halfway thru my holiday

am blogging actually because i'm bored - waiting for the physics teachers to come out fr their meeting so we can go for dinner. just attended a chem meeting which was extremely amusing, yet sweet, when i see the chem tchrs niao-ing one another like old friends (which some are. old & friends.) so.. jus completed the toughest day of my teaching career (haha).. had a class fr 9-10:30, another fr 10:30 to 11:30, one fr 1-2:30 then one fr 3-4:30. sheesh, haven't spoken so much and long for a long time! taught with varying degrees of success - some classes are just so hard to reach. is it time (or lack thereof, for me to get to know them better), is it my personality, is it their personalities, or something in between that we can't see or touch.. hmm..

this stint in hwachong is also tougher than the previous one, not just cos it's shorter so i know the kids less well, but also cos it's chem! teaching bio has been so much easier cos the words come out of my mouth so easily. maybe if i'd done chem last yr it'd be the same, but doing it now is really a challenge. preparations never seem to be enough. i'd think abt all the stuff i wanna say in class, and when i'm up there the words just don't come out (in german: die Wörter fehlen mir). sometimes i get stumped by qns, not of extreme difficulty but rather by the simplicity of them - i'd nvr thot abt things that way, somehow i was almost always on the right track (right being how i was sposed to think and understand). also feel a sense of responsibility yet limited by my knowledge in chem, ability to explain stuff properly, prepare them for the exams. that last part is prompted by having overheard a student say today that i teach fine but don't provide them with all the phrases with which they can score in exams. i'm not sure how i shd interpret this - shd i change, or shd they become less exam-oriented?

and back to my title - i'm abt halfway thru my holiday back home! :) it's been a great time really. met up with the pple i really wanted to see - yit fid zhen stef - very spontaneously too :P and also the 78 pple (tho seeing you all in europe sorta lessened the excitement now a little), the hwachong tchrs, and i've spent quality time with my parents too :) think my holiday goals are mostly fulfilled, and i'm ready to go back to germany for a fresh new challenge already :) that said, pple, still ask me out okay! :) i wanna see you all as much as possible before i go back for another yr! :) looking fwd to bbq on 18th too with the germany pple :) yayyy :)