(I’m English, donchuno) Monday

My mum phoned me yesterday (thanks Mr. Martinez). She wanted to discuss the Pope’s visit to England. At one point in his visit, the Pope had gone to the university I attended as a student, to hold a conference about education. He had celebrated mass in the church there, and had held his conference in the college’s private drawing rooms. My mum was very excited about all this, mainly because she had been to all these places, thanks to me, and she felt that the Pope was visiting my university. In her opinion this was because when I met the Pope, I had made such an impression on him, he had decided to visit my old stomping grounds. The fact that I met the a totally different Pope, John Paul II, wasn’t the point in my mum’s mind. Anyway, after discussing the Pope we then went on to talk about the cricket, how Sheffield United were doing, and finally arrived at the weather. This always makes maria laugh. At some point, in every conversation with my mum, we have to talk about the weather. English people love (love) to talk about the weather because it is constantly changing. I have lived through days where I have worn a T-shirt because it is hot, a raincoat because it is raining, into hat and gloves because it has started to snow, and finished the day BBQing outside with a snowman for company and the weather is fine. All this can happen in a day, the weather is a constant source of discussion. So we talked about the weather. My mum has had the heating in her house on for nearly a month now. Yesterday, when she phoned, it was 10 °C and getting colder as the sun set. I, as the polite son that I am, sympathised along with her accepting and understanding how terrible the weather was. It would have been wrong of me to mention that I was about to go through the hottest day of the year, so I bit my tongue and agreed with everything she said, because it couldn’t get any hotter could it? I mean, it’s the end of September, there is no way, no way it could get hotter.

It’s my week for opening car doors in the morning. It was there that I heard the news Miss Claudia will not be in today (and maybe tomorrow). The good news/bad news (you decide) part of this meant that I would be teaching all day, I would get to spend the whole day in the classroom with my students.This morning’s assembly was presented by the fifth grade. They talked about/recited a poem about the value of the month, Bravery. And then it was into the classroom for the maths’ exam. Well, that was the plan. Unfortunately my exam folder hadn’t been cleared out since the end of last year. Faced with a choice of two exams to print out and photocopy, the wrong one was selected, and the students faced the task of sitting an exam from May 2010 rather than from September. Eek! This was eventually rectified, the correct exam made an appearance, and everyone was (pretending to be) happy!

It was at this point that I realised it was not going to be my day. No Miss Claudia, the SMARTboard was refusing to work, the exam was the wrong exam, and the temperature was rising. In England they are trying to agree on shutting schools when the temperature rises above 30 °C in the classroom. There is some argument about whether it should be 30 °C or 32 °C, but no argument about if it gets higher because, as everyone knows, an Englishman can’t work in temperatures above that, it makes no sense! By recess the thermometer had already hit 36 °C, by the end of the day it would pass the 40 °C mark. (In Professor Rene’s room it would pass the 47 °C point). It was going to be a very long day!

Maths exam, English lesson on Independent/Dependent clauses, recess, reading from the English book, values, my story. Day done. Now I just need to mark the maths exams.

And now I need to go sit in the freezer for a bit.

Tomorrow is the Spanish exam. As hard as it may be, please study for the exam because I will be giving it to you – which means if you have any questions, it will be a struggle. PLUS, don’t forget your swimsuits and a towel.

Homework:

• Spanish: exam tomorrow.
• Swimsuit: there will be some swimming tomorrow.
• Reading: you should be reading for 20 mins every night.