And so.

Another week has nearly bit the dust. I can tell I'm ready for it to end... I was in a mad panic this morning when I realized that, instead of hitting my "snooze" on my cell's alarm, I seemed to have hit the "Alarm off" button and I only had about 15 mins to get ready to catch my car to school. This is pretty much a tragedy. I typically wake up at 5:20 to give myself LOTS of wake-up time. The pickup takes place at 6:45am. Anyone who's stayed with me or lived with me knows that I'm a slow mover in the morning. I'm not too cheerful. Really, I'm nearly comatose for the first hour. Which is why, if I want to be productive, I need to wake myself up big time before I see the students. Today, my alarm went off at 6:20am. This was not a good omen

Luckily I escaped the day unscathed. 

The week, though, had a lot of potential for tragedy. This past Tuesday, I was scheduled for my first professional observation as a real teacher with our school's principal. Now, I haven't been observed since my practicum. That was 4 years ago. This was followed by a semester of TOCing (substitute teaching, which I miss dearly and loved endlessly), followed by a 5 month contract in the Okanagan (2 different principals and I didn't get my job back!), followed by a whole year of changing and rearranging and relocating my life, while working at: a coffee cart, a publishing company, a pub, and a microbiology lab. Jack of all trades but king of none? That's me. And then China came last October, but that wasn't real teaching. So it's been what seems like a million years of poor/no teaching to get me ready for a professional observation that can be used as a reference in the future.

As I hope you can tell, I'm writing this as a still-employed teacher. And I even get to keep the same pay! Awesome! I managed to stealthily hide my typical sub-par teaching ability and my principal actually walked away saying that he enjoyed the lesson and there were lots of good things that he saw. As with all, let's say "super detailed-oriented people", there are things he has questions about and has some suggestions/comments to make, but the fact that he seems happy makes me happy. No pink slips, no plane tickets in my mailbox saying, "Get out of China now!". So I feel pretty good about that. And I live to teach another day. It's stuff like this that makes me wonder about other potential professions, though!

Otherwise, life is pretty splendid. Had a bit of yoga the other night (which is still causing me a bit of pain), some friends are in town visiting, our staff Christmas party is on Saturday, and tomorrow's lessons are PLANNED! IN ADVANCE! I didn't think I'd see the day!

So on this quite boring but delightfully content note, I'm abandoning ya'll. More interesting stories will arrive on the weekend (I hope)... maybe I'll get in a traffic altercation with a donkey cart or a rabid dongbei dog again. Who knows. As a treat, though, I'll add in a ridiculous picture of me (with moustache at the free Christmas party with the crazy powerpoint signs), Santa (he's not alive) and one of the cute Tibetan dancers who were wishing us a "Peach Life". :)

T