29/10/2007

Things that parents do.

It's incredible the capacity all parents have to take for granted that you're doing something really stupid.

This weekend I was leaving my mother-in-law's house and my boyfriend was carrying his laundry in a very heavy backpack. We were going to the movies and afterwards to his house.
While we were getting in the car my in-law screamed: "Leave your bag in the trunk when going to the movies!!"
No. He's carrying it all around the mall. Why leaving it comfortably in the trunk? I bet he prefers to be uncomfortable.

Then, I remembered my mother. Every SINGLE time I'm getting out of her car she warns me: "Wait! There are cars coming. Wait for the red traffic light!"
No. I'm opening the door and throwing myself at the cars. I like the adrenaline.

Why do parents find so necessary to say the obvious and, the most important issue, why do they make it sound like the wisest piece of advice of our lives?

24/10/2007

The more I hate people...

... the more they try to speak to me.

I have a strategy that involves having (actually, it was a blessed gift from my boyfriend) an MP3 player in order to isolate myself from the world only because unknown human beings annoy me enough to make me wish them to be extinct.
But it doesn't work... Why on Earth one tries to talk to a person with headphones on?
I try to ignore them, although it's hard to pretend your not feeling someone pinching your arm to comment about the rain.

Anyway, I'm in a get-away-from-me-because-I-don't-like-to-talk-to-people-I-don't-know phase (ok, I've been there since my teenage years, it's just got worse) in which I just want to be alone, quiet, unaware of things and people around me and whose symptoms are my headphones and my few-friends face.
Can't it be respected, specially in a rainy grumpy day, after waking up at 6?

Soundtrack:: psycho killer, Talking Heads

19/10/2007

Teaching

Being an English teacher has never been an intention. It just happened.
I used to teach Portuguese and I quited the school I was working for. Then my former English teacher, who knew I was a teacher and a good speaker, called me invinting to substitute a teacher temporarily on Saturdays. I ended up teaching there for 5 years.

At the begining I thought it was the same as teaching Portuguese, but as the time went by I started feeling I was completlely wrong. I looked for courses for teachers, I recycled my ideas and got in conflict with that teacher that first invited me to be a teacher.
Few weeks ago I quited that school, not without being sad, but knowing it was the best for me and for them.

Since this confilct started I began to consider changing area and trying something like translation or text reviewing... I wasn`t sure if I wanted to teach English the rest of my life. I`m not a very fan of people and dealing with them every day is exhausting... Besides, working on Saturdays is something that takes your motivation away...

But there are thing that worth. For example, a student of mine couldn`t pass Basic 1, she wasn`t prepared at all to B2 and now she is my student again. She`s actually speaking... She does have a pronouciation problem and she still needs lots of extra exercises and help to follow the other students, but she going on...
Another one: my former students from the other school send every day scraps asking me to return.

I don`t know if I can change this for a ninve-to-five job in front of the computer....

18/10/2007

I've finally done it

Well, it's been a long time since my last blog. And this is my first in English. And my first alone.

I like blogs, but not as a confessionary or something like "Dear diary". I see them more as a place to write things you wouldn't write if you didn't have a blog. Got it?

Anyway. Here I am, practicing my writing, writing my thoughts, thinking about everything and doing nothing.
Enjoy!