I realize I haven't updated much. I apologize for all of the days I didn't write, but in all honesty, I haven't kept much out. Recently, I've been at work.
I've been at three types of work, actually.
1st type of work is actual work. I teach English and I really enjoy it. I work 7 hours a week on average. I go to houses and schools and teach people from 5 to 37 yrs old (individuals or groups of up to 5) English. It's great. I walk a lot! I live pretty much across town from all of their houses/schools so I get my exercise. I also make enough money to pay rent and keep myself afloat over here. The other bonus is that I earn euros and spend euros this way. It becomes really deceptive to spend 7 euros and find out later it was 10 bucks (or on a larger scale, you take out 200 euros and it prints out that that was $250 on the receipt! Yikes. This way I can manage my funds a bit better.
Also, I should mention that these kids and adults have become SO much a part of my life, that I barely consider it work. We laugh (a lot), we play games (thank you improv for helping out in this regard), and we speak English. I also learn a lot more Catalan this way, since when the kids don't know a word in English, they'll say it in Catalan to their friends and one usually knows the English equivalent, or I will remember what it is from my Nivell básic classes de Català. It's great. All-around wonderful.
2nd type of work is why I'm here, read: school work. I study. I am learning. I am learning because I study a lot. WAY more than first semester in fact. It doesn't sound like much to say I work 7 hours a week and have 2 classes. (That's all? That's all you're there for?) Yes. That's it. I must defend my meager number of classes with that Catalan (and Spanish) education systems are a bit antiquated and consist of the professor coming in to class, lecturing (without interaction with students) and leaving. At the end of the year you get one exam and that counts for your entire semester grade. You may have to read 7 books in a literature class (all 200 to 500 pages long) and you may have to understand them all front to back, but the exam will ask you about 7 very specific questions and if you don't know them, you potentially could fail. You should have tried harder. Read: school here is like a bunch of independent studies where you do a lot of work and understanding outside of class and go to class in addition- maybe just so the professor might learn your name. My classes this semester require a lot of reading and a lot of out of class understanding and practice (then in-class presentations on top of that...sounds easy, but then think about delivering a presentation (1-2 hours sometimes) in your non-native tongue to a bunch of native speakers. Yeah. Sounds a little tougher and/or stressful now, no?
On this same school topic, I just found out today that I passed the massive paper that I worked for 2 straight weeks (and I mean straight...didn't leave until the library kicked me out everyday including Saturdays and Sundays, gave up eating lunch at normal times and snacked on nuts and dried fruit in the library- illegal, but not messy!) God is good. I needed His power to sustain me during those days- my everything hurt after the first week of this activity- headaches, back pain, and my butt and legs hurt from sitting for so long, all day long, all week long!) Praise God that time and effort were rewarded with a passing grade. I heard through the grapevine that this certain professor is somewhat of a meticulous and unkind grader. I was nervous.
3rd and most fun work I do: wedding work! This is fun work. I look online for bridesmaid dresses, I look around Lleida for the perfect shoes for the wedding dress I already picked out (√), I look at colors, already-been-done's on theknot.com, and ideas for everything. I listen to music, I compare prices, I look at venues, research premarital counseling options and I love it all. I am an idea machine! I think my mom wonders if anything else goes on in my life...I'm always calling her asking if she thinks (a) or (b) to any given question. Another fun part of wedding work is spent reading relationship books with Andy. He's busy with school too, of course, but we make time to try to grow closer by reading books together and learning and gaining relational insight from Christian authors. If you have any book suggestions, feel free to leave them as comments.
1 comment:
Thanks for categorizing your life a little for us. :)
I've "read" (not fully) Sacred Marriage, though I might recommend that you read it once you're married. Another one that Nick and I read together was "Great Expectations" where you talk about a variety of different topics that will come up when your married: traditions, gender roles, having children, etc. that would be interesting to go through. It's cheesy at times, but it's interesting.
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