Last Wednesday, in follow up to the brutal disaster of a slow-motion train-wreck of the week before, was actually alright. It rates solid “did not inspire me to wring someone’s neck, then go home and cry all afternoon.” It didn’t start great though: I got up at 5:55 in the morning to get all the way to the liceo (high school) across town and then outside of Rome, for which I must take a bus, both Metro lines, a train, and a ten minute walk only to find out that my first class was cancelled. An aptitude test was taking the place of first block English. So fuck you very much for no advance warning. But the morning was salvaged because the kids taught me how to do Sudoku (the puzzle craze sweeping the world!!!) I then retired to the staff room to enjoy some puzzles and puzzled looks from the other teachers.
Second class was only so/so. I threw two girls out of class, the first taking the opportunity to have a smoke break, and the second incident being so disruptive, and inexplicably funny that the other three girls sitting around her couldn’t stop laughing, a real giggle fit. By removing the disruptive influence the disruption just got worse really. At least she didn’t go for a smoke. At any rate that incident didn’t incite nearly as much laughter as the piece of toilet paper stuck to my shoe earlier on in the lesson. That was really funny. For them.
Sure, shitty so far, but the third class, which was breaking point for me last week was actually alright this week. The teacher (Margherita Ricerca, or Margaret Research) was present, which helped considerably. I noted that her key function is to yell “Quiet Please!” or “Claaaaaaa-aaaaaassssss” or something similar. This is great because I hate doing that. Because she was holding the reins we were able to get some work done this week. This week we learned that Lisa’s dreamy new beau Patrick has short, dark hair, and is quite handsome, according to her. Her friend Stephanie hopes he has a friend.
Last class:
Great as always.
The other good news about school is that being stranded without my preplanned activity last week prompted me to buy Cat Stevens Very Greatest Hits. So i’m never strung up in the wind again. I’m enjoying the Cat right now.
