Back to the warzone

So the dreaded first day of school has come and gone and I am still alive. I did have several teaching nightmares leading up to it...but luckily they are over. And I haven't had anybody swear at me or accuse me of stealing their Pringles.

I have come to the realization - this realization has been reached multiple times - that teenage boys are aliens from another planet put on earth to torment me and drive me crazy. I do not relate to teenage boys at all. I mean, I liked them when I was a teenager, but it's very different as a teacher. First they will not shut up. Not when I ask them nicely. Not when I ask them not nicely. And especially not when I am exhausted and don't feel like dealing with it. Next they do bizarre things like try to shoot each other with fake guns and make up weird names for each other. I think it's half me and half them - because they definitely do not act quite like this for all teachers. I do not have the teacher X factor that makes everybody do what I say when I say it. Can this X factor be developed? I am not sure. Two + years of teaching indicates probably not. I think perhaps as I get older, uglier, and less young looking, perhaps it will lead to the development of the X factor - but who wants that to happen. Perhaps I should start wearing my glasses to work to add some semblance of the X.

I hope that any children I have a female. Now girls can be difficult too. They whisper to each other, they can be very very mean, and they are more likely to have meltdown temper tantrum periods of crazyness. However, mostly they are sweet, helpful, and eager to please. With boys, that is the rare, delightful exception.

Otherwise, life in German is good. I have been doing a lot of reading and internet surfing while Jan works in the evenings. That is not all bad, but I am ready for my German courses to start. I will also attempt to swim on the swim team although I think that I may not be able to keep up. I tried to train a little at Jan's pool, but there is no such thing as circle swimming or lanes. No problem for the Germans...they do breast stroke with their heads out of the water in slow motion. But attempting to swim quickly while dodging legs, bodies, and people that definitely were not in your direct path a few seconds ago makes swimming pretty dangerous for me.

I will attempt to update more regularly!!!!!!!!