Upon further consideration of these boundaries, we have realized that she doesn't even get paid for this time - her paycheck covers something more like 8-4:15. We will see if we want to cut back even more. On the upside, she will have her own room for three out of four days, so that is a big improvement. This is because the new building is finally ready for use!
My situation has not really improved. The schedule I have been given is pretty much a worst case scenario. I have all my prep time (except for one hour) Monday and Tuesday. The other three days are straight teaching. I asked to have the second years in one place and on one (or two) days so that we can do projects and labs. Instead, we are in all different rooms on all different days of the week. So I don't know what I will do with them. I feel that I don't have many options, and we don't even have books, so I have just been working with photocopies. I can't get silence to teach them anything, so I just let them work (or screw around) and assign them grades. Seems like a waste of everyone's time.
At least I have the first years in the same room. We will see how this new system works, but I am not positive about it. I also need my own space, so I will try to hold onto a little desk I stuck in a closet until someone really kicks me out.
Outside of school, we have been spending a ton of money. New clothes and jackets, a new mattress this week, more window plastic, a vacation next week, and on top of all that, there was a little crisis averted this week. I was downstairs cooking dinner and listening to music. Just behind me, where the receiver was pumping out the sound waves, I heard some crackling and popping. When I turned around, I saw bright flashes of light and smoke that went in two directions: one small cloud up and another straight down like dry ice. I went over and started turning things off. Turns out the transformer blew - I brought my receiver from the States so I needed to transform the 230V to 120V.
That night Naomi was gone, and luckily I was right there when the problem happened so that it didn't get any worse. It felt like I was breaking the rules (we usually stay in at nights), but I hopped on my bike, switched on the lights, and rode into the city all alone. It felt like a grand adventure. The City Hall was all lit up and the bells were playing a song. Other buildings had impressive lighting as well - Rotterdam seems to look better at night. I pulled up to the MediaMarkt (like Best Buy) and checked out their receivers. I figured, if we had to get a whole new transformer anyway, why not a new receiver Then we can use the old one to replace Naomi's dying stereo upstairs.
The MediaMarkt was terribly overpriced. After doing some research, we found some incredible sales at the same shop where we had spent a ton of money on clothes - this place is right near our house. I found a Dutch receiver (http://www.philips.nl/c/home-cinema-systeem/avr9900_12/prd/) there for 300 Euros which normally sells for 500-900 depending where you buy. I couldn't resist and Naomi finally broke down and agreed to buy it. We brought it home yesterday, on our bikes, in the rain. After it was set up, she agreed that the sound was better. We listened to music while fixing up some delicious pizzas from Little Italy and after that watched Slumdog Millionaire. It shook the room. Today I will spend a couple hours tweaking things and setting up all the details. Then we will be ready for Movie Night on Friday!
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| Fall in our backyard - the only red leaves around - a small reminder of Michigan. |
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| If anyone can figure out how this condensation on our window plastic has defied gravity to form these crazy, racetrack like patterns (especially interesting when you zoom in), we would be most interested to know... |
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