The Diary Of John

Saturday, February 28, 2004

Needing coffee here!!!

Trying to setup Kazaa on the computer here but nothing is working as they have admin stuff installed.. Boring lol. I wanted to download some stuff for my students but its not going to be possible without help from my friend. I'll get him to tell me how to get around it, after all nothing is ever impossible with a computer right? hahaha!

I tried out some lyrics this morning with my MEC2 group here, The Darkness hahaha!! They loved listening to it and i'll load some more stuff up for them so i can use every week or two weeks just to make it a little different :-). I still have to kick up some stuff for conversation classes too, im not exactly sure yet what sort of stuff but i'll think of something :-)

some of my students turned up for some wierd sort of class with Roberta yesterday, apparently they want to have english conversation classes with someone who talks portugues, yeah sounds wierd huh? lol. I wont get involved in these sort of classes as i dont believe in translation but its good experience for Roberta :-) I dont really understand why these students wanna practice portugues but who cares so long as i am getting paid right? hahaha!! I dont even get to spend the day with Roberta today as she is at the farm until tomorrow. I'll get to filling her cell phone with messages in a minute after all of these emails i have to do lol.

Oh they want me in the school, gotta go!!! hahaha!!!!

posted at 11:05 AM by john |

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

Waiting for my baby to arrive..

Im wasting time here at the lanhouse waiting for Roberta to arrive. Today we are hoping to get my new bank account all sorted out finally. Its a bit of a ballache though here in Brasil as you need so many things that simply arent needed in the UK. It only has to be done just once though and then i will have a chequebook hahaha!! its a total nightmare not having cheques to write, you cant imagine lol.

Another good note is that at the moment its not bloody raining here, the last few days its hammered it down but this morning it looks good so far. Maybe i'll get to plant some of the seeds that Roberta brought me the other day, i am quite curious to see exactly what they will look like. apparently the smell of the flowers is really strong and sweet, sounds like some sort of aphrodisiac to me hahaha!! Also she has some other plants for me to choose from at their farm, i hope she remembers that i have only so much space to put plants in lol. We have already planned some sort of herb garden and god knows what else :-). I have to find place yet for a bbq grill too, i love bbq hahaha!!

you wouldnt believe how much noise there is here in the lanhouse. Its like sitting in a room with a bunch of screaming children and this is adults. My 13yr old sounds more grown up that this lot, i guess they must have been drinking early this morning here in Planaltina. Not suprising really when the garages all sell beer along with pertroleum and getting hold of it as a teenager is no problem. Many drunken children here in Brasil, trust me i see loads of them every day, pretty sad that their parents dont seem to want to talk with their kids about drink problems. Its no wonder Planaltina has two AA places to cope with the demand. most people just go to the church here on sunday and pay the greedy priest a few reals to get god to forgive their sins and then start again first thing monday morning.. Sad init??

Time to fill Robertas cell phone up again ;-)

I have to do 90 minutes of standby hours today at 8pm lol. Crazy but true, i'll just sit on my arse and hopefully Roberta will be here by then so i can watch a video or something with her. I have a pile of them to be copied but havent had time to go get some cds to burn them to yet. I'll have to try to find time next week and get them done as this week i am already ballsed out with stuff to prepare for my MEC and conversation groups.

I will have to try to create some activities for beginners as soon as i can, i have loads of material for others levels but nothing really for beginners.. Yet hahaha!! It wont take me long though as there is loads of stuff floating around online that i can download and get printed off for me

Okay i have to haul arse now!!!!!!

posted at 10:41 AM by john |

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

The Darkness..

As you can see i added saome new photos of The Darkness, they have been voted best rock band and a load of other things too, they beat the pants of anything Brasilian especially in the rock department. You can visit their website by going Here. If you go here and have a good broadband connection you can listen to some of their songs and see what Brasil is missing out on hahaha!! I'll put up some more links to other pages and sites as soon as i get the time okay?

posted at 1:15 PM by john |

Monday, February 23, 2004

Muito chuva hoje!!

We're having alot of rain here this week, can you believe that its raining here yet again? My day was great though as i spent most of it with Roberta at my house.. gardening hahahaha!! Its looking alot better now though and all ready for a final digging and then we have some seeds to plant that Roberta brought back from Sao Paulo to try to grow. I wonder what sort of plant they are and what they will look and smell like? Good i hope as they are going to be around the veranda where we are going to sit in the evening, We were toying with the idea of getting a hammock but i think we will get a garden sofa or something that will stand up to all the rain here and stuff :-)

Im filling up Robertas mailbox again hahaha!!

Next week i get to return to Sobradinho to teach again for a while, apparently i was told the other day that the cleaner was crying because she thought she had driven me from the school, stupid child she needs to grow up and get a life and spend less time in the toilets with the male students. Talkabout a sad loser, she needs to get some serious therapy before she kills someone.. well if she kills herself that would be a quick solution to her problem. Also the secretaries were pissed off too but after all if they did their job properly inthe first place they wouldnt get so much hassle right? I've been getting emails from my students and text messages saying they cant wait for me to get back there, its not really because im all that popular there but that i think people just enjoyed how i taught the classes.. with alot of fun involved. After all if the class is boring then how can we expect the students to be happy all of the time?

Alsoi got asked to start creating stuff to use with beginner conversation groups, games and stuff which sounds like alot of crazy fun! I love messing around with conversation classes and games too, i'll probably do some lyrics and stuff with music as i think its the best way to get the students attention at the start of the classes, especially if i use heavy rock such as Guns & Roses etc lol. Sounds like more fun for me to have and a little crazy havoc too lol

Okay time to get my arse outta here before it pisses it down again.. later guys and gals!!!

posted at 4:12 PM by john |

Sunday, February 22, 2004

A day alone..

Today is just for me as Roberta is at the farm until tomorrow morning so i thought id hit the lanhouse to check my emails and also to post here too. Its trying to rain here at the moment and when it stops i'll go to the other house so that i can tidy up a little from unpacking the freezer and stuff. Hopefully next week i will get to move the bed and table there so that at least there will be something to sit on and stuff lol. Still need to get something like a radio or tv so that i wont be completely bored when im not with Roberta. I'll look in the newspapers next time i buy one and see if i can get something second hand to tide me over.

I have been trying to find a way to send messages free to Robertas cell phone from my TIM website but it wont let me. Nice thing is that Claro lets me send just to Robertas Claro phone for free so i am filling up her inbox now lol. Im sure her mum will let her use her phone to reply to me, the only bad thing about this free message service is that people cant reply straight to it online but for free it does the job :-) I hope that in a month or so i will get a Claro phone as the TIM cell company is just terrible and my bill gets larger and larger all of the time.

Well my freezer and cooker are all unpacked now, hopefully i'll get to spend more time there the next week or so to get everything all sorted out. Roberta brought me some flowers from her visit to see her family in Sao Paulo so it'll be interesting to see what they turn out like, some sort of bush that flowers all of the time so it will be great to grow around the veranda at the back of the house. I brought them both from Pontofrio and they had the cheapest price around. Good thing really as i have loads to buy for my house hahaha! They look good too, the freezer is a little small but for me its just fine as it'll be mostly just me and Roberta there when she is visiting. Now Roberta is going to teach me to cook brasilian food especially rice, mine always turns out like asphalt hahaha

I have to prep some stuff to do with beginner students, conversation class isnt easy with these groups so i will get some games and stuff to play around with to get them to have fun with english. I'll hit the web and see what sort of stuff they suggest and see if i can adapt them to something a bit more fun. I'll download to floppies and then ask the secretaries to print them off for me so i can go over them at home this week and see what sort of crazy fun stuff i can get or invent for the classes lol. There are loads of great sites for english teachers in other countries to use and i also love to use the British Council as they have links to a lot of other sites with information and stuff. You can find them Here. I have a site too with some links that i usually use or that some of the other teachers give to me and its located online Here.

Okay time to go surf a little before my two hours runs out :-)

posted at 10:57 AM by john |