Today I was paid! How I had longed for this day since I arrived! I was paid for half a month (Yay me), in cash, in American dollars. It feels weird carrying around so much cash wondering what to do with it. It is even stranger that I don't have to worry about exchange rates and such...at least not directly. The stores seem to all accept the US money, though many of them give the change in Iraqi dinnar, which actually has English printed on the bills as well as the Arabic.
Well, that was the good thing that happened today. Unfortunately, today was extremely frustrating for me. Even when I first woke up, I felt frustrated. The water was hot, I was able to clean some of the mud off my shoes; I ran a cloth with petroleum jelly over my leather hat, and I was in the bus to get to work on time with little waiting. I should have been happy, but it was just one of those days.
The first thing the other teacher and I did was to tape name tags of the students' onto their desks. The other teacher was in a bad mood as well, and didn't like the way I was putting the tape on them. She snapped at me a couple times, and I went into the office that is apparently now meant for me, and I didn't really talk to her for the rest of the work day.
Some of the students complained about the assigned seats. The dean had to come in and tell them that we weren't going to be moving students without a very good reason; just because you didn't like a person was not sufficient reason. He told the other English class this as well. I moved one student because she needs to sit in the front in order to see the board. Apparently they knew this before, but I was not told (not that it should have mattered as the one who initially made the seating chart knew).
The other teacher moved a student who was "uncomfortable" sitting next to the student she was placed next to. She wanted me to move the students, but I didn't really feel comfortable doing so. I originally would have had no problem moving someone if they were uncomfortable sitting next to someone, but after the dean gave his little speech, I felt it was unfair to allow her to move and no one else. The other teacher apparently didn't see it that way; she moved the student. This also frustrated me a little more. Perhaps I was being a little sensitive today. I hope it does not continue into tomorrow.
When I was teaching my class this afternoon, I was really frustrated! It seems that my students are unable to grasp the concept of an answer being something that is not directly written in the text. For example, the question was "How long has ...bean singing?" In the article was a section that stated "In the year 2000, she climbed the stage for the first time to sing before ....." They wanted to put 2000, no matter what I said. They didn't get that you had to take the year that it is and subtract the year she started in order to find the number of years she had been singing for. If it isn't written, it can't be the right answer! I think this is the most frustrating thing for me with my students.
I have decided that I am going to attempt to do a lot of things with my students that others may thing would be too difficult. I am going to have them present an autobiography at the end of the semester. I am not going to be looking for anything fantastic, but I think they need to do something in which they use what they have learned, even if the program is very much test driven.
Last night my housemate from Bagdhad took me out to eat at a cheap, but very good restaurant. We had a plate of fries, a plate of salad, chicken (for me), a hamburger (for him), 2 cans of coke, and bread. This all came to around $10. The meal was good, as was the company and conversation. I learned a lot about living in Iraq that I hadn't known before. I think things may get easier now that I have all the paperwork out of the way now.
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