It's okay... I can handle the truth

Ok, so maybe I am boring. I came on to write another post and saw that my official "followers" list has gone from 2 to 3 and I got excited! (or maybe that makes me pathetic?) haha either way...
I just finished reading 'Tis by Frank McCourt. I read it years ago, but someone in the house had bought it and put it in our novel collection so I thought I would refresh my memory.  It is about Frank's life as a poor Irish man in America.  The last third or so of the book tells of his life as a new teacher in America and he is still poor.  So I can relate to this on a few different levels is what I'm saying. And I also find it reassuring that I am not the only poor teacher out there.  Mom asked me the other day "But don't you have a reserve stash somewhere?" - which is kind of my style - to which I had to reply, "Why yes, actually, I do. It is sitting in your driveway with a For Sale sign on it!"    Damn!
But all joking aside, my agency messed up my pay and I am stretching my stash of soup packets and instant porridge until the end of the week. At the end of the week I will get paid for 2 weeks of work though and will be living the high life! haha.. or something like that.

Therapeutic horses grazing outside my Brethren school

This week I got an extra day of work at my fav school because we were having inspections.  The class that I normally teach on Tuesdays is taught by the head teacher at the school.  She was running around getting everything up to snuff for the inspectors so I got to go in on Monday too :)  Today I was at a school out in Brixton, which I was somewhat apprehensive about. When Impact called me about this day they said "It can be a bit rough, especially at first, but you'll do great."  This would seem like a reassuring statement to most, but Impact has a way of normally down playing things.  They send you to schools saying, "oh yeah, great school. You'll have a great day." and when you get there you realize it is in the ghetto and the children seemed to have recently been let out of cages. Or they will say, "Yes, it's a bit of a walk." Which translates to 20 minutes of walking from the station (which took 40 minutes to get to) and not just street walking but more comparable to mountain climbing.  So, needless to say, I went in today having no idea what to expect.  And thankfully was pleasantly surprised.  Of course the kids weren't angels - were you when you had a substitute teacher?? - but compared to some others I have seen they were at least human, and for the most part normal humans as well. There were even hints of manners and *gasp* conscience among them.  Definitely a school that I would not dread if they decided to call me back.
All in all, week is shaping up quite nicely.

my alter ego???