Thursday, August 10, 2006

For my Husband

Hold
Hold
Hold my gaze
for I want to
keep you in my eyes

Touch
Touch
Touch my hand
so that I can
feel what lies inside

Speak
Speak
Speak the truth
becasue your words
are my solace

Fly
Fly
Fly with me
for without you
there is no light

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

At work

Im in my office with Jennifer who I will be replacing as of next week, and Nancy, one of the teachers.

Work is going ok and I have been told to blog more. Inquiry minds wanna know.

I saw Toni (Antonia) who is a nutbar but a likeable one and we fell right back into our routine of last summer, and went out dancing and had a great time. Tobi was with us as well as an extremely strange man Toni met online. He had a heavy lisp and wanted to be an English teacher. RIGHT! Do people not hear themselves????

Anyhooooo, they are having a problem replacing me and so I am having trouble getting trained for this position. As in, I am not getting trained. It scares me to think that in a week and a half I will be doing this alone and I have no GD clue what I have to do. Well, we shall see what happens.

WWF finally hired someone WAAAAAAAAAAY more qualified than me, so at this point Im thinking of pitching an idea to them a year down the road to combine education and environmental work and get in there one way or another.

Went to the beach with sis and a friend Sunday and came back with the flu. Was off work yesterday but that was ok coz I needed a break and lets face it, Im no good to anyone working sick as I was. Im better today but not great. Am taking students to Swiss Chalet tonight, a Canadian tradition. Not that the name would give it away!

Sooooooooooooooo, I heard from my star students in Bulgaria and they all did SO well on teh FCE. I am SO proud of you guys. I told you it wasnt that hard, and that you had it covered. BRAVO to my little monsters.

Sweet man Shahen should be back soon. I miss him like mad! GET OVER HERE MAN!

Condo shopping began this last weekend, and though I think the banks would laugh at me trying to buy a palce I thought I would try it all the same. Things are tiny and expensive and that is about that. What more can I say?

Back to work. Must prep a lesson on Prepositions of time and place. Lucky me!

Saturday, July 08, 2006

Canada's good to me

Knock on wood, Canada has been good to me so far. Only days after I uttered the words "I need a damn job" I got myself one :) The following day, they added 5 more TOEFL classes, and today they gave me the most advanced students because they were happier with me than the other teacher they had (I was teaching them 2 hours a day). Then tonight they emailed me to say they were giving me first choice for 5 more classes so in a matter of 3 days I went from having NOTHING to having 20 hours a week plus a shooting gig then to 30 hours a week.

Needless to say, things are falling nicely into place. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope that they keep me on full time at the end of summer. I am still hoping for the WWF job, as that is my real passion but as I have said before I would be happy enough teaching, especially when it is adults and from all over the world. I've only had 2 days with them but already felt sad that I would be losing my intermediate class as I have become somewhat attached to a couple of the keen students there already.

All I need now is a place for Oscar and I to live and make all "pretty nice nice" for my husband to come and join us!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Got myself a job

I remember thinking a few months back that if I could get a part time job that would pay the bills and then some, and could start my photography again, that would be the perfect scenario. Well ask and you shall recieve it seems!

Had an interview this morning and I start tomorrow. 25 hours a week and a very good rate, and I get my afternoons off. Also they deal with overseas students so if I get an apartment downtown with an extra bedroom I can possibly have "home-stay" and get a student in for a few weeks. They pay well for that too.

They also hired me to photograph their new location and said they will need me to do more later on once they move. Things are falling into place fortunately (knock on wood). The way I have calculated, I will save more in the next month living with mom and working and shooting than I did in 12 months in Bulgaria. Not a bad landing I say.

So eventhough I am getting all the immigration papers ready for Shahen and we have a few appointments, I have to fit them in after work. Shahen is super excited for me, and so am I. Hopefully by September 1st I can get a place of my own and get out of Scarborough. It takes over an hour to get to work from here. YIKES!

Off to the pool....

Tuesday, July 04, 2006

Moving

Well in this hot and sticky mess we managed to move about 6 carloads of stuff for my sister, and there is not much more left fortunately. ig furniture will have to be moved by movers.

It really IS hot and sticky and my sisters little wee window unit Air Conditioner is working overtime but it is keeping ONE room cool and we are all constantly in that room.

I have a job interview Wednesday morning back in Toronto, so I am a little excited about that. Things have been going relatively easily (touch wood). I have a bank account, a credit card I didn't even apply for (with Air Miles) and hopefully at the end of the week a job. It is at an English school for 20 hours a week mornings only, and hopefully I can start up my photo business again. I already have a wedding to shoot Sept. 24th.

This is the school I have an interview with and if my students come to visit, I will take them there so they can learn MORE English (wink); http://www.languagecanada.com/

Well we are watching a film on cable. My sister has On Demand Tv which is really cool, you can choose films, and start them whenever you want, pause and rewind and so on. But they haven't paused it for me, so I am going to go watch it now.

We drive home tomorrow.

Sunday, July 02, 2006

US of A!!!!!

Shahen and I drove to the booming metropolis of Shippensburg yesterday. We set out Friday night but we were held at the border becasue I have been racially profiled as "dangerous" and the GWB administration wants to know when I set foot on their precious land and the exact time I leave their soil so I have to be fingerprinted and photographed at the border, as does my sister the lethal physicist!

So we waited for 2 hours and 15 minutes in a crowded stinky room and by the time we got out it was 10:30 pm. We both had severe headaches, I was crusty as all hell, and we had to resort to McDonalds and checked into a lodge which was rather nice and crashed the night. Man I must really love my sis to go through this crap!

But that isnt what I want to write about.

We went to Appelby's last night in the neighboring town coz Shippensburg has a population of 18 (when the cat has kittens), so there really isnt much to do here at all. And our experience was "somethig".

A SUPER perky and smily young blong waitress came to our table with a grin exhibiting gleaming white, and perfectly shaped teeth. In a rather high pitched voice she said "Hi I'm Ashley and I will be serving you tonight. Do you know what you would like to drink?" I was reminded of the Nicole Kidman film where all wives are perfect dressed in 50s clothes smiling and serving their husbands all the time. It was a weeeeeee bit eerie. The portions were HUGE (to go along with the huge clientel) and there was American football on the TV. (Are you jealous Brent?)

The food was fair but the atmosphere was surreal. I still have to get used to people speaking English everywhere. My sis complained that she was lonely, and I said I was too in Turnovo and at least you dont have to act like a chicken laying eggs to make the shopkeeper understand what it is you want. Though at least it does make for good stories at the end of the day.

This morning Shahen said (In a high pitched voice) "Hi folks, My name is Ashley (not that anyone gives a shit) I'll be serving you tonight, Would anyone like another huge plate of food?" And I laughed SO hard that I had to include this here.

Saturday, July 01, 2006

My Cousin's wedding

Well I came home early to attend my cousins wedding on June 24th. My sister just got me some pics she took, and so I am including a few here.

Well here's Shahen and me
My "Familia"
My sis and I...
Well that's enough for now.