Soggy

Tuesday:

I spent the day with soggy feet. There is a famous poem about Australia as the land "of droughts and flooding rains" and today was the flooding rains bit! Very wet shoes and socks getting to class this morning. I managed to mostly protect my books, only got soggy in one corner.

This week the students are getting to know each other better, everyone seems very friendly. Quite different to when I tried going back to Uni a couple of years ago and I felt very lonely and out of place amongst all the 18-year-olds. I have five different teachers in five different classrooms, people sit in different positions next to different people for each class, but it seems we've decided on our set places for each class. In one class I sit next to Mark at the back, he's the one with dreadlocked hair, he has a 26 year-old-daughter with her own kids so he is a grandad! In another class I sit with Cathy near the middle, she's the one who already looks like a librarian, she is really lovely. In yet another I sit right up the front with Marlen. We don't talk so much. I think she always sits right up the front. Model of German efficiency.

The older Italian lady I expected to drop out because she can't use computers was still there today. Maria asks a lot of questions, which is not a bad thing at all, but she is very disruptive in another way. She was sitting near the back and couldn't see the projector screen, so kept getting up and walking halfway to the front and standing in the aisle. Two different people offered their seats but she wouldn't. The teacher got her to sit right up the front at the side but she couldn't see from there either. She kept going back and forth, saying she didn't want to be a bother but not seeming to realise she was much more of a distraction than if she'd just accepted a swap. She was trying to take notes which is difficult while standing so she ended up kneeling at the teachers desk, was offered a chair there which she refused but eventually she did roll a chair over. It was this ongoing two hour saga.

Im finding the content easy so far but there is already a lot of work to keep up with. Plenty of homework. I'm doing my reading on the train.

Yesterday afternoon my right eye got sore and bloodshot, I must have scratched it or something. It got worse in the evening and a night of rest didn't completely heal it, I couldn't wear any eye makeup today. Hope it's better tomorrow.

Happy Valentines Day!