The Diary Of John

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Valentines Day!!!!!

Of course though this is only here in June but for me being british i get to celebrate it twice as we have this day in February. As you can imagine Roberta must be really pleased about this lol. I filled her phone with text messages this morning but as she is still in Sao Paulo no gift until she gets back hahaha!!

At the moment im at CCAA Taguatinga just having a break before my afternoon class of OM3. They have the internet up and running now which is nice as in the other school its still all screwed up. I'm looking on the net for some colloquial english websites so that i can prepare some stuff for my MEC2 group next class. They want to have a mess around with some informal english as they said they are only learning a formal version and i have loads of stuff that they can have a look through. Should make the class a bit more fun for them but i'll find some extra stuff for them too with a few swear words just for fun :-)

They have all the new films here too all downloaded onto the computers, i'll get them to copy for me so that i can use with my students on fridays. They love to get popcorn and coca cola and spend a couple of hours watching a film or two :-). Its good practice for them as well as they get to listen to just english (i make them turn off the legends hahaha!!). Plus Roberta will be back by next week and she loves as much as i do to watch films together :-)

I must remember to have a look at the teachers sites to see if there are any new activities for me to try out with my students. They have some great suggestions on some of the sites and i have had alot of fun trying some of them out with my advanced and MEC groups. They love to try out different things. I wonder how much stuff i can get the secretary to print off for me here? I'll just speak only english to them as they cant understand a word of it hahaha!!

Okay off to do something now before the students try to hog the internet lol

posted at 9:33 AM by john |

Friday, February 13, 2004

Got no time lol

I have no time recently to get online and post, can you believe this? This computers at the school have no net as the modem is down yet again and i have been so busy running around with my first week of lessons and stuff and preparing new stuff for my groups to use in this semester. I got some nice emails from my students in Sobradinho though so thanks guys and i'll reply to them in a minute :-)

I've been messing around looking at new furniture and stuff this morning just to see whats in the sales, roberta gets back from Sao Paulo this weekend so next week she can give me a hand to find some stuff so i can get them delivered and move in hopefully in a week or so :-) Its been really strange as i usually do everything with Roberta and this week while she has been away i have been a little lost, you know that feeling that something is missing and it just wont go away? I had this feeling for over a week while she hasnt been here :-( Still to miss people shows that we care alot about them right so something good from this sad feeling

I have been getting lyrics from the internet so that i can make some stuff to use with my saturday groups, i think i'll use either Oasis or The Darkness as they are modern groups and they wont have heard of them here much in Brasil as they tend to try to protect crappy Brasilian music here by not letting alot of good foreign music onto the market for fear that Brasilian music would be wiped out instantaneously. It'll mean that my students will be listening some some of the songs for the first time and reading the lyrics too so their ideas about what the words and song are about will be fresh and new. Should give them something interesting to talk about tomorrow :-) Maybe i should have used WASP instead but maybe they are a bit loud for delicate Brasilian ear drums hahaha!!!

I'm going to give my students some new swear words this semester, just the adult MEC groups though as they really love this sort of stuff lol. They love the idea of using the words to their friends without them knowing what they are being called lol. Crazy aint it? hahaha!!!

Okay gotta go reply to those emails while i have time, Later guys and gals :-)

posted at 9:12 AM by john |

Monday, February 09, 2004

My hands are hurting...

My hands and fingers are a little sore today as i spent yesterday afternoon gardening at the new place i am going to move into. The garden at the back of the house was so overgrown that the grass was around 8ft high lol. Now i have cleared it all i have another problem, getting rid of the cut grass, i'll try to find someone to take it to the tip for me. It looks a lot better now though and lets some light into the veranda, maybe i can use it to have a bbq once i have it all looking nice. Roberta was saying that some of it could be for growing veggies and stuff, maybe a herb garden would be nice as they also smell really good. I'll have to think on it some more.

I'm taking a break from prepping stuff for my new groups in Taguatinga, extra materials and stuff, i have to prepare some stuff for me MEC3 students too as they really want some conversation class stuff running up for them. I have some stuff and got some more from the net this morning so hopefully some of this stuff will be useful for them. Maybe i'll have time to join in a few lessons too although i am hoping they will create the lessons themselves, it'll be good for them to set it up and organise it by themselves. More chance to practice their english :-)

My mum rang here yesterday but i was up to my knees in weeds and stuff lol. I'll have to email her later and say hi to them all and try to catch up on the gossip there. I wonder what my brothers are doing now they have both moved to the coast, it must be freezing there as it was -8 the other day. I prefer the hot weather now lol, i couldnt face all that cold weather again. I think i would die from frostbite or something hahaha!!

Okay time to go edit all of this stuff down to a managable size so i can print some of it off to use in class. I need a secretary hahaha!!!

posted at 8:49 AM by john |