Back to school! Back to school!

It's here.  School begins again tomorrow.  My stomach is already in knots.  When I was a student, and now that I am a teacher, it is always the same.  My stomach becomes knotted, and my nerves go through the roof.  I probably won't be able to sleep, but I won't tell myself that.  I will probably begin sweating the second I wake up tomorrow, and have clammy hands all day.  Well, actually, that's what happens every day in the Thailand heat, regardless of the semester schedule.

I'm nervous to meet my new students.  I'm nervous to teach older students.  I'm nervous to see my new schedule.  Heck, I'm even worried about what I will wear tomorrow!  Despite the nerves, I know this year will be great.  I was moved to a third grade class with the best Thai teacher.  And that is no exaggeration.  Teacher Saew is known as the best Thai teacher by every foreign teacher in the school.  She is very fun, easy going, and a great teacher.  She and I get along very well, and I know we will enjoy this year together.

This year, the English Program has also changed the class schedules, so I will be teaching two classes.  Instead of teaching my 33 students in every subject, I will be teaching both grade three classes.  I am splitting the classes with the other grade three teacher.  I will spend this year teaching math, health, sport and art.  Sweet, right?  I know.

Have I prepared for my classes?  Ehhh, not quite.  I have become swamped with far more important things to do over the past few weeks.  For example, I moved into my new house.  And when you move into a new house, you have to unpack, so of course I did that.  Then, once I was unpacked I had to celebrate the new house, so I threw a housewarming party.  And to throw a housewarming party I had to do lots of food shopping.  Once the shopping was finished, we partied all night!  So, of course today I was very tired.  And what is the perfect thing to do when you are tired?  Watch a movie on the great couch in your new house!  So Paul and I watched a movie.  As we were watching, it began to rain.  Obviously Paul wasn't going to drive home in the rain, so we put in a second movie.  When I did finally sit down with my computer and my subject frameworks, I realized that I hadn't posted on the blog in a while.  It seemed to be the perfect time to post, as my lessons sit beside me on the table, untouched.  Now that it is almost 8 pm, I should probably go to sleep soon in preparation for classes that I haven't prepared for.  It has been the classic "if you give a mouse a cookie" situation, but mine should be called, "If you give Meaghan a new house."  Maybe someday I can have my own series of children's books.  "If you give Meaghan a new motorbike," "If you give Meaghan a new friend," "If you give Meaghan an oven."  Gosh, the possibilities are endless!