Proud Of My Students

Here's the bad news:

This morning I got my finger stuck in the door of the school bus. I'm pretty lucky it was as minor as it was, but the tip was mutilated pretty bad. It was kind of fun in a way, trying to stay calm and keep it together in front of the kids, asking for tissues and water in English, then remembering that I needed Turkish. Okay, fine. It wasn't very fun. It was ridiculously painful, and there's still a dull pain under the bandage as I get ready for bed. But it must have been kind of funny for someone else to watch our poor Hostess Abla (the woman who coordinates the bus I ride) juggle the first aid kit that she probably hasn't used very often as well as welcoming the kids and ushering them to the back of the bus, away from the action.

Needless to say, I went to the nurse as soon as we got to school (don't worry, Mom, I do have some common sense). A couple of my 5th grade students were there, a girl who twisted her ankle and her friends, and they were all a great help with the nurse, who speaks less English than I speak Turkish. They were very good with translating the medical instructions into English for me - take this pill when it gets really bad; come back every day to change the bandage, and during the semester vacation it should be better; hold your hand like this on your chest for 15-20 minutes. And the best part was that these were not my best English speakers (though all good students, of course!), and they were still able to work between the two languages in this outside-the-classroom real-world situation.

It made me feel confident that most of my students are going to leave my class functioning on a high level of English. I mean, isn't this kind of situation that I'm training them for in the first place? It gave me a new confidence in the job I'm doing here.

And here's the good news:

Semester holiday is coming soon. Haha! All you fools who've been back to work after MLK day, writhe in jealousy! I will be seeing the beautiful sights in Turkey while you slave away in your offices or whatever it is my readers do... flying to space, curing cancer, forging world peace, or whatever other awesome things you're up to. I'm on vacation in 3 days!

As I said, I will probably not be writing much during my 2-week holiday. However, on Friday we have a half-day at school and it's casual dress, plus no real classes. I'm not going forget my camera again, and when I don't you can bet I'll post the pictures of my beautiful English-speaking students for all of you to see.

Now, get back to work! Haha!