Working nine to five...

My first full week of work is topped off by a long weekend due to a national holiday. So, instead of working on Saturday, I'm in an internet cafe, skyping with a friend about the work I'm supposed to be doing next week and sending emails to the company letting them know what I expect of them. It's work, Jim, but not that I'm getting paid for!

Having said that, this past week has been fun. There have been frustrations but the students are an interesting bunch of people and I've learned a fair amount from them (this is how it should be, everyone has something to share but a good teacher gets them to do it while learning something) I think this contract is only to Christmas and a lot of what I've been doing has been damage control after the previous teacher, however, I am quietly confident that the company will want to continue employing me in the new year.

Aside from work? well, it has been perishing here, snow, fog, freezing fog, wind and rain, but, as one of my students said "It is winter time."

I'm looking forward to being back in the UK for Christmas and I've started buying presents already. In the new year, I move into my new home which will free up a lot of my time. It will mean the Vigevano students will be coming to me rather then the other way round, so it should sort out those (parents) who are having classes for their kids in their homes because a) it's convenient and b) there's some sort of status involved.

Me, a status symbol. Who'd have thought it.