this time next week

i'll be in coldlandia.

today we had Jail Day. a supervisory nightmare. for up to 25mins, students can put their teacher in jail - for a buck a minute. so my nines, darlings that they are, put me in jail. my inmate number (which i wore taped to my back all day) was 6985. my crime was "being so mean". whatever that means. so what if i give lots of homework? at least i have cool hair!
lol
two of the grade 9 girls bought me presents. one of them was chocolates (yum) and another bought me hibiscus earrings which are SUPER COOL. i used to have orchids that my gran brought me, but i lost them. these are beaaauuuuuuuuuuutiful. look forward to seeing me wear these... under my hood/toque/scarf... whatever.

my 10s also planned to put me in jail.

did i mention that i wore my jail gear today? my navy blue school shirt, black sweats, and my kick azz pumas. i had rell/level/lots of students trying to claim my shoes because as a convict i didn't "deserve" them. mmhmmm. (there's a wicked puma sale happening in west mall that i need to check. so i hear) technically that wasn't appropriate teacher wear, but since i am usually june cleaver of the teacher fashion world, i guess my jail gear was ok for the day.

aaaaaaaaaaanyway, so the 10s, smart cookies, realized that they would probably need my help for the essay they had to do AND if they put me in jail, they could leave early. SO, they figured, keep me for the beginning of the period, and then jail me for the end. noooooooo problemo. unlike my 9s who went buckwild, my 10s saw me safely incarcerated, and then marched back up to class to finish their essay. they threatened to stand around and sing "locked up" because they know i can't stand akon. that's about the only thing that made me nervous.

apparently he's coming to trinidad soon. greeeeeeat.

so i had my first holiday party today. with my 11s. they brought food and music. and then some other 11s and 12s crashed our party. twas kicks. and i won several hands of rummy... only to discover that they play with super picky rules so i probably didn't even really win.

i was christened with the name Mountain Squirrel - courtesy of the leader of The Squirrels of Peace. I have no idea why i got that name. I also got tattooed with heart to represent my open heart in the Open Palm of Peace....along with everyone else in the class. It was all love.

they had some big (wicked) tunes. ipods and ipod accessories are VERY VERY useful. i was also scandalized and educated by some of the dance moves.

~~~~in other news~~~~
was treated to some super chocolate-y brownies in honour of a student who's moving to azerbaijan. i'll miss her. she's a great kid.

was dragged in front of the gr 6-12 assembly to dance with a bunch of students (and one other teacher) on wednesday morning. that definitely woke me up.

one of my high energy students did the sweetest thing at the assembly. one girl was performing a soca tune (come to the islands/jump) for the school and NOONE dared to get up and wave or even sway so it seemed really dry - which was tough for her. he bounced out of his seat at the back and went dancing across the front like a hype man on speed and made people crack up and relax... at least enough so that some of her friends would wave or get up and dance.

i am having commitment-o-phobia with my culminating activity. i dont want it to be a pain for me to mark, nor a torture for them to do.

lost all faith in humanity because one of my slightly immature 9s has a new collection of household items that deliver a terrific electric shock when used by unsuspecting teachers. he tricked me into getting shocked by his "new whiteboard marker" on tuesday. he tried very hard to trick me again today, but once shocked, twice not trusting you... or something like that. so yeah. i had to confiscate it though after he went around the room shocking other students.

frosty, our 3D snowman that was decorating our door, had a terrible accident and was stomped while i was in jail. frosty will be missed.

the culture of trinidad is such that socializing is very important. in the 4 months that i've been here, i've been to 7 different staff members' houses for dinners or limes (chilling with food and booze), and i've gone to fetes and clubs with other teachers (local and canadian) on several occasions. i think that's wicked. in toronto its a big deal if you can get 40% of the staff out to jacks on the same night. of course, our parent luncheon and initial introduction to the board included alcohol and that doesn't happen in canaydia either.

i still need a car here. argh.


~~~Mountain Squirrel out~~~
*Oh plead my cause oh jah...*