I'M IN URINETOWN

I went across the road to the Mini-Market during a break between classes on Friday and what do I see? A man in a suit standing on the sidewalk with his pants undone urinating beside the market. What is with these people? Are there no public toilets? Why would someone do that out in the open? I don’t get it. I may not integrate well here until I can urinate in public.

I did kindergarten on Friday. One of the little girls who loves me gave me a big hug when she saw me on Thursday, and held my hand going into school on Friday. My popularity knows no bounds. I thought class would be hell, but they were reasonably well behaved for them. I brought my trusty flash cards and would hand them to the 1 smart girl who would tell me what the picture was, or would ask me. She would then show the other students and tell them what it was in English. It was cute.

At 4PM I only had 2 kids as the other ones were on their regular school picnic. I used my flash cards with them and they were a hit. At 5PM I had the not so bright kids and I was concerned that they would ride roughshod over me but it didn’t happen. One of the kids used to be in my 4PM class and was a pain in the ass. I threw him out of class a couple of times. On Friday he was well behaved which makes me believe it’s the dynamics of how the class is made up that plays a big part in how the kids behave. I used my flash cards with that class too, and once again they were a big hit. One little boy (he’s 6) who knows nothing and I have no idea what he’s doing there because he certainly isn’t interesting in learning, came up to me, took my hand, and licked it. How gross! I rubbed it on his jacket. Some of the kid’s are too weird.

I asked Kelly what was up with the little boy who went home. She said, “I don’t know”. She is quite annoying but I choose to ignore her. She left me a note saying that the little boy’s mother will be visiting the school and I should work the kid harder and crack down on him. Considering he’s a nice kid and a good student tells me she doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground. She also said it would be a good idea to give that class “dictation”. I think that’s where I say words, and they write them down. I have 4 kids in that class at 3 distinct levels including one who can’t read. How can I give 1 class of dictation with that makeup? I will ignore it. She said to me I need to be stricter and not as nice to the kids. Parents don’t want to hear that their kids had fun. I should do more from the text books. I asked if I was the conversation teacher and wasn’t that the most important thing for me to do. She said yes, but I shouldn’t forget the text books and should use them sometimes. I do. She has no clue. However, I am considering using this as a possible out. I might say that I’m not capable of not being friendly (little does she know) and I’m not capable of taking the ‘fun’ out of the classroom and having the kids enjoy my company. Maybe she needs to find someone else who can do those things because it doesn’t fit my personality. I’m thinking seriously on this.

I asked my older kids if they talked to their parents about class. A few of them did and they told their parents they like taking English with me and that it’s fun. I asked how their parents took that, and if their parents want to hear these things. They said their parents have no problem with them having fun if they’re learning. I really have no idea where these things out of her mouth come from. Maybe she’s jealous that the students like me? Who knows?

When I was getting a ride from school at 10:30 Kelly calls me to tell me that there is a small problem and that Jack was going away for the weekend so could I drive the shuttle to pick up my students. I said, “sure, but someone will have to give me directions”. She then realized it wasn’t such a good idea to ask me to drive. Duh! Why she leaves these things until the very last moment, I have no idea. She asked if needed, would I mind taking a taxi to school. I said no, and to call me and let me know whether I was going to be picked up, or if I needed to take a taxi. I gave up waiting for her to notify me and I called her 45 minutes before I needed to leave on Saturday. The shuttle driver would pick me up and I should take a taxi on Sunday. Nice of her to call me. I asked for the combination to the school to let us in and she said to call her when I got to the school. I did and there was no answer. Nor did she call back. Fortunately I remembered from when she told me about 7 weeks ago. I’ve never used it.

I watched 2 movies on Saturday night. I’m a downloading fool. I saw “The Wedding Crashers” and I must admit parts of it were hysterical. I was laughing out loud. The sound and picture quality were awful, but it was funny nonetheless. After that I watched “Lucky Number Slevin” which I believe was just released in theatres. Where do people get these movies to upload? The sound quality was excellent but the picture quality was weak. However, because of the film, the picture quality actually enhanced the story I thought. It was a mystery and I was totally absorbed from the start. Josh Harnett didn’t annoy me and I enjoyed Bruce Willis. And a movie with Morgan Freeman and Sir Ben Kingsley in it, can’t be too bad. If you want a good mystery that’s a little different then this is one fine film.

I went to watch a movie tonight. First I started “Lord of War” and noticed it was only about 56 minutes. It seems I downloaded only the first half and I needed to download the second half. So I did while I tried to watch “Hustle and Flow”. But “Hustle and Flow” didn’t work. Sometimes the movies aren’t what they say they are and sometimes they just don’t work. It’s a good idea to preview them while they are downloading to be sure, which I do. But in this case, “Hustle and Flow” worked fine when previewing but the finished product didn’t work. So I went to plan C which was “Flight Plan” with Jodie Foster. Miss Foster should enter a “Michael Jackson Look-alike Contest”. She can be quite scary looking. The quality was excellent but the film was so-so. I have “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Derailed” on my hard drive along with 2 Stanley Kubrick classics, “Spartacus” and “A Clockwork Orange”.

Except for tutoring, grocery shopping, reading, downloading, and watching movies, it was an uneventful weekend. I haven’t felt too good the last few days so I suppose I never got over my previous mini-bout with the flu. When I went to the supermarket yesterday the employees were getting things ready for the sort of 9AM opening. Now it’s not the opening because it’s a 24 hour supermarket but they were prepping the shelves and so on. Right before 9 the people who work in different areas congregated with their fellow employees from their area for a kind of meeting. At the end of the meeting they did a kind of “company” cheer. It was scary. I know things like that are used for cheap laughs in movies about Japan and company loyalty among employees. But it was weird to see it in real life. GO HOMEPLUS!!!!!