Love From Brazil ღ

Mini Update

Hi everyone, this is just going to be a quick update. As I mentioned in my last post I said that the weather had suddenly gotten really cold.. well that phase was over pretty quickly! It is definitely not cold anymore, it’s just cold during the night. The days are warm but not as hot as when they are during the summer which is good because I live in a house that does not have a ceiling (quite normal here for the house owner to save money when building a house, though obviously you don’t really see this in completely finished houses) so during the summer the living room gets HOT, reaaally H O T. Seriously, it gets like a frickin’ sauna because of the fibre ciment roof. We’re not too worried about asking the landlady to put in at least a PVC ceiling as we may decide to move in the near future.

I haven’t been up to anything very interesting lately, just relishing the eventual arrival of the end of the semester! Though the Mr. and I did spend a few days in Buenos Aires not too long ago. It was great; food was delish, people were lovely, nice places to do tourism and it really reminded me of London! If London were a person Buenos Aires would be his/her twin! Check out some of our pictures below. Stupidly I didn’t recharge our battery’s camera as I thought it would not be necessary (of course it would be!), so the battery died pretty early on during our trip. Luckily the Mr.’s phone allowed us to continue to take pictures, not the best quality but pretty good for a phone!  

I would have loved to see the Floralis Genérica monument at night, that’s one thing I regret not doing. I also would have liked to see the planetarium at night too. We went there and saw the American Museum of Natural History’s film about the cosmos which I loved. It was projected onto the planetarium’s dome screen ceiling so it did kind of feel like you were in space while watching!

Well that’s it for now, hope your week has started marvelously! 

You’re Hot And You’re Cold!

Just a quick update! I can officially confirm we have moved into autumn! The weather has literally changed with a click! A couple of weeks ago it was still quite hot and then suddenly one day it was cooler because it rained and since then it has been COLD. Though it’s mostly due to overcast or rainy weather, if it’s sunny the temperature can be quite warm or mild. The night gets REALLY cold, my God it’s cold! I’m using my 13 tog duvet and the thermal PJs my mum thankfully brought me when she came over. There is no central heating of course so after it gets dark I want to have a hot shower and get under the covers ASAP! The change of weather as reminded me how much most people I know (myself included) just don’t want to go out at night during the long winters in London as it’s so freezing outside. You just want to stay at home and be all cozy and snuggly! Take Saturday for example, we went for drinks with friends because an old friend of the Mr. was in town so of course everyone wanted meet up for a catch up drink. Now, when you go for drinks here you usually go to some bar round the corner and sit outside. I hate these places to be honest, with their harsh lighting and lame music but I deal with it most times as sometimes we just have to go with the flow, right? But the food can be nice in some of these places so at least that’s something good about them! So we went to this bar for drinks and you can imagine how I was feeling… and no, it wasn’t hot! I couldn’t wait to leave the place. I just don’t get how people can spend all night outside drinking ice cold beer in this weather, It’s just madness to me!

Anyway, another update of the subject is I’ve acquired another group at work as the group’s teacher randomly left for some reason my colleagues and I are all curious about of course. It’s another kids group, they’re kind of hyper… buuut nothing compared to the hyper group I had last semester (thank God!). I was also offered a teen group to which my response was ‘Yeaah.. NO thanks!’ after substituting for the school on the first lesson after my colleague had left. The group was mental; the students prefer shouting instead of talking and a girl was trying out a colleague’s skateboard in the classroom. (obviously I told her off if you’re wondering.) Those are just a couple of examples for you to get my point. And it’s not even like the classrooms are big! They’re small and the desks are arranged in a U shape so I just don’t get why students feel they need to shout to communicate with a fellow student who is literally 6 feet away! Obviously we know kids have no respect whatsoever for NO ONE these days, even when I was at school it was utter madness but the ones who were disruptive were the idiotic yobbo types. Nowadays it’s just EVERYONE with a few exceptions.

So that’s my quick update, I’ll be back in a few days with an update that’s a tad more exciting! At least it is exciting for me! Hehe so until then peace and lurv to you all! x

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Acerola Lovin’! ♥

Today’s post is going to be about all the good stuff that makes me happy here in Brazil! I’m always missing things from the UK but there are a lot of things here that I miss whenever I am back in the UK so I thought I’d share my likes and lurves with you!

So I think you can tell one of the things from the title of the post - acerola! I’ve always loved acerola juice, it’s one of my favourite juices here if not my favourite of all! It’s packed with vitamin C - loads more than oranges and of course contains other vitamins such as vitamins A, B1, B2 and B3. This is definitely not available in the UK, if it is I’ve never seen it. I could drink this juice every single day, we luckily have an acerola tree in our landlady’s garden so we don’t even have to buy the fruit or the pulp!

On the subject of fruit, this is the main aspect about living in Brazil that I love. There is always delicious fresh fruit easily available, I tend to make fresh juice a lot more than when I’m in the UK. When I’m in the UK I just go round the corner and buy the juice rather than making it fresh. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy packaged juice here too but not as much as I do in the UK. A juice we’ve been making quite a lot lately is pineapple and spring greens juice. Yeah, sounds weird but it is delish! Trust me! It even still tastes decent if you don’t add sugar!

Ok, the second thing which is quite obvious is the weather of course! It means we’re always going to BBQs and nice lunches / get togethers. This is one of the things that really depresses me when I’m in the UK, how the weather is so, well, depressing!. Apparently, the past few weeks have just been rain, rain and more rain over there and everyone’s been complaining about it! However, it does get really REALLY hot here sometimes and I hate that, but at least where I live the nights aren’t hot especially now that autumn is coming upon us. Another point that makes the heat more bearable here when it’s really hot is the fact that the heat is a drier heat so it isn’t hot and humid. I hadn’t realised before until we spent Christmas in Salvador with my famliy. I had forgotten how hot and humid it is there! I mean REALLLLY hot and humid!! I don’t even bother wearing make-up whenever I’m there as it just becomes a hot mess after about 5-10mins! The plus side is the beach of course which is the downside to here - no beach! =(

Another positive point about the weather is the fact that all windows in your house are always open. I love the airy open feeling of that. I remember that the last time I went back to the UK as soon as I got home I felt really claustrophobic because of the thick walls and double glazing blocking out all wind and sound from getting in! Was quite a weird feeling!

Third point: I like the fact that I do not have to be careful about who I glance at in case I piss them off. I’m sick and tired of the yobo culture that has taken over London which resulted in the ridiculous riots. I’m not even going to get more into that or I’ll start off a full blown rant!

Number four: Something I’ve always liked about Brazil is how I always feel a higher level of spirituality whenever I’m here. Why? I defy you to find a Brazilian who doesn’t believe in God! I personally have never met a Brazilian who believes that something higher than us does not exist. They may have been an Evangelist, a Spiritist, Buddhist or someone who doesn’t recognise themselves to be part of any particular religion but everyone I’ve met here or anywhere else for that matter, who is Brazilian, has some sort of belief or faith. Even the hardcore traffickers / criminals believe in God! You’ll often see one of them on TV with some kind of religious tattoo. Though England is also a Christian country I do not get the same feeling when I’m in London. I’m not pointing this out as a bad thing, I’m just making a personal observation concerning my experience. I am a spiritual person so it is something that is noticeable to me.

Fifth point: Some people might think this is quite lame but I love it! Most houses or apartments here have a laundry area. An idea so simple, but so good! I think in America and Canada it’s the same as here (correct me if I’m wrong!) but in the UK a typical house does not have a laundry area. You usually just have your washing machine in the kitchen. I can be slightly OCD sometimes so this is why I like the laundry area! I like how it’s another separate area specifically for washing clothes and linen. My favourite laundry areas are the ones that are spacious enough for doing everything i.e. washing the clothes, hanging them to dry, ironing them and storing the clothes before they go back to the wardrobe / cupboards. Where we currently live there is no space for a laundry area. =(

Anyway, that’s it for this installment! Stay tuned for more! hehe

Culture clash..

So what’s one of the most annoying things EVER that I absolutely hate about living in Brazil?? When people randomly turn up at your house without no warning whatsoever! The Mr. has a particular friend and cousin who love doing this.

First let me tell you about the friend. I like the guy, he’s a nice person, I have no problem hanging out with him and his wife.. BUT various times he pops round looking for Rod for whatever reason. Sometimes there is a warning because he actually calls before hand, though he does not say something like ‘Hey, it’s been a while, let’s arrange something! Maybe you can come round for a beer tomorrow etc…! No, it’s more like:

Friend: ‘Hey, you busy right now?’

Rod: ‘No.’

Friend: ‘I’m coming round!’

I mean wtf! A few weeks ago he came round wanting to speak with Rod, must have been around 8 or 9pm though Rod wasn’t home. I had to answer the door looking like a freak with a mud mask on my face. I was like, have you tried to call him? Because that’s what most people do before randomly turning up at the person’s house only to find that they’re not even there! Last visit was on a Sunday night, yeah, right about the time when I want to be all grannyfied before Monday hits us again and enjoy the last moments of the weekend by engaging in lazy hubby and wifey activities such as snuggling up to watch night time films, lame Sunday TV and so on. Once again I was looking freaky in the name of beauty. Of course I don’t want to be rude so I stay in the living room with everyone as the whole gang usually comes (wife and two daughters).

Now for the cousin, the clingiest of clingers.. This guy can be SO annoying. Don’t know how his poor wife puts up with him! I can hang out with him when we go out and do stuff as he’s an alright person to socialize with but as I told the Mr. I can only take this man in SMALL doses. This is why he can be annoying as when he is in one of his clingy moods I have to experience his presence waaay to much for my liking. He also practices the habit of ‘inviting-oneself-to-other-people’s-houses’, arrghh! One of the times he did this when I was at home recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction during the day and wait for it… he returned later that evening WITH his THREE KIDS!! Take note, there is no where to hide in my house as it’s like a big studio. The living room and kitchen are one room and the next and only room is our bedroom together with the bathroom like an en suite. Coincidentally after the visitors left Rod’s friend and fam turned up also for wine and fresh cheese! It was already like half ten! We already knew they were supposed to coming that evening because the friend had said so before but we thought that they decided not to come anymore because by 10 we hadn’t heard anything.

The worst time for Mr. Clinger though was when he was lying to his wife and mother that he was going to university every night (his mother was paying for the course) and would turn up at our house on several occasions in order to kill time!!

My mum saw his clingy ways for herself while she was here and she was only here for a week! The night before she was due to return to London Rod, his brother and the clinger arrived at our house late at around half nine to 10pm. The Clinger was with Rod and my BIL because they were training him to lay wallpaper. Now any normal man wouldn’t have even had come to my house, he would have bloody gone straight home to his wife and family! But no, that’s not the best option for the Clinger. Best option is to cling around of course! My mum said, ‘Ohh, you must be tired, must be wanting to get home to have a nice bath and see your wife!’ Clinger says, ‘Nawww, she must be fast asleep by now!’ Come on! Take a hint! My mum went to bed and I stuck around because at the time everyone arrived I was wearing a dress that’s quite see through so I didn’t want to walk past. As BIL is a normal man he of course did not stick around before going home. I must have said about three or four times to Rod sleepily, ‘Let’s go to bed, let’s got to sleep..’ for Clinger to frickin take a hint!! He actually had the cheek to say, ‘You don’t need to throw me out, I’m already leaving.’ Well leave then!! Man he’s annoying!

The other day I had another double whammy! The friend AND Clinger on the same night! It was around 10pm and I had got home from work so I took Lolita for her walk as Rod hadn’t got home yet. As I was walking up the street a motorbike was coming my way, it was approaching me so I was thinking ‘wtf??’ Then I came to learn it was the friend coming over to ours wanting to ask Rod about some motorbike thing and again, I was like, did you try to PHONE FIRST?? Yeah, thought not! He asked me ask Rod to call him after he got home so he could drop by again later… don’t think so! So continuing with Lolita’s walk, about 10 mins into the walk I saw the Clinger’s car drive by with Rod in the passenger’s seat. ‘Hmm okay, Clinger’s dropping off Rod (don’t know why as our borough is in the complete and total opposite direction to his but that’s Clinger for you!) so I’m going to wait a bit before I go home so I don’t have to get there before he’s left.’ I thought, though some time later the Mr. came looking for me, yes Clinger was STILL at our house. I went mad trying to explain to Rod that he needed to understand that I’m not used to this kind of behaviour, that I wasn’t raised that way etc… But this sh** is normal here so he finds it hard to be completely sympathetic to my views on the subject. Being half Brazilian I’ve always been aware of this kind of stuff but was not raised to embrace it because it is something in the Brazilian culture that really gets on my mum’s, nan’s and aunt’s nerves too, understandably! I will never embrace it! Sure we do this stuff when we’re kids, teenagers, young adults with your best/really close friends.. but not after they’re married/settled! You respect the fact that their house is not just their house, that it’s their house AND their partner’s house! My best friend lives with her bf and I would just not feel right about turning up at her house randomly, I mean what if she and the Mr. are busy?? What if they don’t want to have a visitor round at that moment? Maybe she would be okay with it but maybe her bf doesn’t want some random visit from his gf’s friend! Even if she were living on her own, what if she was taking some time to do naked meditation or something? The last thing you would want would be anyone interrupting you!

‘Why doesn’t Rod say anything??’ you may ask, well he’s such a goody goody (which is of course one of the qualities which made me fall for him) that he worries he may cause offense if he were to say something. I’m like, you don’t have to be explicitly direct about things! It’s called being indirect, telling white lies etc..!! Anyway, not going to go further into that or else this essay will get even longer! But to round things off, all the above is one of the main points which really get to me about living here, GRRR! Of course there are things that I lurrrrve but I’ll leave that for another post ;]

Christmas holidays update..

Oh and how could I have forgotten to mention in my other post that my mum came over for a week before Christmas in Salvador?!! Well she did, and it was luuurvly! Of course the week passed really quickly but it was better than nothing. Last time I had seen her was in June/July 2010 when I went to London. She brought me some nice treats such as mince pies and Marks & Sparks Percy Pigs!! I could go on for ages about the amount of ‘silly’ things I miss from London! Cheap doughnuts, pack of four chocky eclairs for a quid at Tesco’s, pick ‘n’ mix at the Pound Shop…! The list goes on and on!

New year, new semester

This semester for me is a tad different than the last, as in I have HALF the amount of groups at work than last semester! Last semester I had four groups, I only have two groups now as for some reason the coordinator decided to take away a group I was initially going to get. I have a kids group in the morning and an adult group in the evening. The kids group isn’t bad, miles away from the little monsters I had last semester! There’s only one kid or two that have me raising my voice once or twice… okay maybe several times during the lesson! But hey, it’s a kids group, what do you expect right?! There’s always gotta be at least one hasn’t there?

Now, the adult group is okayyy, I mean adult groups can be really fun to teach when you’ve got a good group but this particular group is very quiet. My G O D how they’re quiet. So my new challenge this semester is the opposite of last; instead of trying to calm the students down I need to liven them up! And no, I did not ever find a way to calm down the hyper kids! The school did what they should have done in the first place which was splitting the group up.

As a result of having two groups I of course have a lot more time on my hands which I’m intending to use in order to get more private students/translation work and hopefully learn crochet! But I’m terrible with exploring new hobbies as I’ve become such a procrastinator since living here so we’ll see. Things I did in my free time when I lived in London were practicing music stuff (piano, guitar, etc..) and reading ooh and going to the gym. Since I’ve been here I’ve only continued reading. The whole procrastinator thing put me off buying a decent keyboard or guitar because I always have the ‘wait to see if Rod gets the visa’ comments floating in the back of my mind. And I do not think I will be at ease until we do see if Rod gets the visa or definitively decide where to stay. I know this attitude holds me back in a lot of ways but I just can’t help it! I’ll never forget the moment when I frantically read through the judge’s determination letter from the appeal and realised I was going to have to leave my home. Anyway, enough moaning about that. Fingers crossed 2012 will be THE year baby! Off to work now, hoping the rain will hold out until I get there and stop before the hubby picks me up on the motorbike!!

Holidays are over! Wahh!

So I’m back after the holidays, tried to relish every single last moment before the first day back at work! lol The holidays were great, didn’t want them to end! We spent Christmas and New Year’s with my family in Salvador which was lovely as always. The hubby came back to Minas first and I stayed on for a bit. When I got back we spent a weekend in Araxá, I looooved it. Great place for a weekend getaway! Check out some of the pics below.

Perrrrfect =]

A couple of weeks after we spent the weekend in Caldas Novas and next day I was back at work. Carnival starts at the end of this week though so I’ll be off work next week! Muahahahaha! Bring on the feriadãooo!

More than just a Delicious Delight!

So in my last entry I said I would dedicate a post to the amazing chocolate covered strawberries I love at the shopping center so here it is!

OK so the stall is from a franchise called Fabrica di Chocolate. There are various chocolate things to choose from the Big Fondue to pots of chocolate mousse, check out the menu here. I of course always choose the Big Fondue:

The Big Fondue Express can be made up of various fruits such as grape, kiwi, pineapple etc. but my favourite version is just with strawberries. You can choose to cover the fruit with either milk chocolate or white chocolate or you can ask for both, double whammy mmmmmmm!

After covering the fruit you have the option of topping everything off with whipped cream, some corn flakes and last but one of those cereal sticks (not sure what they’re called??).

Yes it is as amazing as it sounds!! My mouth is watering just from writing about it! Might just have to buy one tonight after work when me and hubby go to the shopping center…

Change of Plans… Again..!

I look forward to the weekend like I look forward to eating the melted chocolate covered strawberries at the shopping center. (I will totally dedicate a whole post to these melted chocolate covered strawberries.. they’re AMAZING!) In other words I luuurv the weekend like most people and I hate it whenever the hubby has to work as he works long hours during the week so no quality time. This Saturday he worked only in the morning. We had lunch at his sister-in-law ‘s which was nice of her to invite us because as usual I forgot to defrost the meat. So after lunch the twins (hubby and bro) were going to do the grouting in the bathroom of the new apartment (hubby’s bro and wife’s apartment) so we all went there. The apartment was dirty so it had to be ‘washed’ before any grouting took place. The washing took quite a long time so the twins decided to put off the grouting until Sunday (sigh..). We all decided to go to check out the Walmart that opened recently at the new shopping center and then later go to a nice restaurant. The bro-in-law and wifey said that would take about 40 mins getting ready and would come round our house to pick us up. So we get home, have our showers, get ready and all and about 40mins later the phone rings.. who on earth could it be??? Yes, it was bro-in-law saying him and wifey decided to nap and go out later.. Er.. you could have phoned earlier instead of phoning at the time you said you would be picking us up when I fully dressed and ready! Humff..!

Fine, gives me more time to do my pony tail a million more times even though I can never get the damn thing tidy enough! So time goes by and it’s already 20:20, the phone rings, the hubby picks it up agrees to whatever’s being said on the other end and ends the call. I assume it’s bro-in-law saying ‘Hey, we’ll be there in a few minutes.’ but hubby takes too long in my opinion to give me feedback to confirm this so I of course ask him what’s happening and what does he tell me?? Of course! Change of plans! Bro-in-law said they’re not doing what we had arranged anymore as they, and we of course, are going to have dinner at So-and-so’s house. I’m like wtf?? I think NOT! We don’t even know this person! OK, we know her, but it’s more like we know OF her. We certainly don’t know her well enough to randomly turn up at her house to a dinner she invited OTHER people to! So obviously we did not go and went to the cinema instead, we saw Meu País which was really good. Much better than showing up uninvited for dinner at random people’s houses!

So another last minute change of plans without asking what others think, no doubt they’ll be more and more of these episodes! At least this time we were able to do our own thing, last time there was no escape..

Annoying Neighbours

So our neighbours are freaks, as in they like to do building work at the fricking crack of dawn!! I would be so pissed if I sill didn’t have to wake up so damn early and these people were waking me up every morning with their BANG BANG BANGING! The being freaks is also confirmed by the fact that they sometimes do the banging in the early hours of the morning but do F*A* during the day! Come on! And yes, they do building work every single day including Sunday. The old guy who is sooo creepy looking by the way, even said jokingly ‘Did I wake you up?’ to the Rod as he was leaving the house one day for the gym. Har haar!!

Tomorrow is recesso at work meaning the school will be closed because Tuesday’s a bank holiday so bring on lazy day Monday for me! Mmmmm and Tuesday will be lazy day + lie in! Oh wait, the freaks will probably wake me up with their bloody banging..

Why is it that I seem to always have to have noisy neighbours?? In London when a certain house opposite our garden was bought by the council the most ANNOYING neighbours EVER moved there. They would play techno music reallllly loudly every weekend ALL night long. They would sometimes blab in their garden in the early hours of the morning after their techo parties as if they were in some noisy club/bar where you have to shout at your friends so they can hear what your saying! Man they aggravated me! And hell yeah I called the council on them several times! After some time I think they were even evicted by the council but then the new set of neighbours were more or less the same thing, arrghh.

Why can’t all neighbours just be considerate and at least decent?!

Last Friday night…

So, Friday night was crap. We were supposed to go to a good bar/pub here called London which the Mr.’s sister-in-law had suggested us do at the beginning of the week. I was looking forward to it because this place is apparently quite good and I still haven’t been there since I’ve been living here. As hubby and I were getting ready my bro-in-law calls to say that the missus doesn’t feel like going to the bar anymore, she wants to eat dinner somewhere. Ok… didn’t ask anybody if they agree but whatever! So we wait for bro-in-law and wifey to come and pick us up (they take ages as usual and when they get to our house bro-in-law beeps impatiently as he expects us to get to the door like freaking Speedy Gonzalez). When they get to our house they tell us that they, or essentially all of us seeing as we’re ‘de carona’, are going to this restaurant I’ve seen before while passing by several times which has never tempted me at all because it has live music but the live music is sertenajo which I HATE, so of course I would never chose to go to this place. At first I didn’t realise we were going to this particular restaurant because I didn’t know the name. I just knew wherever we were going to was going to be boring because we were going there to meet the Mr.’s sister-in-law’s sister and husband along with their ‘drinking partners’. I like the Mr.’s sister-in-law’s sister and husband and like going to their house whenever they have a BBQ, they’re nice people. But I do not like going to meet them and their friends at bars with bro-in-law and his wife because it’s just just drink drink drink beer ALL night long. It’s SO boring, thank God Rod isn’t really into it either.

So we get to the restaurant, start walking to the entrance and all I can hear is the DIRE live music. If it were the mainstream ‘pop’ sertanjeo it may have not been as dire. We walk through the restaurant looking for my bro-in-law’s sister-in-law and her husband and where do we find them?? Sitting at a table as close to the stage as possible! Meaning that yes, the blasting amps were right THERE. Seriously, why would anyone at a restaurant want to sit so close to amps on full blast?? Making it impossible to speak with whoever’s next to you without having to shout at them so they can understand what you’re saying! Basically I just sat there waiting to go home. I couldn’t have been so bored, at least there was a TV there to stare at! Oh, and the food was delish.

So yeah, Friday night was crap!

No, I will never get used to cockroaches!!!!

So last the other night I had an experience that’s still making my skin crawl!! I was getting ready for bed and had just put on my long sleeved pyjama top. I felt something against my skin which I thought was probably just one of the annoying beetles that have been practically taking over the house every evening, so I took of the pyjama top to check and to my HORROR it was a COCKROACH!!! I went MENTAL, O M G!! I can’t stop thinking about it! The only positive is that the thing didn’t crawl all over my skin! Arrgghhh! I can’t stand cockroaches! Lizards, beetles, small spiders.. fine but bloody cockroaches are dire! I’ve been exposed to them every time I’ve come to Brazil since I was a child and I’ve been exposed to them even more now I’m living in Brazil but I will NEVER get used to them!! I don’t even know how Rod went to get a cockroach out of the fricking wardrobe once with a tissue!! UURGHH! A LEAST until now no flying ones have turned up at my house, they’re the worst along with the white ones eeerrrrrghh. So this is my current update, my extreme dislike for cockroaches!

Roll on December!!

Sooo, it’s only the beginning of the new semester and I want December to be here like now!! ‘Why?’ You may ask, well this semester I have a particular group of kids who are absolutely NUTS. Seriously, the hour that I spend with them has got to be the loudest hour I experience throughout the whole week! NOTHING works to calm them down!

• Relaxing music does not work.
• Any music from the course book you play has them shouting along (no, not singing along).
• If you let them dance to the song some of them like to throw themselves on the floor and start spinning around.
• Calming games such as Chinese Whispers do not work!
• I’ve even tried to use an annoying sound as blackmail (to get them to be quite or else I’ll play the sound) but they just ‘noise’ along to the sound!!

I’m trying to put together some kind of team competition thing that encourages the children to want to demonstrate desirable behaviour. Last lesson one of the students said to me ‘Ahh tia (tia = aunty in Portuguese), it must be so nice when you get home after this class!’ LOL

I got to speak with the group’s previous teacher to ask her for tips and she told me of the trauma the group brought her which I had heard about from other colleagues before my lessons started with this group. On the first day of lessons I was chatting in the teachers’ room with a colleague who was telling me about how much the group’s previous teacher had suffered and I was looking out the window at the children shouting and running around the place knowing that was the group and thinking ‘oooo lucky meee.. NOT’

So in my chat with the previous teacher she basically told me the only way she managed to get through the lesson was teaching that lesson’s unit and having the children copy stuff so there would be no moment that they would have to wait for her to give out instructions. Quite understandable seeing as there is not one second of peace where you can even explain to them what they have to do!! Whenever they have to do an activity I eventually have to go round the class to explain to each student individually what they have to do. The lady at the tuck shop told me how she and the security guy sometimes saw the previous teacher crying after class!! Poor thing! Don’t think I can see myself crying at any point but maybe going mad??? So this semester other than planning my lessons I have to be researching techniques, activities… anything to calm down hyper active kids! Lord give me strength. I’m just hoping none of the coordinators observe any of these lessons!! My recent sitting in was NOT fun. I’ll leave that for another post, should be fun eh??!!