whew!

i actually have a few minutes to spare. let me tell you about my world these days. this is my general daily schedule:

get up around 7:30
8:30-9:00 am: walk to school
9:00 - 11:30 : work on lesson plan or other homework
11:30 - 5 pm - input sessions and feedback on previous lessons. at lunch, try to finish lesson plan for tonight.
5-6 pm : desperately try to finish printing materials for class at 6, read over lesson plan so I know what i'm doing
6-8:15 pm : teach a class (not the whole class, three of us - out of our group of 5 - will each teach a 40 minute lesson...so i don't teach every day but still have to attend the class and take notes of everything)
8:30 - 9 pm : walk home
9 - 9:30 pm : eat dinner
9:30 - 2 a.m : work on next day's lesson plan or other homework
2 - 7:30 a.m. : sleep. dream about teaching class and trying to explain the meaning of words like 'represent'

by the end of day last Thursday we were all completely exhausted. There are 16 people in the course and we're split into three groups of 5 or 6 people, and each group has its own class of students. Sometimes there are lessons which are unassessed which means that our tutor/observer leaves the room and we teach without being graded on it. Last Thursday, while poor Krista was teaching an unassessed class, three of us trainees in the back completely. lost. our. shit. I mean hysterical, uncontrollable laughter, for no apparent reason. There was mascara all over my face by the end of it. Thank god the tutor wasn't there. Students were very confused.

We teach a pre-intermediate class, which means they can communicate fairly well but simply and their grammar isn't very clean. Our class is fairly small (only around 8-10 people show up) and quiet so it's hard to get them to speak up in class. Also we have a set of identical teenaged twin boys...at the beginning of each class we have to ascertain who is who.
So far I've taught 4 classes....the first two were painful (you remember Charlie Brown's teacher? wa-wa-wa-wa-waa-waaaaaa.....that was me. Ugh.), the last two have gone fairly well and been really fun. What I've learned is that if you want to bring things up a notch, you should try to incorporate a picture of a ham into your lesson. I like pointing to ham and making people tell me what it is. Ham. It's just fun!
However I'm lucky because I haven't had to do a grammar class yet. How on earth can you make a grammar class interesting? Hopefully I will be able to use a pork product of some sort.

It's Wednesday of the second week already and so far I'm less exhausted than I was last week...I think it's because last night I made an effort to get at least 6 hours of sleep. It's amazing what the body can get used to. Oh....maybe all those large lattes I've been drinking have something to do with it as well. I'm going to enjoy this feeling of well restedness as long as I can because I know it won't last. I have two assignments due next week plus a class every couple of days to teach.

Ham!

p.s. if anyone has tried to call me and left a message on the answering machine...I'm sorry but I don't know how to access the voice mail yet so I haven't got the message...will hopefully figure that out on the weekend.

what have I gotten myself into?

I'm staying in Budapest for a while...I have a room in an apartment and a phone and everything. It feels so weirdly permanent, even though it's only for a month (i think).

The reason I'm staying is that I've enrolled in an english teacher training course (the CELTA certificate if that means anything to you). Today was the first day and I teach my first class (a 30 minute lesson) tomorrow night. I bought a grammar book yesterday which only proved to me how very little I know about English grammar. I probably know more about French grammar. Actually, I think the course is going to be great but I'm apprehensive about the 'teaching a real class' aspect of the whole thing. Feels like I'm heading for a root canal or something.

Apologies as well for the lack of new photos but my digital camera is still broken. I'm using film now but haven't had any developed yet.

Have I mentioned the thermal lake yet? About 3 hours south of here there is a town called Heviz which boasts a thermal lake. That means the water is warm all year, and generally filled with elderly people looking for a 'cure'. It's medicinal (read: mildly radioactive among other things). I arrived in Heviz not knowing where I was going to stay, but luckily I ran into Yi Ling on the bus...she offered so share her room with me! Sweet! We went to the lake and hung out...the water's warm. Ish. I wouldn't take a bath that cold. It was cool being outside at this time of year in a lake but not the most comfortable experience. Later, inside, an older Hungarian man started talking to us in english so we had a conversation with him for a while. In the dressing room after the lake had closed a woman started jabbering at us in Hungarian with a very intense expression on her face. After about 10 minutes we figured out she was telling us to stay away from the bad man. Basically what I could understand was "man", "no", and "sex". Clear enough!