Days 40-47: There's Something In My Closet

For those of you following along at home, doing math and +7 hour conversions, yes!  You're right!  It IS 4:37 am, and I AM awake...

(Side note: I didn't get this posted until much later, but it was started in the wee hours of this morning)

The other night, I couldn't get to sleep because I heard something in this little closet-type thing in my room that doesn't have any of my stuff in it and I've never actually opened, but I discovered was now housing some sort of rodentia.  It was scratching and dragging something along the wall, and sounded like it was about to be on my bed (not really...but sort of close).  Tim told me to go get Karl but Irina was away and I didn't want to wake him up (it was midnight that night... much more socially conscious than THIS morning.)  So anyway, I forgot to tell Karl the next day, and didn't know how to tell him anyway, and then I forgot to tell Irina when she came home, and now, here we are.  I heard it first this morning at 3:30, and thought it was Irina outside my room messing with my chimney or something, until I realized what time it was and that for as great and as caring as she is, she ALSO SLEEPS, so it probably wasn't her.  Now it was back a few minutes ago and I'm now wide awake.  Awesome.

Anyway.  Updates on better/worse days commence now.

Wednesday, September 22
This was the first day out of 5 days that it wasn't raining enough for me to boat to school.  On the contrary, I walked outside and just wanted to stay there forever.  It was a gorgeous day, and the air was crisp like Fall ought to be.  It was a great day.  School seemed to go pretty well, minus the classes that are the most difficult, like choir... it's strange to think about the fact that I've commanded classes of 90-100 kids before very well, but when I get this particular mix of 32 students together it's a difficult blend of personalities.  Anyway, after school we had adult handbells, which is always fun, and then Karolina and I walked into town.  I decided to stay in town, and go look to see if my earrings were ready.  I walked around the square for a while, ambling more than anything, and kept trying to find this shop, but I couldn't find the right street to go down.  I kept ending up turned around, or back where I had been, or something strange, and I felt silly because I was so confident that I knew where I was going...  Anyway, I finally found the little hidden alley where the shop was, and I went in and picked up my PacMan earrings, as well as another pair of cute earrings and two pairs of Estonian socks which I love.  I was so happy... the lady remembered me, and it was really great.  I miss being in a place where people remember you and know your name and that sort of thing... I went into another shop where the lady remembered me, actually... I had talked to her one day when Lloyd and I were out poking around, and she asked why I was here and then remembered when I came in her shop Wednesday.  It was very nice.

After all the excitement of getting my earrings, I decided I wanted to go to the "Texas Honky Tonk Cantina" restaurant for dinner.  For those of you unfamiliar, Texas is the stereotypical American restaurant that serves TexMex American-ish food...  They also USED TO have a phone where you could call America for free if you ordered something, but when I asked my waitress for it, she said, "...you want the what?"  And I said, "The phone... it used to be where you could use the phone to call America if you came here...?"  And she just stared at me and said, "Well... I'm new here, but I've never heard of anything like that..."  I was bummed.  Anyway, I got my food and a delicious strawberry margarita and sat and read my book.  I finished it actually, which was happy and sad all at the same time because there are no more in the series and they were just SO good... I'm open to/looking for new books to read, so feel free to give suggestions.

Overall, a fantastic day... I got to just wander and poke in shops as I saw fit and do exactly what I wanted to.

Additionally, I love Fall.

Thursday, September 23
Thursdays are supposed to be the bad days, but I'd gotten my bad day out of the way early this week, so I was okay this particular Thursday.  It was another gorgeous day outside, so I was glad to be able to walk around some in the fresh air.  It's interesting to me how much walking I do when I'm here, and how much walking I didn't do in Ada.  I love being outside though, because the air is very fresh and on crisp air days like this day, I felt like I couldn't breathe ENOUGH of it in... it was very nice.

I was going to go into town but I decided I was really tired and exhausted from the day, so I didn't... Sometimes, I just cannot muster the energy to rally myself enough to go back out and do things after school, and this was one of those days.  I came home and took a nap with the windows open, though, and it was gorgeous... the air was still so fresh and great.

Friday, September 24
Well... every day can't be a great day.  I had been nervous to teach the kids this day, because I had two double periods in a row: 8th grade, and then 10th grade.  In 8th grade, I was teaching them about North American music, specifically Indian and Eskimo music, and we got through most of it okay, and got songs learned and so that was okay.  But in 10th grade, they started out by just talking incessantly, and I'm of the Michael-Ehrlich-"I'm-Not-Going-To-Yell-Over-You" school of thought, but it was just so frustrating... they probably wasted a solid 15 minutes total talking, and I finally had to just say, "I've got all the time in the world today, but you're wasting your own time here."  We are learning about jazz, and we were making maps of all the things that go into jazz, but because of a MAJOR gap in knowledge (ie: Some students don't know anything about music, and some can play an instrument very well) it took a lot longer than it should have to get this assignment done.  We ended up not even making it to the second thing I had wanted to get to, and they got the privilege instead of doing it for homework, lucky fools.  Anyway, after the lesson I was pretty run down and beat... I was just so frustrated with the fact that they hadn't done almost anything I'd asked and it was just overall annoying.  Thankfully, our last class surprisingly was part of a bigger lower school activity for the afternoon, and they wouldn't be coming to us, so we got an afternoon off.

Karolina and I were talking, and she told me it was Youth Night in Tallinn, which intrigued me.  I texted Tiina to see if she was interested in going, and we ended up heading into town that night with her boyfriend and checking out some different exhibits.  We had a really good time, and we ended up on TV too!!  Haha.  We got to play some fun little games, and watch one of those machines where the first thing triggers the second thing triggers the third thing etc...  It was fun.  It was a nice night to be outside too, which was good.  We got yummy Mexican food and had very ...interesting cultural experiences.  We went to a bar, and almost got in the middle of a MASSIVE domestic dispute between some crazy Russians, and we ended up leaving before we got shot... We felt that was a responsible choice :)

Saturday, September 25
Saturday was, as it always was in Ohio too, a rugby day.  I got to go meet one of the teachers, Michelle, and her son Lawrence to go see her husband, Tim (another teacher) go play rugby in Piriita.  It was so fun to be outside on another gorgeous day, and watch rugby, and just be there.  It was an afternoon long tournament, and it was just really fun.  I loved it.  That night, I just hung out and worked on stuff for school.  Karolina and I are giving the kids an assignment to write a jazz piece on GarageBand, but I wanted to have one first for them to see, so I needed to do that.

Sunday, September 26
Irina left Sunday to go to the country for a few days, because Leitirin wanted her to come visit, and she wanted to spend time with them before they had to go to school the next day.  So, Karl and I were left to charades again.  We went to Selver, and he dropped me and said he'd come back because he had to go fix someone's power over on Liivalaia, which isn't too far from the Selver, and I thought he said he was coming back and going inside and doing the shopping etc.  I realized part of the way through while I was there that it would go quicker when he came if I got all the stuff that we needed before he got there. So he called me, and I thought he was coming in, so I told him where I was, and waited... and waited... and waited... Haha.  I finally called Irina, and asked her to call Karl and ask where he was... turns out, he was waiting outside for me at the gas station where he'd dropped me off, because that's what he told me he was going to do.  Hooray for misunderstanding each other!!  But anyway.  We came home and put all the groceries away together, and then made some food and ate together too... it was very nice.

Around 12:30 am, I heard something in my room like a rodent or some other small rodent... I freaked out, and asked Tim what he thought I should do... against his better judgement, and mine, I didn't go get Karl, because a. he'd been asleep a while, and b. I didn't have ANY clue how I would charade to him that there was something in my room.  I finally got to sleep, and forgot that it had happened...

Monday, September 27
So Monday we didn't have school technically, which was nice.  We had an in service day, though, so we spent 4 hours in the morning in a workshop learning about gifted learners and creativity and it was pretty good overall.  Karolina and Tim and Michelle and I went out to lunch with one other teacher, Megan, who teaches Science.  We went to a really yummy place called Vapiano's where you can make your own pasta dishes or pizzas.  It was SO great.  We went back and had a 2 hour session on fire safety, during which time I almost fell asleep approximately 208368 times... and to top that off, some people were being really extreme and almost too involved, and we had to do part of it outside, where it was FRIGID.  Anyway, I came home and made some food and Karl didn't get home till really late, so I didn't really see him either.

Tuesday, September 28
Here's the thing... I can't remember right now what happened on Tuesday... I guess it wasn't particularly remarkable... if anything comes up, I'll let you know :)

Wednesday, September 29
Wednesday was my awful day this week... I had just the most terrible series of events.  I overslept my alarm, I almost missed my bus, it was crowded and annoying, and then we had an annoying start of the day, because Karolina had a frustrating conversation which led to more frustrations overall...  Then, we had the 1st grade class, and they were performing two pieces at the PYP assembly later that day.  I had one student who was completely defiant the entire class, to the extent that 3 teachers all had to speak to him, and he finally got pulled out of class.  Afterwards, he and I "had a chat" and I asked him if he thought he had been respectful of me today, and he wouldn't talk to me, so I asked him how he could change his behavior, and instead of actually answering me he screamed, "I HATE CHATTING WITH YOU."  Nice.  Five years old.  Cute.  And then I said, "Well, I am the teacher, and you were very disrespectful of me today."  His response?  "You're NOT a teacher."  I was furious.  So I said, "We are only having this chat ONCE and it is NOW.  The next time, you will be sent out of my class and sent to Mr. Randy (Dean of Elem. Students) to discuss with him for the class time why you have lost your music privileges."  He wasn't particularly keen on that, so we came up with some things that might be better for next time.

Later on, right before the assembly, his parents had showed up, and were babying him like none other, and he was throwing a little fit, and I was 12 shades of over it.  So he finally got his act together, and did what he was supposed to, and then started acting up again, and I said, "You need to get back over here and sit with your class."  Instead, he ran over to his mommy, I repeated what I had said, and then his mom just looked at me, and they walked away.  UGH.  It is so SO difficult to assert yourself when the parents are completely undermining you that way.  It was seriously SO frustrating.

We had more annoying things happen, but I don't care to further discuss anything else of this day, because it was just stupid from start to finish.

Thursday, September 30
Today, for me, started at 3:30 am when I woke up and thought Irina was outside of my room like putting something in my stove or something like that, but when I realized it was 3:30, I figured even though she's always doing something, she DOES also sleep, so it couldn't be that.  I rolled over, and went back to sleep until 4:10 am, which is when I woke up for good, because I heard my little rodent friend from earlier in the week, scratching around...  I thought I heard it next to my bed, so I turned on my lights, and then I thought maybe it was outside of my room and turned all those lights on and it just woke me up enough that I couldn't really go back to bed.  Awesome.  I went to school, and had an okay day but ended up kicking my problematic 8th graders out of handbells because I'd given them way too many warnings as it was, and I was livid with them.  I ended up also kicking two 1st graders (1 was the same as the kid from Wednesday) out of my class, and one of them ended up staying out most of the time, which turned out to be for the best.  We got a lot of good work done, but it was still kind of frustrating... I came home and have been doing work for school basically since I got here.  We have a lot of stuff that needs to get done for tomorrow, so I had to skip out on the choir that I was going to go to with Tiina's mom.

Anyway, a long time since I've posted, but I've been really busy and I keep forgetting :)

Talk to you all soon!  My parents come a week from tomorrow! Yay!!

Maintain,
Virginia

Days 32-39: If you pass your teaching tests, does that mean you get to stay?

Okay.  So.  I’ve been really busy so I’m sorry I’ve been remiss in posting.  Since we last met…

Wednesday we went to the ballet, and it was absolutely fantastic.  Romeo and Juliet was so great and to top it off, the seats I’d gotten in the very front row turned out to be the best choice EVER.  We were in a perfect place, because the pit is very long, and so it was a perfect length between us and the stage.  Grace and Shelby loved it, and it turned out really well.  A great night for all J

Thursday was unremarkable, because I don’t really remember it… it wasn’t too awful, I assume, because I don’t remember it.  I do remember not feeling well, and feeling like I needed to sleep a lot more.  That’s all I got, though.  Haha.  Sorry.

Friday was good… We had a pretty good day at school.  The best thing a teacher could ask for happened to me Friday… I had the 5^th grade class, and I told them that I was going to be evaluated on Monday when they were there by the Director, and that I was hoping they’d be on their best behavior for my teaching “test.”  Zac, one of the students, said to me, “Miss Virginia, if you pass your teaching tests… does that mean you get to stay?”  So great.  I really appreciated that comment.  Haha.

Anyway, came home, and went to Hannes’ house (Irina’s son) because it was his birthday, and his wife’s birthday had been Monday, so we had a little double birthday party for them.  It was really fun.  The food was great, and I got to snuggle with their poodle who loves to sit in my lap and just be petted forever.  Martin (Hannes’ son) and I played for a long, long time also, which was really fun… I know most of the things that he says now, and things I don’t know, someone translates for me.  It was great.  We probably played together for a couple hours.  The most hilarious part was when he pulled out a little laser pen and was pointing it around, and we pretended to catch it and he would just laugh and laugh and laugh.  We do that with my cat at home, but with Martin, we were just as content as my kitten is.  Quite amusing. 

Saturday I slept in until about 9, and made plans with Irina to go to Nõmme to pick up a package from a mysterious sender.  We went to the shop called “EXTRA LARGE” for fat people, which let me just say… shopping in a store named Extra Large does not help one bit.  Amusing things in XL included a fully sequined sweatshirt that the lady told me was high fashion, a few weird excuses for clothes, and finding clothes that would fit three of me in them.  We went to the huge, massive, EXTRA LARGE (size, not the store) outdoor farmer’s market that happens every day, apparently, and browsed around, and then went to the post office. 

I WAS SO THRILLED WHEN I GOT TO THE POST OFFICE AND HAD A PACKAGE FROM LINDSEY MICHELLE CATHOLIC NEWLOVE.  WHAT AN AMAZING PACKAGE.  I GOT GARLIC!  Lindsey sent me Minced Garlic, Garlic Powder, Chocolate Cake Mix, and the crème de la crème… a Real Simple magazine!!!  SO SO SO FANTASTIC.  I have proceeded to put garlic powder on most of my food as of late… at least, the things on which it would be appropriate… my Special K is not a qualifier, but my pasta sure is J  First thing I did when I got home was put garlic powder on my pasta for lunch. 

I worked on some of the stuff I needed to do for school on Monday, since I had a lot of things to get done, and then headed over to meet Maarja and Kaspar, because Maarja wanted real American cheesecake.  I looked up the Cheesecake Factory recipe and we made it, which turned out to be amusing, since we forgot to turn the oven on and it sat in there for an hour cold…whoops.  But we watched the movie where her brother is in it, and it was very interesting and fun, and I got to play with kitties, so it was overall a great night :)

Sunday I went to a fellow teacher’s house to record some songs for him.  His wife is writing a book currently for preschoolers, and it has music to go with it, so they wanted someone to record the songs to send to the publisher, so maybe one day I’ll be famous in Estonia :) Anyway, did that for a while, and then came home to finish my work for school.

Monday, I woke up and my first thought was, “Did the weekend even happen…?”  So that’s always a great start for the week.  But overall, it was a good day.  I took over teaching full time this week, and Don came to observe one of my lessons.  Overall, I think it went well… I love teaching, and I really enjoy the kids.  Grace is improving so much in her voice lessons too (they happen on Mondays) and doing very well overall… she’s singing Plaisir d’Amour right now… everyone’s favorite French piece :)  We had auditions for the school musical, Fanny, the Frivelous Flapper after school, which went very well, and then I came home and just absolutely crashed… I’m so exhausted by the end of the school days that it’s just absolutely impossible for me not to fall asleep for a little bit. 

Tuesday was awful to start… I joked that all the awful things to happen to me today happened before 8:30 am.  I overslept my alarm, spilled oatmeal on my pants, got into an argument with Irina over cereal this morning (she read an article in the Estonian paper about how cereal is awful for people, and how Special K is one of the worst because of the amount of sugar in it.  Um.  What!?  I eat it BECAUSE IT IS HEALTHY.  WHATEVER.), got out of the house super late, had to sprint for the bus… um, I think that was mostly it… oh, and it was raining, for the 3 ½ day in a row… so that was good.  But, I got in and got settled, and ended up having a really good double lesson with Grace and had a good rest of my day.  We ended up staying super late at school trying to get all the stuff done we needed to, but the rest of the week should be good.

I’m very sleepy now, so I’m going to hit the hay.   I’ll catch up more soon :)  Hoping to buy my PacMan earrings this week!!  (Didn’t get to go today because it was so rainy…boo.)

Maintain,

Virginia

Day 31: Long Lost "Ema"

Quick post before bed:

Today was a great day in school... the classes went well, from beginning to end, and it was overall a really good day.  One of my non-speakers in 3rd grade even WON the game that we played!!  Awesome awesome.  Got home in reasonable time... got a little bit of work done, and got time to hang out.

Irina was making pancakes with me for dinner tonight when she remembered that it was Tracey's birthday.  Tracey was an old host daughter that she and Karl had in '96, and she got very upset talking about it, because she hadn't been able to get in touch with Tracey for years, and began crying, which just upset me even further.  I called the alumni office and got Tracey's cell phone number, but also did some online creeping and found her also on Facebook, thanks to Nils' suggestion, and ended up being able to Skype with Tracey and have Irina and Tracey chat on the Skype video chatting.  It was a wonderful reunion, and it was so sentimental and sweet.  

Going to bed now... taking Grace and her sister, Shelby to the ballet tomorrow evening :)  We're going to see Romeo and Juliet in the FRONT ROW!!  Very exciting!!  

More later.

Maintain,

Virginia

Days 27-30: I Wonder As I Wander...

Hello all,

Since we last spoke:

Friday night, Maarja and Kaspar came over and had dinner here at my house… in keeping with my crappy day that had already occurred, on the bus ride home, I ended up ripping the bag Irina had given me to carry my school stuff in.  The strap ripped off from the bag, and it was very frustrating, and hard to get off the bus/walk home.  Thankfully, I got home with all my stuff more or less, since a nice lady on the bus helped me get the stuff that dropped.   Karolina told me that was the Soviet woman mindset, because in Soviet times, the ladies who did the grocery shopping, like herself, would have multiple kids and multiple bags that they had to carry for the groceries and had to balance all of these things. 

Anyway, I made chicken piccata (a personal favorite and a crowd pleaser :)) and it was delicious.  We got to chat for a while, and worked on finding schools for Maarja to go to in America!  She’s hoping to get back to the States again for a year for school somewhere.  If you have any suggestions, let us know!  She’s looking for Technical Theatre and Design type majors.

Saturday, I woke up earlier than I wanted to, and got up and did some work, and ended up going back to sleep for a little while.  I woke up again and decided that even though I didn’t know where I was going, I was going to go somewhere.  I left the house, and there are two bus stops near our house, and as I was walking, I decided to first go on the 36 to Nõmme, the larger town that I live in, to their centrum and to look around, since I haven’t been there except to go to the post office the other day.  I walked around, checked out some other secondhand shops, and browsed around a rain boot store, and ended up buying ankle high rain boots in leopard print!  Big shocker, I know.  Anyway, it was really good to get boots…it rains a LOT here, so they were necessary.

I hopped onto the 23 bus and decided I was going to go into Old Tallinn (Vana Tallinn) and go look at this cute little shop that had had these PacMan earrings I really liked and find somewhere to eat.  As I got closer to town, I realized I was actually quite hungry, so I went back to the pancake restaurant that Maarja and I had gone to before, and had cheese and garlic pancakes that were to die for.  Absolutely fantastic.  I went to the earring shop, and looked all over, but didn’t find them, so I asked the lady about them, and she said she didn’t have any, but she could email the artist and have her make me some new ones!  So I’m stopping back in a week for handmade Estonian PACMAN EARRINGS!  I’m rather excited.

I ended my fabulous, self-indulgent Saturday by going to see The Switch, the new movie with Jennifer Aniston.  It was hilarious, but even more hilarious because a lot of the jokes are colloquial jokes so even with the translations underneath it, they weren’t necessarily translated also.  So I’d laugh at a lot of parts that were in fact not funny to other people, and it was amusing to be the only one laughing at certain parts.  I ended up hopping a ride home on the bus again, and it was just a really good day.  I got to do exactly what I wanted at my own pace, and it was very nice.  It was like going to TJ Maxx with Eric instead of BoyfriendTim ;)

Sunday I again woke up early, and read my book (I’m now in The Girl Who Played With Fire and almost done with it… I did find the third book at the Viru Keskus book shop, and ended up buying it, and after we’re all done reading it, I’m going to donate it to the library at the school so they have a complete set :) )  Irina and I were going to go to the KUMU Museum (for those of you who went to Estonia with me the last time, think: awful, weird crayon and cardboard art exhibit) to see an exhibit on photographs from Estonians during Soviet times.  But, as there was a 10K happening in Tallinn, Irina’s nephew and his family came over, because his wife was running in the race.  So instead, I did work for school, napped, and hung out with the kids.  It was nice to again just chill. 

Later, Irina and I went to Selver and got some things for the week, and also got cake mix and some flowers because Karolina’s birthday was Monday, and I wanted to get her pretty orange flowers, since that’s her favorite color.  We ended up finding beautiful, bright gerbera daisies that were a very vibrant orange, and they were completely perfect.  I made a cake, with pudding in it to combat dryness, and a chocolate sauce over top.  I was quite pleased.

Today, Monday, was a good day.  I had lots of good lessons, including a GREAT time with the previously problematic 3^rd graders.  They all seemed to understand, and ALL my non-speakers were answering and participating.  It was great.  I’m feeling kind of bla though, not quite under the weather, but almost, so I took a nap today and I’m going to bed soon too… Hoping to keep on top of that, since lots of the kids are getting germy, and I’m trying to continue to not be getting germy. 

Thanks for reading!  Sorry I’ve been slow with the responses… I’ll try to improve my consistency!

That’s all for now though.

Maintain,

Virginia

Days 21-26: Busy Busy Busy

Days 21-26:

Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve written… it’s been a long stretch of days, and I just keep forgetting because I’m so busy!

SO.  Let’s see.

Friday was a good day, but the weather was terribly nasty and cold and rainy and windy, so Karl drove me to the bus stop in the morning, which was great.  It stayed cold all day, and I was cold pretty much all day, and there was no way that I could have been outside all night at a movie at the Katusekino where the outdoor movies are, so we canceled our Friday evening plans, which actually ended up being just fine.  I stayed inside, curled up next to my cozy chimney, watching tv and knitting.  It was really relaxing, and even though I feel so lame, student teaching (read: teaching in general) really kicks your butt, especially when it’s nasty outside, so I just took a night to chill and recoup. 

Saturday I slept in, and then went to a party for the teachers.  Karolina and Toomas picked me up, and we went to get some things for the party from Selver together, and went to the teacher party!  It was so fun… I love being at a school where, for the most part, everyone gets along and is friends with each other, to the extent that we can hang out at someone’s house and have a barbeque and just enjoy each other’s company outside of school.  We talked about many things, like where to buy warm, awesome socks, where a new museum had opened up, how classes were going etc., and it was really fun.  Not only that, but we had amazing food, grilled meats and salads and breads and it was just such good food.  It was seriously a ton of fun.  I love teaching here.  I love working together with colleagues and combining our musical lessons with their classroom units.  Gah. It’s great.

Sunday was Karl Imar’s birthday (I can now spell his name correctly…3 weeks later).  We had been planning on going to the country to see him for his birthday, but they went to Sweden, so they ended up coming to see us when they got back on the ferry.  We had a nice little birthday party for him with the family and then Irina and I went shopping at a few secondhand stores.  I don’t know if I mentioned before that I had ripped a pair of the jeans I’d brought with me (I only brought 2, I ripped 1 in the thigh region, so they are semi awkward to wear now…) and Irina wanted to take me to look to see if there were jeans I could buy at a secondhand shop.  We went first to a secondhand shop of American clothes that was hilariously called USA Today haaaahaha.  There were probably 7-8 racks of jeans, and I searched through 3 of them finding literally only sizes 0,2,4,6, and 8.  The largest size I found anywhere was a 12, and I was skeptical on finding jeans my size at all… I wasn’t made in European sizes, sadly, so even though it was an American store, they still only had TINY PEOPLE clothes that my sister would fit, not me.  We tried another couple of stores, but to no real avail, but we did walk around a lot, and she showed me where her parents are buried, which was also interesting.  We got really hungry while we were walking around, so we walked over to the Viru Center, and Irina and I had sushi that was some of the best I’ve had in quite some time.  It was so fresh and juicy and fantastic and yummy… we sat and people watched and chatted, and it was really fun.  She also showed me where the “big people” shop, so that was mildly embarrassing after a really good meal, but I know she means well. 

Monday was a good day in class… we had the 2^nd grade, who is always a little rough, and today was not much different, but we discussed how to improve the things we did with them.  We also had the 4^th graders, which was a lesson that when it was done, I could’ve done a happy dance.  We are doing Recorder Karate, which if you’re a music teacher and you haven’t done this, you TOTALLY should.  It’s great, the kids love it, and they LOVE getting new belts.  They all were so supportive of each other, and it was just really nice to get to have a class that went entirely well.  In the 5^th grade, we’re integrating their classroom unit on Peace, so we watched a video with Martin Luther King Jr. speaking, and then learned “We Shall Overcome” and each student in the class sang a solo, even the one boy who I seem to have the biggest problems with (he’s the one who skipped from gr. 3 to gr. 5).  It was overall a good day of teaching.  Karolina said I could go early from school also, and not stay for musical rehearsal if I wanted to, so I didn’t end up having to stay too late either.  Happy girl.  It was nice to get home at a good hour, and I tried to go out and have dinner with Tiina and Maarja but they were busy, so we rescheduled.  It’s nice to have friends my age also, who I can hang out with.

Tuesday, I went to school, obviously, and did the whole school thing… teaching etc.  It was a fine day all in all, and all the classes were pretty good.  Funny thing: the 3^rd grade class, half of whom don’t speak English, actually did really well, because most of the things we did they either already knew, or didn’t require a lot of verbal communication.  My Finnish girl even knew some of the rhythm stuff I was asking, which was thrilling.  It was a long day though, for some reason, and I was kind of dragging (I think going to bed late did not help this, but MY BOOK IS JUST SO GOOD) and we had a lot of people come in right after school.

Side vent note: It’s been really frustrating trying to get all my information lined up, and we keep getting differing information from different professors, which just serves to further confuse everyone involved in my placement process.  It’s been unclear whether I’m student teaching BY MYSELF for 8 weeks, or only 2 weeks, and if I am allowed to share responsibilities with the teaching still with my teacher, or if it’s supposed to just be me, and what papers does the school need from them, and bla bla bla.  Don had a conversation today with Dr. Crosser and thought he’d gotten things figured out, but once again, it actually just conflicted with some of the information we’d been given before, and gahhhh it’s just so annoying.  Whatever.  THANK GOD I have a phenomenal teacher and a really supportive and kind director.  He reminds me of my dad, actually, only less tall and more teacher-y, but is gentle in dealing with people like my dad is, and patient.  

Anyway, things got mostly squared away, and I met up with Tiina later on for dinner (sushi again… I just really love it!) and we had a nice time with her man friend eating sushi and chatting.  Our waitress’ name was Santa and I was SO amused…that, and the place we went was like Harajuku Hello Kitty Japanese Anime Overload.  They all wore cat ears and had Japanese anime characters on the walls and had anime cartoons playing and Japanese death rock female screamo bands.  Quite amusing.  Also, quite tasty tasting.

Today’s been good, and pretty laid back.  I woke up with a migraine which increased today’s initial suck factor, and I thought it was going to be an overall crummy day.  However, it turned out to be a good day, minus the not feeling well, which is apparently going around the school (Yes, Mother, I am washing my hands, and yes, I am drinking fluids, and yes, I am getting enough sleep.  Thank you.)  We had the 1^st graders today, who were semi terrifying last time, and one of the kids who I had thought was paying less than no attention last time recited all the words of our recycling rap back to me.  I literally had tears in my eyes as he did, and ended up giving him a solo for the concert that they’re performing on in a few weeks.  I was a proud little mamma music teacher in that moment.  Lovely.  All in all, a good day.

As another little book plug, HOLY CRAP THE Millenium Trilogy (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo etc.) is SO good… I just finished the first book today, and couldn’t hardly put it down.  I just got the second one from a teacher, and Karolina is now reading book 1.  It’s really good.  Not recommended for directly before bed time reading… gets into your dreams, I found. 

More soon.

Maintain,

Virginia

Day 20: Back To School Night

Rough day... it's Thursday, so I know that's kind of a duh but here's a quick recap before I go to sleep:

I had Grace this morning, which was great... she's learning a lot, and doing well, but I still struggle with trying to get all the information into each class that I need her to get, because the classes are pretty short for her.  She had her first listening quiz today, though, and did well, so that was good.

Next we had handbells... the group is good, and they play well, but there are two girls who are disruptive and problematic in every class they're in together, and today, while we were playing a song, they were playing like idiots and making faces and wild gestures, and when we stopped, I said, "You should be honored to be in this class... there are many people who wanted to take this class, and I have no problem kicking you out if you don't want to be here."  I made them stay after during break too, and talked to them then as well, and I'm hoping it won't be a problem again, but I'm nowhere near confident haha.  

Unfortunately, I also had the 1st graders today who usually are not problem children, but ended up being awful today, and I had to separate them as well.  We did however use the "3 R's" video in class that JP, Tyler, Vince, and Korey made :)  We're talking about recycling and making instruments out of recycled materials, so that was fun.

We had this open house tonight, so we had to stay after school and we got dinner and everything, but it was kind of a bummer, because we pulled a 12 hour day and only 10-15 parents ended up showing up.  Ugh.  Thankfully, Karolina gave me a ride home :)

And now, it's a terrible thunderstorm outside, making for a great end to a great Thursday.  It's super windy and scary and EEEEK.  

Also, check out the story on the ONU web page about the trip :)  Pretty cool.

More soon.

Maintain,

Virginia

Day 19: Directing the Director

So a quick update: 

We had a good day today... had 1st graders who were wonderful for the most part, and we went on a Listening Walk with them to hear what sounds we could hear in and around the school.  They liked the songs I sang with them, and they actually all did what they were supposed to do!  Hooray!  Secondly, I led the choir today, almost single-handedly and we sang a song called Say Hello Wherever you Go, where we had all the nationalities of the 32 students represented.  It was good, and they all enjoyed that too, because they all got to be included, which was good, since my three non-speaker 3rd graders were in there too.  They sang well, and they participated and it was very good, overall.  Karolina and I also got a lot of stuff done, and we're ready for Back to School night, and for just about everything this week, which is so exciting (even though we'll still be at school tomorrow night till like 8:30).  We ended our day by leading the adult handbell choir, which was AWESOME, and we had so so SO many people, and it was totally great.  It was funny at the end, because Karolina played the piano, so I directed, and then Don, the director, afterward said, "I don't know how I feel about being directed by the student teacher..." Hahaha.  A good end to a good day.

Karolina and I went and looked around at Viru Keskus again today, and she showed me this super secret (pause...not, but I didn't know it was there) underground bus station... I walked through the doors and literally felt like I'd walked onto Platform 9 3/4's because it was a different WORLD.  Haha.  Quite amusing.  In other news, I bought some yarn today at a super cool yarn shop.  I am content.

I'm going on a sweet trip with some of the teachers in a couple of weeks too, that I'm very excited about... we're going to an Autumn/Fall festival thing in a village kind of far from here, and I'm stoked!  Woo!  More immediately, we're going to see the original first Star Wars at the Katusekino on Friday!  And we have a big teacher party on Saturday night!  Yay!

I'm loving it here... it's really great.  I've started reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo too, which is interesting, because it's set around this area and it talks about Tallinn.  I'll keep you posted on how I feel about it :)   

Maintain,

Virginia