Well I havent given an update on life here lately….its been the same old same old..up until last week..
I Have been getting organized for various things including winter vacation and winter camps…I will be doing a music section with the kids so I really just need to find all my old fun lesson plans and appropriate music to coincide.
As I write this its 6:45 pm and the Sidae apartment guy is here fixing my water heater and floor heater, and its frickin cold in here…..I called last week to have them come fix the heat cuz it broke while I was sleeping last tuesday night, I woke up at 5am shivering and tried to fix it to no avail…now, some would say just add more covers and you’ll be fine…however..I had an allergic reaction to gosh knows what and my eyes have been swelling….. so I had washed literally everything including the blankets, so I only had 2 flimsy blankets to roll up in…So the guy comes the next day to fix the heater and there is no problem its working fine now…..forward to today……I have been experienceing dry scalp in this dry weather….so I got home and put some conditioning balm on my scalp in prep to use my new expensive anti scaling shampoo, sounds lovely so far eh?? So, I went to hop in the shower and….no hot water so I hopped out covered up and ran to the water heater re set it and ran back to the shower…leaving a trail of wet behind….well this went on 4 times….till I finally had to rinse in cold water as the heater will not come on….the guy is here now he can’t fix it…and has told me to wait a minute…..more on that later..
Moving back to a month ago I bought a new car…well an old new car…but if you leave the lights on while the car is off, it immediately drains the battery..so I had to go buy new booster cables, and a new battery and have used them 2x now since the new battery….once in the middle of traffic a taxi stopped to help me as did a passer byer who nudged me out of the way and got it going for me…God bless em….So now am OCD about turning the lights off. BUT, now the windsheild wipers and power windows don’t work…..grrrr….they do work but only if you turn the car half way off….????
Moving to yesterday….I have been teaching the kids the same way every lesson for 7 chapters now, when they wouldn’t co operate (ie raise your hand answer the easy question get a candy), and gave me blank stares yesterday in class and my co teacher would only stare into space rather than assist me, and the bell is broken to get their attention (a bell I tried to fix and did make functional, but my co teacher keeps sabotaging my repair by rudely undoing it after I tell her not to lift it!!! if you press down it works fine if u lift it it comes apart, she doesn’t seem to be getting this, who lifts a bell?? I fix …she lifts it and gives it back to me “Nina not fixed”…she’s lucky to have her fingers..anyways…grr…moving on…), I very seldom lose my cool, but when we have been over it and over it and there is candy involved and its the easiest question of the bunch, I banged on the desk with my palms and asked them to pay attention and as I did so my hands went through the glass that covers the computer screen in the desk and it shattered into 2 big pieces…well I ignored this apologized and continued teaching to their distraction…and they finally got it, and I cleaned up the glass while still teaching and replaced it from another source by next class….fyi the glass had been pre broken and taped up….so any amount of force it was ready to break…so I took the glass down to dispose of it and the first person I saw was the Principal….he laughed and gestured questioningly if I had punched through it???…Close Buddy, very close….
Moving back to today….they have these gas floor heaters in class that sit on the floor and are about the size of a shop vac….well the teacher of this class had her heater up against the desk for herself and of course all the windows were open…..so I came in put my bag down near it within safe distance and started teaching…..during my talking to the kids my bag had fallen backwards unbeknownst to me onto the heater….and i look over and see smoke rising…. to my dismay my bag was just about to catch fire, it had only destroyed and melted the 3 zippers of my good and fairly new Roots knapsack and was between melting and catching fire, I caught it just in time…and well we had to open the windows further to get the smoke out…and I just kept on teaching….my bag is destroyed…:(
So after school today I went over to the police station to get fingerprints done for our Criminal Record checks which are now mandatory for teachers teaching overseas here…and for visa and employment purposes the law passes December 15th….so any new teacher coming over here has to have one before they come and any old teachers are responsible for acquiring their own from abroad. This entails going to the local police station and sending the prints to the RCMP unit in Canada if you are Canadian…. So I got on the ball to get it done as processing of said records takes 120 days. I walked in and told them what I wanted in Violent Crimes Unit and they took me to an office, discussed it at length, made many phone calls, took my passport, went and got and English speaking head honcho from next door, sat me down and gave me tea…..they gave me 2 sheets to do it on as Canada requires a rolled set and a flat print, and we translated the sheet together….now.. let me fill you in.. I am the first teacher to have gone there to make this request, so it was a learning experience for both of us….the most serious dude in the office took me over to his desk and covered my fingers with ink and told me to relax and we went through it and he stamped and signed it and put it in an envelope for me…..all in all I gotta love the Koreans they are so warm and giving and with a little Korean under my belt you can eventually get anything done..you just need patience….
In addition….my computer sounds like its gonna take off when I start it..whir whir whirrrr…my finger just went through my favourite gloves….my scooter Big Red just barely started a few minutes ago and is on empty….my change portion of my wallet busted the other day, i am was dropping change all over the place till I figured it out…now I have a collection of change and need to get a container for it and a new wallet….And yesterday I caught a cold….:(
The Good news is my water heater is now working… !!!
Yongi is speaking to Virginia now…
P.S. Canada has taken 3 months to send me back my non residency forms they didn’t say yes or no just do it again….grrrr….
Happy thoughts….N
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