Day 16 - Time share au pair
Still the same as the emails - sorry if you're doing both!
Hello hello! I've survived the first week at the schools!
So far, I'm at the high school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and at the elementary school Tuesdays, and last block on Wed and Thur. I have the same teacher quite a bit at the elementary school, so I was leading games of Simon Says quite quickly, which was lots of fun! At the high school I'm with a different teacher and different class nearly every block, so there have been a lot of names to learn, and I'm fed up with saying, 'My name is Russell Cripps. I come from Vancouver, in Canada. ....(more info)...... Do you have any questions?'
Some of the best questions have been, 'How tall is that tower in Toronto?' (234.9851 meters, give or take....) 'Can you speak German?' (nope, just Swahili) 'Is it boring in Canada?' (that's why I'm here! to escape) and 'Where do you live right now?' (the moon. The commute's a killer!)
Most of the students are really friendly and patient, and the teachers even more so!
I've also tried out two VERY different choirs: church and school
The church choir is Wednesday nights, and in addition to one or two songs for the next Sunday, they are also preparing to sing Bach's St Matthew's Passion in March. They aren't half bad, and the director is quite a nifty, energetic lady. The high school choir sings english pop-jazz (I Say a Little Pray-er For You, etc), and they don't pay much attention to their very nice soft-spoken musical teacher fellow. Consequently, we barely learned anything.... a bit irritating.
My living situation has been explained to me in a bit more detail, since I last explained it. If you think back (way back), I mentioned that I'm staying with one of three motivated mothers from the elementary school, who campaigned heavily to have an english-speaker at their school. It turns out, that they have agreed to share me?!
They're all nice, and live an easy bike ride from each other, but being shared around three families with children 11 and younger was not part of my 'year abroad' plans, I must confess. On the upside- it looks like I'll be paying nothing, or next-to-nothing, at all three houses, in exchange for speaking English with the kids, and occasionally baby-sitting (all children are out of diaper age, thank heavens). I learned today that I may be moving as early as the end of this month.... what an adventure!
But I would hate to seem ungrateful - they're all so excited, generous and helpful.... I'm off to go on a sailing weekend with my current family this weekend!
I think the thing is, to remind myself of what I want out of this trip too.... I'm lucky enough to have Fridays off, so I can take really good weekend trips away from all this 3- familíes, 2-schools, and-a-partridge-in-a-pear-tree chaos.
And my parents are coming to Europe in October, and I'm going home at Xmas, and before I know it, I'll be home in June, and laughing about all this September chaos.
I hope the back-to-school season finds you all well and reasonably calm!
Cheers,
Russ
Hello hello! I've survived the first week at the schools!
So far, I'm at the high school Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, and at the elementary school Tuesdays, and last block on Wed and Thur. I have the same teacher quite a bit at the elementary school, so I was leading games of Simon Says quite quickly, which was lots of fun! At the high school I'm with a different teacher and different class nearly every block, so there have been a lot of names to learn, and I'm fed up with saying, 'My name is Russell Cripps. I come from Vancouver, in Canada. ....(more info)...... Do you have any questions?'
Some of the best questions have been, 'How tall is that tower in Toronto?' (234.9851 meters, give or take....) 'Can you speak German?' (nope, just Swahili) 'Is it boring in Canada?' (that's why I'm here! to escape) and 'Where do you live right now?' (the moon. The commute's a killer!)
Most of the students are really friendly and patient, and the teachers even more so!
I've also tried out two VERY different choirs: church and school
The church choir is Wednesday nights, and in addition to one or two songs for the next Sunday, they are also preparing to sing Bach's St Matthew's Passion in March. They aren't half bad, and the director is quite a nifty, energetic lady. The high school choir sings english pop-jazz (I Say a Little Pray-er For You, etc), and they don't pay much attention to their very nice soft-spoken musical teacher fellow. Consequently, we barely learned anything.... a bit irritating.
My living situation has been explained to me in a bit more detail, since I last explained it. If you think back (way back), I mentioned that I'm staying with one of three motivated mothers from the elementary school, who campaigned heavily to have an english-speaker at their school. It turns out, that they have agreed to share me?!
They're all nice, and live an easy bike ride from each other, but being shared around three families with children 11 and younger was not part of my 'year abroad' plans, I must confess. On the upside- it looks like I'll be paying nothing, or next-to-nothing, at all three houses, in exchange for speaking English with the kids, and occasionally baby-sitting (all children are out of diaper age, thank heavens). I learned today that I may be moving as early as the end of this month.... what an adventure!
But I would hate to seem ungrateful - they're all so excited, generous and helpful.... I'm off to go on a sailing weekend with my current family this weekend!
I think the thing is, to remind myself of what I want out of this trip too.... I'm lucky enough to have Fridays off, so I can take really good weekend trips away from all this 3- familíes, 2-schools, and-a-partridge-in-a-pear-tree chaos.
And my parents are coming to Europe in October, and I'm going home at Xmas, and before I know it, I'll be home in June, and laughing about all this September chaos.
I hope the back-to-school season finds you all well and reasonably calm!
Cheers,
Russ
posted by Russ at 3:55 PM
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