she's going to the library on sundays, who is she ?

(someone whose master's dissertation is due in 3 days 💀)

Digging Deep.....

Day 11

We began the day with assembly as usual, we tried something different today and we asked all the learners for their feedback. (great courage shown) We gave out post it notes for them to write down some of their ideas and then put up the post-it notes on the white board and the whole team wrote about everything we have enjoyed from the week. We wanted them to do the same but also write about what we as ‘teachers’ could do to improve the lessons. We will then look at this and try and make tomorrow as productive and pass the feedback on to the next team of Huckleberry students.  Mr Tambo the Headmaster also asked Ben to write up a formal report for him and the education department on our experience with his learners.  Ben commented on how advanced their maths was in particular which got a huge smile from Mr Tambo, the very proud Headmaster.

Yesterday was very challenging (in classroom) but we all persevered. It was apparent that everyone’s determination created an extremely positive atmosphere. This then was shown in all the lessons as the energy levels were very high. Nat even said the classrooms were ‘buzzing’. We all wanted the learners to have a great day and for all of them to leave the school smiling. So well done to the whole team for this! This included students being taken up to the library which is now finished where Amba read them stories with sound effects by Ku!  Science team (Eleanor and Flynn) did food chains and chromatography all in 1 lesson!

The team used our experience from training weekend to create a new and exciting teambuilding lesson. This is something the learners don’t usually get the opportunity to experience. Teambuilding is something that improves confidence and life skills. The lesson was a risk but it went very well with the learners thoroughly enjoying it. The session was split between codebreaking with clues scattered around the school site and an engineering orange throwing challenge on the sports field.  This all worked towards the Teambuilding hamper prize which had oranges, tea bags and biscuits in it.  This was a high risk lesson but careful planning by Tricky paid off.  In Art MC back from illness, delivered a cracking lesson on portraits which will be paired up with the Nelson Mandela drawings for an exhibition on Saturday.  MC turns out to be a great artist – something she has hidden away.

Today the water project made huge progress, this resulted in a lot of us realising how hard manual labour actually is. The contractors were stunned when they arrived at 9AM to find another trench finished and enquired, “Hey, what time did you guys start?”  A lot needed to be done but thankfully not only our team but people from the community were all putting in maximum effort. By the end of the day 2 of the 3 trenches had pipes laid in them and are covered up with their original turfs. Special mention to Nat who turned into a digging dervish!  The hard work of the girls today was really inspiring for the young learners who would not normally find women doing this work – Go Girls!

Hopefully we can all keep this up tomorrow and make even more of an improvement.

Georgia

Notes from Mark

Today was a great day but as we write this – I am one of the last standing at 8PM – all except the Maths team of MC, Katherine and Ben who are going over the lesson plan again determined to stretch the learners and challenge themselves by pushing their boundaries.  The team are very tired now, 1 day of teaching left before the big community day on Saturday which means that all the other elements of the project need to be finished – 2m Mural, Art Exhibition, the learners’ performance of Happy and Jubilate as well as the GRP team musical performance of Oasis’ Wonderwall.

A whole month

of picking myself back up.

So it has been a month since my last blog post. I’ve spent 5 days a week sitting in front of my PC writing my thesis and haven’t felt like sitting down again to blog much after that. My lower back is dying from all the sitting.

A lot has been going on. I’ve been sitting at weekly housing cooperative meetings, studying JLPT stuff, struggling my way through ballet classes, coordinating stuff for this autumn and next spring at work, reading through piles of dusty old books loaned from libraries far away, rehearsing a choreography for a music video, celebrating my uncle’s 60th birthday, teaching dance and watching a ton of Sims 4 videos on YouTube. I’ve also been hanging out with friends and even went to the cottage for a night with mum and dad last week as it was dad’s autumn break week. Bunny has been changing his fur and I’ve spent hours in my raincoat brushing him with a spray bottle and treats at hand. He looks like a turtle with his back all shaved and the long fur still on his stomach and sides like a dust mop. It’s hilarious but the poor guy is freezing.

I’m definietly feeling a whole lot better. I’ve been able to pick myself up again and so far I haven’t been missing my guy at all. Now that I’ve adjusted to being alone I’m loving all the me-time, and the ability to do whatever I want whenever I want without taking anyone else into consideration. Having friends over at 2am, cleaning up my own messes, using the TV when I want to... It’s super nice. I just wish MEA would work, I’m now completely stuck in the first remnant vault. My friend helped me with troubleshooting and we’re still waiting for replies from her siblings. It might be that my PSU is busted, my GPU is too old or I need to reinstall Windows. I’m willing to get a new PSU and/or GPU because I’m saving up literally all the money I’m getting, but reinstalling Windows would mean that I lose programs such as Word, which is not good for my MA thesis right now so I’m hoping it won’t come to that. I went shopping with mum and dad yesterday and was pressured into getting a new monitor for my PC. Now I have my primary 24″ Asus VG245HE gaming display and my secondary 23″ HP EliteDisplay E231. The new Asus was really expensive and I was not expecting to drop that kind of money on the spot like that but they had a sale and I was pressured.. To be fair I would’ve needed to renew my screen at some point anyway, so at least that’s done now. And it’s supposed to be a relatively good screen for gaming anyway, with an actual HDMI port. Plus thesis and my actual work are both so much easier with dual displays. I’m kind of feeling the headache of all this blue light surrounding me since it’s so dark otherwise but hey, whatever.

We got our first snow on Saturday and it’s been snowing pretty much all day today. It’s not sticking to the ground yet though but it’s cold and wet and disgusting outside. My defense against this season is sleeping until 9am when it’s already light out and shutting the blinds before it gets dark so that I don’t need to look at the conditions outside or see the darkness. Out of sight - out of mind.

I spent Saturday morning shopping with mum, and in the afternoon I started cleaning the house. My oldest friend that I know all the way from daycare came over around 8pm, and we had frozen pizzas, talked for hours and watched Grease. She borrowed me a bunch of musicals on DVD so that I have something other than Sims 4 stuff to watch during my long evenings on the sofa. Bless her, I really want to spend more time with her.. ♥

My thesis seminar has its random last meeting this Thursday. I’m hopefully going to play ACNL with my friend on Friday, and we have a choreo class for ballet on Friday evening. Having taken a week off from ballet and pretty much any sports has me feeling really uncomfortable. I have neglected myself for a long time now by eating comfort foods on the sofa. I also can’t fit into half of my favourite clothes anymore because my boobs have grown and it makes me so sad and uncomfortable. I hope that I can get to some sort of a workout routine soon. At least ballet resumes this week so that’s something.. I don’t want to feel this big.

Next week will be busy. I don’t know how but right now it seems like I don’t have enough time for everything that I’m supposed to do. It’s probably because I’m trying to write one thesis chapter a day and read a 500 page book before doing hours of JLPT stuff and then also eating at some point. The sun setting after 5pm also makes it seem like there aren’t enough hours in the day. I’m so glad I opted out of doing that one essay course since JLPT is eating up so much of my time right now. I’ve also been feeling super down in the dumps with that whole thing. I just hate that no matter how much I practice I’ll only get one or two vocabulary exercises right. It’s so frustrating because there is no way to memorize every single word in the language. There aren’t a whole lot of positive learning experiences to be had with this stuff so it just feels like no matter how much I think I’ve learned, doing practice exam questions always leaves me feeling like crap. I’m glad it’s soon going to be over and there’s no way in hell I’m ever retaking it if I fail this time around.. Anyway digging up motivation for JLPT is hard right now, I’m glad it’s mostly a habit rather than something I need to force myself to do.

Upstairs is doing reno and it’s driving me crazy. It’s so incredibly loud. Also, we were supposed to get door phones last week and so far today we got the outdoor units completed - a week late. I can’t wait to be able to open the door to guests without having to go downstairs myself so it’s super frustrating that it’s taking so much time. Also, the bunny probably needs to be moved into the bedroom for the duration of the installation because it’ll be loud so I want to know when they’re coming so that I can prepare.

It’s almost November. Me and my friend are having an ACNL Halloween sleepover on the 31st with Rocky Horror Picture Show and suchlike. I’m looking forward to that. ♥

So yeah, things have been looking up for me slowly but surely. I’m still cynical and nonchalant about everything and have very little motivation or patience for stuff but at least I’m doing what I need to and keeping busy. I have so much that I want to accomplish during this year and there are so many things for me to learn, and taking care of myself has become a whole new sort of priority for me now that I don’t care about other people or being on time for stuff. I am however in need of Christmas break and for my thesis to be completed. 8 more weeks to go.

Stranded in the sea.

Monday

Getting through the lines of people was hellish. Made even worse by my sister constantly disappearing because she wanted a smoke. Eventually, we got through the check up and customs to get inside the ship. It's pretty massive with a small water park at the top of the ship. The ship has a buffet for passengers on the 15th floor Deck. I had a lot of ice cream. I probably regained all the weight I lost during my last school semester. Many of the ship's employees all come from third world countries. A bigger portion of them were Filipino. It was nice to see my family conversing with them. I felt out of place because so many people who were of the same origins as me were working on the ship whereas I was only a passenger. What can I say though, I didn't really expect a whole lot of minority passengers on something so expensive as a cruise ship. The dominant minority was Chinese people. After exploring the ship, I found a library and an adjacent board game room. It was empty of people so I rested there for a while. Other people found the room as well much to my dismay. Every single one of them thought I was the librarian and kept asking me questions. I found out that the whole "free wifi" that came included in my ticket was not all truthful. The room that I was staying in and all of its cabin mates were only given 1gb of Internet. I had to buy some for my own but only 100mb. The price for unlimited internet for the whole trip was 300 dollars. I don't have that kind of money. Sleeping was difficult. My bed was fine, but I never had to deal with people snoring within my vicinity until this trip happened. I slept alone on the top of a bunk bed. The people below me were snoring. This kept happening every single night. I never had a good night's sleep. Tuesday

Started to regret exploring the entirety of the ship on my first day because I realized that there was really nothing much to do in the ship except for adult-oriented activities such as the casino, the spa, sunbathing and spending money at the gift shop. My package deal for the trip had given me and my family free access to activities and restaurants. Though, they had to be reserved. I watched a 1-hour dance routine and then afterwards ate at a fancy restaurant. Both were enjoyable, but the wait was goddawful. The dance show was in the afternoon and my family forced me awake as early as 9am. They would not let me leave to catch up on some sleep because they wanted pictures. I took little pictures of my trip because I cared little about it. I only took stuff that looked cool when I wanna look back. I actually constantly look the same on every photo. I have this big wide smile on my face, but the eyes are empty. I played a bit on the Video Arcade near the top deck of the ship. It's the kind of arcade where you win tickets to cash in for prizes. I was awful at them and I'd usually just leave the small amounts of tickets I won on top of the game machines. Wednesday

The plan for today was to wake up at 5am in the fucking morning so that we could reach an itinerary. There was supposed to be smaller ships that would bring people to the shore of Florida if they wanted to. The cruise ship itself would port in Florida later in the day. Sadly, my mother misheard the whole thing up and the itinerary was actually yesterday. My whole family woke up early for nothing. The plan after getting to Florida early is to rent a car and drive off the Universal Studios. The original planned exploration time for the theme park was 6 hours. Due to the miscommunication mentioned above, my family would only be able to explore the place for 2. Some of my family called it pointless, but my sister insisted we go anyway. I went to Diagon Alley. It was really great to see and interact with. Wish my sister didn't waste precious time smoking. We had to get back to the boat at 8pm. Our trip in the theme park ended at 6pm. The trip back to the ship takes 1 hour. Or so we thought. Traffic exists and it delayed the driving back to the ship. Making matters even worse, the car we rented had to be returned. My uncle dropped my other family members off at the port and then drove off to return the car where he rented it. His plan was to immediately call a taxi so that he could be driven back to the port. He forgot his phone and my family had to find a taxi driver to send my aunt to the car rental place. The time that the ship leaves was 8:30pm. We got back on together at 8:20pm. At least I got to be in Diagon Alley for barely an hour. The day was so stressful that we all decided to cancel our pre-planned fancy dinner (it was gonna be French cuisine which I hate). Thursday

The company that does the cruise stuff also owns a private island in the Bahamas. In little boats, passgengers were sent there to enjoy time at an island and experience decent beach time and activities such as snorkeling, air gliding, water skiing, sunbathing, etc. My trip was very painful. The water floors were full of rocks and it was painful trying to get to deeper waters. Being in the water meant I had to ditch my glasses. I was blinded by: default, the sun, salt-water in my eyes, or a combination of the three. My family all had fun, but they all felt muscle aches from swimming and some of them left really early. One had back pains that came back during swimming, the other felt...itchy. After arriving back at the cruise ship, there wasn't much to do. My sister convinced me to play at the casino with her. I lost all my money. My family decided to eat at a fancy restaurant. I walked in with black pants and a striped thin white sweater that looked nothing fancy. To my dismay, it was french cuisine. Heading into my bed during the night time, I decided to turn on the television much to the shock of my family who did not realize that the television had channels. I watched Minions, Fast and Furious 6, etc. Friday

The cruise ship docked at Nassau, Bahamas. Rather than exploring the tourist traps, we were given shuttle bus rides to a resort. It had a beach, lagoon, bars, aquariums, etc.

The beach was great to look at. The tides were too strong and so people were not permitted to swim on that day. Still great to see. My family separated for a bit because some people wanted to swim in the man-made pools. I wanted to see the sharks in the aquarium. I think I enjoyed this day the most because I got to explore a new place all by myself. Why all by myself? My sister got tourist trapped into getting her hair braided for 120 dollars. The whole thing took her an hour. In the meantime, I discovered more shark tank aquariums. I found a coconut stand where the guy serves pina colada in a coconut. I tipped him a dollar cuz I didn't want him to search for a dollar in change. He was friendly.

Bought a daisy flower necklace from the people who did the hair braiding. They wondered if I had a girlfriend back in my home.

I found a kitten at the nearby outdoor bar in the resort. I then found an adult cat at the opposite side near the lagoons. I wondered to myself if the cat was looking for the kitten. Both of them walked casually among the many people around. My family returned to the ship separately because my sister and I had to wait for my mother who bought way too many souvenirs. The car-trip back to the ship was delayed because the driver wanted to give us a tour of the city outside of the resort. It was very nice to hear about the area. Watched a musical on the boat. It was Rock of Ages. Story was absolutely uninteresting to me. Musical performances were nice. My family had a reservation at a japanese restaurant joint where the food is prepared in front of you by a chef. He was quite the joker. It was very entertaining to see him joke around and perform the cooking. The chef that served my family was handing out the appetizers. When he handed it to someone, he called them by a certain name sometimes. He called my uncle "the boyfriend", called my aunt "my ex", called my sister "my future wife". What did he call me? "The Boy Next Door". Saturday Morning and Afternoon I played at the casino again because there is literally nothing left to do on the boat. I played a coin-drop game and won champagne. The champagne was awful.

I bought alcohol at the gift shop. For some reason, the alcohol will only be delivered on the final night in the cruise. Saturday Night

Ate at a brazilian restaurant. Despite all the meat, my favorite meal was the salad bar. My family drank alcohol in celebration of the new year. It was boring. New Year I walked away from my family so that I didn't have to hear the loud people, I celebrated the new year on my own. The ship employees were handing out the same shitty champagne I had won for free. Sunday

Sat in my room playing Pokemon Moon. Went up and down constantly for tea and ice cream. Nothing special happened, my family went to the spa. The Ice cream itself is a chocolate swirl freshly made and soft-served. Sometimes I'd eat strawberry when available though that one isn't as fresh. Monday, again

Finally got off the boat and right into US Customs. It was an awful experience. I nearly dropped a bag and had to compose myself, but I got yelled at for stopping in my tracks. Also got yelled at for nothing finishing a form that was handed to me when I was in a line that was constantly moving. I hate Customs.