Connection Broken Please Try Again

Argh, internet has been down for most of the last week. I try to get online where and when I can but it is a bit hectic.

Today I had my first call for supply teaching, I taught for a half a day but they paid me for a full day because of all the volunteer work I have been doing.

I have supplied the drama units for grade one, three, four, and both of the grade seven classes. None of this was paid work but it introduced me to teachers and got my foot in the door.

Summer camp is a bit of a question mark I don't know what is going on there. Enrollment looks low so I'm not sure if it is going to go ahead or not, please god let it happen!!

I really enjoy the kids in Valerie's class, they are just too much fun. They all misbehave but that is part of their charm :)

Hired

I have been hired to teach summer school which is $500 a week, in July. I don't know how long summer school is going to run for, plese let it be at least three weeks. I also have one day of supply work coming up in May which is $75. Things haven't worked out very well. Valerie bought me the ticket here when there were very few teachers available for supply, unforunetly for me, the Principal's two adult daughters arrived only days after I did. One of the daughters is a trained teacher so of course she gets preference over me (as it should be), and the other daughter has been hired on to do some of the admin stuff that I had also been hoping for. Which leaves me with a great oppurtunity for volunteering, and that would be fine except I am dreadfully broke.

In other news, I finally got my camera back so very soon I will start posting pictures. I really enjoy teaching Valerie's class, and working as a support teacher for her. It has made me re-think teaching primary. I had one of the teachers watch me do a drama lesson with a group of grade ones and then she told me I should be a teacher LOL! Lady from your mouth to the administration at any universities ears!! I'm going to ask her for a letter of recomendation.

I have started buying some small things to bring back and sell in Canada, and buying and shopping are always fun. :)

Lippy Dippy

Today I did my first lesson plan with the kids, it was great. They had fun and they learned, who knew that was possible? HA ha. I did their unit on theatre and I had them doing theatre sports and lessons that I remembered from when I was their age. Next week I am doing a dance unit for them.

Then we went and did math. Wow, these kids are good at procrastinating and trying to get out of things. They don't listen and it seems the only way they co-operate is if they have the fear of something or someone coming down on them.

I felt sorry for one of the kids because he is clearly the smartest in the class, and he gets things ages before all the others. Then he sits there, gets bored, and promptly finds his way into trouble.

Unfortunetly I am still not getting paid and it is a bit stressfull. I think Valerie was overly optomistic when she estimated how much time I would get as a supply teacher.

School Daze

Today was my first day at the school, it was a trip. One of the children had a birthday so when she arrived her driver brought in a massive platter of candy for the children. Then after lunch her mother arrived with this extravagent delicous cake, and party poppers, she also brought more candy and three bottles of coke. Thank-god the children were sent off to someone else for the afternoon!!

The school is something else, there are two tennis courts, a special basketball court, gymnasiums, a pool, and it never seems to end. There are lots of resources, the children all learn three languages, and all the kids are very affluent.

Not dead yet.

We have been in Jordan for the past 5 days, far away from the internet. Our way home included a ferry boat ride, and a 6 hour drive from the Sinai into Cairo. On the drive home, our fellow traveller Leilani recived a phone call from her mother informing her that a car full of canadian tourists were killed in an accident on the road between Cairo and the Sinai...urk! It wasn't us!! We are all safe! Althought I can't say I am surrprised to hear of the accident, the driving here is insane and on a daily basis we pass evidence of horrible car crashes in the desert.

We have had some interesting adventures over the last few days here are some of the highlights:

Getting into Jordan
We had arranged to catch a ferry from Egypt into Jordan, unfortunetly there was a communication break down and our travel agent had arranged for us to walk across the border between Egypt and Israel, and for us to catch the ferry from Israel into Jordan. This was a major problem because the teachers who were with us didn't want a stamp from Israel in their passports because it makes traveling in the Middle East very difficult, some arab countries will refuse you entry if you have that stamp. Soooo we had to hop back on the bus that we had just spent 6 and a half hours on and drive another hour to a port called Newauba (I have probably spelled that wrong) where we were finally able to board a boat.

Symmetry
In an earlier post I had complained about the drunk Australians on the plane, well when we arrived at Newaiba we ran into a lovely group of travellers from...Australia!! Two of them spoke Arabic and they helped us negotiate some of the trickier parts of travel between Egypt and Jordan, we shared lunch with them and chatted about world politics. Our first day in the ancient city of Petra, Valerie and I were royally ripped off by a Bedouin woman, it was a nasty experience. The next day as we explored further we came across this elderly Bedouin gentleman who had a home on one of the cliffs looking over Petra, he gave us some tea and let us sit on his balcony, he had bar none the best view from a balcony, I have ever seen. Just goes to show, there are angels and assholes everywhere :)

Petra
In Jordan is the most amazing ancient site named Petra. Some of you may have seen it in the Indiana Jones film the Last Crusade. Anyway it is the MASSIVE ancinet city of caves, and stone facades, and really there just aren't words to describe it. You have to walk into the city (or travel by horse drawn cart) through this narrow canyon, and as you come around the bend at the bpttom, you are greeted by the sight of this gigantic building carved into rock, it is breathtaking, and the city just goes on and on and on...

Theatres
In petra there are two theatres, one is a large Hellenistic theatre, and the other is a tiny theatron. We weren't allowed in the theatre because excavations were taking place, but I did get to test the acoustics in the theatron, and I made a bunch of German tourists jump. So my theatre history classes came in usefull after all, who knew.

Car Problems
After petra we had a day planned of driving from site to site on our way back to Aquaba the ferry port. We hired two drivers, and the day started off smoothly enough , we all got in the trucks and were enjoying the country side, when we stopped to get gas. Our driver wanted to check his oil, but when he turned something under the hood it broke off in his hand, so those of us travelling in his truck squeezed into the other truck and drove off to look at a Crusader Castle (very cool). He picked us up from there and on our way to the dead sea, we swerved violently into the middle of the road, so we had to pull over and he had to fix the axel or something or other. After we visited the dead sea (also very cool, lots of floating people and hairy Europeans) we all piled back in the truck, took off and then BOOM our windscreen fractured, we You could barely see through the mess of glass, so we pulled over and the driver used clear packing tape to secure the glass and drove with us to Aquaba for 4 and a half hours!! It was a little bit scarey, I don't know how he could see! We went through 4 army check points and they laughed and waved us through but a police officer saw us and pulled us over. It turend out that the driver wasn't licensed to carry passengers so we had to lie for him, but the police officer reported him anyway! Poor guy.

Tomorrow I start working at Valerie's school. I am quite nervous, wish me luck!

2:40am Cairo time

I'm awake and I wish I wasn't. It has been a weird few days. I was going to chicken out of breaking up with Allan but a long conversation with Amber helped me. We haven't broken up, but he and I are on the same page now and he will probably be moving out in early August. This wasn't quite what i wanted but it is a step in the right direction.

I spent a day and a half with heather and Kim, I also got to see Uncle Doug which is good fun.

Last time I went to Egypt I had to get up at 3am, and then travelled for 33 hours, it took me about a week to shake off the jet lag. This time I left at a reasonable hour and the trip was only 18 hours. Most of the trip was unremarkable, except for my last flight. There were 3 drunk Australians sitting behind my row, and they kept on kicking us, and grabbing our heads it was very strange. Then one of them started making racist comments about arabs, and it was just awfull. Hopefully someone suspected him of smuggeling something and he was strip searched!

In an hour and a half we are leaving to go to Jordan, we will see the ancient site Petra, where one of teh Indiana Jones films were shot.

Urk

I'm all like waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa gack urk and thats about all I have to say right now.

I'm so going crazy!!!

I will update everyone on everything once I hit Egypt.

Ick

Today I have my final exam, and of course as usual I feel sick to my stomach. I might start taking tums before exams I wonder if that might help?
I have somuch to do before I leave on the 26th of this month for Egypt. Firstly, and rather importantly: I must find my fucking pasport!!
Then there is the packing, the doing of taxes, AMber's aprty to organize, and well that other thing.

David Bowie Interview

Very funny

When I bite it

I should like a eulogy like this!

Oy Vey

Well I have my ticket, I leave for Egypt on the 26th of this month. I have a lot of things I have to do before I go and most of them are annoying and just organizational tid bits but there is one massive thing I have to do and I am terrified. If I am at all scatter brained or difficult in the next 20 days or so I apologize, just know this is a weird time for me.

Brilliant Actor

I watched the Kingdom tonight and was blown away by Ashraf Barhom. He is a wonderful actor and I hope to see more of him.

The L Word

Lindsie!!

I saw a mini series today that reminded me so much of Lindsie for the following reasons:

1)It was a BBC production (she likes those)
2) It was based on an Elizabeth Gaskell novel, so it was literature and she is into that sort of thing.
3) One of the characters asks "Are you vexed with me?"
4)Pretty costumes
5)The protagonist keeps secrets and tells everyone exactly what she thinks, so in essence she is Lindsie.

It was called Wives and Daughters and I got it through the library, watch it Lindsie!

Makes me happy

Muppets!!

Snigglefritz

Woke up this morning happy to have slept through the night, only to be confronted with a full on migraine. Happy Trails. So I have taken some tylenol, and plan to get some stuff done. Today is a school day so high ho high off to fucking hell I go. I'm a happy little scholastic camper, danmit!

WTF?

I have a carpet in my backyard, a carpet of snow. In March... Snow!!

In other news, I hate all men everywhere. All of them no exceptions, Santa-Fucking-Clause is included, everyone with a penis, let no man be left behind!

Just kidding. I've had a few conversations in the last week where people have been writing off entire genders, and races, and I thought it might be interesting to hate an entire group of people for no good reason for about 5 minutes. At the risk of sounding a little hallmark the experience was totally empty.

Hung Over

It was worth it. I hope Lindsie had a happy birthday. I know I certainly had fun.


And then there was this morning. I'm groggy as all hell, I didn't realize how drunk I was. I mean I wasn't crawling on all fours, vomity crazy drunk, but I was inebriated. Allan woke me up around 9-ish so I called him all kinds of horrible things, which I felt he totally deserved, he on the other hand felt I was being slightly unreasonable. He had bought me breakfast, and wanted a hug. I wanted sweet oblivion of sleep, and he had disturbed my slumber, bastard.

Jazz is really fluffy.

I might still be drunk.

Happy Easter

Quote of the Day

Sigh

Today I have two mid terms, and both of them are making me ill. I am having some serious rumblings in my tummy today, I freaking hate it. Seriously if I tried like really hard could I come up with a character idiosyncrasy stranger than having vomit attacks on quiz or exam days? Stupid french, and stupid geography!!

Autism strikes again!

This is from Wikipedia

"...This failure to react appropriately to social interaction may appear as disregard for other people's feelings, and may come across as insensitive..."

My Uncle Doug has finally been diagnosed with Asberger's syndrome.

More Please

I just finished watching the Jane Austen Book-club, and it was cute but it made me realize I need a little something more in my life. I have school, work and stitch and bitch. I need to be directing a play or doing dance classes, or going to the gym, but preferably something social. Ha ha I think what I am trying to say here is that I really need to get out more!!

Turn the Lights Off

I used to be a night owl. I hated going to sleep before 1am. If I could I'd stay up late chatting with anyone willing. I particularly loved that time between about midnight and 2 when no one else was around. The best was when I could sit out on the lawn and just chat with friends about everything and nothing under the stars.

Then things changed. I started using sleep as a way to avoid thinking. I wanted to go to sleep as soon as dinner was over. Now I have problems sleeping, events, and fears keep playing over and over in my head.

In the near future I want to get a bottle of wine and share it with some friends at 1am, preferably somewhere where we can see the stars.

Who am I? How did I get here? WTF?

I want to know what made me who I am. Is it my genetics that made suffer from depression? Is my sarcastic wit (or lack there of) something Valerie instilled in me? I know where I get my physical appearance from, I look just like my paternal grandmother. To what extent do random events shape my character? My argument with Mark-Tony and the subsequent disciplinary hearing had an effect on me but I still don't know exactly how. What part did an an absentee Father have in shaping me? I don't feel like I really know myself. I hear people speaking about themselves and they are self aware, they know what their traits are and acknowledge their flaws. I'm aware of some of my flaws but I am curious how other people perceive me.

I don't believe in fate, I think things just happen, or we make things happen. Sometimes I wonder if I adhered to some kind of religion if I might have less problems with my depression. I wonder, if I felt there was some kind of divine plan or reason, if maybe I might feel less anxiety about life. I wasn't brought up with any kind of formal religion, although I was certainly surrounded by them. Ever since I can remember I have been searching for some kind of meaning. When I was in college and introduced to the absurdest philosophies, the idea of life being an exercise of waiting and that the forceps of birth lead to the shovel of the grave, struck a chord with me. Of course College is also when I began to experience profound depression, so of course some dark philosophy about death and despair and a lack of faith was appropriate.

I have always felt there is something missing in my life, I would really like to fill that hole. If I can't find something to believe in, in terms of faith, I would like to find a project I can believe in that helps other people.

The last ten years have felt like I've been walking around in a closet with the lights turned off, and can't find the door handle.

?

It has been a strange few days.

I'm really looking forward to May.

My Weekend

So had the best ferry boat trip ever on Friday night. I went outside and it was totally completely dark and freezing so there wasn't anyone else out there. The sky was completely clear so the stars were amazing! The other cool things was all the lights coming from homes and warning beacons along the route. It was just a really beautiful experience.

I got to see my cousin dance, and she is a power house. I love seeing her dance, it is just a pleasure. Unfortunately the choreography was total crap, it was really, really bad. Everyone in our row complained at the end. Some of the parents were livid, it was baaaad.

Had an interesting conversation with my Aunt, she was saying that creative people are more prone to depression, which totally makes sense. She suggested some books I should read...who knew life came with homework?

Quotes of the Day

At my age the only problem is with remembering names. When I call everyone darling, it has damn all to do with passionately adoring them, but I know I'm safe calling them that. Although, of course, I adore them too.
Richard Attenborough

"You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on."
Joe E Lewis.

Mt List

My list of things to do right now is rather daunting. It isn't so much that the list is long, it is more that the items on the list are going to each take a lot of time and effort. Of course time is in short supply and effort is well quite frankly being exhausted. I wish I had a small slave/child I could boss around.

"You there, spawn, pack my bags, organize Valerie's finances, and give me no sass!!"

If I'm being perfectly honest, I think this kind of illustrates the major problem in my relationship. I can not rely on him for anything. I ask him to call a plumber, he keeps putting it off. I ask him to get rent money to me before the 25th, etc, etc, etc.

Dear Santa,
For my next relationship I would like a partner who is responsible.
The end
Gnome

Quotes of the Day

A witty saying proves nothing.
- Voltaire

Sex. Most of you know what that word means, and for those of you that don't, it means "bonin'", and with bonin' comes great responsibility.
Sacha Baron Cohn

Sex can lead to nasty things like herpes, gonorrhea, and something called relationships.
Sacha Baron Cohen

Quote of the Day

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and it may be necessary from time to time to give a stupid or misinformed beholder a black eye.

Miss Piggy

Leaning on Who?

So yesterday I got an email from my Mother. Said email is a forward from the managers of her property in Cumberland, as it turns out the house needs a new wood stove (fine), has cracks in the walls (uh oh), and has developed a lean to one side (wtf?). I want her to sell, sell like the wind! She says it is ordinary for homes of that age to settle into the ground a little. I say thats fine and dandy but if anything else happens she isn't going to be able to afford to pay to fix it. There are a lot of things I'm not good at, managing money is one of them, but I do think that her best option here is to sell the place. She has credit card debt and there is still money owed on this house. She could pay those off, and put some of the money into savings. She is worried about her future and I think that is reasonable. I just hope we make a good decision this time.

Quote of the Day

Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.

Terry Pratchett

Quote of the Day

I've never been a millionaire but I just know I'd be darling at it.

Dorothy Parker

Driven

I need to get cracking on this whole learning how to drive thing. I want to get my N before I move to Vancouver, because learning how to drive in that metropolis is not something I really fancy. I have put this off for way to long, so I am setting some goals for myself.

1. Read my guide this weekend
2. Take lesson next weekend
3. Don't die in firey inferno

Escapism is a dirty whore with Syphallis.

I am having trouble focusing. Every time I step away from a book, the internet, or tv, I find myself off in lala land. My Aunt has the same problem when she is depressed, she would imagine better things and there are large parts of her life which she just can't recall. I'm trying really hard to keep grounded but it isn't easy. I also know I need to start weening myself off of the internet, reading, and tv. I'm going to try and limit myself, a escapism diet if you will.

Valentines Day

The idea behind Valentines Day? To spend some time with someone you love, to honor them and to let them know they are special.

I am so sick and tired of hearing people saying it is a "fake holiday" what the hell does that even mean?? Valentines Day is not a holiday! And whats with the whole Valentines Day was invented by Hallmark, it wasn't it has been around for centuries. I get the whole exploitation of valentines Day thing, because really what special day hasn't been exploited? But I am so tired of this ridiculous idea that just because corporations have commercialized valentines Day, people shouldn't celebrate it. There is no reason to go out and buy things for your significant other on Valentine's Day. Just spend some time together, go for a walk, plan a picnic, remember to tell each other loving things. Just because something has been commercialized (Christmas, Halloween, New Years, Easter, and Birthdays)doesn't mean you have to buy into it.

Quote of the day

Concerning the difference between man and the jackass: some observers hold that there isn't any. But this wrongs the jackass.
- Mark Twain's Notebook, 1898

I need a wealthy husband

So I am still losing weight, I am at 139 right now from 155. Yay me! I am trying to get more active by taking the dog for walks but he has the mistaken idea that walks are meant to be tug of war sessions and it is difficult to convince him otherwise. It is proving difficult to eat healthy around Allan, he eats like a monster snd stays as skiiny as a pole. I hate Allan and his super duper metabolism. Stupid skinny boyfriend.

School is going ok, I started off ahead of the curve and then somewhere along the way I got behind and now I am trying to catch up.

Things with Allan are awkward, I guess all I can do is hang in here until April.

I did a really great card reading for myself last night. It was a bit of a reality check, it said I needed to stop focusing on the unreal and daydreams. One of the cards talked about having mercy and compassion and knowing when to leave.

I'm looking forward to change, I know it will be sad but it is necessary.

Update

Loads of stuff going on right now.

It looks as thought I am finally losing some weight! My worst was 155 pounds right now I am 144, phew! I want to be about 110.

I still don't have another job which is scarey, there is very little money coming in.

In May it looks as though I will be heading back to Egypt to help Valerie pack up her container, and to work part time at her school.

In August or September I will be moving back to Vancouver.

I am obsessing a little much over a guy from my past.

It looks as though I will be taking a trip to Australia at the end of 2008, early 2009.

Cairo Day 1.5

Mom brought me home the day before yesterday around 1am. It was fun she has a cab driver she has made friends with called Crazy Magdi. He drove us to Mom's new apartment, all of her roomates are under 30, in fact they are all younger than me. Really nice people, and I met a whole bunch of the because she had a massive X-mas dinner with all of her friends from school planned for yesterday evening, it was a bit overwhelming because of my jetlag but it was also nice. I have access to the internet every day here at Mom's apartment so I will be able to upload pictures of my travels. We leave tonight for our cruise from Luxor to Aswan at 4am our time. This morning I was up around 3am wandering around, my inner clock has not adjusted it'self yet to Egyptian time. I had some nice quiet time with Mom this morning. I have been offered a job at the school which would start in January, they need someone to put together a production for the end of year. I am thinking about it, there are al kinds of reasons to say no, but I'm giving it due consideration, I don't want to dismiss the oppurtunity out of hand. I haven't discussed this with Allan yet. The position would last until the summer, and `i would earn $75 American a day and `I wouldn't have to pay for rent or food.

Jet lag

So it has been an interesting few days. We woke up at 3am and drove over the malahat amid snow flurries, at which point one of our wipers stopped working. We made it to the airport with little time to spare. Had a 6 hour stop over in Toronto, bored stupid. Had a horrible seat mate on the flight to London he stole my pillow! Time is going surrprisingly fast at heathrow, there are SO many people here! Am doing a lot of people watching. Lots of flouro orange suitcases this year must be a trend. I am so exhausted I have been making all kinds of silly mistakes. Also I stink, forgot to put deodorant in my onboad baggage.

Vomit II

So I don't post here that often anymore, and I am going to make a concentrated effort to do more posts, especially while I am in Egypt.

Anyway I have an exam in an hour and quite honestly that has turned my tummy into queezy land. This happens to me every term!! Yesterday before my exam I was retching in the toilet at the library,
"Yeah tah for the books, oh scuse me RRRRRRRAAAAAALLLLLLPPPHHH!!"
Thats how you make friends Naomi style.
Seriously there was this stuning girl in the loo, wearing all kinds of expensive clothes, with her hair and make-up all perfect looking all concerned (but not wrinkeling her brow) asking me if I was ok. LOL I was standing over a toilet in my grubby snow boots, in old jeans, my hair in a messy bun with a $6 t-shirt on thinking fuck-off lady.
"Yup, thanks I'm fine."
She was so nice, and I just wanted her to piss-off.
Honestly vomiting is really just a one person activity. It isn't a spectator sport. I am not bulemic or anorexic and I have sort of grown accustomed to puking on exam days, but thats a little hard to explain to the complete stranger who thinks you are crazy. Argh I just want the evil tummy butterflies to go away, Valerie advised me to sit near the garbage pail just in case. Thanks Mom!

I don't know that everyone would agree with this

Finding a balance

Finding it hard to manage my time between work, school, and leisure. I am working all day every day until my exams when I come home I am totally beat, and being sick all the time sure isn't helping. Allan is being very Allanesque-which is causing problems.

Sigh

It has been a shitty month, in face it has been a very shitty four months. I am trying to get excited about going to Egypt, but the truth is I couldn't care less. I know it will just mean more frustrating arguments with Valerie and I just hate that it takes so much out of me. I am so tired, and so sick all of the time. I need to get out of this house but I can't afford to go anywhere. This is definitely a new low point for me.

Get Crazy with the Cheese Whiz

I'm moving to Vancouver in late August or early September. Crazy man! I have so much stuff I have got to sort out. I need to pack everything a lot of stuff needs to go into storage and I have to decide what stays with Allan.

I don't know what to do about the koi, I'm not sure if Allan is going to take care of them. Argh!

I'm trying to get the house clean for Valerie's visit but that is an uphill climb.
busy,busy.busy!

Sigh

Sucks when you do a lot of stuff and don't get thanked for it. Sucks even more when it goes completely unacknowledged.

Zimmers - My generation

I wish I knew how to post this on facebook

Crazy

This makes my brain bleed. It is not that I don't think that there is a place for a creation based museum, it is more or less the way he is going about it. A lot of his exhibits are very questionable.

Resentment

There are a group of people I have worked with a time or two and everytime I try and do something nice for them it comes back to bite me in the ass. Its as if someone doing something nice for them is just expected, there is never a thank-you or even an indication that they realize someone went out of their way to do something for them. Fuck that.

Vegas?

Susan and I are dorks, which is why I think we would have so much fun here. We could stay at this hotel for Amber's entertainment. Why Amber? check this out. Of course I am not trying to imply Amber is a horn dog or anything...