Sorry for the lack of updates - I have seriously been unable to visit any internet cafes since the last post...

Yesteday was my first day teaching. The day started off with someone calling me at 9am (my first class is *at* 9am). It was the headmaster (woman) who was wondering where I was.

My alarm clock hadn't gone off. Great start. The rest of the day got progressively better, so I guess that was good. In the end, it was a tough day. Adjusting to how "things work" around here and teaching three classes a day (6 hours) ... is very tiring. I never realized how much talking I would have to do.

In any case, today has been a LOT better. Now that I'm starting to get into the routine and my schedule is getting set, things are going to be a lot smoother. I went through both lessons today managing time perfectly well... quite the opposite of yesterday, when I couldn't manage the time if my life depended on it.

It's very different teaching... to be put into a position where there's a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, yet I'm still told what to do. I thought i would have a lot more leniency in the way I taught my class, but there's some structure to them that I cannot avoid. So I guess that's OK.

My 9am - 11am class is teaching three 7th/8th graders some SAT vocabulary and reading the Phantom Tollbooth with them. The class is two boys and one girl, and the two boys are such jokers... they love to mess with me. I had to give them a vocab quiz and they kept asking me inane questions... which is great. It's so much better than starting off your morning with a boring class where nobody talks.

My 11am - 1pm class is a SAT class for 9th/10th graders... those kids who will take the New SAT. There are about 11 of them, so they're really quiet. I think they don't really know each other well so they're all pretty shy. So I'm just in general trying to keep the atmosphere light (joking around and making a general fool of myself as I usually do) to try to get them to open up. I think it's working, because the kids were a lot more receptive.

My 4pm - 6pm class is teaching 12th graders the old SAT format. There's only three of them, and they're all pretty serious, so the class is less humorous. I guess with the stress of the SAT weighing on their shoulders, they're a lot less willing to mess around, which is great with me.

My voice is starting to wear out, as I've never had to use it so much. I've been trying to rest my voice whenever I can so I can last a while.

The amazing thing is the general pace of the course. Every Friday the kids take a practice SAT test... they meet for 4 hours a day (2 hours of critical reading/writing and 2 hours of verbal/math) ... and on top of general homework, they have to learn up to 75 words a day. A day. Then they are quizzed on all 75 words ... every day. It's really difficult, but I'm really amazed at how well some of these kids cope. I rarely see this type of diligence at the high school level in America.

As for any news on Tabulas... I cannot find a internet cafe close to where I live (Honggik University) that has Windows XP and USB ports in the front. I bought a power adaptor so I can boot up my craptop at my apt, but I cannot transfer the stuff onto the web. Grrr.