Addendum on that new student: She went up to my coordinator last night and complained that the content in my class was too easy and that it was level 1. She wanted to move up to a higher class!! Apparently she kept saying that her previous teacher was so good and they did a lot of writing and stuff. So he said that if the previous teacher was so good, to go back to that class! He asked her if she understood everything I was teaching. She said no. He asked her if she could communicate with me as to what she wanted. She said no. So he asked her why she thinks she's better than everyone else in the class and why she thinks she can move up. He just told me to ignore her and not to change the way I teach. I appreciated that.

Today is a day filled with chores. My to-do list includes doing laundry, tidying up, changing the fried hard drive, and doing a zillion other things that just need doing and certainly aren't going to get done themselves.

In answer to Yan's comment from a while back...well, it's a tough choice. I've always wanted to go to Japan, and I've always had my eye on the prestigious JET Programme. And then John came along! Early in our relationship, I told him that I wanted to go away when I was done school. So he told me to go. He'd wait for me. After all, I'd wanted to go before he ever came into the picture. He figures it's not his place and it would be unfair for him to hold me back from pursuing my dreams. Imagine how awful he would feel if I stayed here just because and never had my chance to go? I think I'd feel awful if the roles were reversed. Anyway, he has his job here, and he'd be useless in Japan if he were to come with me, so he's just going to wait for me to come back. A year will pass by in no time at all! He promised to come visit me once during my year there.... I asked him to come visit near the end of my year, so that he can help me lug all my accumulated junk back to Canada! :)

ARRRGH... I have to leave for work in about 1 hour and I still don't know exactly what I am going to teach! Taking a 3-week vacation was horrible because now I forget how to teach!! I'm so rusty now!

Last night a new student came, and after class she told me that she thought my class was too easy! My class is a level 2-3, and she said she thought I was teaching really at a level 1. The NERVE! Barge into my class and tell me it's too easy after ONE day?! I'm thinking, "really...then you should go sit in on the level 1 class and see what you think after that." Anyway, I'm not going to pay any attention to her, especially after I marked their writing and her paper wasn't much to write home about. Then there's the fact that my coordinator said he was going to write a comment about the marked improvement in my students to my boss, and then when I get home I realize that he cc'ed all the other teachers too....how embarrassing!!

Back to the lesson plans!

I have spent the past week doing... I don't really know! Just relaxing and being a bit like a housewife, I think. Making phone calls, doing laundry, cleaning, etc. During the week, I managed to 1) settle a long-standing dispute with Linens N Things (in my favour!); 2) blow up John's vacuum cleaner; 3) clean Pablo's tank inside and out; and 4) catch up on a week's worth of Oprah and Dr.Phil. When I think of it, I really only work 9 hours a week (not including lesson planning, of course) and I think I'd be too stressed out if I taught many more classes! I'm spoiled, I know. :(

In other news, I learned just before Christmas that I'm through to the interview stage of the JET Programme. Hooray! Pass that, and hopefully I'll be off to Japan in July! It'll be an experience and a half, and I'll be sure to blog all about it. In case I don't get in, the backup plan is to find a job teaching in HK so I can improve my Chinese. And in a distant and dusty third, Plan C is to ship off to South Korea just because Phill is there.

Carolyn's comment made me think. I think humans, in general, tend to prefer more temperate climates. I mean, how many people actually ENJOY cold weather? I for one, am not a fan, but Canada is my home and here in Ottawa, you take what's given to you and you roll with the punches. You get used to the cold and it just becomes a way of life. Weather is something that, as Canadians, we proudly complain about! I remember one summer morning when I was waiting at my new job. I met a friend of a friend at this job, Dre. He was standing with me in a track jacket, and he was jumping around to stay warm. Meanwhile, here I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and maybe a long-sleeved something because it was so early in the morning. I asked incredulously, "Dre, are you actually cold?? It's like 10 degrees!!" He flatly told me, "I'm Jamaican. In Canada, it's ALWAYS cold." He proved it another time when I ran into him in line waiting for bursary cheques. It was the middle of winter, but we were inside, and he was still bundled up in polar expedition gear, shivering beneath it all.
Maybe we ARE built to be Canadian!