Week 4 of Year 1

When the campus was in Tanjung Rhu not so long ago, I used to keep cabbing home. Was thrown into perpetual state of guilt coz of $$ spent, but hey, I got back in fifteen minutes. Looking back now, that $$ is really, er, peanuts compared to the amount of time and money spent going back from school now. Blew 40 bucks on cab fares in two days. That more or less cancels out the amount I've saved over the past weeks by taking the school bus. School is jus too freakin' far (!!!!) No wonder some teachers would rather leave than travel. 2 more years of torture.

Work. Sleep. Work. Only excitement being...students?! Can't be helped...that takes up the bulk of conversation among teachers. Exchanging stories about certain interesting personalities, analysing their actions, breaking it down into small parts, deciding how best to help them out, which best course of action to take.

For some odd reason have become something of a klutz in front of my form class. To date, have tripped over wires, slammed into doors, and even had this prolonged laughing fit (first time ever for moi) in the middle of explaining about lysosomes.

I think some excitement in my life would be good, but...too tired to generate it.

***

Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the realities that at present remain unseen.
Hebrews 11:1

Sleep...the balm for sore minds

I think I might have attempted to quote Shakespeare there but really the exact words uttered by Macbeth (one of the most intriguing protagonists of all time IMHO) have slipped by, yep, sore mind.

Am tired...jus so tired. After a month of holidays with enough rest I've successfully forgotten how tiring working life can be. I mean, I've never felt so completely exhausted in my life before. All those years of studying...no matter how much I mugged...I could always make up for it by sleeping...but nowadays...well I hope it's not a result of ageing...even sleep seems insufficient. Or issit coz it's like one night of eight hours trying to make up for a week's worth of sleep deprivation. Think teaching really takes a toll on my physical health. I'm one of those weak chaps who need to be pumped with tonics to stay alive. (alive, as in...alert)

I can rant on about this but the cell worksheet is screaming for my attention. Dislikes having classes early in the morning..no time to prep for them.

And, and...I shall not get started on the_______. The evil side of moi is yelling that I hate responsibilities!! I mean...not all responsibilities...but too many of certain responsibilities is seriously...undesirable.

Yeah Yeah...

Blogging has been relegated to a weekend activity.

For the pure sake of it,
My daily weekday morning schedule -
o540 - alarm rings, open eyes reluctantly, dream interrupted
0615 - scoot out of door, usually leaving something behind
0640 - reach Tampines MRT
0640-0655 - herd ~200 students onto 4 buses plus one minibus
0655 - body's sympathetic nervous system gets ready for last-minute contingencies i.e. bus breaks down, bus doesn't come, too many students etc.
0705 - start to desperately flag down cabs if any of the above-mentioned contingencies materialise
0735 - reach school on a good day; if bad day, past eight a.m. and students in my class start harping on the fact that i'm late

Trying not to dwell on the mornings fiascos over the past week. Bad for the heart. But realise my cynicism comes out in full force when I get pissed. Not pleasant. However, I dun think I've ever prayed so hard in consecutive mornings for a week before. Something to be thankful about maybe? hurr..

Otherwise, am happy with cubicle and cubicle mates.

Revelation that I need to maintain a supply of snacks for myself, coz with 5 levels worth of students thronging the canteen when school's over, it becomes impossible to get lunch.

I bathe early, sleep early, wake up early. It's all part of a healthy lifestyle really. But a wee part of me still yearns for the hostel days of bathing at 3 am, sleeping at 3.30 am and waking up at 9.30 am to stumble into LT. Of course in retrospect I probably looked like crap then. But still...there are other things more important than looks...

No day but today...

Thought I might blog since it's already a week into the new year...and I'm still able to jump around and go "heeheehee" which means that I'm not experiencing the full teaching load...yet.

It's interesting having a form class for the first time...can say a lot of stuff which are not related to academic work. Had gotten off to a sullen start with them coz think only a tiny handful are from the same classes, which makes the initial socialising and breaking of the ice rather difficult. But thankfully thankfully, after two days of team-building activities, everyone has managed to warm up quite nicely...and the best part was one of the teams actually managed to garner the title of grand champion of the amazing race segment . K i'm quite a sucker for winning competitions so am really proud of them =)

Sighz can feel my creative writing juices being sapped away already. Wonder if i can ever fulfil the dream of becoming a full-time writer...

Am really glad for the hour I spent in the adoration room on the last day of the year. Was a good prayerful way of ending the year and lifting up petitions for the next. The good Lord has really blessed me with the peace and joy that I need...=D