my week

Where did the past week go? Half of my reason for not writing on here is because my computer still seems to be sick, and is so slow. So I do only what is necessary...and that still takes forever. The other half is that I was busy...as usual.

Monday I went to the village I have started the clubs in, but not for the clubs, but to see a cultural festival. The dancing part, in which a student I know was, didn't actually start on time, so I didn't get to see much. But it was a good time.


Tuesday I was back to the village to supervise the clubs in a school for minorities. That was interesting...but I won't go into detail about that.

Wednesday, again to the village, this time for game day. The high school students were on spring break this week, so we also took a break from the regular clubs and had fun. It was a good time, but tiring.


More about my week tomorrow...good night.

a working weekend

Its Sunday night and its hard for me to believe the weekend has come and gone already. Lately I have been busy traveling and visiting people on the weekends, and this weekend I had planned to travel but the snow changed those plans. So this weekend I was able to catch up on some much needed rest and much needed work. I spent most of the weekend in front of my computer and at the moment I am tired of sitting in this chair looking at my computer. I have basically been sitting here since about 3pm, and its now 11:30pm. I took a break to walk down the street and buy some fruit, and I made dinner, but thats about all. I am thankful for the busy week ahead of me, and that it doesn't include or allow for much time in front of the computer.

Well I was going to leave you with some pictures from the past week. But the combination of having a horribly slow internet connection and my computer being sick and working very slow means I have no patience to wait. Yes my computer is sick. Last night it turned off on me and I lost the lesson I had just finished writing but had yet to save. And then it wouldn't turn on again. Thankfully this morning it worked again...but not at the same speed...and it didn't recover my lesson. I can tell something is wrong. I am worried and have backed up all my files now.

Ok, so since I wrote more I had time to upload a couple pictures. This is from Friday when I went to my friend's sister's Celebration for the Day of the School (the anniversary of when the school opened).


This picture is from last weekend when I was visiting a friend in her village. We went to this castle-like war memorial and of course...there was dancing involved (with music on the phone)...even though there were just four of us there.

surprise

Okay, I knew the weather report said snow, but we hardly got any snow all winter, I surely wasn't really expecting it today. Last night I woke up a few times and heard what I thought was rain outside. As usual I woke up this morning and looked out the window to see what the weather was like, so I could decide what to wear. I was shocked as I saw a blanket of white. I was very excited to see such whiteness...but the day did not continue in that fashion as it has been a mix of snow and rain, and therefore not very pleasant to see or walk in.

I am very tired from a long week and am happy that I do not have any work to finish tonight. I think I am going to read my book now and take a nap, then watch a movie when I wake back up. A very exciting evening for sure!

a long day

Overall I had a very good day....it was busy and long, but good. This morning I woke up early (7:30am is very early for me), got ready, talked to a couple friends online, and headed outside to meet the two teachers for the clubs in the village. Next, one hour driving in the car, with a short coffee break in the middle. When I asked if the teachers wanted to get to the school early they said no....so we stopped for coffee (really a must in this culture. I need to remember to plan that into the drive for the future.) The clubs (English and computer) went well and the teachers did a great job. More students were there this week, and others have started hearing about our clubs and wanting to know what is going on. Its starting to get exciting. I love starting up new work.

After stopping for lunch on the way home, we arrived back in the city with about an hour to spare before I had to teach at the university. So I met a friend and we sat on a bench near the university and talked. My class went well today. I think I am back in the swing of teaching again and enjoying it. Its nice to enjoy class again. (Although right now I should be preparing tomorrow's lesson and I am not.)

After class we had game night. There were 8 students there tonight, which doesn't seem like much anymore. Before, that would be considered a lot. We played UNO for awhile and laughed a lot. These students are crazy, but its fun. Later I went out for coffee with a friend....which ended up actually being dinner not coffee.

Now its almost midnight and I should finish my lesson for tomorrow and go to sleep. I am happy that I don't have to wake up early tomorrow...first time this week. Sleep...such a wonderful word.

work, work, work

I am glad that my work is fun. I can say that I have been very busy with work lately, but thankfully a lot of it is fun. Now some of it is not, but you will have that. Last week I was not really enjoying teaching, which was surprising for me, because before I loved it. Sometimes I would be walking to class, not really wanting to teach, but it would always turn out well. In the end I was always happy about teaching. For some reason, last week I did not want to teach, and the classes therefore didn't go very well. Thankfully this week has started off on the right track. So far the classes I have taught this week have gone well and I enjoyed them. I am thankful for that.

The work in the village is taking over my life. I drove out there yesterday, and am going again today. The most frustrating part of it all is that it takes 1 hour to drive there. So although I only had a little work to do yesterday, it took a long time. Yesterday I went to a school for minorities here. It was interesting and a bit hard as I don't know their language. I will be supervising a computer club and an English club in that school. It will be very different than what I am used to, and although I think it will be a challenge for many reasons, I am excited about it.

sleep?

I am not sure why or how I am still awake...but I am, so before I turned off my computer I thought to write a quick note on here. I apologize for not updating this more, as I said I would during these 40 days. I was away for the weekend again, and therefore did not get much sleep. Tonight after my class I visited a friend at her house. I could not believe how tired I was and how hard it was to keep my eyes open...and that was at 8pm. Now its almost midnight and somehow I have managed to stay awake. It would have been better just to sleep. I find I am not productive at all when I am this tired, but tonight I seemed to be too tired to finish the basic things I had to get done. I was distracted easily and in the end did not really complete much. I have given up, now its time for sleep...

pictures from this weekend