A Day in the Life of Me

I know the title sounds a little uninteresting and/or lackluster, but I will endeavor to do my best to entertain you in some small way. My day goes like this: The alarm goes off around 5:45 am, but I usually wake up around 5:58 because I am so depressed to leave my luscious, luscious bed. The call to prayer goes off around 4:30 am, so everyone in our building has probably been woken up by that at least once anyway. My roommate and I leave our flat at 6:20, so there isn't much time to get ready. We take the lift down and it's so annoying because we get stopped so many times on the way down because EVERYONE'S going to school at this hour. (The reason we leave so early is because Sharjah traffic is known for it's ridiculousness. It's insane. You will never be found again if you leave past 6:40.)
So, Jenny and I are in a car with a total of four people, so we meet them in the lobby and head off to school in our red Kia given to us. When I get to school, I usually sit in the staff room and use the wifi and procrastinate before heading to my room upstairs (picture of staff room, school, and classroom down at the bottom). I look at the whiteboard and see the updates. Oh, someone's sick so you have to cover one of their periods during your free period. Great. Oh, there's a Professional Development session after school, and another meeting, and another meeting, and blah blah blah. Awesome. Oh, look, the sugar jar has small black round granule balls in again. Sweet.
I head to my classroom around 7 and see what there is to see. Will the air conditioner turn on today? Hmm.. debatable. Will my computer be fast or slow? Probably slow. Will the smartboard be cockeyed and tell me check air flow? Who knows, but I lean towards yes. The ceiling fan is always working; thank goodness for my ceiling fan, the one dependable thing in this school. I put up the schedule on the board, mess around, and do whatever teachers do for a bit. Maybe I'll try to print something. But, the school claims it has tried to move away from worksheets for some unknown reason. Sorry, guys, but your textbooks are complete crap, and we do need paper for other things besides worksheets. They give us a 100 copies limit PER MONTH, and a 50 printer limit PER MONTH. I would use that much if I just sat at home all day. So, basically once your paper limit is up, everyone starts using the Primary Director's code (which you're probably not supposed to do), and then you can print/copy whatever you're like. But, don't think it's that easy. The printer, since it lives in the UAE, picks and chooses when it would like to print the items you send. It might print some, but keep others to itself, or it might print nothing or everything. You never know, it keeps you on your toes.
Moving on, we'll usually have a morning staff meeting about odds and ends, and then the bell rings at 7:45. We meet outside on the "green" area in lines with our classes. In early  September, it was ROUGH. Sweat, pure sweat was always present. But now it's actually rather pleasant out. Our principal speaks to us and then we sing the UAE national anthem (which is in Arabic, so I have to read the lyrics). Then we head up to our classroom. (Get interesting yet?)
Here's where the "wanting-to-rip-your-hair-out" part begins. At this point, the kids are getting settled, and I remind them to get out a book or doing something constructive at their desks instead of forming what I like to call "party tables." People come and wave homework in my face, and I have to keep reminding them that I don't want it now. If I have them first period, I start the day. I have a calendar friend who comes up and circles the date and says the date in a sentence. Then, I read them the schedule and we start off on our interesting journey.
So, I don't know if it's just kids, or the fact that they are reared up to be lazy, or that they're actually jellies (not smart kids), or whatever, but I have never given so many directions to a group of people in my life. While I am giving directions, WHILE I AM GIVING THEM, there will be a sillyhead raising his hand (it's usually the boys-shocker there), and right after I am finished speaking, I'll call on him, and he'll ask me, "What are we doing?" First quarter of hair officially ripped out. I use these phrases quite often: "Clean out your ears", "Turn your listening ears on" "Use your head, don't be silly" "Use your heads to READ the directions", and my favorite one, "For heaven's sake! (fill in after whatever is appropriate for the incident). I have one kid who does that every day. I get so angry with him, I want to scream. I had to leave the room yesterday for a moment to take a breather, I was so angry. So, here is the population of my class. I've got some really smart kids, who are well-behaved and do what they need to do. I've got some average kids who are a little hyper, but they do well. One of the smart kids is the "What are we doing?" boy. Ugh. Then we've got the low pals. Boy are they low. One girl has powdery skin, which is supposed to be a sign of inbreeding. Thanks, parents. You've done a great service to your child and to me. Smart move. She sometimes can't tell me what number comes after other numbers. This is third grade, honey. Let's roll here. She's one of those people that you ask a question to and they move their lips quietly to show that their thinking, but I don't think they really are. While reading, she struggled to sound out the word "no". I wanted to hit my head against the wall.

My other low friend has proved to be somewhat entertaining. I don't know what to do at this point with him. I put up sentences with blanks in them on the board, and the students were to fill them in with the spelling words that week. The words for that week were things like when, where, why, who, etc. The sentence was, "______ are we going?" This boy raised his hand, and I like to call on him to give him confidence, so I did. He answers, "Mom?" I almost died. Really? Really? I gave him a weird look, and said, "Now, does that make sense?" He eventually got the right answer, thank the Lord. But still this is what I'm dealing with. There are kids who can do multiplication and write paragraphs, and others who are struggling to tell me what and what makes 10. And, I'm by myself in a classroom of 26 kids. It's interesting. It could be a compelling psych experiment to see how long I last before I hurl my body through the windows. During the day, I deal with things, like "Ms., I can't find my book." It's in your desk. "I looked there." Look again; it's there. They look, and it's there. "Ms., someone was running in the hall." Worry about yourself. "Ms., it's my cousin's birthday tomorrow." I couldn't care less. There's this weird corner in my room where someone keeps putting things. I found a sandwich there once, an old banana, and ketchup packets all at different times. I also found a bag with a really creepy stuffed doll in it. Weird. I have a student who I think is autistic, who literally EATS his pencil. It has slowly diminished in size as the weeks go by.
But there are good times, too. Like when we played charades today because I couldn't be bothered to be angry at them anymore. Like a time when a lesson really goes well and they get really into it. Like the fact that I'm reading them the first book in The Chronicles of Narnia (yesssss), or like when I told the students that I'm not a super woman because I can't correct their tests in one second, and one student said, "Ms. Keri, you may not be a super woman, but you are a super teacher." So, I've had a few good laughs and have been thoroughly entertained. Sometimes, you just have to stop and laugh despite the ridiculousness of this school. I had parent teacher conferences last week, and one parent told me that she feeds her child in the morning because he's too tired to eat. She thought maybe she should stop doing that, so that he can become more independent. YA THINK? He's 7. Sorry, lady, but if my child was too tired to eat in the morning, he's not eating. So, parents are mega helpful in the independence area. (NOT).
But, after school and on the weekend is when the best part begins. You can go live your life and do amazing things you'd never be able to do at home! This past weekend, I enjoyed a day on the boat wakeboarding. In November, no less! A few weeks ago, I was out jetskiing one afternoon. It's a cool place. Underneath are some pictures I thought you'd appreciate. Oh, and final note: Dubai is the real cool place to be. It's like the popular kid in the high school of the Emirates. And Sharjah's the loser. There's this one joke someone showed me. You know, the lion King? Simba and his dad were on the cliff looking over the African savanna. Simba says, "Wow. What's that dark shadowy place over there, Dad?" The Dad replies, "That's Sharjah, son, you must never go there." That may be true, but I'd say that's a pretty darn good view (down below-that's the view from our running path along the beach in Sharjah).
So, despite my unfortunate hair loss because of these crazy heads, I'm still satisified and having a great time. Hope you enjoyed! More to come.

(Oh! And the video is of my class reading a poem aloud using the correct beat (we're learning poetry). They really wanted to show it to you guys! And afterwards, one of my students said, "Ms., you're voice sounds like a grandma." Difficult to hear, but in this video, it was true.)

Exploring the Desert

So, since I last wrote, I have been on a desert safari. (pictures below). I wanted to make sure I  mentioned this, because it's a typical Middle East tourist activity, and it's the thing you have to check off your list when you live/visit here. It was a little sketchy (of course), but it was great! We scheduled a man from the company to pick us up at our apartments, and he picked us up in this modified or insulated kind of SUV. We paid him our money while we were driving to our unknown location (shady), and then after a while, we started to wonder, where exactly are we going? We have received no details. But don't worry, guys, people do this safari stuff all the time, and DO NOT expect details or an itinerary to be given in this country. Ever. Unfortunately, no one here cares whether you know what activities will happen when, etc.

Anyway, we were driving into the desert of Dubai with a strange man who was playing Pit Bull music videos on the dashboard TV. (I thought about Dad who says he could be Pit Bull because Pit Bull doesn't do any dance moves, only hand movements-I think you should consider a career move, Dad. The market's probably open for some Pit Bull replacements).
Needless to say, we arrived, and the man had to let all or most of the air out of his tires, so that he could ride through the sand. Then he started speeding through the desert, over the sand dunes, which were sometimes like sand cliffs, and spinning around really fast. I had to hold tightly to the cup holder because we would be popped out of our seat, and the car almost tipped over a few times. Bear in mind, the whole time, Pit Bull music videos were playing. Very odd juxtaposition.

Then we arrived at the little "village". There was a string of camels that we rode around for basically 2 minutes. Kind of cool, but lame that they just walked us in a circle. The camels were HUGE, and it was so scary to get off because they knelt down very abruptly. The man dropped us off mega early (with no details given or itinerary shown), so we just walked into the mini company-made village and tried on Arabic clothing, got henna, and got snacks. We had a reserved table where we sat on pillows and everything, but it was about 3 hours until the actual meal was given and entertainment was started. Eventually, we had a buffet line for appetizers, and then it wasn't for another hour until the food came! We went up and checked to see if it was ready so much, the man who was in charge came to us and said he'd let us know when it was coming so that we could be the first in line. (how embarrassing).

The first entertainer was a dervish dancer I believe they're called. Or dancing dervish. It's the person who wears a skirt with a design and spins around in a circle the entire time. It was amazing. This man spun for about 10 minutes, and while he was doing that, he was moving and balancing these 5 baskets with designs on them that fit into each other. The next thing was the same guy, but he was inside of a puppet which had two heads, and it was supposed to look like two men fighting. He walked around in a circle on the stage, and one of his heads fell off by accident. The best part about that little show.
The last entertainer was also amazing! It was a professional bellydancer who did a bunch of different routines. She was fabulous, and it made you feel like you were back in time in the deserts of old, watching this kind of thing as you sit on your pillow and eat your food with your hands. All in all, it was a good day but a little long, and the desert is absolutely beautiful. When the sun sets and bleeds its orange color over everything, it's seems so soft and romantic. I hope to go back to explore the desert again someday. And if any visitors come, I will definitely take you there!

Eid Mubarek

The time has now come for our first vacation!!! We get 9 days off of work, and today was our last day before break. (Our weekend is Friday and Saturday in case you were unaware). This break is for Eid Al Adha which could be kind of compared to our Christmas, I guess. They make cards and bring in food and wear traditional clothing, etc. When you want to wish someone to have a good Eid, you say "Eid Mubarek". My lovely students taught me that. This morning, when all of the classes line up together for what we call "assembly", a woman sang some words from the Koran, and some year 8 girls did a little traditional dance for us in their traditional attire. I sat and watched and thought, "Yes, I am so glad I came here. You can't get this kind of cultural experience anywhere in Lanc!"

So, we started our day. I'm so glad it's break, because I'm getting a little tired, and the kids were starting to get to me. Why, oh why, can you not finish your homework? It was three questions. Literally. They respond, "I was too busy." I respond, "You're 8. What could you possibly be doing?" Needless to say, I can be a little sarcastic. I should probably consider toning that down.

I wanted it to be an easy day because we had a party later, so we played Shape Sudoku for part of math class because we're learning shapes, and we read books, etc. At 10, we had our party. I do not think I've ever eaten so much in my life. And if you know me, that's REALLY saying something. Each child brought something in. They brought things like: cases of dunkin donuts, pizzas, bags of chocolates, cookie tins, hot dogs, juice, chips. Anything you've ever wanted in your wildest dreams was there. There was a TON of stuff left over. We ate our way through that 40 minute period and watched Arthur and the Magic School Bus. I've introduced it to them, and they love it. So, the rest of the day wasn't super productive, but we did have another spelling test (Yes!) and did some reading groups. In another blog, I can give you an outline of what my day looks like. It probably doesn't look like what you'd find in a NORMAL school. This school is a little ridiculous. But, I digress.

I added some pictures of my class. In the waving one, you can see all of the food. It's crazy. And you can see kind of what my classroom looks like. In the other ones, the students were grouping shapes and making prefixes. I also added a video of shape drawing that we did one day. Enjoy! And Eid Mubarek!

Abu Dhabi

Well, it has been quite a while, hasn't it? Forgive my delay in posting. I was just too busy having a good time, I suppose (said smugly).

So, last weekend, my good friends and I headed off to explore the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It felt so strange to say, "Oh hey, I'll just be heading to Abu Dhabi for the weekend, no biggie." It's weird that it's so close to where I live now! We rented a car, and my flatmate drove us because she had just recently received her UAE license. Just to let you know, she is from Britain, so she is now learning to drive on the wrong side of the road (for her) in a country where traffic rules are not followed. People do not care if they cut you off and almost kill you/maim you. It's survival of the fittest on these roads. But, we survived, and headed to a 5 star hotel called Aloft, which was only 250 dirhams apiece (about 70 bucks). Super cheap. Of course that price would eventually change...

Here, there is this big thing about brunches. You pay a certain amount of money (about 250 dirhams or so) and you go to a "brunch" which could be during the day like 12-4 or night like 7-11. Obviously no one has looked up the meaning of brunch. We've been to about 4 of them now. You get unlimited food and drinks for the price you pay, and then sometimes there's a dance floor after, or you go on to another place for the rest of the evening. It is the weirdest feeling to hear rap music booming on a dance floor at 3 in the afternoon. Not unwelcome, but weird. So, to continue, we went to a brunch at this hotel, and ordered drinks and had lots and lots of food. It was about 200 d's apiece, so at the end, when we're feeling a little more (lighthearted shall we say?) we said to the man, "Oh, just charge it to the room! No problem!" That became kind of our motto for the weekend. "We have to pay this. Wellllll charge it to room 920!" It's like we said it, and our bill would magical disappear in front of our eyes. Not the case. It's quite laughable when you go to get your bill at the end of your stay, and it comes to about 500 dirhams more than the original price. Oh well. It was all for the experience. (I'll be eating my words instead of food this month, I think).

The next day, we went to do the most incredible thing ever. We went to what was basically a party island. It was called Al Maya Island, and we paid 100 dirhams for the whole day. They drove us on a boat to the island for about 30 minutes, and the views were absolutely gorgeous. No clouds in the sky and perfect blue water. It was amazing. I hadn't yet been on a boat since I'd been here, so I was very happy. We get to the island, and they have a beach, a HUGE swimming pool, a dance floor, an outdoor bar, and an indoor bar, and a whole space for cushioned lay-out chairs. We spent the day from 1:30-6 or7. It was lovely. We met lots of new people, went swimming in the ocean, were allowed to bring cups and bottles into the pool, laid out, etc. I haven't had such a good time in a long while. (I've included a photo).

After that we headed home, and once we got off of the boat, we were offered a ride home from two guys who had a huge SUV. There was about 9 girls and 1 boy in our group, and my friends were like, "Sure! Why not?" And my father doesn't seem to think this, but I AM THE SENSIBLE ONE at these times, and I said, "Girls, this car is parked in what seems to be the exact scene from Taken. We're not going in there. There are mini trailers around here. They will take us, and we will die. But, my words were not heeded, and my friends are infamous for their peer pressure. (Dad, don't worry, there was a man with us who was our friend, and who was an ex-Marine.) Once, we get in, I see that all of the seats are covered in plastic. Great. Good. Now the evidence of our deaths can be hidden. I tried to explain this to my good old pals, but they were not worried in the slightest. It was fine in the end. As you can see, I've survived! But, I wouldn't do that again in a hurry. Plus I had to ride with my neck bent at a 90 degree angle because there were too many of us. After that, we just went out and danced the night away (my dream). Hilariously enough, one of my friends was meeting someone there. When he came, she did not speak to him. (This was a young attractive guy). Instead she preferred the company of an crusty, old, fat man named Curtis on the dance floor. Curtis is the best name he could have had, right? But she came around in the end.

Sorry, this is dragging on, but here's my last bit. On our last day, we went to see the Grand Mosque! Absolutely breathtaking. We had to wear abayas, which were RIDICULOUS. (See facebook). The abayas were a little Amishy, but hey I'm getting back to my roots, I suppose. The mosque was gigantic, and we just went in and walked around the whole main room (which apparently contains the largest carpet in the world). I attached some photos for your viewing pleasure.

In conclusion, Abu Dhabi was nice, but not like Dubai AT ALL. It's very low key, hardly any traffic, taxi drivers knew what they were doing (I was flabbergasted), and not flashy. Think of Harrisburg vs. New York City. Dubai is more my style, but it was nice to visit Abu Dhabi and see what the rest of the UAE has to offer. More adventures to come!

Explanation: I found this at a mall in Abu Dhabi. You know you're in the Middle East when...this is offered as a viable option for a jogging outfit.

T-E-A-C-H-I-N-G in S-H-A-R-J-A-H

Yesterday, I gave my first spelling test. I have ALWAYS wanted to administer a spelling test since I was a kid, and this was my moment. It was quite satisfying. I circled around the room as I gave the words, and you better believe I put each word into a sentence. "Stain. He had a stain on his shirt. Number three is stain." It was brilliant. And I was very adamant that my students be quiet during the test, and they actually were! I was very impressed with them. I also told them to keep their tests a secret because I have a few "answer-sharers" in my class.

So, teaching is difficult. Sometimes it's actually physically difficult because you use every muscle in your body to do something. It's like you're on stage and are performing, and my voice feels raspy at the end of the day because I'm talking ALL DAY LONG and louder than usual.

My day consists of me looking at my schedule and saying, "All right, well let's do this." Plans hardly ever turn out as expected, so "winging it" will become a skill I will add to my resume. I have 26 students, and my room is very small, so things get a little tight now and then. And loud. I have kids in my class who could talk to a stone wall, they're so chatty. Why, oh why, must you come up to me while I'm doing something and tell me something completely irrelevant to everything else? Why, oh why, must I give directions 800 times and you STILL don't know what you're supposed to do? These are the kinds of questions I ask myself throughout the day. So as you can imagine, I sometimes get impatient, so when a kid does something ridiculous, I put a splash of sarcasm in my voice as I say, "What are you doing right now? Why are you over there? Sit down." I do a lot of finger snapping too. If someone's talking while I'm talking or asking a question without raising their hand, I snap in their direction, and they cut it out. I'm not quite sure where I picked that semi-strange thing up.

Anyway, about the UAE (or at least Sharjah)...It's not quite what you'd expect from a Middle Eastern country. Everyone made it seem so scary with tons of rules and everything, but it's really not. (I'm sure in some parts it is, and you must be careful), but this place is like a hodge-podge of cultures and people, and it can't really decide what it wants to be. Near my building is a big mosque, but then right around the corner is TGIFriday's. Our grocery store is right next to our building, so we can walk to it, and the only time you realize you're in the Middle East is when you walk through the sand parking lot to get there. Oh and of course the shady men who work in the grocery store who have no scruples about openly staring at you because you're different. There are dress code rules, but they're not really super enforced. When I'm around Sharjah, I try to wear knee-length pants and shoulder-covering shirts, but when we go to Dubai, it doesn't matter. It just feels weird to get into a taxi in Sharjah in something Sharjah would deem "inappropriate". Everyone also speaks English here (or some version of it), so Arabic is not required of you. To be honest, I feel like Germany was more of a culture adjustment because there everything is in German and not German and English, and they didn't have peanut butter or tissue boxes. Here, everything is in English as well as Arabic; I can buy Jif peanut butter; and my goodness, they use tissues for everything under the sun (like drying your hands or wiping your sweaty face) which are too big of jobs for tissues to handle. This country hasn't figured that out yet I guess. 
Oh, and disappointingly enough, I hear the call to prayer every day, but I have yet to see people stop what they're doing to kneel and pray. Bummer. Lastly, I have a parent in my class who wears an entire burka so all you can see are her eyes. After I met her, I saw her the next day and actually RECOGNIZED her. How you ask? We don't know. I must be getting good. Future resume skill section: 1. winging it 2. recognizing women in full burkas

I hate taxi drivers

Taxis are very easy to come by. I just walk out of my apartment door and one will be right there ready to be hailed. There are so many of them around, and it's very convenient. Unfortunately, we spend a ton of dirhams to use a taxi because we have to use them all of the time. There isn't much more of a public transportation system than this.

One thing is for sure-if you pick up a taxi in Sharjah, GUARANTEED they will not know where they are going. It's almost uncanny how bad of taxi drivers they are. They pretend for a little while, but you can tell that they just suck. They have to call their friends and sometimes have to actually STOP and ask another taxi or a passerby. Now, I had the crowning taxi experience of my time here in the UAE. I was heading to Dubai to go for drinks with someone, and this taxi driver (from Sharjah) pretended to know where he was going. When I told him where I wanted to go, he had to have me repeat it a few times, and then he called a friend to see where it was. Then he kept driving and thought he knew where he was going. Then he took me to a place nearby where I was going, but he still didn't know, so he had to stop a parking director and a hotel attendant to ask where he was going. We continued driving for about 10 more minutes (this journey has been about 30 minutes so far, and Dubai is more like 20 minutes away). He's on a huge highway, and I'm chilling in the back, thinking everything is ok. Then I see him shake his head, and he tells me, "I don't know this. I don't know where I'm going. I'll drop you off here, and you pick up taxi." I was PISSED. Imagine my delight when I was promptly dropped off on the side of a highway where there was a bit of construction and left to my own devices!! I thought, "ok, I'll just wave for a taxi when one drives by." First of all, hardly ANY drove by. And even if one did, I would flail and flail, but none would come to my aid. So, I'm stressing at this point. I'm a young, blonde, American girl in the Middle East on September 11th on the side of a huge highway with no options at my disposal. I am wearing a short tight skirt and a tank top. Therefore, I felt like I would be either taken or arrested. I start yelling out loud to myself, "What the frick am I supposed to do? I am in the middle of the fricking middle east, and no taxi is helping me. Great. GREAT!" And you can be sure I was using excessive hand motions as I ranted and raved. I had to start walking down the highway, shaking my head and saying, "Why do these things always happen to me? Why? Why?" Eventually, I see a taxi coming and I flail my heart out, and he stops. Thank the lord. I run down to him, and am breathless in my gratitude. Geez, that was a close one. (this side of the road experience lasted about 15 minutes)

I told him my tale, and he said that a lot of people from Nepal and Bangladesh come and become taxi drivers almost illegally because they don't have to take a test, so that's why they don't know anything.

Needless to say, I was a little late, but I arrived in one piece to have drinks. This hotel was right in front of the Burj, and afterward we went and saw a fountain light show. Gorgeous. Can't believe I live here. But the taxi drivers still suck.

Mega Delayed

Dear friends and fam! I apologize that it has taken so long for me to post, but here I am now, ready to update you with all of my current happenings.
Let's start from the beginning. It took me two 6.5 hour flights to get here with a stopover in Paris. Nothing super exciting, but they almost didn't let me on the plane in Philly because they were looking for some international documents attached to my ticket and couldn't find them!! But, all is well as you can see.

If we're Facebook friends, you can tell that things are going all right. This was the best decision I could have made, so thank you to all who encouraged me to do this. Something my dad has said to me a few times before keeps coming to mind: "If you want to keep the party going, just go to grad school." So this is like my version of grad school. It's awesome :). I used to think I lived in a city. Nope, I basically lived on a country road compared to this. Sharjah is secretly huge, and unfortunately I haven't seen 95 percent of it because on the weekends, we usually head to Dubai to see what we can see. But, I've got two years, so I'll get there. The Burj Khalifa is beautiful, but I'm sorry, my first thought when I saw it was, "Hmm... I thought it'd be bigger." My apologies to the architecture world, but it doesn't look as big as you'd expect!! Dubai is amazing. Very flashy--no matter where you go, you feel like you're a millionaire just cruising around. It's a good feeling. I don't think I've gone dancing as much in my life, and if you know me, you know that that has made me extremely happy.

About teaching: It's a zoo. This school is starting with new curriculum and new management, so people are getting adjusted to how things work, and...it is nothing like an American school. We didn't get much support, nor do we have many resources. I walk around all day going, "Sooo...I don't actually know what I'm doing, but here we go." My class is a bunch of friendly little pals, but they are chatty, and many of them raise their hand during lessons to say things like, "Miss, my mom's birthday is in February." It takes everything in me to not say, "Well, I'm sorry, but I really couldn't give a damn." And another girl told me one day when I was wearing my blue jacket, "Miss, your jacket makes you look like a pirate." Dear lord, so they keep you on your toes. It's very entertaining, and this past week was full of me sometimes making things up on the spot of what to do. We are reading James and the Giant Peach, and you better believe I'm changing my voice to sound like the different characters. So, we have a good time, and I'm sure things will improve!
Anyway, that's enough for one blog, I'd say. Oh, and yeah, it's HOT. ALL OF THE TIME. My school is open air almost (not my classroom), so it feels strange to come from the teachers' lounge holding a cup of tea and have the pure sun just beat down upon you. But I'm sure Becky Nickles completely understands.
Talk to you all soon!