Wow, I've adapted

As I type a goat is being skinned outside my window in my backyard. It was
killed just a little bit ago when I was eating, actually, but I didn't
notice. I only noticed the lack of naying. I can hear the sawing sounds
though - they're using a very dull, serrated knife.

A teacher was wasted at school today too. Not that this is the norm, but I
have seen it happen a couple of other times - same guy. This time I
reported it to the Principal and he was given a warning. I wish he could be
fired. This guy is terrible.

But let's move onto some good news shall we? Monday night I hosted my 3
learners of the year from my grade 10s for dinner. Shades of the evening
felt like I a scene from back home (except I was only ever a guest at dinner
parties, not the host!) Italian was on the menu :-) Simple pasta, but I
beefed up the sauce with, well, beef, tons of veggies, whole tomatoes,
spices, onion and garlic. Unfortunately my pot is quite small and I've only
ever made pasta for myself here, so I didn't take into account the
stick-together-factor of a lot of pasta cooking, but what can you do... I
got a little dressed up in my new shirt and hair sticks from Matt and my one
pair of dressy earrings. I had the ipod going playing peppy music while
cooking, then Café Del Mar for dinner.

I asked that the kids bring chairs and forks, as I didn't have enough of
either. So around 6:45, Alex, Edmund and Oberia came over. I had one
request for the evening - English only. We ate and talked some, though the
conversation was lighter than I'd hoped. I tried to find out more from them
about their lives in the past, now and in the future. Edmund wants to be a
scientist and was interested in finding out what kind of science he should
look into. (I recommend food/agriculture or energy). Alex wants to be a
psychologist because he likes figuring out what is going on with people.
Oberia was pretty quiet all evening (possibly because I said her boyfriend
couldn't tag along), but she said she wanted to be a teacher.

We finished up with German Christmas Chocolate for dessert that some very
lovely German tourists gave me a few weeks ago, and a huge monkey fruit. I
presented them with their suuuppper fancy certificates and their framed
pictures of us together. On the back of each picture, I wrote a personal
note. I still want to write a letter of recommendation for each of them. I
want so badly for them to realize their potential.

In other news, did I tell you all what I figured out to do with my grade 8's
the rest of the time? I put together a big crossword puzzle on electricity
to help them review that topic. They're in teams of 2 because by themselves
I don't think they could complete it. I'm only allowing them to work on it
in class and I made up 5 different ones so there would be no cheating. This
is going to take around 3 days. Then, starting sometime next week, we're
going to start playing jeopardy reviewing all the topics from the year. I
think I have to have 6 teams in each class. It'll probably take a full day
just to get them understanding what's going on, and then likely a week to
finish. But that's fun right? Better than just writing out a study guide?
Then they'll have one more test from me and wallah, it'll be exam time.

Night all.