Hello to you all,
The title is "a little bit of soup" because we had a large roast chicken lunch today in what is fast becoming a tradition for us, and we've been pretty lazy otherwise today so not much need for anything more substantial. Aurelie has just asked me to point out that it's delicious (it is, our little electric oven does it nicely).
Aaanyway, thanks for your comments below. Aurelie and I really are very happy, although we still can't quite believe it! Nor can we wait - 6 months seems such a long time! But of course, it isn't really, and very soon quiet nights will be a thing off the past, along with a flat that smells nice. Because babies smell, let's be honest. Ah well,I'll get Aurelie to change the nappies, she won't mind.....Only joking babe!! Haha! I promise to do my fair share, of course.
She's getting on well, by the way, feeling less sick recently. Her belly is certainly starting to show a bit now too. Or maybe that's the chicken and nutella..? Work's going well for her too, so we're happy about that too.
I started my new job on Tuesday, and struggled a lot with sleep for the first 3 days, but back to normal now. It really is most horrible to suffer a sleepless night, and 2 or 3 in a row is terrible. When all you want to do is sleep, but you just can't get comfortable...then you just can't drop off...messes you up for a long time after too...I'm still feeling very tired. I wonder how things will turn out when the baby arrives...I think for the better, as I'll feel different somehow, I can just feel it. It will make such a change, something of greater importance to us than anything else in the past ever. And I think that sleeping will just become a case of getting it while we can! Of course, I don't have breasts either, so it won't be I who has to rise during the night...unless we put it in a bottle? I don't really know how these things work to be honest.
Well, anyway, we'll see how things go...we are both looking forward to this period in our lives immensely, we really are. So, I was writing about my job. As I may have mentioned, the school is based on the 'Multiple Intelligences' theory postulated by Howard Gardner. The theory is, basically, that we all have different types of intelligences (7 in all I believe) ranging from literary and language awareness to inter-personal intelligence.
With that in mind, the school has some children who, let us say, don't learn in the 'normal' way - basically they didn't get on with the traditional, memorisation learning that goes on in Asia. Most of the children aren't different however to other children...'normal', if you'll excuse the connotations. So the school try to teach children in another way, and concentrate on more than just filling their heads with facts. Basically, end result is that there seems a strange lack of discipline in the school...but of course the kids have to be respectful, and they all are. I'll write more on this later, there's too much to say.
On the first day, I was 'invited' (told) to introduce myself in front of the school (100 students)...I didn't see that one coming, I can tell you! But I got a large round of applause, which put a big smile on my face!! Then I taught a few impromptu lessons there last week (kids were ok-ish, but rather high-spirited - which is fine, but sometimes they have to listen!!!!!!) and also visited the primary school, a 15 minute ride away,on Friday (I have to go there on Mondays and Fridays). I met the kids there too (another 100) and they're so sweet! One class even started singing for me!! It's such things you remember with a big smile a few years down the line...
So back to work tomorrow...gonna try and read more about MI, and help them develop that avenue as much as I can. Oh and another thing - Wednesday is sports morning, and I get to play football with the kids all morning! What else..there seems so much now I've started typing...but I guess your eyelids are drooping by now. We gave back the scooter to Aurelie's boss today, and so rented one again, a nice nifty little white one. Of course, we're well aware we'll need a car not too far into the future...more expense, which really tests our commitment to being here even more. I think about returning to Europe most days...but we're not for leaving just yet. I feel a certain frustration and getting to know everyone at the school, getting comfortable (a lot of effort), then giving it all up again...
Anyway, that's it! My last thing to say is that I spent almost all of yesterday reading "Endurance" by Alfred Lansing, a journalistic account of Sir Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated trip to the Antarctic circa 1914, aboard the Endurance,with his crew of 28 men. I was seized by this awesome story at once when I picked it up last week (I already knew the outline) and it didn't let go till I finished it yesterday. It is truly incredible.
So, goodnight, I'll try and post some photos next week.
By the way, I love Aurelie very very much and I'll be with her forever, despite my nutella comments (she isn't at all fat, of course). Wouldn't matter if she was, either.
Posted by: Ben | July 12, 2009 at 03:41 PM
Of course I don't have a nutella belly, I've got a baby belly! (Maybe a nutella baby belly, but mostly baby!) And don't worry,I will remind you to change the nappy when baby stinks. About the food at night, you can still get up to get baby and bring him/her to the bed where I'll feed him/her...
Posted by: Aurelie | July 12, 2009 at 03:49 PM
Also, I don't think that the oven is the only one to thank for the lovely chicken, as it is not the one spending an hour and a half cutting the onion/garlic and checking that there is enough butter/oil on the chicken every 10 minutes to make it taste yummy! But it's a good thing the oven works well too, of course!
Posted by: Aurelie | July 13, 2009 at 07:54 AM
Yay! At least we hear from our "tiny pocket." You two need to save up LOTS of vacation time because, once your little one arrives, not only do you need to visit France and England, but your Texas family will want to see your little family too!
Posted by: Kati Strong | July 17, 2009 at 04:59 AM
"Nutella Belly"...is that like a "Jelly Belly?"
Posted by: Kati Strong | July 17, 2009 at 05:02 AM
A Nutella Belly is when you have a bit of a belly without being pregnant, because you had too much Nutella! So I guess it's also like a Jelly Belly. And I do want to visit my families in Texas, Ben knows it, we'll hve to be organised and to plan that well.
Posted by: Aurelie | July 17, 2009 at 12:09 PM