Ahh, the end of another week. Thanks be to God. The weeks, in retrospect, go by really fast, but man I am exhausted at the end of the day and dead on my feet by the end of work on Friday. Continuing on with the weekly tradition of "screw cooking!" Fridays, Joel, a colleague, Zoe, and I went back to O'Neills for a (few) drinks and some supper. It's such a relief to know that I don't have to even think about school for the next 48 hours (nevermind the fact I dragged home about 15 pounds of marking in my bookbag today) and I can enjoy my weekend.
Hmm. The biggest news happening recently is my upcoming trip to Norway on my mid-term break. I fly out Friday afternoon & return 9 days later, just in time to crash for the night and head right back to school that Monday morning. I refuse to take--or even think about--schoolwork with me, so I'll be slightly manic (and incredibly cranky) by the time I board the flight. I've made up my mind and decided I refuse to spend a break, whether it be a mid-term, Christmas, or otherwise, here in Northampton. I'm heading to Norway for this break, going home for Christmas, hopefully Greece for my spring break and we'll see what other adventures I can find myself on for the others. I want to be able to look back when I'm 50 and finish a story to my grandkids by saying "...and when I woke up, it was just me, the goose and I was lost in Italy!” or something else amazing along those lines. I was to have as many great, crazy and terrifying adventures as I can while I can still get away with the excuse of being young and irresponsible.
Not too many random adventures happening as of late. As part of my job requirements, I help run a co-curricular club afterschool on Thursdays and it just so happens to be a Glee club. It is lots of fun, so far. Although my little Gleeks just enjoy making me repeat words back to them in "Canadian" for the hour we're there. I did a nice little Michael Buble duet—by default since the rest of the students refused to sing—with a kid this past week (which may have been slightly inappropriate and I'm sure Ray Williams is screaming somewhere '701!! 701!!!). Speaking of Michael Buble, I was going to buy tickets to his show in Birmingham this weekend but they are sadly all sold out. So. The moral of this story is that I would probably sell a kidney if I could get a ticket to see his show. Cause, when I think about it, it'd be a little hard for him to propose if I'm not actually at the show. See? Always thinking.
While talking to a colleague this morning, I realized that I actually had to concentrate to pick up on her accent. I was amazed—did this mean that I really was growing accustomed to living in England? Was I actually beginning to understand the British accent? I was so proud of myself! …Then I had to ask a kid to repeat the word “football camps” about 5 times before the rest of the class, in unison, shouted back “he said FOOT…BALL…CAMPS!!!” and I was knocked off my high horse pretty quickly. I’ve also had the first awkward student-add to Facebook. I came to realize pretty quickly that I should probably not have lied and told my students I didn’t have Facebook because that lie apparently doesn’t hold up well. Damn this Gen-X and their Facebook frenzy.
To add to the list of strange questions I’ve had from my students…
--“Miss? Miss?! Do you know you’re not wearing any pants?!” (This came today from one of my Year 9 girls who saw me wearing a skirt and wanted to make sure I knew about the change of my wardrobe)
--“Miss…how do you drive in Canada? Like…do you have cars yet?”
--Student: “what’s that thing on your flag?”
Me: “A Maple leaf”
Student: “What’s it do? You know…what’s it grow on?”
--Student: “Do you have those things in Canada…you know. Like reindeer. Only not. You know!”
Me: “Moose?”
Student: “What the hell is a moose?!”
--“Is there ever any sunshine in Canada?”
And, yet again, I’ve been asked if I know Justin Bieber one too many times. I really, really hope that he falls out of the limelight soon. Or hits puberty. Either would work fine.
As always, I must end with yet another brilliant story about my grace, wit, or impeccable sense of timing. I was doing duty at afterschool detention today (FYI: kids love doing detention afterschool on Friday afternoon. Love it. They don’t resent you at all) and had diligently shown up on time, spoken to the students I had put on detention for some silly little reason (such as throwing a book at someone’s head or something equally as inconsequential) and stepped out to speak to a member of staff. I walk back into the theatre (the only room big enough to house the number of students we had on detention) and bump into the vice-headmaster who looks at me and says “Alright Jess? You just showing up now? A little late, aren’t you?” and walks away before I thought of a coherent enough sentence to respond. Damn damn dammit.
T-14 days until Norway!
No comments:
Post a Comment