Good drivers, dreams, and January spring?

1. Two nuns driving a very small, red car let me cross the road when they have the right away.

2. I have a dream about the adult beginner English File book I teach from. Only in my dream, it´s used to help me save my life and especially for people in their 20´s, whatever that means. At the least, I´m amused.

3. Blue sky today and believe it or not, there´s a touch of warmth in the air that makes me think about that first spring day and how alive it makes you feel.

Application complete, morning sleep, and almost there

1. Finishing my application for a teaching position in France next year and an email from my mom telling me it´s been sent off. Now to play the waiting game.

2. Being able to sleep in this morning because on Wednesdays I can. And really needing it, because I came home last night exhausted and with a sore throat.

3. Knowing that I´m halfway finished teaching for the week. I´ve made it over the hump.

Street cleaner, articulate, and grammar

1. On my way to International House this morning, I see an ordinary woman picking up trash on the side of the street. And she isn´t bearing the name, ¨limpiador¨ on the back of a bright yellow and black uniform.

2. I tried the ¨Articulate¨ game with my class of teenagers and they didn´t look like they´d pull out their teeth to curb boredom. The one where one kid has to describe a word (adjective, noun, verb, etc.) using relative clauses (Haha, I snuck in some learning) and the rest of the class has to guess the word. I barely spoke for the entire lesson. It was amazing.

3. Before above class, I ask David (Linguistic and Grammar Expert) what the difference between using ¨who¨ and ¨whose¨ is. The braniac twins (Teresa and Margarita) ask me the same question 10 minutes later. And thank God, I have an intelligent answer.

Pirate hippo, last minute lesson, reBelation

1. My stuffed hippo is dressed up like a pirate when I come home, with eye patch and golden earring.

2. Not having planned a lesson for my fourteen year olds, I whipped up some discussion activities with useful expressions from a Timesaver worksheet I snatched in Hungary.

3. Christopher, my Spanish lesson buddy, suddenly realizes that all the ¨v¨ sounds in Spanish are really ¨b¨. Now, he can move forward with a newfound confidence.

Fitzgerald quote, good ideas, and Kut

1. I read this quote and I could immediately identify with it. In ¨Tender is the Night,¨ by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Rosemary is walking through an old French battlefield with Dick Diver.

--Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure but turn out to have been the pleasure itself.

This, in turn has made several little ¨uneventful¨ memories burst into my head.

2. The new Director of Studies asked me what I was teaching last night and when I told her reported speech for my First Certificate Exam class, she gave me a great idea and gave me a copy of the pilot episode of ¨Heroes¨to use for Thursday.

3. My adult students think that it´s hilarious how my name, ¨Kat¨ and the word, ¨cut¨ sound exactly the same. At first, they´re confused, but when I spell it out on the board and say it about 13 times, they start laughing.

Seeing words, nonconfrontational teens, green tea

1. After learning ¨city vocabulary¨ in my Spanish lesson today, I promptly spotted one new word we learned on a sign on my way to teach my first English lesson. ¨Ayuntamiento¨ or city hall.

One of my students holds up a picture of a monster with big, grotesque feet and says something in Spanish. If it had not been for my lesson this morning, I wouldn´t have known that she wanted me to smell the monster´s feet. Since when do books publish stinky smells?

2. I write, ¨Men´s Jobs¨ and ¨Women´s Jobs¨ on the board for a class of fourteen year olds. They give me stereotypical answers, however, one boy goes onto say in English that maybe there are more older, male psychologists because it was acceptable and more likely for men to work this profession years ago, while younger psychologists may include more women, because times are changing. Other students went onto to say that men nor women are better teachers. It just depends on the person.

3. I´ve been on such a Coke Light binge that I forgot how a hot cup of green tea can warm you up from head to toe.

Uphill hike, student teacher, Spanish kids

1. Today, instead of taking the overcrowded 8 bus from the private school to the language school, I decided to walk the 40 minutes there. Because of this, my face is now rosy, I feel a rush from my heart working away to get me up the massive hills, and I saved 50 Euro cent.

2. Being a student and teacher simultaneously helps me to teach better and learn better. I´m still getting a kick out of ¨los consuegros¨ the word for grandparent-in-laws in Spanish.

3. Spanish children are better dressed than I am. Their little peacoats, polished shoes, ribboned hair, and matching socks make me look like a slob. They´re too innocent to realize how good they look.