While it lasts

Last night I couldn't sleep, perhaps because I didn't wake up until 11, maybe because I later took a nap, probably because the teachers brought me coffee at 8pm. While I lay in bed I found myself mentally packing for my return home. But I reminded myself that that's a long way off, tried to shut off the stream of thoughts, and get to sleep.

Today I had my schedule meeting for March, and it seemed like everyone was on the same wavelength as my sleepless self. We spent at least as much time talking about when I'm leaving and what things need to happen before I go. As I've said before, my USA class, which is for seniors, is done in two weeks. I'd been hoping that that meant that my Translation class, which is also for seniors, would also be over with at that time, but I found out that it was not to be. I was finally officially informed that yoga just isn't going to happen (as I predicted several months ago), but as an alternative it was proposed that I help teach future pre-school teachers how to draw. Sounds fun, so I said yes. And then I was informed that the Communication Corner is going to be restarted. We tried this last semester and it was such a waste of my time that I got excused after two meetings, but they insist that it will be different this time. Then I was informed that I will be teaching two classes on Fridays, starting in a few weeks. I was not very happy about this. First of all, this is a big spike in work time. The bigger thing, though, is that I won't have much time for travel anymore now that I am teaching on both Fridays and Mondays. I am reminding myself that I am here to teach and not to travel. In the back of my mind I am also thinking that if all of these things do actually get added to my schedule I'll be over hours according to the Fulbright guidelines, and that I might be able to use this for leverage to get out of Translation. I had been feeling a little overwhelmed by my February travel schedule, but in the end it means I took advantage of my travel-friendly work schedule while it lasted. Moreover, by the end of this weekend I will have made it to all but one (and then some) of my must-visit list.

In the morning I taught the USA class, and took things up a notch. Instead of providing students with reading review questions, I made it their job to work in groups to come up with the questions for one section of the reading. Then, a different group of students had to answer those questions. It worked pretty well. One of the groups even came up with the exact questions I prepped (just in case the exercise went terribly).

In the evening I got a ride to mass for Ash Wednesday -- except that mass started at 530 and my ride needed to take me at 415. But, given that I haven't been to church since November, I figured I could use the extra time. Of course, I couldn't understand anything at mass, but it was nice to be there. I had no idea how I was going to get home, and I was in the middle of texting Trang after mass, asking her to call me a cab, when I heard someone say "Adelina!" Someone I met during Tet was there, and she offered me a ride home. Yay! I made it back in time for the last 30 minutes of the English club.

Visiting student tonight

Tomorrow I am visiting Brittanye in Mui Ne/Phan Thiet, and I'm hoping for one big last hurrah at the beach. And maybe a tan, too.