Archive for March, 2009

Travel

Tuesday, March 10th, 2009

I love travelling.

I love seeing new places, experiencing different things, learning new languages. All that jazz.

I am constantly checking out the Ryanair website, to see what new deals they have, and to see where I could fly to, for a day, a weekend, or a week, for as little as possible.

I usually don’t care where I end up, or usually when I fly, so it was “researching” some flights that I came across this:

Fly from Dublin to Frankfurt-Hahn on Firday evening, and return on Sunday evening. Perfect timing, really. No need for me to miss classes, and no need for anyone else who wanted to come along to have to take time off work.

And the cost of these magical flights?

€10 each way, including those horrible taxes and charges. Add in another €10 for booking the flights using a credit card, and you get a weekend in Germany for €30.

So, that’s what I did.

My friend Amy and I flew out to Frankfurt-Hahn, not to be confused with the actual Frankfurt International Airport, on Friday evening last. We had a lovely weekend, and flew back on Sunday evening.

I will post again – make a mini-series out of it, if you will – about what we did over there, but there is the basics of it.

For all their faults, you can’t beat Ryanair for flights that cheap.

Weekend Away

Friday, March 6th, 2009

So, I am heading away on a well-deserved (I think) mini-break this evening.

My friend Amy and I are going to spend the weekend in Trier, in Germany, and the plan is to take a day trip to Luxembourg.

I mean, how many people can say they deliberately visited Luxembourg?

My friend commented, on hearing this, that there may be a reason for people not visiting the place!

I’m sure it will be lovely. I will let you all know when I get back!

A day off

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

So, it’s Thursday night.

I wasn’t teaching today, the school was closed for an inservice training day. I didn’t have to go, but the teachers were being given a lecture on Assessment for Learning, and it probably would have been useful to have gone to that.

As it was, I had a nice lie-in, followed by lunch with a friend, then I gave grinds to my cousin, who was off since the school was closed, then did some shopping, and have been sitting here since about half six, thinking about the classes I am teaching tomorrow.

What a productive day!

Cravings

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

I’m just watching scrubs, Dr Cox is drinking a can of coke.

I have just had a massive craving for coke!

Mmmm…. sugary sweet.

This, on top of the nicotine cravings.

Teaching Week 2

Monday, March 2nd, 2009

So, I have finished my first day of the second week of teaching practice.

I was pretty happy with my progress last Friday, some classes went well, some not so well, but overall I thought the week went well.

Today’s double class with the first years for science has  thrown me completely, all over again.

It’s not that the class was totally disruptive. There was nothing more than general chat, and some noise. It was the fact that when asked to be quiet, it took a few attempts, and a few requests to actually get them to stop talking!

I’m getting annoyed all over again just writing about it.

I know that the class was no worse than others, and better (much better) than others I have taught. I don’t know why I’m taking it so badly.

So, this evening, before dinner, I was reading a few blogs about teaching, written by those who seem to really know their stuff. Inspiration, that’s what I’m looking for, I think.

I know I’m waffling on, I’ll stop now.

Tomorrow’s lesson will go better.