The Final Countdowwwn (Insert 80s hairmetal dance sequence)

Instead of doing something frivolous, such as marking notebooks or lesson planning, I have decided to spend some time with the blog read round the world. Ok, perhaps a little pretentious...a blog that is read in at least 4 countries. Obtaining world-wide fans aside, this blog has another major perk: decompression. It helps to be able to write everything down, keep my friends and family updated and just have a place to record some memories of this pretty big adventure I've found myself on.

This week has been the most stressful week yet, without a doubt. Last week all my students completed assessments and, this week, the task of marking them naturally had to be done. That was a big enough task. Add to that...

--Staff meetings/co-curricular activities every single day after school
--Two open evenings for parents and potential future students
--Re-interviewing and re-applying for my job to continue past Christmas--which included a 3-hour interview process, a lesson observation, a formal interview, a formal application and setting cover work for the time I would be doing the interview
--Lesson planning (apparently that's an important part of teaching...)
--Dealing with the cold/flu bug I found myself gifted with last Sunday

Hmm. Oh, yes. I tried to sleep every now and again.

Somehow, with the help of lots of over-the-counter cold medication, a few breakdowns here and there, and lots of raging moments of "I can't do this! Get me on a plane back to Canada!" I survived. The assessments are all marked, the open evenings are over (rather successfully, I think...the young kids looooved making me say things in my "funny" accent), I'm feeling much better thanks to lots of sleep over the weekend, the lessons were somehow planned and I successfully was signed on with the academy until the end of the academic year. I celebrated Friday night by getting take-away, eating the first proper meal I'd had all week, and going to bed by 11pm. I know. I'm livin' the rockstar dream.

After all of that, it felt like it should be mid-term break. But, oh no. Not yet. I have a 4-day week this week with the students and a morning of staff training next Friday before I head across the sea to Norway for my mid-term break. Can't wait!! Kristian's birthday is this Wednesday, so I'll be just in time for birthday celebrations on the weekend. Aside from that, just looking forward to having time to relax, not think about school (as if that will happen), spend time with Sarah & Kristian and hopefully discover some long-lost Viking tribes that happen to be kicking around Stavanger. I promised Zach I'd try to bring him back a pirate ship from England, but maybe a Viking shield or helmet would suffice.

I'm missing home, missing family, hockey, TIM HORTONS, and the beautiful fall weather I'm accustomed to in Canada. It's nice enough here...starting to cool down, stay grey-skied most days and the weather is tending to lend itself towards wet and raining most evenings, but not what I'm used to. I miss the smell of a fall morning (as cliche as that sounds) and the warmth of a wood fire. Oh, dear. I think I'm turning into a Harlequin novel. I suppose that is a sign I have to drag myself to marking notebooks and prepping for school tomorrow morning.

T-minus 5 days!