Rough day

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

O my. What insanity today. Slept in late, went down to the bank and got my bank card, bought some phone credit and a stamp. All goes well.

Get to school, copy my things for lessons, go to the first class. HEC kids, they’re pretty well on top of things. Hehe we did a stereotype unit—asked them to think of stereotypes they had of America, and stereotypes they thought Americans had of the French. Got some great things: for positive, Americans have lots of money, and for negative, Americans want lots of money. George Bush came up under the negative side (along with “sorry” written in parentheses, how cute).

The second class I had—I thought I was going to observe and just do a short introduction of myself—but no. The prof was like, ok I’ll stay in the room, just do what you do. Aaaah. Sooo not prepared for that, but I ended up just doing introductions—and it took longer because there were 16 of the little whippersnappers—and then played “I like people…” I’m beginning to get sick of this game.

Then ran to the third class, who turned out to be quite good in English. Gave them intro stuff, then a short multiple choice quiz…things like, which state has the highest population of people with French ancestry…what is the national language…etc. Then had them read an article aloud about the national language issue in the US, then divided them in two groups, one pro-national language, one against it. Then the two sides had a lovely debate. They are very good at expressing their ideas, which is encouraging. Can do real issues with this class.

Came home, ate and ate and ate, and then just sat around talking for a bit. Tomorrow is a day off, but I will probably go to school anyway just to do lesson plans and try to find flights and/or trains to Scarborough and Zurich. CanNOT wait for internet at the house. It’ll save me so much time.

M. Bride is going to take the poor diseased cat to the vet tomorrow, so hopefully I won’t have to stress when I find her inside sitting on beds or chairs or towels anymore. It’s probably just dry skin or something, but I definitely would get it fixed and not contract any strange skin disease from our feline friend.