A Dizzy Day

(the day before)Yesterday was fraught with little trivial instances of things that have built up to a mountain of anger. I visited the other teacher in order to view the DVDs for class. There was not much that was useful, but there was one documentary on the Nile that looks promising. This was actually quite enjoyable for me.

I left and came home. Everyone was leaving to go a restaurant....everybody that is but me! I was, once again, not invited to go along. I don't mind so much being left out, or them not wanting me to go, but I don't like it when they attempt to hide these things from me. I am beginning to feel the pressure of being an outsider in my own home. All my roommates speak Arabic as their first language, and the two main ones have a connection in that they are Lebanese. The tv is constantly playing Lebanese channels, with the occasional western English movie thrown in (as long as they choose it). I feel as if I am a constant visitor as opposed to someone who actually lives here.

The dean asked today if I was planing on staying for another year after my contract runs out. I told him that I would think about it, but I needed to have a new place to live. I would prefer an apartment by myself as they have at the primary school SABIS runs, but that I would consider living with other people if they moved me and this person together into a place. I need a change! I am hoping they are able to hire another male teacher to make this a possibility. It is tough living with the same people you work with though, but at least if the person spoke English as a first language, we could go through the problems together. (I wish they would allow mixed genders to live together; then this wouldn't be such an issue, but that would be culturally unacceptable.)

Yesterday (today when I originally started writing this, before the power decided to go out), had my class do some creative writing. This is one of the things we are required to do, and I had not done it up to this time. So, I took Mishka (my little Russian bear I got in Finland from my students) and told my class a story about how Mishka and I went traveling. I asked them to then write a story about Mishka. Tell me about his family, what he likes to do, and where he has been. I asked them to make a schedule for him (for example on January 16th at 9am he was getting up, etc.) Most found this task to be EXTREMELY difficult. It seems that many of these students, despite their age, are in the concrete stage and unable to pretend that Mishka has a family, or that he may even eat or drink.

One was in tears because she felt she was unable to complete the task. I asked her why (as all of the vocabulary they need is what they have been working on in the book, which is why I did this!). Her reply was that it was difficult because "Mishka not eat; Mishka not drink. Nothing to write about!) The other difficulty I had with this assignment was that people started trying to look up Mishka. I had started out by saying that Mishka was a name. I could understand (a little) them trying to look up a name, but after the first person came up to me asking why it wasn't in the dictionary, I repeated that it was a name, and that names are not usually in the dictionary. It was the fourth or fifth time AFTER this announcement that I became a little upset with them. On a high note, however, Two of my lower level students were really able to shine here. Their English was not so good, but they were able to write quite a bit, fairly quickly. I was very impressed and quite overjoyed.

The lack of internet at home is starting to get to me. It is bad enough to not have it at the office, but to come back to the house and not have it either, leaves one feeling cut off from the world. I would probably feel this way where I understood what was going on, and where I actually had weekends, but here it is most difficult. It is all I have that I can do to relax. Occasionally I am able to read a little, but even that takes a little more concentration than I have had recently. Ahh well, maybe later.