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.

..butterflies..birthdays...brighton...

I feel like I have constant butterflies lately. Im trying to control them but they are making me all anxious all the time! It's hard to distract oneself.

I feel all sorts at once. Worried. Excited. Panicked. Just very strange in general.

Birthday was pleasant. Included a trip to Brighton and a meal.

Got to go to Seth Lakeman / Suzanne Vega gig for free which was awsome but legs were killing after a total of about 4 hours standing. Im glad that in the face of negatvity (unexpected financial complications) we managed to enjoy it. I do not need anymore regrets.

We will get through it. We always do.

And so it begins...and I broke my glasses

Firstly I want to thank all who came to our leaving birthday do. It was so wonderful to have you all there. It's not goodbe forever, you're in our hearts always.

The house is done! I promised Daniel I would chill as soon as we got in the car to leave as I would be so happy it was all done. However I just started worrying about the trip!

What an adventure is coming our way.

Saying goodbye to grandparents was emotional.

I hope we can chill a little now!

I lost my balance and my hand landed on my glasses on the dining table and I completely screwed up the arm. Trip to opticians tomorrow :(

I have to thank everyone who contributed to my birthday pressie - a dslr camera! its an olympus E 500!

photos to follow when Im less tired!

I survived the dentist

I promised Daniel I would be brave, and I really tried, I had the words I WILL be brave running through my head!

It really wasnt as bad as I had imagined in my head. The injection wasnt bad at all. although I was tearful it didnt hurt as much as I'd remembered. She did use the special gel tho which she said wouldnt make a lot of difference but took the edge of it.

The dental nurse was fab, constantly encouraging me and saying we were nearly done, no more drilling now etc!

I would say even the smaller drill was not so bad, the bigger one was the hardest bit. Such heavy vibrations in ones head was not good. But it was only for a few seconds.

So it's done yay.

Now on to the other million and one things I have to get done.

moving house is stressful

I am so stressed. I feel sick. I want tocurl up in bed til it's all over.

I think a lot of it is to do with being alone a lot ....no fault of mr kit, he is working 12 hour shifts to keep the money coming in and I really appreciate it.
If you're reading Mr Kit, thanks for keeping me going! I love you.

Also it's D day tomorrow. (dentist)

I cant bear it. Ive been advised to get rescue rememdy so I might give it a whirl!