An Exciting Week Comes to a Close!

Hey folks,

Sorry to keep everyone waiting for this blog entry. Well, I'm only partly sorry. After all there is only so much time in a week, and when I feel like I'm running a marathon and the destination is the weekend the last thing I want to do is keep on running after I cross the finish line. But for you all I have chosen to keep running, well, a slow jog is perhaps more accurate. You deserve an update so here it is.

Last week was the second and last week of the grammar and practical inputs for the TEFL course. We spent much of our time preparing for the grammar test (which everyone passed!) and sitting in on classes, learning through observing other teachers at work. Last Tuesday I finally purchased a phone, which I will need to contact employers and students when I begin teaching in late December and January. It's nothing flashy, actually it looks like a relic from the '90s, but as long as it makes phone calls then I am happy with it.

Here is a pic of my new and purely functional phone!

I also began applying for work as a teacher at a number of local English Institutes. I have one job interview lined up and possibly a second. This is the exciting part and what all of my work so far has been geared towards. My teaching practice will also begin this week so I have been very busy preparing lesson plans for the four classes I will be giving this coming week.

Since my last post I have made a few exciting and remarkable discoveries. The first is that you can batter and fry dry pasta and it will soften that way. The other day I was at a loss for what to make for dinner so I decided to try blending a variety of random foods, which is what I do most nights, except that this time I decided to add dried pasta to the mix. Well I soaked the pasta in buttermilk and egg mixture and then doused it with flour. After this process I placed the pasta in the skillet and watched the breading and oil go to work. I mixed in some onion, tomato, the egg-buttermilk mixture, and potato after that for a not so healthy comfort meal that tasted like heaven on earth. Needless to say I've been on a pasta frying kick ever since.

My second great discovery involves the silver trail of confetti that I'd been finding nearly every morning tracing wild, fanciful, and indecisive lines across the floor of my room. At first these silvery transparent trails puzzled me. What could they be? I often wondered. But as the trails didn't bother me, or affect my nights sleep, I soon thought nothing of them. I just figured I had a guest or two during the night that would come in and make these trails while I slept.

Well, the other day, night actually, I figured it all out. I woke up very late a few nights ago with the grave understanding that I  needed to use the restroom. I quickly rose out of bed and proceeded towards the door. When I was just about at the door I placed my foot down and in that moment the physical and auditory sensations were overwhelming. I had never stepped in something so horrifying, what made it worse was the lack of visibility. I couldn't see what I had stepped in. I frantically composed myself and reached for the light. My thought was everywhere. What could it be? Is there an animal in my room? Did I step in dog poop? What could have made that squish under my foot? Did I really want to know? I finally found the light switch and turned it on and discovered that what was now on the bottom of my foot was none other than a...

Wait for it...

A slug!!! Ugggggggghhhhhhh.

I was more curious than grossed out once I figured out what it was. Big questions soon emerged. Where did the slug live? Was it the same slug making the silvery trails every night? Were there more than one? Can slugs even live in a carpeted room for long periods of time? How was it able to avoid detection for so long? It's not as if they move very fast. Well, maybe my questions will never be answered, or maybe someone reading this will have better insights and knowledge into the life of slugs. Unfortunately the slug had expired before I could ask him these important questions, so if anyone can shed some light on this mysterious topic I would be much obliged.

Aside from those discoveries I had one other exciting event of the week. Yesterday I got invited to a birthday party! It was a wonderful Argentine birthday party with a mixed crowd of Argentinos, expats, and foreigners studying in BA. It was a wonderful time. There was cake, food, frisbee, and plenty of Spanish for me to practice. Before the party I met a fellow student at the TEFL program and her roommate and we shared fresh squeezed lemonade with mint. It was a refreshing way to culminate a long week.

The lemonade and mint. An amazingly refreshing beverage. 

That's all for now as I continue preparing for another busy, albeit fun, week of teaching.

Kyle - Getting those teaching skills up to par!