Sunday 18 October 2009

The longest week

Well its been a long long long long long week. In fact its been 7 days too long and finally it is almost over and a new one begins and a new adventure awaits. To be honest it has really been quite stressful for me due to well many things and looking back no of it really mattered as well to be honest almost everything turned out ok.
I only managed to get to the gym once this week as well to be honest, tiredness and seeing Yovita in the week kinda prevented me from doing so.
I have chosen to go to the gym on a Friday evening. Actually that is a bad idea as I am always too tired to do anything, although I did find that when I do go I feel better and more ready for the weekend.
Still it never happened so I will have to go back through the agony of starting at the gym again when I return from Thailand, which as it happens is 3 sleeps away or 2 more days. How cool is that.
My apartment is a mess as there are clothes everywhere and I am only going to the beach!! but I have Yovita's as well and I need to pack it all into a bag. 10 minutes tops and all done. I have had to do my own washing as there are a few things I need to take that I cant wait for at the laundry so thats not been great either.
The money is finally sorted and it seems we have enough, which is great as the bank in which the money was being saved in refused to give it all back for some stupid reason but the exchange rate has been good so that was lucky. Nothing more fun than visiting Money Changers all over city but thats done and finished. All is left is leaving the deposit with the school and then seeing what joy paying the tax at the airport will be for me when we leave. Because I dont have a tax number I have to pay a 'tax' to the government on leaving the country within my current business visa which I get back on return. Its a pain but its the law. Apparently it will change in 2010 but no one knows yet what into, knowing Indonesia something worse and more complicated.
More on the holiday on my return.
Nothing really special happening at the school this week. We had chocolate praise where everyone said something about each other and gave chocolate to each other. This was a muted success but a success never the less and I hope we can do it again next month at some point as actually it will help and is a good thing to do.
Spelling Bee was on Saturday and that was chaotic and mad as it has been for every one I have been involved in. 105 kids and pushy mums wanting to be the best speller of  EF Puri and then go to the national finals and win big etc. It took 5 hours and 2 other teachers and a great deal of patience. But over all I think a success and phew thats that over and done with for another year. Lots of photos on Facebook and no more of this until 2010. Other than that I attended a meeting with the other Director of Studies, I think eating lunch was most productive but there was some good things from it so it was all worthwhile.
I have a private student this week and I am teaching IELTS preparation for the test. This is possibly the hardest thing I have to do. I have to take a students level of English and then get them to improve it by starting  from scratch within a time frame which is very short. It is also the hardest course as the students need this to get into foreign universities to study. In my opinion it is two to 3 times as hard as the TOEFL and needs lots of time and thought. It is though a great challenge for me to teach and to feel I have been able to get the student(s)to improve and feel happy with their readiness for the test. This however is the challenge as normally they have no idea about the test and so that makes it even harder for them.
I believe I will have another class with the student tomorrow and then thats it its done.
This weekend has been travelling around the city and getting money and things.
I have told Yovita that I refuse from now on to ride to her on a Saturday as the traffic is so bad that it takes at least an hour and a lot of energy to ride there and back and I would rather take a taxi so that is what will happen.
The roads were jammed and the crush was full on. Even when got a taxi it cost me 28000 to go one way due to the traffic and 15 to go back the same way. That is annoying. The flip side was that I got the bike clean and also sorted the credit card out which meant food and more interestingly Buy one Get one Free Frappacinos in Starbucks, so the GF is more than happy about that.
Riding back in the dark on Saturday night is not  a pleasant experience but its ok.
Then it rained. I managed to buy some beer and get back to the apartment before it started. You can normally  predict the weather here. It gets very windy and then the lightening starts, then thunder and then it rains so hard to you cant see more than 300 metres, lots more thunder etc. It then cools down and gradually finishes and then it gets hot almost straight away.
It was very hot today. Puri mall was a joy to be in and so that was nice. And that brings me to now. There is some cool slasher movie on Max and there is nothing else on any other channel unless you want chick flicks which I dont and so its crap horror all the way and maybe the footy later on ESPN.
There are some amazing benefits living so far from England. 1 is I dont have to read the newspapers and watch Points West, another is that I dont have to deal with anti social behaviour from idiots but the most important is that Premiership Footy, Rugby, F1 ( if I liked it ), athletics and many others (no darts or snooker so thats good too) is on for FREE, no extra charge. As are 58 other international Channels like MTV, Star World, HBO movies,  NGC, Discovery, CNN. Living in the apartment I get free Cable and Internet and so I am saving my cash here for that. It is a luxury I thought I could do without but I was wrong. Aircon is not missed strangley but the TV and Internet is.
Whether I will be in this apartment next year I am not sure I will have to see but for now I will make the most of it.
That was my week. It was quiet one but an ok one and next week I will join one of my best friends Tony and his wife Lotus and some old work friends Cathy and Dean in Krabi Thailand, sipping Chang and Singhas and chilling.
Its gonna to be a whole heap of fun.

So I wont be writing until the 30th October I guess as will be far too busy.

See ya

1 comment:

starkravingsober said...

I did the IELTS. Even as a native speaker it was a biatch to do, so I feel so very sorry for the second language students.
Enjoy Thailand :0) xxx