Back again

Hello again! Sorry I disappeared for a few days-- have been down with a bad cold and was running a fever for a couple of days. Very annoying... I NEVER get fever; weird diseases, sign me up, but never fever... so of course I had to get it during my first week here in mongolia. But then again, what was I expecting with a 40 degree celsius change in weather overnight? Anyway, I feel better now, only a sore throat and sniffles. In a sense, I am glad it was during this week, which was ony lesson plan prepartion and basic acquaintance week, rather than in my frist week of lessons that I took unwell; if anything, it was a good reason not to have to spend too many meaningless hours inthe teachers' room!

In happier news, all my lesson plans got approved. The vice-principal even went so far as to tell all the other teachers how great my plans were and how they should all follow suit; of course, that isnt actually a compliment since she does not speak a word of English, and I can therefore only presume that she was impressed by my being the only teacher who submitted them by the deadline! Haha, I guess there are advantages to understanding absolutely nothing of conversations around you-- gives you added motivation to concentrate on your own work and get it in on time! So... if my classes don't work now, i will have only myself to blame. I am a bit nervous because I still dont know much about the students' level of English and nothing about their expectations of me. Will we be able to understand each other? Will I be able to teach them anything meaningful, or will I become just one more boring teacher whom they must pretend to respect? Will I be able to break, at least in my own classroom, some of the strict student-teacher hierarchies I so dislike, or will I just become the weird foreigner with her weirder ways? Only time will tell, and I can only do my best to teach them something and have fun in the process.

Other than that, I am getting better at "doing nothing"-- I actually got through a whole day of it yesterday, including another boring faculty meeting (no James, the semiotic reading of their actions failed to entertainme for more than 5 minutes or so!), without once feeling frustrated. Actually, these long hours at my desk are proving very beneficial to my relationship with my diary, as I end up writing there 2-3 times a day. So whether or not I do much else in terms of work, every last moment of my stay here is likely to be recorded in minute detail!

Except that I probably wont have quite somuch free time starting Monday. I am actually teaching 10, not 8, classes of 35 students each. I might also be teaching an extra class for students who wish to take the TOEFL exam, because there is absolutely no way to prepare them for it in 4 40-minute periods. And I will attempt to do an "English table" in the cafeteria at lunch 2 or 3 times a week. I think I will be glad of the work, although I am maxmizing my enjoyment of this last free weekend! I have spent all day today listening to my audiobook of "Sense and Sensibility," and I spent part of yesterday watching Friends on my computer. I know, I know, you think that's hardly the way to spend my free time in MONGOLIA, but don't judge me too harshly until you have lived for 10 days in a place where no one (literally, not one single person) speaks fluent English, where you must enunciate each word so clearly and speak so slowly that it gets completely tiring, and where the freezing weather makes going out a not-so-welcme proposition when you are just recovering from a fever!

Okay, that's a lot of pretty meaningless rambling. I'll go now. Keep writing-- you have no idea how happy your comments and emails make me! :)