Ahhh...the mid year holidays are here. I need this so much. It has been a long time since I last blogged but May will always be a very busy month for me as a Kindergarten teacher.
There was the 'Undokai' that we had to prep the kids for. That went OK. I danced like an idiot to three songs. The parents and the kids who turned up enjoyed themselves. My class had a very low turnout despite my desperate attempt to get as many parents to join the event. I thought that I got 20 families to join but only around 13 turned up on the day. Luckily, the big girls didn't take notice. Phew! Or were they pretending to not notice because I might spit my dummy again?
My birthday also came and went, almost without a hoot. We did celebrate a couple of days later on the Sunday at Little Italy. My Mum 'secretly' invited a few colleagues of mine without telling them it was my birthday. The dinner was OK but I would have preferred the company of other people. I guess that I am just picky when it comes to who I spend my sparetime with. The teachers eventually figured out that it was my birthday and they bought me Tupperware as presents the next day.
As for this year's Teacher's Day (which was on the same day as the 'Undokai'), a boy gave me more Tupperware + a cake and another boy gave me an ornament. Am I thankful? I am. It would have been very embarassing if no one gave a thing. Some teachers were given so much that they needed to cart their gifts home in boxes. I also noticed that the big kids were gifting their current teachers but not the teachers who taught them in previous years. Oh well...
The boy who gave us the tupperware sets is almost hooked on gifting us. His Mum gave us mini cheesecakes again a few days ago. I think his teachers are going to turn really round soon if this goes on.
This morning my Brother and I dropped off our Mum at the airport. We made a pact last night that I would walk her into the departure hall and he would join me after parking the car. My Mum is a seasoned traveller and she didn't need help getting around. So, she was a little unsure of what we were up to. I planned to do this for a reason. My Mum was joining 40 or so teachers and board members from our Kindergarten for a visit to China's Fujian province. With all these people around, I had to play the part of a caring, dutiful daughter to avoid any potential finger pointing. I played the role like I had been a star since I was a wee babe. I ushered my Mum to the scanning machine and helped her with her luggage. Surprisingly, my brother went along with his role too. My Mum's best friend, Ms A, was visibly delighted especially because my Brother turned up also. People were still wondering why I wasn't going. I bullshitted that I couldn't go to China because I tend to get sick after each visit, which is half true. The real reason is because I didn't want to spend time with certain people during my much needed sparetime. And I also do not get the point of joining this tour because what good is visiting schools in China if we never see the need to implement the same system or at least some ideas here? I already know that city schools in China are implementing child friendly approaches but here in Kota Kinabalu, we are hooked on driving little children crazy by forcing them to write or learn traditionally as young as possible. We are so good at getting A's that kids were cheating during exams in Kindergarten! How bloody pathetic?
Now that the holidays are finally here, how do you think I will be spending them? I will still have to work. I still have to go back to the Kinder to prep for the following semester. For anything that I couldn't complete at Kinder, I will have to drag the work home. On top of that, I need to find the time to study traffic law because I had signed up for driving lessons. To get to the actual driving, I had to pass the computer test first and that is taking longer than expected!
I think that something big is going to happen in December. Meanwhile, I should just enjoy the next two weeks uninterrupted. I told my Mum that all of my thoughts will be in English over the next 14 days. No Chinese! It is a big relief that I don't have to speak English to little people who is not fluent in it during the holidays. You have no idea what it is like being forced to speak English to mini brick walls. The worst mini brick walls are the ones who have question marks plastered on their faces permanently. It feels like I get slammed by a truck whenever I see that facial expression! How bloody annoying!
