Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Mid Week

I have no pictures from the last day of special classes when we had a little restaurant action going on. I was way too busy and was trying not to start having a fit and insist people stop saying my name! I tell you, I'm glad that pretty much no one calls me "Jenny" in Canada, because I'm so sick of hearing it! Anyhow. The restaurant was good, and the food was very good! We did a test-omelet at the top of the hour, in which I showed the kids how to cook one, and then I did not have to go near the stove, except to warn Nancy the 6th grade chef to lower her heat a couple times. She really did an awesome job. I make a good omelet, and I dare say hers totally rivaled mine, but in a different way. Mine are thick and laden with filling. Hers were thin and sparse, but really delicious! I helped out with the sandwiches, and those were yummy as well. Our "customers" didn't really get the gist of the menu, though, and we were getting orders for a "ham and cheese with tomato and onion and tunafish grilled cheese with mayonnaise." I just rolled my eyes and omitted the tunafish grilled cheese bit. As it was, no one ate the tuna. Ah well.

The kids had a great time, both the customers (made up of kids from the 2 special grammar classes, and the 1st 2 phonics classes) and my own class. I guess that's what matters. But after the end of it I was stressed out and ticked off at the lack of support I got from Jane, who seemed to want to just bug me!
"You should go to the store and get some newspaper to put under the stove!"
"Why?"
"Because you're cooking with oil, it's going to make a big mess."
"We're not deep-frying the omelets. We're cooking with a little pat of butter, nothing's going to splatter."
"Still, it's going to me messy."
"Perhaps. But then we'll clean it."
"I don't want a mess."
"Yes, I gathered that."

And the moment I'd finished setting up the restaurant, laid out all the materials and the utensils and rearranged the tables and places the menus and condiments, she suggested we should switch classrooms.
"No!! Why?"
"I think it's better."
"Why? Because you like being a pain in the ass?"

I didn't say that. But I didn't change locations either.

At the end of the long day, I was disappointed after visiting the bank machine to find I hadn't been paid. Usually, I've been given a nice fat envelope of cash on the last day of these classes, but I was concerned that wasn't going to happen this time around, since my boss has been absent since last Friday. No worries, though. I got my envelope when I came to work today.

I don't know why my boss hasn't been around, but I find it surprising - since we're short staffed. She hasn't been in since Joy gave notice last Thursday. She's a very responsible woman, and has never missed a day really. I'm curious about what's up. Monday night, I had a dream she sold the school - and it was so vivid, I wonder if it was prophetic. She hasn't said anything about how she's feeling regarding the school these days, but I imagine she's tired of it. We'll see what happens.

Meanwhile, we had a woman come in for an interview today. Jane interrupted my last class to ask if I would come and interview her a little bit. That was the first time that's ever happened, but it was interesting. The woman can NOT speak English. She couldn't understand questions like, "Where do you live?" and "Where did you work before?" Even when I followed up with leading questions, she wasn't getting it. She echoed the words in my questions about half a second after they came out of my mouth. She claimed her English name is Jane, but I suspect she just mimicked our Jane saying "My name is Jane." If she does come to work with us (and I beseech all the divine powers in the universe as well as my boss's fair judgement to ensure that doesn't happen) I will rename her "Echo." I swear I will. (I swear I will.)

1 comment:

Kevin Kim said...

Maybe the interviewee is like that one girl in my first-ever drama class, who suffered from Asperger's syndrome and treated us all to comical bouts of echolalia.

Good luck. If she does get hired...

YouTube her. We wanna see what she's like.


Kevin