teaching French in Thai?!

oooooooooooooooooook so basically this week has been the CRAZIEST, toughest week I have ever worked. I am putting in 12-hour days in the school, coming home, working some more and sleeping.

I.have.become.a.robot.

I work, eat, sleep and teach somewhere in there too. There are a lot of exams at Tollbar. They want us to register a lot of marks. They want us to write a lot of reports. I had my first parent's evening tonight. I am going on the French trip next week and need to plan my coursework for while I am gone. This coming Friday I am getting observed and evaluated by the Office for Education Standards of England and Tollbar cares a lot about how this goes. My head hurts.
Seriously; ROBOT.

Why am I doing this again?? Mandy and I keep telling each other that when we make it through these two crazy years, we will be able to do ANYTHING. That usually keeps me going...

I just wanted to tell you all that this is what I am going through; no more thoughts of France for now, just work. Lists and lists of work. Something interesting today though-what I see as a ray of sunlight in this chaotic time-is that I have received a new student in one of my French classes. Her name is Peeka and she is from Thailand. She does not speak a word of English. I have to teach the kid French?! We had a lot of fun on google translate today-I would write in English things like "how are you?" and she would read the Thai and respond...I taught her 1-10 in French because she knows how to write out numbers one to ten so as I pointed at each, I would say them in french and, in this moment I realized that French is a really STRANGE language. It really made me realize how different pronunciation is from one language to the next. I tried to teach her to roll her r's and that you pronounce the J jjjjjjjjjjjj instead of "y" like in Spanish...we laughed a lot. I looked and sounded ridiculous. But we had fun and she brought me  great joy. It is going to be interesting figuring out how to teach her. Looks like I might be picking up some Thai this year!

Parent's evening was fun too. I enjoyed meeting the parents, seeing where these kids come from-some of the look SO MUCH like their parents-I tried not to stare too much...I should get back to marking, distracted break OVER. Back to robot mode.

Ah but first, I will leave some scripture that my father just left with me-a favorite of mine that could be an encouragement to anyone going through a tough/challenging time right now...
Do you not know?
   Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God,
   the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary,
   and his understanding no one can fathom.
²⁹ He gives strength to the weary
   and increases the power of the weak.
³⁰ Even youths grow tired and weary,
   and young men stumble and fall;
³¹ but those who hope in the LORD
   will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
   they will run and not grow weary,
   they will walk and not be faint.
-Isaiah 40: 28-31
Just when I think I am running out of steam and just might have to call it quits, God comes through with just the right person or word of encouragement to get me through:)

Will update more sometime this weekend to let you know I survived this week!

Cheers,

Nat
x