email: not my feet pictured.

Subject:
Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007
13:49:33 +0000
dear mom and dad,

wow, there's lots of shopping you can get done at the subway stations. today i bought lots of socks. while walking through the subway, a vendor kept waving me over so i bought a pair of her crappy earrings for a dollar b/c she was small and elderly and spoke no english and i couldnt bring myself to say "no thank you." as soon as i pay, her colleague at the table with her, some middle aged korean guy, starts talking to me in english! well, it wasnt all on purpose im sure. he commented on my headwrap and that it looked very unique and asked if i was muslim and where i was from and all. we chatted for a minute and he thanked me for talking to him b/c he said he really wants to practice his english. it was a nice moment.

so it wasnt until yesterday that we all found out what classes we'd be teaching. many of my colleagues are annoyed, and rightfully so, b/c hardly any of us are going to be teaching the methods we'd been individually trained for. we were all given apologies galore. i heard from some veteran staff that it happens every year: the main office recruits and trains, without yet knowing which schools will need which type of teacher. we had some quick extra training that day. it's cool tho, all the teaching methods overlap so it wasnt too difficult.

of course this is not to say that i wasnt feeling nervous b/c of the class change, tho! i had a small panic attack yesterday, but today was very smooth and i found all the stuff i needed. it's still a little overwhelming, but i took a step back and told myself that everything i needed to prepare for my lesson plans is in my notes and i just needed to find it. hey dad, just like how you told me about how to change a tire! stop and think, ok what's the first step? put those brake things under the wheels... well, that's all i remember.

i went back to the school today to use the computer. there are an awful lot of handouts for the students that i needed to find and print out. monday is the big day. i saw a few of my colleagues on their way in as i was on my way out and actually i helped a couple of them navigate the computer. i felt so smart! it's a trip b/c we had all kinds of new info thrown at us when we came for orientation and the whole reason i returned to the school was b/c i didnt absorb everything that first time and had to come back to figure out what i needed. while i was having a small panic attack to myself during orientation, everyone else seemed soo cool and collected. and here it is a couple days later, and they came back too, as clueless as i was.

when i left the school, a group of small children on their way to their lessons all freaked out with smiles and giggles when they saw me and all waved and yelled "Hi!" and then "Bye Bye!" it was cute :)