Forgot to mention: gaunt, but attractive (in a tragic way). Yesterday was finals at model school. I’ve been grading them. 5e was kind of haphazard; the last question, worth 3 points (out of 20) was "All the keys are coming out in capital; why, and how do you fix it?" Almost nobody got it. I […]
French class is tiring. Did I mention that, because I failed it last time, I needed to take 20 more hours of language class, ideally by the end of this week, so I can take the test again some time "soon", probably Monday? That means on average 4 hours of language class a day. Hard […]
Cockroaches and lizards are not encouraged as pets, nor are lice or scabies. However, the Health Unit staff will not be too surprised if some of these critters take up residence in your home! From the medical manual. Thanks, guys!
Got my new language test result back. It’s Intermediate Mid, whereas I need to be Intermediate High to go to post. It’s not fair to say I "bombed" it, but I sure did "fail" it. People here say echouer, "to fail, to fall through". Earlier today I was so furious I lost my temper at […]
So, yeah, another Saturday with predictable consequences. I think I alienated a lot of stagiaires tonight, just because I called them cockbags or condescended to them. Oh well. We got to see the nightclub here in Bafia. They hadn’t officially opened, but Jenny and I went in to take a look. It looks.. pretty much […]
Today was the "final" language exam. If you haven’t yet achieved your language proficiency level, well, better hunker down, asshole. I feel pretty comfortable in French, so I’d like to be able to stop going to French classes, and maybe learn something else. Additionally, we have to start preparing our own exams for administration this […]
Gave a quiz in each of 5e and 3e today. I ran off the copies on the laser printer here, which may not be feasible at post. I also drew up two slightly different tests with slightly different questions, to try to head off cheating a little bit. I also put the first question, question […]
(N.B.: Quitter ("kee-tay") is one of the many French verbs for "get out".) Camtel is in the process of selling me another key. It cost 45,000 CFA ($90 USD), plus another 1,000 for a blank SIM card. I will be picking it up today. This is most of them money I have "saved" to date. […]
The party last night was themed "Middle School Dance Party". Sometime during the night I drunkenly misplaced my Camtel USB modem, which is a pisser but in theory not a crisis. If nobody finds it by Tuesday I’ll buy another one. I can afford it, even if I have to take $50 out of my […]
Randomly happy today, and also yesterday. Some of it comes from talking to Gus online. Some of it was before that. It’s true what they say, that stage is a roller-coaster. There are lots of things to be legitimately happy about. I am finally understanding a little bit about teaching. Example: today I reordered my […]