School ... Actual and Official Week 1

Following D&G's account, here's mine:

Week 1: The Official Week 1
Which I usualy set aside for casual introductions and getting to know you kinda sessions.

Sunday 18 Sept.
This is supposed to be where I just to show up, introduce myself, and handout my little let's-not-waste-paper-notecard, telling students they can get all information pertaining to their classes on the website. Go there, register, and start reading the assigned material. Knowing how students don't usually show up during the add/drop period, I choose not to prolong my introduction so as not to repeat myself after days. What I expected to be short sessions evolved a little as many students choose to stay in and chat. Cool.

All my classes are co-ed. Yippee. However, one of these classes was opened for males only and only got changed into a co-ed the last weekend before school "officialy" started. So I end up with one sole female student amidst about 7 or 8 males.

Tuesday 20 Sept. This is when we're supposed to go around introducing ourselves. I'm a teacher, so naturally talkative but the students, well, at least most of them, limited themselves to the name, major, and year intros. Of course there were come exceptions, but not many.

I need datashow for my classes. I asked for it and it was hooked up in my classrooms. It was not the best of datashow machines. Picture continued to appear and disappear during my presentation. So a room change is needed. We must find one with datashow hook-ups ready.

Week 2: The Actual Week 1
In which I begin my teaching, or at least wish to do so.

Half the population in my three classes (OK I might be exagggerating) are attending for the first time. So I had to do a quick intro, for the third time, into what needs to be done. Not enough have done the reading required for the week so discussion is limited.

The new room has datashow connected already, but I had to struggle a bit to get the sound to be loud enough.

I'm sleepy and tired. The movie was longer than I expected last night (though much better than I expected too) and I ended up sleeping at 1:30 only to wake up at 6:30 :( Not enough sleep. So I decide on a nap upon returning today. I hate naps. They pull me down when I finally do wake up.

I'm also bored and my friends are all held up at work still.

Attack, Destruction, Occupation, Enemies

From Arabic School Book, Year 7

Is it just me or is this a little aggressive, or a call to be aggressive? Is talk about enemies the best of topics for 12 year-old school kids?

I love helping my son with his Arabic language studies and homework, but the subject matter ticks me off. Among other words, I had to teach him these:

اعتداء
قضاء
احتلال
أعداء

A criminal mind in the making :(

Too noisy to work

Sound is muted under water.

In my office building, we used to have some chairs for students' use. A while back, teachers complained about the noise those students make and the chairs were removed (on the claims that it goes against our segregation policy). In reality, it is the teachers themselves who create the most annoying noise. They tend to stand in the hallway to my office and talk in the loudest voice ever.

I usually work best in crowded, noisy environments. Whenever possible, I take my work to a coffee shop where the noise people make there helps me stay attentive to my work and neither fall asleep nor wonder into my own stream of thought. This noise outside my office, however, is more than I can handle.

So now I have an hour to kill before my class starts but can't seem to concentrate enough to do anything productive.

Blogging, on the other hand, is always do-able :)

Coffee, Ryan, and work

I'm sitting at Starbucks Behbehani. I thought I liked the place the first time I came as it was rather quiet. But now it's just like all the other starbucks. Maybe worse. Too many kids in here.

Why don't we have a decent coffee shop that overlooks the beach? We have such a beautiful sea (OK a sea at least, even if not so beautiful anymore) but no place to sit and enjoy it. You have to settle for those noisy Nino, Fridays, Chillis is you want a sea-view.

And why are coffee shops becoming such a typical Kuwaiti hang-out visited by that same crowd who used to pollute Sharg and has now moved to Marina? What attracts those noisy kids to Starbucks anyway? It's a coffee place for god's sake. Kids shouldn't even be drinking coffee, should they? (When I took the kids to school today, my 14 year old nephew had a coffee mug in his hand. When asked, he told me that it helps him wake up in the morning. Really? Coffee as a morning meal for a 14 year old!!!!)

Ok I'm going on and on here. About what? I don't know. I'm trying to finish editing this translation so I can begin working on my sullabi for next term. 50 pages left.

My rambling on in this blog isn't gonna help me finish the editing so I'd better say bye for now.

This post is not about The Amityville Horror. I went there needing to be scared and that movie failed. And it didn't help that my movie buddy went crazy everytime Ryan Reynolds appeared topless and deprived me from even a little scare.

In a smashing mood

I'm hurt.
I'm angry.
I'm frustrated.
I'm terrified.
I'm confused.

Damn it I just feel like smashing something. If I were a guitarist this would be the moment I'd smash all my guitars as hard as possible.

Can't use friends to steam off. Can't use family either. I hate this feeling and my only smashing abilites are this f***ing blog.



I hate being the adult in a relationship of two adults. It sucks and I refuse to play it.

Diving

I took up diving last summer and eventually got my license last August but haven't gone diving since. So this weekend, I decided to put that damn license to use and actualy go diving with my brothers who have been nagging on me to accompany them. I thought I needed some coaching but it's like riding a bike, you never really forget it. I had some trouble with my ear pressure going down but nothing substantial. Unfortunately the water wasn't too clear that Wednesday.

I can't say I enjoyed the dive that much. We stayed in the water around 40 minutes and I was ready to surface after the first 10 minutes or so. Feeding a Dory-look-alike was fun though, those blue fish actually come and nibble at the oyster I held for them. I doubt if it's the same species as Nemo's Dory; they look flatter and the tail's a bit different. I got a picture here but with the water being this murky, you can hardly see a thing.

Swimming wasn't that much fun either as the water was a bit hot. So after the dive, all we did was stay on the boat, eat, and listen to music. And I was so eager to go swimming last week. I don't know what happened when I actually got there.


Here's a close-up of the blue blob: