10 trhings I hate about this week

1. The power cut. Or power outtage as they say in the US of A. No one knew what I meant by power cut. Our stuff melted. i couldnt cook. It lasted 5 hours. No traffic signals worked.

2. I lost my debit card. somehow.

3. I lost my passport. (now found it at the bank where I used it as ID as i had no debit card!

4. I had no gas (petrol) to go to school on thursday until 10.30am. We have very little gas due to hurrican ike affecting our main fuel pipe.

5. I still dont have that much gas.

6. I've been a bit under the weather physcially.

7. Ive been a teensy bit homesick...not that I actually what to GO home but just missing a few things.

8. It rained almost 24 hours non stop friday.

9. I had to watch Daniel eat a frogs leg.

10. Its Monday all over again tomorrow.

Now that was a positive post wasnt it. ?

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops....

I heart that song.

Sleep wise the week was great. I still feel exhausted even though I got plenty of sleep each night! This weekend I slept 10 hours each night plus 3 in the day on Saturday. And I could still go to bed right now! (6pm)

Friday was a fun school trip to the nature museum where I saw many a creature including Mink, Owls, Skunks and a snake which I touched.

I have noticed

On American TV commercials can slag off their rivals and name them. There is one right now bitchin at pop tarts promoting toastie pockets!

The same in politics. It seems to be about dissing the opposition.

Aside from that I must give a shout out to Daniel - my offical but BEST teacher's assistant. xxx

Get fresh, the weekend

So Saturday I slept like a log. Im just putting to much pressure on myself to get X amount of sleep during the week and go to bed before Im really sleepy. Will try to avoid that this week.

Sat we went to a comic book store and the mall.

Sunday we went to a different mall.

It's been boiling hot.

This is all.

YAM not sleeping.....

Only D will get the title - look up Tiffany (as in I think we're alone now) but her more current work. A challenge for you!

I have barely slept all week. It all caught up with me today - I was extremely tired all day. Even pepsi didn't help. D has tried so much to help me with massage, hot milk etc. I jus can't switch my brain off. Im not even worried about anything right now. I love to sleep ususally. It's been more than annoying.

Tonight I cooked for the first time since we got here. Daniel arrange the apartment so we could sit and the table and last night in Walmart asked if we could buy a candle to create an atmosphere. It was lovely. It was spag bol. Red wine.

Also got to chat to the in laws tonight freely on skype. It was cooler. Even cooler when i heard I have a big tax rebate coming. Woohoo!

The photo is just one of the many quotes displayed outside the main library in Charlotte.

To Sleep. Perchance. At all.

Not last night but the night before I just could not sleep. I have no idea why. I was in that kind of not quite semi concious state where your eyes are closed but things run through your mind. Nothing worrying just scenraios - a bit like dreaming awake.

I was up at 3.30am making hot chocolate. My alarm goes off at 5.30am!

I got through the day and napped when I got home, and slept fine the next night.

I dont think I coulda done it if my school wasnt such a nice place to be and I didnt love my kids in my class so much!

Today I still feel like i can't catch it up.

They are washing down and repainting out apartment this week. Last night we tried to move in the love seat (wicker heart shaped seat) and I moved an armchair right over my toe. It bled. Owch.

just some photos of my city - Charlotte NC

So i promised a friend a brand new post so here it is....

thing are going well here.

I am liking

- my kids

- my school - so friendly

- the kindergarten team

- eating out cheaply

- shopping at the mall

- buying shoes!

- Buying t shirts!

- eating hershey's kisses

- having skype to talk to my family for free

Im not liking

- paying $80 for a medical

- getting up so early

- Daniel having a cold

I guess that is a good balance!

Well its all ups and downs here School is going really well, I love it all - the kids, the team, the school. My principal gave me a gift of a mug filled with hersheys kisses, a diary, a winterfield key chain, a keyring and some note cards and a hand written letter to welcome me to the school personally. Just heard our phone bill from the few calls I made home (one long one about mortgage) cost we over 100pd. not good. Im not liking getting up early so much but I like being done early. I dint like trying to get my kids on all different school buses. weather is good. sorry it is short.Katie x

Thought it was about time I got you up to speed.

This week has been spent in school for me. Preparing the classroom, planning and some training about finding your inner teacher which was interesting!
Yesterday was open house where the parents and kids can come to meet you. It went well I had 10 of my 16 children show up and they were very lovely. I had one or 2 families with no English, only Spanish, though the little girl in my class had great English. Maybe from watching TV? Anyways I’m very excited about having my own class again. I think it will be (and has been) hard work! All teaching is hard work but it is much more intensive and less broken up than at home. Ive been going to be at like 8pm and sleeping 12 hours on the weekend!
My schedule is like this:

7.00 – 7.15am Oral Language
7.15 News (on the TV we have closet circuit TV and the principal and children present the news.)
7.30 – calendar (days of the week etc)
7.40 – 8.25 – workshop – more play based activities kinda like Reception is most of the time in the UK.

8.25 – 8.55 Writing
8.55- 10am Math
10am – 10.20 Recess (on the playground outside – we have like an adventure playground)
10.20 – 10.50 Lunch (how early! And we eat with the children)
10.50 – 11.00 Accelerated reading (for those who need extra help)
11.05 – 11.45 Best time of the day is SPECIALS! The kids go to other teachers for Music, Media, Art, PE and computers. I only teach the basics unlike at home where you teach it all) This time I have to myself to breath!
11.50 – 12.40 Literacy
12.45 – 1.30 science/social studies
1.40 Home time – attempt to find which bus belongs to which child.

Wow I feel tired even writing that. Next week though we are not running it like that we are doing staggered entry by alphabet which I think will leave me with about 7 one day and 3 on another! Everyone comes in Friday

We were hoping to go to Uptown today as we haven’t been yet but since I have managed to develop a tummy bug we may not be able to. Maybe tomorrow on our anniversary, I just want to be better I am not having fun being ill! We think it may be from our pool as it’s the only thing we can come up with that Daniel has not done. We have eaten the same and lunch has been provided at school and no one else is sick. L

Daniel is keeping himself busy, we have discovered the library at the end of our road so he has been reading and using the net and also cooking dinner every night, As soon as I get paid we can apply for his work permit.

Our apartments are working out well e have only had one bug incident with a MASSIVE centipede. I was also followed by a very tiny kitten the other day (yes Bryher I did freak out a bit) and we saw a silly possum looking thing chasing ants! We have a lot of woods around our apartments. It is a great location, it is off one of the main roads in Charlotte which contains restaurants, gas stations, chemist, grocery stores a shoe shop (MUM it’s very cheap) and it takes me about 15 mins to get to school on the interstate.

Well I think I’ve waffled enough now,,,,
Love to you all
Katie (and Daniel)

more catch ups from our move to charlotte

we would love to get some mail or cards or photogrpahs to brighten up our apartment! Today I had some MORE orientation and then we went to the social security office but I wasnt on the system so couldnt get my ss number. Hope it isnt too long of a wait! Then we went to drive past my school and managed to find our way home WITHOUT GETTING LOST! YAY!im much happier about driving now despite a WE'RE GOING ONTO THE FREEWAY! moment. If you have seen the movie clueless you will know what I mean! Or look it up on youtube!Then we went to our pool it is pretty peaceful and we saw our VIF neighbour teacher Livingstone 0 he lives above us.The apartment is generally good tho a few things we need fixed. the smaller jobs were taken care of quickly eg changing the aircon filter. We are hoping the bigger jobs - mainly some nasty rotten boarding on our bathroom sink - will get done soon. It seems a nice place to live tho. And it is very central to amenties like docs, shops, bank etc so i think we will like it. I now have til weds free then i have training - then a week in school to prepare, then the kids are in 25th August. Markey - who we are stating with has been a star - she is giving us or finding us plenty of furniture on monday which is great. Woukld love to hear how you are all doing.

Love katie (and Daniel)

well we are here....

these are catch ups!


Hi everyone I tried to write this earlier but I lost it all so gave up. it is 9.30 pm here. I had a decent flight, 30 people on the program were delayed by bad storms including my good friend emma who arrived almost 24 hours after me and letf an hour before me from Gatwick. Things have been generally good but busy. You meet people at one thing and they may not have any other classes the same as you so you have to make whole new friends in the next thing. Today we had a welcome, thenI had driving practice which was only about 5 minutes of going round the block but it was ok the guy was so nice. then the test. the insturctor was very agressive and yelling why are you stopping here there is no stop sign here and all that jazz so we (me and scottish pal Nitu) both had to do it again 2 hours later.At this point I had a melt down (really I did, ask emma) it was all getting to me and I'd hope to text home saying I had passed but had another meeting and then driving again so couldnt. Nitu let me at least text home to say about my cell phone dying and I dont think I packed the charger.Second time the instructor was so nice and even said its so hard as you havent practiced etc and I couldnt drive in UK.But we passed flying colours so glad! tomorrow is more relaxed for me i have whole afternoon off so hoping to go to the mall if we can, we have shuttle mini buses that go there daily so hopefully! OR I might gym and swim! anyways all in all im fine, quite chuffed ive done this all on my own and even more so without emma as security ive had to step out and approach people. My room mate is from costa rica, called Adriana and she is nice tho i havent seen a lot of her our paths havent crossed so much. Its already racing by. Weds is VERY busy with all the teaching/lesson planning etc.