My Fastest Wire Transfer Ever!

On Thursday I wired money home again to my RBC account, and I asked the CHB to put a note in the additional commments box asking the KEBC not to change my transit number. Then I sent an email to my contact at my branch with a communication to that effect. Today I received an email from my helpful contact saying the money was in my account! That's great! Now my line of credit debt is at its lowest level since September, although it's still much too high.

Three Cheers for Martha Stewart!

Martha Stewart returns home!

Now, like my mother, I've always had a high opinion of her, and have never understood the contempt for her amongst so many people. It seems to me that many of these people who hate Martha vote Democrat, which is odd, considering she gave no small amount of money to the Democrats, and to the Hillary Clinton campaign for her senatorial position in NYS. Hillary returned the money, which I considered hypocritical, since in my view Hillary is almost certainly guilty of insider trading, while Martha, meanwhile, was jailed in a novel application of a securities law whose main points Martha had not violated. It's also ironic that Martha, while under trial, found a spirited defense on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal.

I have to say that I admire the way Martha bit the bullet, went to jail, and is now out--all even before her appeal begins to clear her name! Anyway, welcome home, Martha, and good luck!

A Dream

I guess in one sense I've arrived as a teacher; a few nights ago I had a dream that a few of my (now former) adult students emailed me. The next morning, one of them did! Today another did! Thank you! I remember how when I was in grade 12, our wonderful Spanish teacher, Mrs. Mitchell, had a dream about us (actually, it was a nightmare--she dreamed that we all failed the provincial final exam!--needless to say, we all did quite well). She liked our class, and we liked her, because she was always patient and kind.

Flustered!

Today I probably tried to pack too much into too little time. In a limited amount of time before school I:

-wired money home (something I always dread!)
-inquired about a gas bill (I paid yesterday, but the new bill arrived today)
-ate the usual Twister set at KFC

Then I had my classes. I've got one little boy who doesn't speak and doesn't write in one of my classes. He only cries. This was the second day of term today, and on both days I was quite compassionate to him. Today I took him aside and asked him what was the matter (I asked him if he was ok yesterday, too). But he only shook his head when I asked him if he was angry (etc.). He's at a level where this vocabulary is used, and he did seem to understand my questions. I took him to the office, and asked them to ask him what was wrong. The office ladies can be quite good with the children.

That being said, they got me all flustered today! It was interview day for the adult students, and so we had to interview them. I interviewed one student last time, four months ago, and wanted to sit in on an interview to refresh my memory. I only asked for one. The director wasn't too pleased, but he acquiesced. So, after that interview, then I went and began interviewing in the teacher's room, of all places (there were no other places available). There was another interview happening in the same room). Then the office staff began to pester me. They were in a terrible hurry! However, their pestering me during the counting of the ridiculously high 200 point tests, and during the filling out of the forms, threw me off balance, and made me very nervous. I made two mistakes in the paperwork (both of which I caught after). For instance, I forgot to fill out the "level" for one student, but this was because an office staff member was literally trying to take the form away from me! Geez! They interrupted me twice in one interview. And when I asked the other teachers how they did, one did the same number as me, and one did two more. Since I sat in on one interview with the director, I wouldn't say I was terribly slow once I started. I felt (and still feel), like I don't have the confidence of the office staff. Some people need something to blame, and once they see weakness, they assume it's always there. (I should probably say that some or most of this may be my imagination.)

Then, at 6:50, the office told me "no more interviews"! My day was done--one hour and fifteen minutes ahead of schedule! I couldn't understand at all. I was then afraid they were giving up on me, and I don't like being given up on. Anyway, then when I asked what I should do, one of them told me to wait in the teacher's lounge. If it weren't for Vanessa, one of my very nice co-workers, I might have waited much longer. She told me we were free to go, and she checked with the director.

So I felt very defensive and down in the evening today. Fortunately, Vanessa calmed me down a bit with a nice chat. Actually, my mood was reminiscent of my mood during similar times at McD's back at PoCo. However, upon reflection, these days are few and far between here, whereas they were a very regular occurrence back in Canada.

Finally, I should cut the office staff some slack. Although the three main ones really flustered me, they were under a lot of stress, too. There were hords of parents and children around the office all day today and yesterday, sorting out beginning-of-term problems, and it was quite difficult to get the class folders as the crowd of kids and grown-ups was so thick.

"Honor Killings" in the EU

Now and then I post completely off topic. Glenn Reynolds has links to some stories on the plight of Muslim women in Europe. According to TechCentralStation, Scotland Yard reports 117 unsolved "honor killings" of Muslim women by Muslim men in the last year. Some reports indicate the popularity of the perpetrators within the Muslim immigrant community in Europe. In Berlin alone, according to der Spiegel, six Muslim women were brutally murdered in the past four months for daring to dress as westerners. 40% of the women in women's shelters in the Netherlands are Muslim. In the UK, police estimate that 2 Muslim girls per week go missing, forcibly repatriated to their countries to be murdered by relatives for refusing to marry the men chosen for them. Meanwhile, genital mutilation of young girls in the EU continues. Some more troubling stats: in the UK, Muslim women have a suicide rate FOUR times the indigenous average. Meanwhile, this link tells the story of a young Palenstinian girl who survived a murder attempt by her family. She was burned alive with gasoline by her brother in law for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. As usual, the Palestinians, who use their children as human bombs to bomb Israeli children and old ladies, are competely innocent, of course. [sarcasm!] That is one sick society and one sick religion.

A New Term

Well, I'm starting my fourth two-month term, now. Yesterday was my first day. I've taught long enough, now, that I'm starting to see a number of the same students. In my 3pm class, I've got five out of fourteen students whom I've taught before. One of them, Hye In, is my favorite student of all time! I'm nervous about that; we had such a nice time in my 3pm class in my first term (with a class from heaven), and I hope this term won't disappoint her. Still, despite my nervousness, I'm very glad to start the school day with her again! I'm teaching all new books this term: American Chatterbox 3 (I've taught AC 2 twice now), Happy Times 3 (I've taught HT 2 & 6 previously), a book whose name I've just forgotten, Postcards 3 (which is very unfamiliar for me), and English Time 6 (I've taught ET 3 before). The Postcards book is for my Middle Schoolers. I've got two Jung Min's in that class, and both their last names are almost identical, too! The one Jung Min is one of my favorite students. I've got other former students in that class, too, including my monkey, Kyung Hoon. He's a nice kid, but too prone to mischief! This term, I'm not going to let him get away with all the fidgeting--I promptly split him and Hyun Chuhl (another former student), up. Of course, they're the only two boys in the class, which means that people are now being difficult about choosing partners (boys and girls don't like to mix here).

Lately I've been rather anxious about a few things, not to mention in withdrawal from my adult students! Some of them have, thankfully, emailed me a few times. But I guess I have to remember that their education program was about them, not me. Still, I miss them dreadfully! Today I'll be interviewing more adult students, marking their written tests, and placing them in an appropriate level. The first class will start on Tuesday. I'm pleased that my director has given me this responsibility, as well as the priviledge of teaching high elementary and middle school students.