Despite my misgivings about teaching primary age students some 16 years ago, I'm really going to miss these little kids next year! My old friends occasionally throw back my famous quote to me, "If I ever teach primary kids, take a gun and shoot me"! I really did feel like that after so long teaching high school. Now, of course, I can't imagine a time or a place where I'll ever teach 18 year olds again.
As the reality of my move to the middle school's Grade Eight really settles in for me, my thoughts are turning to just how cute these current kiddies are. They're just so full of the fervour for learning, that it carries you along with it. Every day, without exception, their enthusiasm is quite inspiring for me to go that little bit harder or to really make sure I'm doing them a good service. Apart from that, they often just crack me up!
This feeling won't disappear next year, but that love of learning might be just hidden a little further under a few layers of teenage angst or self-consciousness. Cass assures me that her kids are unlike our Year 8 charges in Newcastle, which is rather heartening, because some of them left a little to be desired!
As for the weekend, too much sport was never enough! The Quiksilver Pro was on from Snapper Rocks, streaming seamlessly in high definition on Apple TV from the early morning both days. We interrupted this viewing pleasure to follow the courageous Knights, also in high definition on a different app on Saturday, as they fell to a narrow defeat after a highly entertaining game. Then it was time for the 3rd cricket test in India, this time in low definition, which stood as a pertinent metaphor for the dreary progress of the Aussies and the stoic defence of the Indians. While this was streaming on the TV via the main computer, I had the rest of the Super Saturday rugby league games beaming out from the iPad. It was, in fact, too much of a good thing....I got a headache from too much screen time and a backache from too much sitting!
We were out and about, thank goodness, on the rest of the weekend. Our shopping trip always amuses, as we walk by the tennis courts, through the small park and across the river before another small temple park, past the mahjong players and through to Mingde Road and the supermarket in the basement of a large building across the street. Lugging supplies back over the same route, we noticed that the blossoms are just bursting forth a little more: Spring has sprung!
Din Tai Feng in the SOGO complex beckoned for xiao long bao, rice and tea. Some "specialty" shopping in the basement, then across to Wendel's for the week's bread loaves plus some delicious treats in the form of strawberry and rasberry rolls....rolled up sponge cakes with lashings of fresh cream! We watched yet another Oscar winning movie, the hauntingly beautiful and touching "Moonlight". It was magnificent; so perfectly paced and nuanced.
Photos: some of the kids I'll miss, along with my various monkey hosts, Chee Chee, Boris and CoCo, and friends. Wendel's sits quite decadently in a low rise complex with garden surrounds as developers must be salivating for a chance to throw up a skyscraper in such a sought after location. Our favourite toothpaste over here is only just scraping by in the politically correct stakes. Originally "Darkie", they've been forced to change their name (changing just one letter), but somehow have managed to persist with the outrageous photo of the black and white minstrel promoting shiny, dazzling white teeth. Finally a screen shot of the Quiky Pro from the Gold Coast.