Uh-oh

I'm in such a grump.

Stress levels are through the roof, trying to prepare for the Science Fair, end of term rush, exams and report cards all at the same time. Oh yeah, and the 6th graders decided we are having a party tomorrow. Nice timing guys!

Seems like all the fun of the weekend has come full circle and now all the stressful stuff happens. :(

Oh well, chin up Miss Jessi

Woohoo!
The beach was great! We stayed in a fancy hotel, ate fancy food and there was even fancy dancy in the discoteque. Excellent!!
We travelled up to Puerto Plata with a load of other English teachers on Friday morning, and then spent the day taking part in workshops and coffee breaks and lunch and workshops and then we all got dressed and partied!!
There was a bonfire on the beach and a disco in the hotel and lots and lots of rum and coke.
The next day was more workshops but only until lunchtime, and then it was more partying basically... It's so much fun being a teacher =) Hehe
I NEED to go back and spend more time at the beach I have decided...
Much more fun than staying at home slogging through lesson plans, which is today's itinerary... groan.

P.S. While I was in the hotel I noticed that they sold British newspapers, so I picked up The Sun (only one left). Oh my lord I forgot how dreadful that paper is!

I am not me anymore,
I think,
I seem to be me part two.
For while I'm here in a world,
Of smiles,
I seem to be smiling too.

I'm going to the beach this weekend! Hurrah, hooray and all that..

Actually I'm going to a conference for teachers who teach in english. Doesn't sound quite so exciting, but the hotel is near the beach. So I get to enjoy the gorgeous coastline that I saw from the plane upon arrival, but haven't seen since. Due to having a job of course, not laziness.

I'll take my camera, and force myself to take photos, develop them and find the island's scanner so that I may share the weekend with you. Your share will be belated of course, and limited to 800x600 pixels, but you are there and I am here and that's the way it is.

Quit moaning and get on a plane.

P.S. For those interested I have officially lost 24 lbs since I've been here.

I was presented with a beautifully scripted poem today;

J is for jewel, heart of pure gold,
E is for expressive, happy soul,
S is for special beauty that's rare,
S is for sweet, loving and fair,
I is for intelligent, bright as the sun,
C is for caring, thoughtful one,
A is for angel, a joy form above,
Jessica so precious and loved.

It had pictures and everything. Wish I had a scanner.

You can blame the oh-so-generous electricity company for this one.

I had spent ages writing up a post for you about a cool night out last night. It took forever and then the electric cut out. Yep, another blackout. Pain in the bum I'm telling you. So now I'm too knackered to write it all in again and you get the shortened version.

Went out. Met friends. Was cool. Drank booze. Forgot to eat. Dizzy head. Had laughs.

Sorry! Maybe I'll write it again when my patience has recovered!

=(

Sorry to repeat my emoticons, but you should've been there. Everyone knew more than me, I couldn't communicate with anyone and the flippin' text book is in Spanish and........ French. Oui.

So how long d'you reckon I'll last in this class?!

Ay well. It's another three day weekend, due to a national census. Yarrrss! Going out partying tomorrow night.

¡Fiesta!

=)

=(

Not a happy time, my first Spanish lesson. I was in a room full of people who didn't speak english, the teacher spoke in french and I didn't have a clue what was going on. Never felt so lonely in my life. I've spent $1000 on the tuition though, so I'll have to stick it out. (N.B. they use the $ sign for Pesos here). Tomorrow I go again, so I'll let you know..

It struck me as I walked home today that I was not appreciating what I was doing. Every day I walk out of school, look up into blue, blue sky and walk home down roads lined with palm trees.

Not exactly the same as the UK. I should count my blessings from time to time! I will post pictures up when I get some developed. Things take so long to get done around here though, I wouldn't hold your breath!

Today was hot, hot, hot and very busy. Everyone is so friendly and laid back though that even being run off your feet is a pleasure. Uh-oh, Jessi's been on the happy pills again.

Not much else to report other than that.

Made me chuckle today;

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven...don't step on the ducks." So they entered heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St.Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!"

The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck, and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing, and with him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps. She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on very tall, tanned and muscular. St. Peter chains them together and leaves without saying a word.

The woman remarks, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?" The guy says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck."

This climate is good for me! My hair is growing longer and shinier, and my nails are too. My skin is fresh and freckly and my eyes are white and clear. How fantastic!

I could get used to this...

To whoever sent me an email yesterday, I only saw it after I had hit the 'empty folder' button in my hotmail. So sorry! Send it again if you want to. I get LOADS of junk mail every day, so most of it gets sent straight to the Junk Mail folder and I miss it.

Flippin' Spam.

Sorry again!

It's fantastically stormy at the moment. Big big rain and thunder that sounds like it is all around you.

I love it!

Bring on the extreme! :)

Good luck with it all Matt, guess I won't see you online anymore due to timezones and school hours, but at least we have this space. So keep us posted.

Have fun teacher... :)

P.S. Get ready for the heat shock, you may be needing this;

Thorougly hacked off.

Woken at 6am by builders outside my window yelling at each other and clanging scaffolding pipes about. Every morning this happens, even Sunday!
Then my alarm clock decides to be half an hour slow.
After that, supervising recess and lunch at school with no help from anyone else leaves me frazzled.
Then I snapped at the students (arrrgh) when they got too much.
It's also hot. Very hot.
The classroom stinks of vinegar after a science experiment, the students were incredibly ijjity (just made it up, but it seems to fit), and my lack of prep made everything ten times harder to deal with.
Add to this that I was ordered Jessi do this, Jessi do that all day, and you know how I hate to be told what to do....
And of course horrific hormone overload from PMT and I guess there are the ingredients for One Bad Day For Jessi.
Thank god for this long cool glass of Pepsi Twist and as much ice as it will hold.
Happy now.

There aren't any.

Honestly. I stood at a junction the other day for about 15 minutes until there was just enough gap in the traffic for me to risk my life with. I stood there in such a temper! No crossing, zebra or pelican, no gap in the traffic lights that you might use. Nada.

AND.. Even when the light is red people still go. I mean, how's a sensibly cautious girl like me supposed to cross the road around here??

Anyway, I had the same problem today when I visited town and it reminded me. I don't update this site nearly enough. This time, however, I was accosted by a Jehova' Witness. One of the few times that not speaking the local language has been in my favour.

P.S. Have lost more weight.
P.P.S. There is a huge brown moth on this keyboard.
P.P.P.S. The rum around here is great.

Yummy yummy.

School was fun today. I am definitely finding my big flat feet in the school now.

Things are so cool.

(Except for the fact that the kindergarten teacher gets to make tie-on piggy faces and I have to do algebra. But you can't have everything. At least 7th grade are much better behaved!!)

Even though it's so hot it's almost unbearable, and even though the mosquitos are hungry for my blood again, and even though I worked all weekend etc. etc............

Today is a good day!

Some days you just can't help smiling all day can you? No matter what happens it doesn't get you down, and everyone you meet says how happy you look.

Yey! I had one o' them! :)

xxx

They take so long, I have a headache and I'm fed up of them.

Today I have worked so hard, and it is Sunday and all I want to do is not work. :(

I will now bang my fists against the keyboard.

jkhgsd;khb;kds;KUDFS;IUDSFK;JBkjskj;k;jhf;lkgra

Tantrums do not help.

OK, so I had a parents evening last night. I'm fine.

OK, so I can't speak Spanish to the parents. That's fine.

OK, so I have taught one grade for 7 days in total, and the other grade for 2 days. It's still fine.

Well excuse me, but It's NOT Fine!!

I was so worried about it and I was so ashamed that I could not communicate with the parents of the students I am teaching. :(
I wish I could speak Spanish. Oh well, the feedback I got was that I was very nice, very friendly (must learn Spanish) and that they are pleased that their children have their english teacher from England. At least they got that I am nice! Hope they liked me - they seemed to at least.

Aside from that I smiled a lot and stuck out like a great white sore thumb. I swear some people think I glow in the dark because my skin is so white. Haha. Not stressing my skin by tanning it though, so people had better just shade their eyes!

Get this. I can hardly believe it myself, but I'm putting in a full day's work!!

I got up at 6.40am, in school by 7.45am (ish). Taught from 8.00am until 3.00pm, rushing home and back again at recess in the blazing sun. Then I worked on the prep for tomorrow, marked some test papers, planned next week's lessons and the next social studies test for Monday until 8.30pm! Of course I still have to plan for the dreaded parents evening tomorrow night, but that can wait I reckon. I'm absolutely wiped out!

I don't think I was built for working that much. Better start taking it easy. *wink

Sorry Mat, I tried to make the page centred and all the text went centred too. Does it look pap or shall I leave it?

The mozzie bites are slowly but surely dying down. At worst I was covered with scarlet polka dots all over. Not pretty. Ah well, could be worse.

Today is a public holiday so everyone has gone down south to the beach. And what am I doing? Staying at home to do more preparation for class. It's okay though, peace and quite is rare around here, and the beach will be there next time.

P.S. I'm still not used to the food... Everyone says how awful English food is, but unless its pizza I'm really struggling to enjoy a meal here! At least I'll lose some weight. Hehe. Actually maybe not. Do you know, they fry EVERYTHING! Meat, rice, cheese, plantain etc. etc.

G.Reasy.

Yes!!!!

And next week is a three day week due to a National Holiday or two. Aren't I a mean teacher - the kids have Spanish tests on Wed, Thurs, and Fri, and I have two more for them in English. Hehehe

Ah well. Everyone's happy with a four day weekend so it's not all bad.

It's pampering time for teacher now, foot rubs, body lotions and mosquito bite treatments. You know I don't think there is one hungry mosquito left around here, I have fed a million of them.

Love to all

OK here goes..

I'm standing outside the classroom. I'm about to face my first 6th grade class. On my own. By myself. Mm.

I'm panicking, my nerves are shot, I feel sick - did I eat? I don't think so. Am I trembling? Yes I'm trembling. Oh my word, it's time to go in.

The room is tiny!! Everyone is squashed in and I can't get my enormous behind between the tables. Great. Boy it's warm. Okay, let's start with a little get-to-know-you routine. Everyone introduce yourselves... why are they looking at me like I'm from outer space? Never mind. Better start teaching.

Hm. Writing on the board is fun. My writing suddenly looks dreadful, oh how mortifying, I hope they don't think I am a bad teacher. Uh oh, this lesson is dragging, am I taking too long writing? Uh huh. Everyone is talking in American accents. Wierd.

Oh man, I haven't got a watch. Whats the time? I don't know what to do next. There seem to be a few long pauses in the room..... ... Link