Lamination is both wonderful and hideous.
I've been stuck in a purgatory that consists of endless lamination and cutting out. This last week I've been working long days to make sure my classroom is ready on time. Now just two day before school begins, I don't feel like my classroom (or really anything) is ready but I can't face the laminator again. Exhaustion aside, I'm actually pretty happy with how things turned out considering my motor skills.
I immediately regretted my decision to commit to making 22 dolphins. This is the worst idea I have ever had.
School has enveloped me. I know after the first day passes, I will feel calmer and things will start to fall into place. Something unnerving has been the lack of access at our school. Despite being an International School, we have one functioning printer for over 30 teachers, shoddy internet access, and a week-long wait on making copies. This has been quite alarming to all of us as we are unable to do simple things like print out materials and activities or even make copies for our upcoming week.
Besides school, I've been getting into all sorts of hijinks like getting my bike stolen, making friends with animals, and going to "work parties" where all the expat staff get harassed into drinking absurd quantities of beer lao. To be clear: work parties in Lao are insane. Last night we all went to this glittery huge restaurant where we watched a drag show, got harassed by our awkwardly drunk van drivers to drink more beer lao, and finally all ended up throwing-down on the dance floor. As in, our entire staff. It was at this point when I was gyrating with my headteacher that I had the distinct thought that if we were in America, our entire staff would be fired if we acted like this at work functions. It's pretty great.
Yeah, my bike was stolen, but I already bought a new one. And it's red! Actually, getting my bike stolen definitely opened my eyes a bit more to security and now I'm taking many more precautions here. Vientiane is a really safe capital but there are definitely some things I have learned to avoid that will make me even safer. I'd say the greatest threat here are the dogs. I've never seen so many dogs wandering around! Especially at night, they get very territorial, so you have to take care to not walk down small roads at night. I think we basically have Kujo living a few houses down from us, so we try to avoid walking past his house.
Upside: there are awesome dogs too!
And fun bike adventures:
Love and Lesson-Planning,
Ilse
Besides school, I've been getting into all sorts of hijinks like getting my bike stolen, making friends with animals, and going to "work parties" where all the expat staff get harassed into drinking absurd quantities of beer lao. To be clear: work parties in Lao are insane. Last night we all went to this glittery huge restaurant where we watched a drag show, got harassed by our awkwardly drunk van drivers to drink more beer lao, and finally all ended up throwing-down on the dance floor. As in, our entire staff. It was at this point when I was gyrating with my headteacher that I had the distinct thought that if we were in America, our entire staff would be fired if we acted like this at work functions. It's pretty great.
Yeah, my bike was stolen, but I already bought a new one. And it's red! Actually, getting my bike stolen definitely opened my eyes a bit more to security and now I'm taking many more precautions here. Vientiane is a really safe capital but there are definitely some things I have learned to avoid that will make me even safer. I'd say the greatest threat here are the dogs. I've never seen so many dogs wandering around! Especially at night, they get very territorial, so you have to take care to not walk down small roads at night. I think we basically have Kujo living a few houses down from us, so we try to avoid walking past his house.
Upside: there are awesome dogs too!
Ilse
Hey Ilse,
ReplyDeleteYou're obviously off to a flying start there! It really does remind me a bit of Japan (esp with the drunk work parties), but I have to say that you are so far running laps around me in terms of laminating and classroom ambience. Bravo!!