time is going by so quickly i cant get a hold of things. i have been rubbish at keeping this blog up to date, but i dont even notice that weeks elapse without my writing something...i am juggling three jobs at the moment: the bookshop (which pays the bills) the teaching (which is supposed to be good experience) and now a researcher position at another london university. together they pay enough to survive on, but as usual the ones that interest me the most dont pay enough for me to do them exclusively.
to add to the confusion, my own work is done mainly in in serbian and russian, but the researcher position involves cuba and working in spanish. when i have to deal with both in the same day, i become vaguely incoherent, at least to myself.
today i struggled to get up and teach at 9am. the kids seemed in a fine mood: someone named "vanilla ice" signed the register and even drew a large erect penis on the said register for me to admire, presumably. apparently adolesence extends well into the late teens.
to be fair, the kids are not bad kids, most of them just dont want to be in my class at 9am, and i cant entirely blame them for that.they are generally decent, ignorant and very young. i have about 4 who are actually interested in the subject material, which is at least something. in a way, i sort of feel sorry for them. they come to university with all kinds of unfounded expectations, and instead of some wonderful educational experience they get the likes of me. one kid told me every single one of his class is with a phd student. of course we phds are not bad people, but it must be pretty annoying to pay a lot of money for university and not meet any real professors your first year. it also sends the loud and clar message that first year of university in england is a joke, you would have to work at it not to pass. the fact that real professors dont want to teach first year classes, and dump them on all the phds, is an indicator of the first years students last place position in the university priority list. i cant blame them if they get annoyed.
23.10.07
16.10.07
christmas
in the retail world, the christmas season has begun.
i have always disliked this holiday. i find it pointless and annoying....but in the western retail world it is sadly unavoidable, so much that i think most people here tie the two together: christmas and shopping.
although i am of course aware of all of this i was still surprised in the staff meeting when we were told that the "christmas I changeover" was beginning. this means all the books have to be restickers, and the front of shop reajusted. it also indicated the arrival of loads of rubbish books that british people love to buy at this time of year, no doubt presents for all those people they feel obliged to give something to, but they dont know what. this is the on and only time of year when people start buying humour books in large numbers. (last years hit was "is it just me or is everything shit?" apparently the ideal present for that brother inlaw you have spent christmas with eery year for the past decade and yet still barely know) it addition loads of people have come in for signings, knowing that super expensive signed books will sell now, and no time else. so we have a display with signed eric clapton (50£), jamie oliver (60£) and the life of pi (50£) and other such titles.
the mass of frantic shoppers hasnt arrived yet, just the preview: endless hordes of little old ladies who come in to buy things early. they are inevitably chatty and hae provided us with a whole host of reasons why they are shopping now, 2.5 months before the big day. one told me she was afraid everything would be gone by december. another told my collegue she was afraid she might die before then, and wanted to get he grandkids gifts first (she appeared in perfect health, these ones always do). but i suspect in reality they are just bored, and shopping for christmas gives them something to do, and something to look forward to. that might be the one positive thing about this holiday...
i have always disliked this holiday. i find it pointless and annoying....but in the western retail world it is sadly unavoidable, so much that i think most people here tie the two together: christmas and shopping.
although i am of course aware of all of this i was still surprised in the staff meeting when we were told that the "christmas I changeover" was beginning. this means all the books have to be restickers, and the front of shop reajusted. it also indicated the arrival of loads of rubbish books that british people love to buy at this time of year, no doubt presents for all those people they feel obliged to give something to, but they dont know what. this is the on and only time of year when people start buying humour books in large numbers. (last years hit was "is it just me or is everything shit?" apparently the ideal present for that brother inlaw you have spent christmas with eery year for the past decade and yet still barely know) it addition loads of people have come in for signings, knowing that super expensive signed books will sell now, and no time else. so we have a display with signed eric clapton (50£), jamie oliver (60£) and the life of pi (50£) and other such titles.
the mass of frantic shoppers hasnt arrived yet, just the preview: endless hordes of little old ladies who come in to buy things early. they are inevitably chatty and hae provided us with a whole host of reasons why they are shopping now, 2.5 months before the big day. one told me she was afraid everything would be gone by december. another told my collegue she was afraid she might die before then, and wanted to get he grandkids gifts first (she appeared in perfect health, these ones always do). but i suspect in reality they are just bored, and shopping for christmas gives them something to do, and something to look forward to. that might be the one positive thing about this holiday...
10.10.07
food
i think i have already written some entry like this before, but every time my mouth starts watering and i start getting hungry, this list comes to my mind.
Food I miss in England: London has a good selection of international food and I am greatly relieved that I have found a good Korean place to satisfy my pipinpop cravings. But there are still some things I haven’t found that I miss desperately.
1. grechka: it is the best breakfast, I don’t know why English people cant get that
2. mole: beans and chocolat what could be better???
3. Kefir: the ultimate hangover cure, which given the amount people here drink on weekend binges, should definitely be imported.
4. Tvorog/ turos: I like it in all forms, I like sirki with chocolat around the sides, and I like it in things like buns.
5. Burek od sira. The ultimate food to eat before going out. You will never get a hangover, you will never be hungary. Also good to take on long train rides.
6. Empanadas. Kind of like a Chilean varient on burek, but even better in that you can get them stuffed with so many different things. I have never seen them in London. You can get samosas here, which are good and the same relative size. But it is not the same thing.
7. Hachipuri: mmmmmm Georgian cheese…..mmmm….
8. makos puns. I am not even really sure of the term here in English. The dictionary tells me it is “poppy” but I have never seen a “poppy bun” in English. It is makos in Hungarian and mak in most Slavic languages. It is a black substance that is sweet and good in buns.
9. Kafa/kava: call it what you want, I am not getting into linguistic political correctness here. I miss it.
Food I miss in England: London has a good selection of international food and I am greatly relieved that I have found a good Korean place to satisfy my pipinpop cravings. But there are still some things I haven’t found that I miss desperately.
1. grechka: it is the best breakfast, I don’t know why English people cant get that
2. mole: beans and chocolat what could be better???
3. Kefir: the ultimate hangover cure, which given the amount people here drink on weekend binges, should definitely be imported.
4. Tvorog/ turos: I like it in all forms, I like sirki with chocolat around the sides, and I like it in things like buns.
5. Burek od sira. The ultimate food to eat before going out. You will never get a hangover, you will never be hungary. Also good to take on long train rides.
6. Empanadas. Kind of like a Chilean varient on burek, but even better in that you can get them stuffed with so many different things. I have never seen them in London. You can get samosas here, which are good and the same relative size. But it is not the same thing.
7. Hachipuri: mmmmmm Georgian cheese…..mmmm….
8. makos puns. I am not even really sure of the term here in English. The dictionary tells me it is “poppy” but I have never seen a “poppy bun” in English. It is makos in Hungarian and mak in most Slavic languages. It is a black substance that is sweet and good in buns.
9. Kafa/kava: call it what you want, I am not getting into linguistic political correctness here. I miss it.
9.10.07
generation 1989
How do you teach history, and what is the time frame of what you can expect people to know?
I felt old today. i am meant to be teaching historical research methods to two classes of 18 year olds. For the occasion, I have given them each a different east European city, which they will be studying the whole term. I chose smaller cities, to force them to dig around a bit more for material.
On the first class, none of them had heard of the cities I assigned to them. Today their assignment was to, in small groups, tell the others what they had found out about their place. Every single kid had used the same “source”: wikipedia.
This was fine, in fact it was what I expected. So then I took them to the computer lab and gave them 15 minutes to check their city out on a digital journal database, followed by another 15 minutes looking at the times digital archive. Then I asked them what they had learned flipping through.
Tom: “dude, there was like a war in mostar and they killed lots of people and blew up a bridge.”
Alex: “no way man, there was a war in Dubrovnik too, these other guys called serbs bombed the whole fucking place.”
Sylvia: “there was like a revolution in my city!” (timisoara)
Paul: “there are FOUR football teams in Sofia!”
I was at first surprised that this was news: I remember all of these events happening quite clearly. But then I calculated that my entire class was born in 1989. They were infants when the berlin wall fell, some of them weren’t even born yet. They were toddlers during the Bosnian war. Their first historical memory is iraq. They are a totally different generation.
I felt old today. i am meant to be teaching historical research methods to two classes of 18 year olds. For the occasion, I have given them each a different east European city, which they will be studying the whole term. I chose smaller cities, to force them to dig around a bit more for material.
On the first class, none of them had heard of the cities I assigned to them. Today their assignment was to, in small groups, tell the others what they had found out about their place. Every single kid had used the same “source”: wikipedia.
This was fine, in fact it was what I expected. So then I took them to the computer lab and gave them 15 minutes to check their city out on a digital journal database, followed by another 15 minutes looking at the times digital archive. Then I asked them what they had learned flipping through.
Tom: “dude, there was like a war in mostar and they killed lots of people and blew up a bridge.”
Alex: “no way man, there was a war in Dubrovnik too, these other guys called serbs bombed the whole fucking place.”
Sylvia: “there was like a revolution in my city!” (timisoara)
Paul: “there are FOUR football teams in Sofia!”
I was at first surprised that this was news: I remember all of these events happening quite clearly. But then I calculated that my entire class was born in 1989. They were infants when the berlin wall fell, some of them weren’t even born yet. They were toddlers during the Bosnian war. Their first historical memory is iraq. They are a totally different generation.
2.10.07
teaching, again
it is not that i lack for teaching experience, cause i have loads of it. i taught high school english in moscow in 2000-2001. and i have taught in various schools and companies in moscow, paris and cambridge over the past 7 years.
today, though, was my first day teaching at a university, which turns out to be a bit different.
teaching english, what i did before, has its ups and downs. unless you are teaching high school students, the students are generally motivated and anxious to learn, especially when they are paying loads of money for the lessons. sometimes, they are just looking for a shrink to pour out all their problems to (this is especially true with one on one lessons). university is different. the class i teach is obligatory for all first years in the department, so the students have to be there if they want to or not, and since it is increasingly impossible to get a job anywhere without a degree, they have the idea that they have to be in university, or their parents who sent them there had that idea.
furthermore, the class is at 9am, which is asking the near impossible from a squad of 18 year olds (and from me as well!)
so despite all my experience i felt pretty nervous walking into the room today. i had to remind myself that they were probably more scared of me than i of them. but still, it was intimidating to have 30 sleepy faces staring at me for 2 hours. i hope i didnt bore them to death.
today, though, was my first day teaching at a university, which turns out to be a bit different.
teaching english, what i did before, has its ups and downs. unless you are teaching high school students, the students are generally motivated and anxious to learn, especially when they are paying loads of money for the lessons. sometimes, they are just looking for a shrink to pour out all their problems to (this is especially true with one on one lessons). university is different. the class i teach is obligatory for all first years in the department, so the students have to be there if they want to or not, and since it is increasingly impossible to get a job anywhere without a degree, they have the idea that they have to be in university, or their parents who sent them there had that idea.
furthermore, the class is at 9am, which is asking the near impossible from a squad of 18 year olds (and from me as well!)
so despite all my experience i felt pretty nervous walking into the room today. i had to remind myself that they were probably more scared of me than i of them. but still, it was intimidating to have 30 sleepy faces staring at me for 2 hours. i hope i didnt bore them to death.
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