It was a blustery morning when I woke up. Clouds heavy with rain were blowing by at a fast pace and making glorious patterns in the sky.
The air was still warm and comfortable, so I opened the cottage windows until the first fat drops fell. I closed the windows, then, not certain whether the windows seal completely against the rain (must ask about this), I went ahead and closed the shutters. I don't like having them closed during the day because closing them makes the apartment quite dark. I could hear thunder and it rained heavily for a while.
Yesterday I had picked up a dozen or so citrus fruits from under the trees here. About a third of them are lemons. The rest are some kind of small, strange smelling orange that tastes bitter. These might or might not be bergamot oranges - I will have to show them around to some of the Brazilian coworkers and find out what to do with them. It feels wasteful to throw them away just because I don't like them, but maybe they can be used in marmalade or something.
I worked on lesson plans pretty much all day today. I stepped over to the main house just before the rain started to print out some lesson materials, and my Portuguese teacher gave me a lovely big jar of honey from her uncle's beehive. Yum!
I got a lot of work done on the week's lessons today, but still want to get some more done tomorrow. I feel I need to prepare extra for the grammar class, both because I am not certain of their level and because I've never taught a grammar course before. With any luck it will be more than we can do in one night and I'll have both lessons for the week all set.
I was horribly nervous before the evening lessons - my first private conversation lessons with adult students here (yes, I knew that I wouldn't die, just felt like it). I've just come home and the two lessons went very well. In fact, I barely used the materials I had prepared because the students were so talkative! I'm told that in some group classes, the teacher has trouble keeping the students from interrupting each other because they want to talk so much. Awesome.
The air was still warm and comfortable, so I opened the cottage windows until the first fat drops fell. I closed the windows, then, not certain whether the windows seal completely against the rain (must ask about this), I went ahead and closed the shutters. I don't like having them closed during the day because closing them makes the apartment quite dark. I could hear thunder and it rained heavily for a while.
Yesterday I had picked up a dozen or so citrus fruits from under the trees here. About a third of them are lemons. The rest are some kind of small, strange smelling orange that tastes bitter. These might or might not be bergamot oranges - I will have to show them around to some of the Brazilian coworkers and find out what to do with them. It feels wasteful to throw them away just because I don't like them, but maybe they can be used in marmalade or something.
I worked on lesson plans pretty much all day today. I stepped over to the main house just before the rain started to print out some lesson materials, and my Portuguese teacher gave me a lovely big jar of honey from her uncle's beehive. Yum!
I got a lot of work done on the week's lessons today, but still want to get some more done tomorrow. I feel I need to prepare extra for the grammar class, both because I am not certain of their level and because I've never taught a grammar course before. With any luck it will be more than we can do in one night and I'll have both lessons for the week all set.
I was horribly nervous before the evening lessons - my first private conversation lessons with adult students here (yes, I knew that I wouldn't die, just felt like it). I've just come home and the two lessons went very well. In fact, I barely used the materials I had prepared because the students were so talkative! I'm told that in some group classes, the teacher has trouble keeping the students from interrupting each other because they want to talk so much. Awesome.
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