Illnesses

Last weekend I was sick. Like death-sick. My head was killing me, and the pharmacists just laughed at me. It sucked, but I obviously pulled through. It does seem to be flu-season here though; since the weather cooled off in the last two weeks or so, many kids have been away, or needed to see the nurse during the day. I cannot comment if there have been two cases of H1N1 at the school already...

The last week was really busy. The after-school clubs started up, so we began our obligatory pennance. I'm doing the grade 5-6 UN club. There's no outline, no clear boss, no clear direction. The only thing I know for sure is that the kids have to win some competition later this year (and no, nobody has been able to tell me what one). Because I'm heading the club with another Canadian teacher, we are able to supervise 60 kids. We decided that 50 would be easier to manage. Instead, whomever was in charge of signing up the kids (apparently nobody -- it's not clear to me) just kept letting the kids sign up. We have 80-ish on paper. We aren't allowed to tell anyone that they're cut from the club without just reason (like discipline...acutally, that's pretty much it). So we're stuck with 65 kids (the ones that actually come) for one hour twice a week. It's not much time to do anything, at least.

Between walking everywhere, a lack of kitchen implements, and the inability to locate anything in the grocery stores (seriously, these people have freeze-dried shrimp (I think they're shrimp) in the baking aisle, but God help you if you need to find chocolate chips), both Andrew and I have shedded some weight. The downside is that I crave baked goods that I cannot make/get. The food situation is frustrating, to say the least. I have found out that nobody makes food from scratch here. The wealthy like ready-made stuff, the poor live hand-to-mouth every day, so where does that leave me? Sitting on the couch, watching Terminator 2 with a bowl of cookie dough I made on a Saturday afternoon...