Today was my first day of teaching and I think it went well. I was five minutes late because I slipped into some sort of time warp between 12 and 1:30. I had gone to the grocery store to buy some food for the week and then I went to lunch. By the time I went to lunch it was 1:20! This was the time that I was supposed to be on the touk touk. I panicked and ate my food in 5 minutes and dashed back to the hotel. I managed to get back in about 10 minutes and Steve (one of my instructors) was pissed (and rightly so in my opinion). I got on the touk touk with Stephanie (another person teaching at my school) and Dara (our driver) gunned it and we were only 5 minutes late and it turned out fine.
I wasn't teaching until 3 we got there around 2. The first hour I got to work with kids in the library area with some kids, I loved this! The library area is an area where kids can read or work on their writing, they were all working on the alphabet. I looked at some of their work and they were doing very well. I wanted to learn their names so I found a small whiteboard and wrote my name and had them do the same. I also read Curious George to them and they seemed to enjoy that.
My actual class, oh dear, I was up the river without a paddle. I got gyped today in terms of a lesson planning workshop. I was going to go to the workshop from 11 to 12 but they called it off because Indy (an instructor) wasn't there. I'm thinking: "you need 3 instructors to teach one workshop?" (scratches head). I had nothing prepared and I was going to teach grammar (goody!). I actually did fairly well, it went off without too much trouble. I consulted the teacher when I was really lost and that was helpful. Afterwards, Stephanie and I got back on Dara's touk touk and went back. The kids waved goodbye to us and that was a really good feeling.
On a completely different topic, everyone in my group (only when they're together, individually they're very nice) are assholes. Here's an example, they all hate two particular people in the group, one is this guy who has a difficult personality and the other who is an older woman who is a little strange but a nice person. The guy who has a difficult personality, they all pushed him (on a couple of occasions) to drink a hell of a lot more than he should have. They're also not particularly kind to him when sober either. I feel for him, I really do because I've been in that position before (not the drinking thing but you know). They're also very cruel to the older lady in our group, sure she never shuts up but she knows a lot of interesting things. It is a little annoying when she goes on a random tangent but she is a genuinely nice person. The reason I'm pointing all of this out is because there is a third person who doesn't try to fit in with the rest of the group. I'm doing what I did in high school, I'm a neutral party who can get along with everyone (even if I grow to hate their guts). This person is the second youngest in the entire group. I finally got to talking to her and she's staying in Phnom Penh. She is so nice and and sweet and cute (I think you know where this is going). She and I will be seeing each other and I dunno what will happen. I'm in Cambodia, anything can happen. *edit*, it's the whole group mechanic where people that are nice individually, come together, have alcohol and can become very mean-spirited but are perfectly nice when sober.
I like to finish things off with some kind of funny story, this time it's the tale of Satan's Belt. I bought a new belt that looked really nice and I wore it today. I got back to the hotel and was ready to change into my chilling out clothes (meaning no pants) and I couldn't get the belt off. I also had to pee...
I tried and tried and couldn't get it off. Eventually I stepped outside of my room and saw one of the guys. I convinced him to try to get it off. He couldn't do it either! He got me a pair of scissors and I cut it off. Now I have to buy another belt...
Till next time...
Later
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