A Long Week

I have been very busy this week - at least up until today. School resumed and I was back to my thrice weekly trip to Basel. The kids ranged from very difficult, to very good, depending on age and time of day. I think that we are starting to get used to each other. The language barrier and my lack of knowledge about the way the school functions definitely comes to play in dealing with these kids.

German class started on Monday. (Classes are 5:30-8:30 Mon, Weds, Fri.) At this point I have learned enough German to carry a basic conversation. The only problem is the teacher, Iris, who is anything but flower - like. Iris is quite aggressive and easily frustrated... she also is not a very good teacher. So much of class is spent with Iris asking questions, the questionee not getting it, and Iris getting irritated that the questionee has no idea what she is talking about because she did not explain it well in the first place. So the class moves very slowly. Fortunately, with 9 hours of class per week, it is impossible not to learn something.

The other students in the class are very nice and we can chat. There is one other English speaker from somewhere in Africa, which is nice. I can also communicate with the Romance language speakers who know Spanish, Italian and Portuguese in Italian. It's great to practice my Italian, but not so great when I try to switch back to German...one language at a time is about my capacity.

Jan and I also started Tae Kwon Do. This is great, because I need the exercise...walking was difficult for several days, but now I think my muscles are bouncing back. The ironic thing is the teacher is abandoning us in January to move back to his native Spain. His protégé will take over when he's gone. This is identical to Master Lee moving back to Korea and having his student take over. We'll see how it goes in January.

I started my job babysitting / English teaching for a family with four kids on Thursday. It was really nice...I just played with two kids (age 2 and 6) for an hour, then ate lunch with them. This is also a little tough due to the language barrier, but the kids do understand a lot of English.

On Friday, probably due to not getting enough sleep, and pushing my body a little harder than it was ready for, I became suddenly ill with an intense cold. After drugging myself with Sudafed, Niquil, and sleeping most of Saturday, I quickly recovered.

The weather has been chilly, rainy, and very fall-like. Although I wish today I was laying out getting a tan, it's nice for working and getting things done. Jan is lifeguarding this afternoon and I am supposed to be cleaning our apartment.