I AM VERY TIRED!

The madness begins....

Well. One week down, three (or five) to go.

I have survived, I have done parts of it well, I have enjoyed parts of it, and other parts have been hell. My class are lovely - very quiet, well-behaved and hard-working, though I took until yesterday to get them to loosen up and have fun - by planning a lesson on football (yes, yes, I know) that involved lots of competitive games, and then taking them outside to have a lesson on the grass. Heehee. In the afternoons, though, I was talked into taking a class on international affairs for 16-19 year olds, most of whom didn't care about anything I tried to talk about and spent the entire time sniggering and talking. I offloaded the particularly unpleasant Spanish boy (subsequently put on his final warning for pinning a kid half his height to the ground and pouring pepper in his eye) onto Matt, my colleague, who also found him obstreperous and disruptive, so I don't feel too bad about not being able to control him, but his six remaining friends still managed to ruin the class for the Germans and Russians who were very motivated and serious. Oddly, a workshop on international affairs with students from many different countries has mainly reinforced a lot of national stereotypes.

I have been asked to provide lessons on music next week, and my class's suggestions included: 50 cent, Eminem, Dido, Britney Spears, James Blunt, Green Day. Any ideas as to how this could be incorporated into a coherent lesson plan that will appeal to more than two individual students greatly appreciated. Also, Jaime has requested 'no more paper with things to do', which does limit things somewhat.

Still, there always seem to be plenty of other teachers around for a consolatory pint (or half) afterwards. I seem to have overcome my silly mental block about not being able to drink beer in England and the prospect of having some money means I've got less stingy. Yesterday was lovely and sunny, so we went to the Trout, had random conversations (why Matt is like a duck, why Christ doesn't wear underwear), listened to Chris playing the mandolin and drank Pimm's in the sunshine. Then there was a formal dinner, nominally to encourage us to bond with the Canadian teachers, regular school teachers and New York Film Academy people also on site, but I ended up sitting at a table getting rather drunk and talking rubbish. For a long time. Oops.

And even though it's my day off, I'm still planning lessons, cos I have to help supervise a trip tomorrow and won't have any time to do it before Friday.

Sorry. I have just rambled about my job for longer than you probably want to read about it. I just haven't done anything else and won't for the foreseeable future. I'll try and confine it to comic anecdotes rather than extensive complaining, but can't make any promises....

I am sitting in the computer room in college with a new bike lock and a package from my mother, neither of which I can get into. The woman has used epic quantities of sellotape, even for her. So now all I have to do is persuade the porter (who took a while to be convinced that I was even a member of the college) to lend me some lock-cutters, walk all the way down to Cardo with them enduring, doubtless, suspicious looks, break into my own bike and then take it all the way back to Botley Road, on the way buying fruit and veg, a birthday present for my mother (more sellotape?) and going to explain to the Oxfam bookshop that my job is going to allow me next to no free time, ever. The last isn't really on the way. Sigh.

Last week was fun. I didn't do a whole lot, but it was probably good for me to get out of Oxford. We went to one of Nik's friends from home's birthday party, where I got rather drunk, but don't think I disgraced myself. We also went to his mum's graduation, and then I spent the weekend lazing around by the pool while Nik went off to another party/slept.

On Monday I came back to Oxford and after a brief period of uncertainty where it transpired that nobody was really expecting my arrival, I managed to get in, have dinner and make some progress on Debbie's jigsaw. Yesterday I had my induction day at work, which was... an induction day. I was absolutely terrified to begin with. Everybody seemed to know each other, have taught there before and have been teaching for ages and I felt hideously lost and newly-qualified. Then, I was told I'd have to design all course programmes and lessons myself, provide enough detail in my plans so that someone else can teach my lesson if I'm ill, include lessons to be taught by the changeover teacher in my schedule and generally, like... be good at this. I also have to run activities and it looks like it's going to take up horrid amounts of time. Bah. And I have no idea what level I'll be teaching till tomorrow night (though I know all my students will be aged 12 - 14) so I can't use today to do any planning. Grrr. Still, we were all given pizza and wine and I got talking to some of the other teachers properly, and actually, they don't all know each other, and some of the others haven't been teaching for very long either, and they were lovely and took me to the pub and showed me a short-cut into Oxford along the towpath. Still glad I'm not living on site though - it'll be nice to escape at the end of the day.

Also, when did 'sunny' come to mean 'unpleasant'? I'm sure when I was little, when the weather was nice it was, well, nice. Now, whenever it gets hot, it doesn't stop until it gets far too hot, and you don't actually want to go outside and do anything. Damn global warming.

Hmm, anyway, I have a bike to sort out and errands to run, so I'd best stop procrastinating and go and brave the lodge.

"... all the signs are that the European Union is developing a policy of particular complexity and interest..." (from a book on language policy)