Since the last post...

I've (in no particular order):
1. celebrated my birthday teachers' style
2. gone to the technorama museum in Winterthur (similar to Ontario Science Centre)
3. gone to the alpamare aqua park in Pfaffikon (has the only iodine-brine thermal pool in Switzerland)
4. gotten stressed out due to bratty spoiled rich kids
5. had the first and only hike of my life up to Schiesshorn mountain (elev.: 2700m, from Obersee in Arosa elev.:1753m).
6. one week in this 5-star hotel left
7. been taking care of Joey who has just fractured his ankle yesterday afternoon

details anyone?
1. there was a "surprise" birthday cake for me at lunch, where everyone sang. vitto, the hotel manager ruined the surprise as he asked joey, 'when do you want the birthday cake?' Then, a bunch of teachers gave me a card and a Diddl keychain (popular character in Europe). Then worked until the night, and had a birthday party in the basement bar, where we have teachers' parties every Saturday (including the canada celebration and euro party). Then, went to my first club in Arosa, which was surprisingly packed (probably due to a field hockey tournament that was in town). it was for the most part good, except for the slight mishap near the end of the night when joey got angry because he had night duty and couldnt come to the party.
2. technorama was not as good as it could have been, since i was taking around 3 younger kids and chasing them around the whole time. i was also angry with joey for being angry with me. stupid immaturity lol.
3. i've been to the aqua park twice nice. it had about 10-15 water slides. they were fun!! they also had a wave pool, a pool with fast current, and 2 thermal pools (jacuzzis). tried to teach another teacher how to swim. didnt go far past having him dunk his head in the water completely haha.
4. omgosh. these children just sometimes... @()#*$@)#(*$!! Although, today I was once again taken aback by these children. One of my students answered a question of mine with "I have a pool at my house; and a heli-pad."
Me: "Wow!" *trying to contain surprised face* "Have you ever controlled the helicopter?"
Student: "No, only my dad uses it often. I only see him 2-3 times --- a year."
5. I almost died!! Not literally, but I was soooo tired. I wasn't as sore as I thought I would be, but I definitely was sore afterwards! It was a crazy workout. The hike lasted about 5 hours. We missed dinner and had pizza instead. I also wore terrible hiking shoes (Adidas street shoes do not work well on piles of rocks). The scenery was of course breathtaking, but I fell a few times, silpping over the rocks. It was SO physically demanding for me, but we made it to the top!! We signed the log book at the peak, and took a whole bunch of pictures. There is a yogurt man in the mountains as well, and we wanted to get some frozen yogurt, but the man wasn't in, and we were all disappionted. =( Other than that, it was definitely another one of those bucket list things I've completed! Hurrah! (dont think i could ever do kilimanjaro or everest though haha)
6. Last week in the 5-star! Im off today, so im off to the pool and spa right after I'm done updating. Then we move to the crappy hotel where all the students live. I also dont know when my contract ends, how much I will get paid (disagreements with contracts urGHH!!). I will also have to enjoy the breakfast buffets (any breakfast i want pretty much!!)
7. Have been covering for Joey lately because he was sick last week, and yesterday, he fractured his foot while trying to catch up with us. We were going to the train station to take the kids to Chur for the weekly shopping excursions we have. He spent yesterday at the doctors, and driving down to the hospital in Chur (1hr away). They told him they fractured a small bone in his foot and it will take 6 weeks to heal. Now, I dont know what will become of our backpacking trip...

But for now, i just take it day by day. Trying not to take things too seriously; especially when the kids are trying to annoy me, or when the institute shows off some more of its disorganization to us.

Miss you all dearly! out__cin

wow...

Not only do we work forever here, the disorganization of this school is insurmountable. I just spent the last part of my day, looking for 2 students; found 1, the other apparently hadnt arrived yet. I spent an hour on this futile search, on my day off!

The story is, we must find the students who will join our class (mind you, after Ive completed half a novel with my current class), so they could complete the placement test. After having run up and down the dormitory stairs a few times, towards the reception, back to the school, back to the reception and the dormitory, double-checking lists etc. for an hour, we finally found 1 girl, only to find out that the 2nd girl hadnt arrived yet from the airport. All this, on a day off! Not to mention, that sometimes days off means that you are off after lunch at 1pm, then you have to return for language conversation class at 7.30, which would mean you would probably go to the school for dinner, making your day off 5 hours long (not including transportation time needed to get back to the hotel). Some day off hmm? How I miss Canadian labour laws......

Im slowly going a little crazy...

Oh my gosh. Rich, snotty, spoiled children. Yes, some are angels, and I do love them, but some just drive me insane+ (the + is an exclamation mark, I am unable to find it on this Swiss keyboard.) They work us pretty much from 7am, waking the children up, until 11pm, making sure the children are sleeping in their beds. They are aged 6-18, so you can imagine some of the craziness that happens+ We start off with breakfast, then with 2.5 hours of class, followed by study hall, or for me, private French lessons, then lunch (which I guess is decent..), then supervising afternoon programs including football, hiking, watching movies, etc., then dinner, and finally putting all the kids to bed. Ahhh+

Not much time for myself or even for lesson preparation. Only 5 more weeks...