Cheese and a Taxi Driver with a Death Wish

One of the fun things being at another school is meeting some new people, and developing more of just a "first impression" from some of the other teachers who have been around a bit that I've only really seen at trainings and the random events. Cindy and I have made friends with one of the new teachers, Vivian. She went to college at Evergreen State College and spent a lot of her twenties living in Seattle, so it's nice to have someone to talk to about home. I taught at a conversational English camp during the Summer of 2008, which is when I first learned about EF, and Vivian said she would enjoy talking to the EF kids every summer on campus because she is originally from Hong Kong and can speak Cantonese. One of the other Beijing 2 teachers, Prentice, who is from West Virginia, had a bad car experience in Portland one summer. He had to wait around to get it fixed, but spent the time waiting enjoying Portland. He keeps yelling, "I love Portland!" whenever I see him. Pretty funny.

The three of us girls decided to go out to get manicures last night after work. Then, Vivian took me to this tiny little shop where they sell cheese, lots of good, fancy kinds of cheese! It was a great find. We went out to dinner and Cindy and I gave her the lowdown on EF, the good, the bad and the quirky. We had to take a taxi back home, and as soon as we got in, the taxi driver kept saying he was so sleepy. He almost killed a man when he missed a turn to drop off Vivian. The man's life seriously flashed before my eyes! The driving got worse as we wound our way to Cindy's and I could tell from the mirror that his eyes were closing at times. I decided it was time to bail! We walked the rest of the way to Cindy's and then I got another taxi home with a much more alert driver!

Nothing too exciting today. I taught a VIP student who is preparing to take a huge, huge examination that will test whether he can move on to an English speaking university. He is studying the text, Of Mice and Men. I found the song "The Ghost of Tom Joad" on itunes this morning an downloaded it so I could use it in class today. Totally stole that idea from my junior year English teacher Mr. Mateo from Franklin. It still works, and my VIP enjoyed the break from his writing exercises.