese corn. I know this drives Ryan crazy), non-fat milk, low-fat muesli, BBQ kettle chips, Nature Valley granola bars, chocolate chip cookies, a fork and spoon, a bowl (the lady there gave one to me), orange Fanta and Coke Zero (Pat had been trying to find it since we got here). I completely forgot to get toilet paper.

Once I got back home, I had a big bowl of cereal and took a nap. For three hours. I hate naps. They make me feel groggy. But, I obviously needed it. Eventually went out to get some noodles and fruit and meat on a stick. Oh, and toilet paper.