First day of the new semester

Well, it's official: I've got 6 months left. Today was the first day of the new semester. Lots of new teachers who have been slowly trickling in over the past two weeks, doing meaningless office work, today got to actually do their job. The atmosphere in the office is usually quiet, work-like, no family-feeling (which I hate), but the new teachers are changing that a little. I hope us teachers can feel more and more comfortable with each other, though it is weird knowing that just about everyone will leave after 1 year, or in lots of cases less than that.

And speaking of leaving in less than one year, my friend Vivian left. Before getting a job at the school, she applied to be an airline stewardess. She passed the qualifications and stuff, but they weren't hiring so they kept her on file. They called her on Saturday or Sunday and offered her the job. She came into the office on Monday morning and told the boss about it, offered to work for 2 weeks, but instead of congratulated, negotiated with to work longer, praised for her hard work, she was guilted and made to feel like crap for abandoning her job. As if this job is that important. They told her she could just finish the day and leave. That left quite a bad taste in her mouth, and she left last night, quite unhappy. I'm happy for her, she'll be doing more what she truly wants to, but of course we'll miss her and she'll miss us. She gets to work out of Hong Kong, and fly all over the world! Freaking sweet! I'd love to live in HK and fly everywhere!

Vivian's leaving affects me more than just on a personal level: she was going to be my desk partner, and she is notorious for giving her desk partners food. I have now, thanks to fate, been cheated out of a semester of candies and snacks. Woe is me, woe is me! My new desk partner seems nice enough, but no promises of candy in her eyes.

My first day this semester was fine, I had my mastery classes (kids that are basically fluent), which was no surprise because they like to give them to teachers for 6 months rather than 3, and I had even given them homework last Thursday so it was class as usual. My only other class today was an older class that is pretty good at English. I had actually taught two of them my first semester, so it's nice to see them 3 months later and see how they've improved, especially since the single greatest destroyer of teacher spirits is thinking your students aren't learning. I didn't need to be overly strict with them because, being more intelligent students, they're a little more mature and don't need to be beaten as much. Tomorrow, however, I have every intention of slapping around a couple of kids, laying down the law, that kind of thing.

Oh, and Grace is going to go with my to the eye doctor Thursday morning at 9am to get my eyes checked. After that I can order some glasses online and get them shipped here, hopefully within a couple of weeks, and will be able to see well again.

One more "Oh, and." Oh, and the weather here has been a-ma-zing since Friday night. Friday was hot, but the night got into the low 60s. Since then, the high has never gotten higher than 85, and the low has been about 65. I would rate the current humidity level as "unbearable," which is at least two levels lower than Charleston's "freakish death-level" humidity. Therefore, it is quite comfortable to me, while still quite sticky for everyone else. I can laugh now, but when the winter comes and my snot freezes, the glove will be on the other foot, so to speak.