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  UNSW, Australia
Monday, July 26, 2004

What are the odds of my first class of the semester being cancelled two semesters in a row? Apparently pretty good, because my class tonight was cancelled! So here I am, my first day back at uni, with some extra time on my hands. I should really head home and do some lesson planning, but I couldn't resist some good old fashioned procrastination on the brand spanking new computers in the UNSW library. My break is officially over, even though it feels like I never really had a break. I've been busy, but I've also been making pretty good money and gaining valuable work experience. And my students are awesome! That's what makes the whole teaching thing worthwhile. I have all these new hillarious friends from Japan, Korea, and Thailand, including my Korean "boyfriend" Kong, the "Clever Combo" of Yuya and Akinori, and flaming gay Winyoo. After much deliberation over where the line between teacher and friend is, I ended up meeting up with a bunch of my students at the Pavillion (their adopted pub) for a few drinks

Sushi Feast!

. I brought Pam and Christina along just to be safe. It was a lot of fun, and I still maintained some of my authority in class on Monday morning. This past Friday I went out to karaoke with my co-teacher David and a bunch of our students to celebrate Yuya's graduation. I figured it was time for a positive karaoke experience after the linguistics debacle. This time around I got to hear lots of Japanese ballads and Thai rock music (who knew there were so many Thai hard rock bands?!), and then David and I treated our students to a spirited performance of Bohemian Rhapsody. They all looked stunned as we belted out the Queen classic. I said to David, "Have they never seen Wayne's World??" He replied, "I think they just did."

So even though teaching takes up way more of my time than I'd like, I'm still enjoying the whole experience. I'm the only American at my school, which means that the other teachers make fun of me constantly. I get crap for my accent, my country's politics, and anything else they can think of, but it's all good-natured. They constantly ask me questions about American history and politics that I can't answer, which makes me feel pretty stupid, but I've become the authority on American English. It's funny to marvel at how differently Americans and Australians speak. However, most of the other teachers are at least twice my age so I kinda feel out of place

Tea Ceremony

. I can relate better to the students, who are all around my age.

I keep telling myself I'm going to talk to my boss about cutting down to 3 days a week instead of 5, because I think I'd go crazy trying to handle that plus my 3 uni classes. It hasn't happened yet though. I guess if I was able to survive my hell week at the end of last semester, when I had 6 assignments due on top of teaching full-time (and the N key even came off my computer at the worst possible moment!), I can do anything! It's hard to believe I'm halfway through with my Master's degree, halfway through my time in Australia. It's flying by!

If I go head home now, I can still make Home & Away! So here are some photos from my friend Marie's birthday dinner (I know Marie and Masa from uni), and soon I'll post some of Pam's pics from our island getaway.

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