back to the grind and Mother's Day
aaaaand we're back into the swing of things. well, to the best of my ability since i have been dealing with an ever-changing work schedule. i'm a flexible person, but goodness me, the myriad of changes that a full-time ALT teacher has to deal with must be so stressful for them! it'd be okay if i were a full time ALT and spend a whole day at one single school, but when you are a part-timer being dispatched to three different schools that end up changing their original time schedules EVERY WEEK, things can get frustrating at times :P
i have been given more hours this month by the main eikaiwa i work for (ACB), and they have been consistent with the schedule they gave me in March. although, i still feel very disoriented at times even i'm going on month 2 now. so far from what i've observed, students just get dropped off on a certain day and are meant to stay there for X amount of hours. during those hours, they get 2-3 English lessons taught by the teachers there. it's a case by case kind of thing, so one student might just stay for one hour for one class, while another student will stay for two hours and have to switch from classroom A for a 15 min HW check followed by a 1 hour lesson, go into classroom B for a short 15 minute English drill, and then go back to classroom A for an English activity for another hour. sometimes the teacher will have to switch from classroom to classroom, which is more likely, and it gets confusing a lot. the worst part about it is that there are absolutely no breaks in between these classes. so after your lesson in classroom A, you have to drop what you're doing, and pop on over to classroom D for an English activity or whatnot. then, right after that, you have to make a dash to classroom B for something else afterward. :T total use of your paid time and the classrooms is the goal in mind... ~_~;; all these changes have made it hard for any information to get stored in my head, which causes a problem, because as a teacher, remembering what you did before in the last class is very important for any following classes that you teach afterward. that and i hate getting reminded from the head Japanese staff on what i should be doing or what student needs to be in which classroom all the time. i don't like reminding others of what they need to remember, so i can imagine that it's frustrating and annoying for them to have to remind the "forgetful foreigners" two or three times every week. ~_~;;
so as grateful as i am with the long Golden Week break, which allowed me to make a ton of family memories as well as great topics to talk about in my classes, i sometimes wish i could just have a regular two day weekend, and then get my head back into the game without any more interruptions... either that or wish for a sharper memory ^_^;;
now, onto Mother's Day 2013!
before i get into that, there is a precursor i have to say though. as much as i love Mother's Day, something bad always seems to pop up on that day for me if i deliberately make an effort to celebrate it on the day. it almost always ends up with me crying my eyes out feeling disappointed and unappreciated to be honest. :( before Kay was born, i didn't have this problem since i would be the one who would give the affection and appreciation to my mom, my aunts and even my grandma when she was alive. after i got married, i was giving handmade cards to my mother in-law while hubs would just call. things were all right then.
now that i am a mom myself, it gets a little trickier. for me, i find that Mother's Day is just another day to pamper myself, kind of like a second birthday, ya know? however, that's not what hubs thinks nowadays. we had great Mother's Days a few times in the beginning especially when we weren't as busy and Kay was a wee little baby, but as Kay got older and we both got busier, things just changed. in his head, "Mother's Day" does not mean "pamper your wife" day. he saves that for Valentine's Day, which makes logical sense, and i totally understand since i'm not his mother in any way shape or form ^_^;; so, he makes no effort in celebrating the day with me, which kind of makes me sad, but after a couple of years, i got over it and just made it a "pamper me" day with Kay. :P although, there were times when we would actually have arguments over trivial things on that day leaving me very bitter and unappreciated. i'll admit that i was probably the instigator in those arguments, because i didn't find flowers or a cake or something waiting for me at the end of the day and i voiced my mind about it, which is never a good idea with me ~_~;; come to think of it, i don't think we do anything special for Father's Day either... :P so maybe hubs and i are just weird ^_^;;
so with that in mind, i'll tell you what we did for this Mother's Day: absolutely nothing! :D lol ^_^ and nothing bad happened! it was just a normal work day for me. i slept in (totally wonderful) and didn't have to worry about waking up to an alarm, spent most of the day online catching up on youtube, and then took Kay for our private lesson in the afternoon. afterward, we ran some errands together and came home. :)
i did get a present that Kay made at school. other than the Mother's Day drawing of me with blonde hair (lol), she also made one which was really nice, but she liked it so much that she ended up making another picture on a bag! ^_^;; they ironed on a plastic film over the picture to let it last, and i thought it was so cute :) although, she liked it so much that she's now using it :P ah, it's the thought that counts, right? ^_^;;
after a late night call to wish my mom a happy mother's day and a bunch of facebook posts to wish all my mommy friends the same, i went to bed finally realizing that it wasn't that bad of a day, and i don't have to be appreciated JUST on this particular day since i get my affection and appreciation in little bits here and there all the time. ^_^
for example, hubs doesn't say "i love you" since he's Japanese, but he told me last week sheepishly that only he and he alone can call me "Tina-chan" after hearing that one of the school Principals referred to me as "Tina-chan". He had just come out of a staff meeting with some teachers and there was an extra bento left. i'd finished teaching and was talking to the Japanese teacher in the office when i heard my name mentioned. apparently, the head teacher had asked what to do with the remaining bento and the Principal told her to give it to "Tina-chan" (i don't use my full name while teaching because it's difficult to pronounce/remember). talk about a pleasant surprise, and i took it as a sign that the staff liked what i was doing at that school :) coincidentally, that happened during Teacher's Appreciation Week back in the States :D
so, that was Mother's Day 2013 and i'm really glad things happened the way they did ^_^
i have been given more hours this month by the main eikaiwa i work for (ACB), and they have been consistent with the schedule they gave me in March. although, i still feel very disoriented at times even i'm going on month 2 now. so far from what i've observed, students just get dropped off on a certain day and are meant to stay there for X amount of hours. during those hours, they get 2-3 English lessons taught by the teachers there. it's a case by case kind of thing, so one student might just stay for one hour for one class, while another student will stay for two hours and have to switch from classroom A for a 15 min HW check followed by a 1 hour lesson, go into classroom B for a short 15 minute English drill, and then go back to classroom A for an English activity for another hour. sometimes the teacher will have to switch from classroom to classroom, which is more likely, and it gets confusing a lot. the worst part about it is that there are absolutely no breaks in between these classes. so after your lesson in classroom A, you have to drop what you're doing, and pop on over to classroom D for an English activity or whatnot. then, right after that, you have to make a dash to classroom B for something else afterward. :T total use of your paid time and the classrooms is the goal in mind... ~_~;; all these changes have made it hard for any information to get stored in my head, which causes a problem, because as a teacher, remembering what you did before in the last class is very important for any following classes that you teach afterward. that and i hate getting reminded from the head Japanese staff on what i should be doing or what student needs to be in which classroom all the time. i don't like reminding others of what they need to remember, so i can imagine that it's frustrating and annoying for them to have to remind the "forgetful foreigners" two or three times every week. ~_~;;
so as grateful as i am with the long Golden Week break, which allowed me to make a ton of family memories as well as great topics to talk about in my classes, i sometimes wish i could just have a regular two day weekend, and then get my head back into the game without any more interruptions... either that or wish for a sharper memory ^_^;;
now, onto Mother's Day 2013!
before i get into that, there is a precursor i have to say though. as much as i love Mother's Day, something bad always seems to pop up on that day for me if i deliberately make an effort to celebrate it on the day. it almost always ends up with me crying my eyes out feeling disappointed and unappreciated to be honest. :( before Kay was born, i didn't have this problem since i would be the one who would give the affection and appreciation to my mom, my aunts and even my grandma when she was alive. after i got married, i was giving handmade cards to my mother in-law while hubs would just call. things were all right then.
now that i am a mom myself, it gets a little trickier. for me, i find that Mother's Day is just another day to pamper myself, kind of like a second birthday, ya know? however, that's not what hubs thinks nowadays. we had great Mother's Days a few times in the beginning especially when we weren't as busy and Kay was a wee little baby, but as Kay got older and we both got busier, things just changed. in his head, "Mother's Day" does not mean "pamper your wife" day. he saves that for Valentine's Day, which makes logical sense, and i totally understand since i'm not his mother in any way shape or form ^_^;; so, he makes no effort in celebrating the day with me, which kind of makes me sad, but after a couple of years, i got over it and just made it a "pamper me" day with Kay. :P although, there were times when we would actually have arguments over trivial things on that day leaving me very bitter and unappreciated. i'll admit that i was probably the instigator in those arguments, because i didn't find flowers or a cake or something waiting for me at the end of the day and i voiced my mind about it, which is never a good idea with me ~_~;; come to think of it, i don't think we do anything special for Father's Day either... :P so maybe hubs and i are just weird ^_^;;
so with that in mind, i'll tell you what we did for this Mother's Day: absolutely nothing! :D lol ^_^ and nothing bad happened! it was just a normal work day for me. i slept in (totally wonderful) and didn't have to worry about waking up to an alarm, spent most of the day online catching up on youtube, and then took Kay for our private lesson in the afternoon. afterward, we ran some errands together and came home. :)
i did get a present that Kay made at school. other than the Mother's Day drawing of me with blonde hair (lol), she also made one which was really nice, but she liked it so much that she ended up making another picture on a bag! ^_^;; they ironed on a plastic film over the picture to let it last, and i thought it was so cute :) although, she liked it so much that she's now using it :P ah, it's the thought that counts, right? ^_^;;
after a late night call to wish my mom a happy mother's day and a bunch of facebook posts to wish all my mommy friends the same, i went to bed finally realizing that it wasn't that bad of a day, and i don't have to be appreciated JUST on this particular day since i get my affection and appreciation in little bits here and there all the time. ^_^
for example, hubs doesn't say "i love you" since he's Japanese, but he told me last week sheepishly that only he and he alone can call me "Tina-chan" after hearing that one of the school Principals referred to me as "Tina-chan". He had just come out of a staff meeting with some teachers and there was an extra bento left. i'd finished teaching and was talking to the Japanese teacher in the office when i heard my name mentioned. apparently, the head teacher had asked what to do with the remaining bento and the Principal told her to give it to "Tina-chan" (i don't use my full name while teaching because it's difficult to pronounce/remember). talk about a pleasant surprise, and i took it as a sign that the staff liked what i was doing at that school :) coincidentally, that happened during Teacher's Appreciation Week back in the States :D
so, that was Mother's Day 2013 and i'm really glad things happened the way they did ^_^