Friday, April 18, 2008

Finally! Some time to blog

I have not had time to blog for a long long time. I think my friends and students probably have given up hope that this blog will ever be updated again!

It has been a rather troublesome 6 months for me. As you know, I moved in November last year to the east of Singapore. As a result of the move, I hurt my back and ended up resting for most of the school holidays at my new home. I was on pain killers and in bed most of the time.

By the end of December, I'm well enough to be back on my feet to prepare for the new school term. Having been posted to a new school (since I moved to the east), everything is like starting from scratch. There are new teachers, new system in the school, new scheme of work, new everything. I've to prepare my worksheets and lessons for the new classes as well. (Seems like my life is all about work...)

School started in January. I had my culture shock on the first day. 1st time I'm given Sec 2 express classes to teach. I'm just not use to the way they behave themselves. They are like angels and will take the initiatives to get their things done. Even now after knowing and teaching them for the past 4 months, they are pretty responsive and will try to do their work properly (in order to get good grades). Of course not all is plain sailing. There are also the 'monster' classes. I'm given one of them (which I shall not name). They practically and simply do not behave themselves in the right manner as 15 year olds. There have been many incidents examples like, someone who just cannot sit still in class and has to walk about and disturb his classmates all the time, one student who love answering and talking to classmates and teachers at the top of her screeching voice to those who just feel that they have no interest in the subject as they were 'forced' to do it who would simply go to sleep when lesson starts. One incident that I'll remember forever was about this student who apologised to me for some misbehaving that he had done in class. He started with "Cher, I'm sorry." A moment of silence. He continued, "Actually, I didn't mean it!" and he burst out with laughter! My mind was thinking at that moment...Why is he like that? Didn't his parents teach him respect? Or does he have parents? Maybe his parents and family are all like that too? I just don't know...

Anyway, latest update about me. I went for a sleep test recently and doctors found out that I have sleep apnea. I am not getting enough oxygen when sleeping. During the test, I actually stopped breathing for about 390 times and the longest period of not breathing was about 79 sec. That's scary and urgent enough for the doctors to quickly arrange an operation to try to fix the problem. According to them, I have enlarged tonsils (probably due to me being a teacher) which is getting in the way of breathing. These will be taken out during the operation. On top of that, they will also be shaping the top of my throat a bit, ensuring that my air passage is not blocked.
Well, I just had the operation and am now resting at home. Lots of pain for the first 3-4 days. I am now still on painkillers and not able to talk properly. The pain will go away soon and I'll be my normal self. I've not been able to eat anything apart from watery oats and soup. Doctors recommended ice cream to cool down the wound. So far I had 3 servings of ice cream as I find them too sweet to swallow. Imagine not able to even eat ice cream! I do hope to slim down a bit because of this. Haven't weigh myself yet. But I think I might have lose a couple of kg! :-)

Enough of me already. Will update again soon. Ciao!

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