A New Routine

Okay, so I've settled into a new routine.

It really doesn't take long. I fell into it almost immediately after the move, and there hasn't been much variation since. I guess it's inevitable. And it's not really a bad thing; I'm still enjoying my time here. I enjoy work at both my schools, and although my social life has diminished somewhat since leaving District 1, I'm still getting out at least a couple times each week. So far I'm content.

I've refrained from talking about AIS in the past several posts because a lot of truly awful things have gone on there. I can't go into detail on the blog, but I'll tell you all about it when I get back. The way I see it, this is a great experience for me, because I'm being exposed to the dark underbelly of the education world without having to worry much about consequences. If I say the wrong thing, there isn't much they can do to me, since I'm not technically an employee. I've signed no contract. The students are still wonderful, of course, and most of the staff are friendly. There was a somewhat scary incident a few days ago: one of our students asked to use the restroom, and on her way to the door, she collapsed. She didn't try to catch herself at all. I froze for a second, unsure of how to react; Tim was closer and went to help her up. I eventually got up, held the door, and watched the class while Tim took her to the nurse's office. We're still not sure exactly what caused the collapse; it didn't seem like a normal faint to me, and she couldn't walk for a while after. Apparently the student has had a long history of episodes like this, of which we were not notified by the school.

We started a poetry unit, and the other day the students had to write haiku. One student asked me to write one, and since I was missing Minnesota winter, I wrote this:

A bare tree stands cold
Sweet fire consumes winter
Eyes like falling snow

I wrote it in about five minutes, so it's not particularly good, but it sparked an interest in me. Haiku is fun to write because it doesn't take up much time and you have to work within specific parameters, which for me makes the process a lot easier; I can't write anything without some sort of formal rigidity. The only thing I don't like is that the form doesn't give much space to rhyme, and I love to rhyme. Anyway, I think I'm going to try to write one haiku a day, and then at the end of the week I can post all of them for that week. That'll give me something to post if I don't know what else to write about.

Working at Aston's has been an enlightening and challenging experience so far; I think it's taught me more about teaching in these three weeks or so than I've learned in my entire time at AIS. This is of course because at Aston's I'm in charge of the classroom, whereas at AIS I'm in sort of a periphary role. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings I teach teenagers and adults (mostly around 14 and 15, a few around 18, and the occasional adult), and then on Saturday and Sunday morning I teach younger children, anywhere from pre-school age to 12. The transition from teaching older children during the week to teaching younger children on the weekend is a difficult one; during the week I adapt to teaching at a higher level, so on the weekend I often find myself giving instructions that my younger students don't understand, like "Get into partners!" It's a real challenge to constantly change the level at which you teach, and to remember which class is which in terms of what they have learned and what they will understand. But the students are generally pretty good. I will admit I much prefer teaching older students; they're less rowdy, more willing to listen, and I can actually converse with them, as opposed to the "call and reponse" style of teaching I have to adopt when dealing with very young students. But it's all good experience, I get paid for it, and for the young classes I get a teaching assistant. It all works out.

Hmmm. What else? I guess I probably shouldn't make it so transparent that I'm writing these off the top of my head. You deserve quality organization in your blog entries!

I'm on a really cheap diet right now, and I'm probably eating too much. Within the past few weeks, the most I've spent on food in a day has been about 3 dollars. I eat a giant bowl of soup and a loaf of bread for breakfast; a big pile of rice with pork, vegetables, and tofu for lunch; and then for dinner I do whatever I feel like. Sometimes I eat so much for breakfast and lunch that I don't even need to eat dinner. It's a very different diet from what I'm used to in the US; at college I usually skipped breakfast, had a medium sized lunch, and had a big dinner. Here it's almost the opposite.

I still can't stand coriander. It's actually gone from being a mildly humorous problem to being rather serious. I've almost been sick just from the smell of it. It is without a doubt my least favorite taste, smell, and sight in the world (if I knew what it sounded/felt like, it would also be my least favorite sound/texture). I usually figure out a way to communicate to the restaurant management (the people standing up rather than sitting down beneath the tarp) to leave it out, but sometimes even the smell of it is too much for me and I have to leave. Originally I thought I didn't like it just because it was in everything, but now that I've gone a few weeks without tasting it and it still makes me sick, I'm more inclined to think I just really, really hate everything about it.

Vietnamese pork, on the other hand, is incredibly delicious. No offense to our own pigs at home, but they just don't stand up to Vietnamese pigs. And our pigs are quite a bit better than pork you buy in a store! I'm not sure what makes the pork here so amazing; the beef isn't very good at all. I suppose it might actually have to do with how they cook it rather than the quality of the meat. But whatever the secret is, I need to find out, because Vietnamese pork completely makes up for the existence of coriander. It's really that good.

One other food-related nugget of wisdom: if you are ever presented with a mysterious purple sauce that smells rather uncannily like decaying flesh, just go with your gut instinct. Please don't make the mistake I did and actually try it.