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Something meatier
8 Sep 2006 06:29 pmFirst, may I just gush about how adorable baby geckos are? I want to hold one so bad I can’t stand it. I watched a white one today for I don’t know how long. It would run a few steps and then stop and swish its tail like a playful cat. Cute, cute, cute. Maxwell Soot, who is insisting he needs to be petted NOW, is a little less cute, but let’s not tell him I said that, shall we?
Second, furniture! I have furniture! It’s amazing how much more one feels at home when one has a sofa. Now, as soon as the car arrives (which should be the next week) with all my kitchen stuff, I’ll feel like I really live here.
So far, I have gotten in contact with an association that wants me to teach English to kids and adults on Friday afternoons. That is what I went to the radio interview about. I was a little bit nervous to have to speak so long (the program lasted two hours, but I only “participated” in the last hour), but it went really well. The DJ would like to have me back another time to talk about the US, specifically about stereotypes that other countries hold about North Americans. When I’m sure that the interview is going to take place, I may ask for some feedback here on LJ so that I can represent a wider field, so to speak. Just because I was born American doesn’t make me an expert on my fellow citizens, and I’ve been out of the country too long to feel 100% comfortable about holding forth on all things American.
This particular association is attached to a private, primary school, and I contacted them at first to teach at the school. However, word through the grapevine is that the teachers, who are all French, want to teach English to their kids. They find it too "disrupting” to send the kids to English and they are perfectly capable of teaching it, thank you very much. Camille, the man who runs the association, says that it is really amazing how pompous they are to assume such a thing. He’s the one who said it, not I. *grin* If the teachers have their way, I will get 2-4/wk with the association instead of the 12 they led me to believe I would have. I don’t particularly want to teach, but it would help pay the bills. Four hours a week isn’t going to do much. Julien does have a few colleagues who are pestering him about me giving them English lessons, so we’ll see how that goes.
Speaking of work and J, he just learned today that he is going to get to work on the boat—the position he postulated for and wasn’t assigned to at first. He is very happy and is hoping that he won’t get seasick. I doubt that he will. With his new post, he will be working three days (I should say nights) on, three days off. His shift is from 5pm to 4am, so I’ll be sleeping alone. *sniff*
The lady who is teaching me Shimaoré asked if I won’t be scared to spend nights by myself. I said no, that I’m used to it, but the fact that there are so many burglaries here—and most of them take place at night while people are at home in their beds—makes it a little disquieting. In the month that we’ve been here, two of J’s colleagues have been burgled. For me it isn’t so much a question of it is going to happen to us but when. Very depressing, that.
Well, I must get ready to go out to dinner. J has cousin here who works as a Spanish teacher at the local Jr High, and we are going over to eat with him and his girlfriend (who is Spanish). The men in J’s family like foreign women!
Second, furniture! I have furniture! It’s amazing how much more one feels at home when one has a sofa. Now, as soon as the car arrives (which should be the next week) with all my kitchen stuff, I’ll feel like I really live here.
So far, I have gotten in contact with an association that wants me to teach English to kids and adults on Friday afternoons. That is what I went to the radio interview about. I was a little bit nervous to have to speak so long (the program lasted two hours, but I only “participated” in the last hour), but it went really well. The DJ would like to have me back another time to talk about the US, specifically about stereotypes that other countries hold about North Americans. When I’m sure that the interview is going to take place, I may ask for some feedback here on LJ so that I can represent a wider field, so to speak. Just because I was born American doesn’t make me an expert on my fellow citizens, and I’ve been out of the country too long to feel 100% comfortable about holding forth on all things American.
This particular association is attached to a private, primary school, and I contacted them at first to teach at the school. However, word through the grapevine is that the teachers, who are all French, want to teach English to their kids. They find it too "disrupting” to send the kids to English and they are perfectly capable of teaching it, thank you very much. Camille, the man who runs the association, says that it is really amazing how pompous they are to assume such a thing. He’s the one who said it, not I. *grin* If the teachers have their way, I will get 2-4/wk with the association instead of the 12 they led me to believe I would have. I don’t particularly want to teach, but it would help pay the bills. Four hours a week isn’t going to do much. Julien does have a few colleagues who are pestering him about me giving them English lessons, so we’ll see how that goes.
Speaking of work and J, he just learned today that he is going to get to work on the boat—the position he postulated for and wasn’t assigned to at first. He is very happy and is hoping that he won’t get seasick. I doubt that he will. With his new post, he will be working three days (I should say nights) on, three days off. His shift is from 5pm to 4am, so I’ll be sleeping alone. *sniff*
The lady who is teaching me Shimaoré asked if I won’t be scared to spend nights by myself. I said no, that I’m used to it, but the fact that there are so many burglaries here—and most of them take place at night while people are at home in their beds—makes it a little disquieting. In the month that we’ve been here, two of J’s colleagues have been burgled. For me it isn’t so much a question of it is going to happen to us but when. Very depressing, that.
Well, I must get ready to go out to dinner. J has cousin here who works as a Spanish teacher at the local Jr High, and we are going over to eat with him and his girlfriend (who is Spanish). The men in J’s family like foreign women!