Back again! The first few days with a new troop of kids are totally exhausting. I have had several staff members here ask me if I would consider being here full time. My answer? I don’t think I could do it. When you’re in a boarding school, you are on duty 24/7. And we do excursions to exciting places all weekend, so you don’t have any time off then, either. Still, it’s been a really neat experience all around.
This batch of kiddos seem much more promising. I have several in Web Design who have done some HTML or Dreamweaver before, and they speak English to boot — a real blessing. Unfortunately, one of them is stuck in a whole class of kids who don’t. He is being my helper, and an absolute angel. I am holding my applications kids attention better this time around, by letting them teach the class — some of them know Word pretty well, so I ask questions instead of lecture, and they vastly prefer that. I am slowly learning how to teach. I guess it is more painful this way than if you took classes in it, but it’s just as effective (if not more). On that same note, I have decided to apply for that business teacher at McNeil. I am pretty sure that teaching isn’t the final card to be drawn along the path of my meandering non-career, but right now it is an opportunity — and I have had precious few of those lately. I heard the unemployment rate went up in Austin again — my sister can’t even find waitressing work — so now doesn’t seem like a good time to hold out on a gift horse, you know?
Steve and I are in a strange position here. We get to see a lot of each other, but we get very little time to really be together. I don’t know if that makes much sense. But we went on a date a few nights ago, which felt wonderful. We hadn’t been on a DATE since we got engaged. We went out for fondue at a little restaurant in Leysin. We had the moité a moité — half grueyre, half emmental, lots of wine — and a bottle of a (not great) Aigle white wine from the region. The fondue was DIVINE. We are planning on going back at least once before we leave. I still haven’t done Raclette, but I don’t see how it can be any better than what I experienced chèz Stepan and Jennifer, so I’m not chomping at the bit to find some. Anyway, some folks are noticing that Steve and I don’t see one another, so there are several sweet souls with all types of complex plans to get us a few hours together with nothing we have to be doing. It’s very sweet.
Speaking of bits … I may get to go horseback riding while I’m here! They do English-style riding, and the guy who owns the stable speaks virtually no English. Since I speak French and did English lessons back in the dark ages, I am a prime candidate to go. Yay! I haven’t been riding in forever … I miss it.
We go to the Turkish Baths on Thursday. It is apparently a lot like a spa. The girls on the staff are whispering that you can get pedicures there … I am thinking of treating my poor abused feet. It sounds soooo wonderful. Even if I don’t do that large of an indulgence, I do intend to pay the little bit extra for the steam baths. *sigh* I can’t wait.
Leave a Reply