Month 5

Well, it was five months yesterday, but close enough. I guess event of the month is Emma's leaving for home last weekend. I think our original pact was that neither of us would allow the other to leave within the first three months, but after that would be no hard feelings. So, she's gone, and so far seems happy with her decision, but if in the next 10 days she should change her mind, she does have a return ticket as it was cheaper than a single, so who knows? Shannon has one more week to go before she leaves to enjoy a few weeks back home in Des Moines (pronounced "de Moyne" apparently - who knew?) in Iowa; then fingers crossed, she'll be teaching English in Turkey from January. Hopefully she may let me swing by for a short visit next Summer en route to the UK! The first signs of Christmas have arrived just in time to remind me to get a bit of shopping done for the folks back home; it's very refreshing to get a break from the usual saturation of media and retail back home...and having so few (and so far, pretty tasteful) fairy lights around means that you actually do take a second to appreciate them. My main class for December is theatre, clearly something I was born to teach after my last foray into the world of dramatic arts. Whatever doesn't kill you, etc, etc... At least I have seemingly managed to hoodwink them into putting me on evening duty once again (and maybe for January and February too, but schedules are always subject to change), but whenever they finally do put me back on regular morning duty again, I will suffer greatly. But it would stop me being so lazy: my goal for the month is to get up at least once for the pre-9am breakfast - by popular demand they've recently started serving bagels, cereal and other Western delights to the staff, but I have yet to sample any...it's so cold in the mornings! The next month will be busy as we gear up to the special winter camps around the new year, but due to my working the evening shifts, I should at least get Christmas Eve and New Year's Day off (owing to them being on weekends) - but unfortunately not the days after either! The weekends will be busy too, but in the good way - with many leaving do's, birthdays, and Christmas meals to attend...though possibly not my birthday which I may end up celebrating in January owing to scheduling conflicts! And now dear readers, I am going to go watch the last ever episode of The West Wing, which I know none of you care about, and for that you are fools. Annyong.