Long week followed by a longer weekend.

We are work-horses here. Machines really. I think I took about 5 waking hours off from doing work over these past two days, including meals. The group work is frustrating at times because we are not overly efficient. Most people here are either out or closet type Aers, and working with these super uptight individuals can be extremely trying. Overall, I have maintained my composure and look to the fact that the vast majority of group work has been completed this week and we will therefore not have a vast many procedures or consequences to dispute for comfort.

TFA encourages people to take off Saturdays, which is a nice thought, but is begging for a mass, stressful Sunday rush. Take the copy room for example. The copy center opened at 2pm today. I got there at about 2:03pm. People were literally picking up their pace so that they could inch their way ahead of me through the door. All copiers were already taken and I was given a number to wait. After a relatively short time I had the chance at "C.S. Lewis," one copier in a clever naming system. We are allowed 750 copies to use over the next few weeks - I now have 648. I will have to cut back on class worksheets in the future it seems. Even at this early hour this was not the room in which I would like to kick back and relax after a long day at work. To the contrary, it is quite the chaotic stress machine, a place in which I intend to spend as little time as possible.

I knew I would not be picking out my new favorite Bentley on a teacher's salary, but I didn't realize that I would be sitting in a dark room, working by the light of a dim desk lamp and eating cereal out of a ziploc bag. Times are tough. In truth, my overhead sadly burned out yesterday after a week long love affair with flickering sporadically and confusion at the grocery store the other day led to my failure to purchase an appropriate bowl. Hopefully things will pick up this next week.

On a lighter note, I saw a girl carrying a newly bought basketball this afternoon and hopefully asked if she played. After she offered that she does indeed play, I quickly got my phone out and asked for her digits. She did not leave until I had called her phone, so hopefully we can get a nice, de-stressing shootaround in this week.

I have also discovered laundry and a workout facility here in our dorm! These are little known treasures, so do keep it on the DL. This afternoon's moments of feeling a bit overwhelmed were assuaged by a nice little jaunt down to work it out, literally.

Tomorrow is our first day of teaching. Perhaps part of TFA's ploy in relieving any anxiety over this is keeping us busy as heck. Well, I have a feeling it will work. I look forward to meeting the students and seeing how the worksheets, into which I have put hours of work, pay off. Perhaps I should get my practice on one more time...