A Busy WEek of Work

One of the vocab words that I'm discussing with my class this week is 'seek'.....I was looking for some images to use as an example of seeking and i came across this one. I really like this photo and Scripture. Such simple words, yet so complex....

It's been a busy week. This class has been keeping me extremely busy.  I have been getting a bit frustrated with my students and their attendance.  I have a small class already so when one or two students don't show up, it really makes things difficult. I have one student who has only been to class TWICE in three weeks. There's not a whole lot that I can do in the area of consequences. A couple of the students are only going to be here for another month or so and then will be heading back to their home countries.  The school only requires that they are in class 75% of the time, so the students take advantage of that "free" 25 percent. lol.

D and I had our second  Boys town interview on Monday.  They spent the first part of the interview trying to convince us that the job is too difficult. haha Then they asked us about ten questions, which weren't TOO difficult. They said that they would be interviewing more people and would then choose who goes on to the next round of interviews. I walked away feeling semi-confident.  I thought we did ok... Not the best maybe, but not bad. D on the other hand, was not feeling very confident at all.  I think he has pretty much been convinced that we have no chance of getting the job.  So he's been moping around the house ever since Monday.

But he was wrong..... they called us this afternoon and want to meet with us on Monday for a third interview. So we made it to the next round! I have mixed feelings about it all. While I'm excited, I'm also extremely anxious because I realize that it's a gigantic commitment and will be life changing. If we get the job, our lives will be so different for the next two years. It's scary, yet exciting. So we'll see how this next interview goes....

Other than work, not too much has been happening. I spent all Tuesday night working on laundry while D went golfing w/ his bros. I met a pretty cool senior down in the laundry room and we chatted between loads of laundry. haha A nice change from the usual crabby old ladies that I typically run in to down there :P I've also talked to Jennica for a LONG time two nights in a row. It was really nice! I feel like we can both be so busy sometimes that it's hard to stay in touch like we want to...

This week I've tried a couple new/different foods and have been trying to focus on healthy eating. (Well, except for that cheesecake I bought the other day.....)

Cold pasta salad that I made for the first time... whole wheat pasta w/ pesto sauce, mozzarella pieces, and cherry tomatoes.  Next time, I will probably add fresh basil. It seemed to be missing a little something, so I added some parm cheese and garlic salt and that seemed to help. It's pretty tasty!

I've been on a pita chip kick so I bought some hummus. I've been wanting to try it for awhile, but just never had. It's made from garbanzo beans (chick peas) which I ADORE, so I figured it must be pretty good. Fresh n' Easy was running a deal--2 for $5 so I bought two flavors-- pesto and roasted tomato.  My fave is the pesto...the other was ok. Maybe I'll try to make my own sometime...

Okay, well time to head to bed. Night everyone!

My first week...

I survived my first week @ my new job! Yay! I must say that after three days of teaching my PART TIME class, I am exhausted! haha I think it's because I haven't really had much time to prepare.  I taught my first class on Wednesday and I think it went pretty well.  I didn't get to pick up my books until late afternoon on Tuesday, so I really didn't have much time to prepare for my first class. I've fallen into a routine of working on my lesson for a couple hours @ night and then finishing it up between 9am and noon on the day of class. I do NOT want to continue this routine. I hope to get up to date this weekend, so that I have my lessons planned for the next week! I am definitely earning my money. And I don't even get paid for any prep time. That sucks! But I'm really enjoying my job and it's been a great experience so far.

These are my teaching materials stacked on top of my car outside the building where I teach...

I'm teaching a really small class--only four students.  One of the students hasn't been to class at all this week, I think she may have a family emergency or something.  I have two students from Japan and one student from Brazil. I don't have much access to technology.  I've been taking my laptop and have wifi access, but don't have a projector so can't really make any powerpoint presentations. I have a marker board and that's about it. So this is definitely giving me another perspective on teaching. Plus, it's different teaching to such a small audience.I had a really small class today--only one student! Another kind of intimidating thing is that there is a video camera in the classroom and the manager told me that there's a chance that my director could be watching me. Kind of creepy! I've just been trying to pretend that it's not there. haha.

 Other than teaching/preparing, I haven't really accomplished a whole lot this week.  I worked out on my stepper on Monday and Wednesday and was SO sore! A great workout! Haven't had time to use it the past few days though.

On Wednesday evening, D and I hung out with Larry and Alicia. We went to Costco, ate at some taco place, and picked up D's truck which was @ Larry's house.

Venus Fly Trap

a little bonsai Juniper tree..

The taco place that we went to for dinner. Supposedly has the best fish tacos. I got a burrito. It was ok. They put some sauce in it that i didn't like, but the price was super cheap!

What we bought at Costco:  danish (smelled divine!) and pizza. We were STARVING when we went shopping. When we walked out of the restaurant and looked @ what we had bought it looked disgusting. haha :P The pizza was ok and the danish was super good!

On Thursday, D and I  had a two hour phone interview with a representative from Boy's Town.  We are applying for a Family teaching Couple position about an hour south of here. The next step would be an in-person interview. They're supposed to let us know in 3-5 days.

Well, that's about it for now.  I spent the evening working on laundry and cleaning up the apartment.  D cooked some smelly fish soup and smelled the apartment up. Yuck!

D with his fish/noodle soup

I still need add the photos from the last few days of my family visiting...will try to do that sometime this weekend. It's a three day weekend because of MLK Jr. Day! Yay!

Okay, well goodnight!

Surprise, surprise!

Well, they called me this afternoon and offered me the ESL teaching position.  I was genuinely surprised since it's already Monday afternoon. I had concluded that they'd hired someone else. D and I talked it over during his lunch break and I put in my resignation to ABC and accepted the ESL job! I'm really nervous about it all...I hope that I made the right choice.  Honestly, I felt trapped @ my other position. Perhaps it was the "safe" place to be, but I think that this leap will offer me more opportunities. I'm approaching it as a stepping stone. We shall see what happens. The current semester goes through the end of April and then I'll go from there I guess. I'm extremely excited, but sooo nervous! I have to figure out how to approach this class! I've never taught ESL before and NEVER taught adults before so this should be a challenge.

My new schedule will be M-F  1:30pm to 5pm.  The class is small right now (5-10 students) but could grow.  The level is basically conversational language.  I think most of the students have a degree and can read/write English, but need to practice speaking and listening in English. I go in tomorrow to take care of paperwork and get my materials. I start teaching on Wednesday! Yikes! Only 2 days away!