Random

--Tonight I finished the rest of my holiday cards! I feel very proud of my work, and I hope my family and friends appreciate the gesture from the new, grown-up me.

--My local post office is great. I have to go there all the time, and I never have a problem. It doesn't have an automated post machine, which is too bad, but they're open until 7 on weekdays and 4 on Saturdays! Plus, it's rarely crowded and the clerks are efficient and friendly enough. The post office in my old neighborhood was always a zoo, no matter what day or time. The only saving grace there was the automated machine. But that didn't make picking up parcels any easier. So good job, local Postal Service! Keep up the good work.

--This weekend while shopping, I got a small case of Washington Fuji apples at Costco. I have eaten one the last two days while at school, and they are tangy and juicy and tasty, and I love them a lot. Thank you to my snobby teammate who alerted me to their superiority four years ago, I haven't looked back since!

--The last two nights, I have had vivid, movie-like dreams. The night before last, it was about me starting a new temp job, and at first it seemed like it was going to be all ghetto, and I was late and not dressed and lost (which is how many of my dreams work), but then I got there and it was a movie studio. It was really cool! I was all working and running around helping out, and soon there was even a montage! Swear to god. I was in the movie in the later part of the dream, which is freaking awesome. Last night in my dream a bunch of sorority girls kidnapped me while I was visiting an old college town (a mix of the two real cities I went to school in). The head sorority girl was upset because once I happened to meet her ex and she was jealous.

I know dreams are boring, but they've been so interesting for me!

--School is progressing well. We are practicing our skills and our writing now, and it will only get more intense. I have not covered any figlang like similes, and I'm worried about that. I have this growing list of things I! Must! Cover! before the test. Egads, will I get through it?

--Have I talked about my afternoon class? They are the rowdyish ones, and there are several students who do either nothing or next to nothing almost every day. But I try to ignore them when I think about the class, otherwise I will get all worked up. (Like you have seen, I give out progress reports, letting them know how they're doing; every day they have an opportunity to succeed by doing the [easy] homework, and they continually choose to do nothing. There's only so much I can do, so I let it go as best I can.) Anyway, that class is also the lowest in terms of overall ability level. But, I kind of like them, because though sometimes they are noisy when I don't want them to be, they are always entertaining, with enough personality for five classrooms.

At first I loved my first high level class, because they are so smart and hardworking. Also they are very quiet and respectful. But compared to my feisty afternoon class, the morning class is downright dull.

Not like I would want to give them up or anything! I feel like at least I can reach and teach just about all of that class, whereas with the other two classes kids are falling through the cracks and I don't have time or wherewithall to get them up.

Anyway.

--Oh man. I got the coolest thing in the mail at school yesterday. It was like my prayers answered about the future. It was a brochure for international teaching positions. Oh my god, it is the awesomest, most me-ist thing I've seen in a long time! It got me really excited and I could hardly contain myself while still at school. I couldn't exactly go skipping around the hallways singing about leaving to teach in a whole other country, now could I?

--I think there was more I was going to share. But I think it's been lame enough for long enough, so this shall be it.