26 January 2001

This journal will end on Friday rather than Sunday, as they usually do, as I will be traveling beginning 26 January. Look for an update on the travel page after I get back in Feb.

22 January – There was a poll on CNN World and 85% of Americans think that W should not deny any of the Clinton Administration’s last bills (see the 21 January journal, 20 January entry for more info).

I’ve spent some time this morning looking through the language section of my guidebook. Lithuanian seems like a very hard language. However, a few Polish people who have visited Lithuania have told me that many of the people there speak Polish. Great! That will make life easier. I’ll still learn a few things in Lithuanian (greetings, etc), but will also learn how to ask people of they speak English or Polish. I don’t think there would be much use in learning how to ask if they speak French or Spanish.

It’s –7C and cloudy out. We’ve had off and on snow flurries since 9am.

GM is closing it’s Vauxhall plant in Luton, which is near London, due to cost cut backs. There are protests planned for many parts of Europe on Thursday. I doubt if they’ll affect Poland as the different kinds of cars that GM sells in Europe are not all that popular here, probably due to the price. Fiats are a lot cheaper.

W said that one of his priorities is education. He plans $1500 payments (vouchers) for low-income families so that their children could attend private schools if failing school districts don’t improve their standards within three years. I have a problem with that (I would have even more of a problem with it if I lived in the USA and my tax dollars were funding it). That’s not solving a problem, it’s sweeping it under the carpet! What that money should be used for is improving the schools that it. In the long run, it is cheaper to do that than the other. With vouchers, it discriminates against people whose income isn’t considered low income, however they still can’t afford to send their children to private schools. Also, many states have voted down voucher programs! Why should the government make the states do something that they have voted down already? Also, does he really think that the parents are all going to be honest about sending their kids to a private school with that voucher and not just transfer them to a different school and take the money? W is an idiot!

It snowed on Sunday in Boston & NYC.

21h – BRRRRRRRRRR..it’s –12C and windy right now. I just about froze to death walking home from work.

CNN is coming from Washington right now. That usually doesn’t happen until 23h at the earliest.

Lucja is back at work now after having her week off for being sick. Also, Dawid is back at school. I’m glad they’re feeling better.

W signed a bill that no government funds are to be used for abortion or abortion counseling, family planning groups that support abortion, either domestically or internationally. Any group that does will lose all monetary support. Also, he is going to sign legislation that prohibits tissue from aborted fetuses from being used in research. This was one of the first things that Clinton changed when he became president. I feel that pregnant women have the right to know all available options. I feel that this is wrong and W is forcing his values on people. That is not what the USA is about.

He is also sending legislation to congress to give more money to schools that make good progress with students and less money to schools that don’t. This means that a failing intercity school may lose funds if their students don’t progress at a fast enough rate and a suburban (rich and white) school may get more money! The poor intercity schools (some of which don’t even have computers) are already underfunded and will be at a big disadvantage, while suburban schools (with swimming pools, computer labs, etc) won’t. He said that he is a uniter, meaning someone who wants to unite the American people. My ass! He wants to unite the rich and the rich. What an idiot.

One of my students, Piotrek A (Group N), won a photography contest. He sent in seven photos and one of them won. The prize he won was a trip for two (by bus) to Austria for a week. He and his girlfriend (Kasia..also one of my students in Group N) will have a great time. Congrads!

23 January – January has been a long month. I don’t know why, it just seems like it’s been going on forever. The individual days and weeks go by quickly, but the month seems like it will never end. However, only four more working days until it does. GREAT!

At least I have an easy day today. I have two Pre-Intermediate groups (G & B), of which I am teaching lessons I have already taught (to Group M) and then I have my Intermediate class (Group F), who is taking their end of book test today. Their test will take the whole class period (90 minutes). However, I have a lot of papers to correct while they’re doing their test. Also, I have to have their tests corrected by their class on Friday, so I’ll have a lot of work to do after they take them. The end of book tests are not short (I make them myself)!

24 January – I corrected most of the tests from my F Group last night and finished the last four this morning. They all passed and most did quite well. However, they need to work on their tenses. English has 16 tenses and Polish has three (Past, present and future), so tenses are hard for Polish students. We covered all of the tenses that they need to know for this level and how to use them, but I guess that some didn’t study them enough on their own.

The students in my M class were terrible today. They’ll get a test on Friday.

25 January – 7h40 – It’s snowing!!! I woke up, looked out the window and saw it falling! Yippee! I hope is snows all day!I hope that it’s snowing in Lithuania also. I’d love to see it snow covered.

It’s almost winter break! I can’t wait! I’ve confirmed (with the bus station) that the bus leaves on Friday at 22h35. So, two hours and thirty five minutes after work, away I go! The bus also does the return journey the same days and arrives in my town at 4h20 so, I’ll probably return on Saturday morning the following week. I’m doing a load of laundry right now and will do another this evening so I can pack everything tomorrow morning. Packing should only take about 15 minutes as I’m used to doing it. Since I’m taking a night bus again, I’ll take my old white suitcase again. I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to put it under the bus (as I did with Germany), but I do, so I will.

Walker Texas Ranger is now on at 8h30. It seems to be one of the first ones, as there isn’t a fancy opening, he’s driving an early 1990’s Chevy Shortbed and some of the characters (such as Jimmy) haven’t been introduced yet. I didn’t watch the show when I lived in the USA, but started a bit when I lived in Greece, as it was one of the only shows in English. I don’t really care for it, but I will probably watch it once a week or so. I wish they’d put Miami Vice back on! Seeing warm weather and palm trees again would be nice.

9h10 – The snow has stopped.

10h – It’s snowing again.

Diane Sawyer was on Larry King Live this s morning. I’ve always liked her as a broadcaster, as well as Barbara Walters. They’ve both been on the tellie every since I can remember doing some kind of broadcast. I guess I got to like Diane more when I lived in Philadelphia. I was working at a very boring job and would go in at 7h and work until 17h. I used to bring my walkman and listened to the radio for most of the day while I worked. ABC had a simulcast of it’s shows on the radio, so I would listen to Good Morning America, of which she had just became a cohost (with Charlie Gibson) in 1999. After that, I would listen to Regis & Kathie Lee, then Rosie, then The View and finally the midday news. After that, I would switch to music as soap operas were on.

My G class was fun today. In the book we’re in, we’ve been learning more about the Present Perfect Simple tense. We did some non-book work on different tenses today (Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple and Present Perfect) to make sure the students know when to use them t took 30 minutes), then we were about to begin the next lesson, when one of the students asked if we could play a game..I told them that their test scores have been so good lately that we could. They looked a little shocked that I agreed to it. Why wouldn’t I? The entire class was there, it was the last class before a holiday and they had been working hard. .

The show "The X-Files" was stupid again. It was about people being killed while doing virtual reality video games. Mulder goes in to the game to help some people in trouble, gets caught in it and Scully goes in to save him. It was incredibly stupid.

22h30 – I’m really tired. However, I am waiting for my laundry to be done so I can hang it up to dry before I go to bed. That way, most of it should be dry by the time I get up and I should be able to finish packing. It should be done in about 15 minutes.

I’ve been going to bed early all month. It’s normal for me to do on Thursdays as I am usually very tired and go to bed right after the X-Files finish, however, I have been going to bed around 22h all month. I think my body got used to it when I was sick and is still on that kind of schedule.

I’m not taking any work or my computer on holiday with me. I’m leaving everything behind and am just going to enjoy myself. I’ll take my CD player, a book and a small notebook to make notes of what I did. That’s it. It’s my time to relax. Actually, I would like to take my computer with me, however don’t want to leave it in the hostel while I am out sightseeing, nor do I want to carry it with me. So, I won’t take it.

23h04 – Good night.

26 January – 9h30 – It’s here..well, almost..All I have to do is survive this work day and then Winter Break is here!!! IT shouldn’t be a hard day. I am giving M class a small test (because of their terrible behavior on Wednesday) as well as my FCE class (towards the end of the lesson we will have a music activity) and my F class, in which we will cover their end of level four exam (they all passed) and then do something fun. Then, away I go!!!! YIPPEE!!