A Day in the Life...

2nd September, 2011 (Havana, Cuba)
06.45 -- Wake up, shower under pathetic water pressure, get dressed
07.05 -- Promise myself yet again that TONIGHT I really will unpack all my clothes and hang them up
07.25 -- Take breakfast orders from Johnny and Babi, but ignore Babi´s as too complicated. Make toast with grape jelly for Johnny and let someone else make Babi´s vanilla milk breakfast drink thing
07.30 -- Shove chunks of papaya (not to be called such here, where the word pretty much means ¨pussy¨, say fruita bomba instead) hurriedly into mouth. Savour the amazingness that is the ripe papaya...
07.35 -- Hop on mo-ped and speed off to ISH  (International School Havana)
07.38 -- Beam at self over how awesome my moped parking skills have gotten. Beam exceptionally brightly over ability to stand it up by myself (sounds easy but requires strange hefting motion to operate the stand -- sadly no kicking simplicity)
07.40 -- Fill mini-mug with super strong, super sweet Cuban coffee, available for all in the staff room. Mmmmm, just the way I like it!
08.15 -- Teach double period grade 8 English with 12 amazing little people. Do NOT teach lesson I planned, however, as co-teacher both hijacks the lesson AND leaves me to deliver it while she works on something she forgot to do on her computer (Do I sound bitter? I´m not, I swear, but co-teaching with a slight personality disorder -- excessive defensiveness, excessive show of submission coupled with frequent interrupting and passive aggressive behaviours -- is not easy. But working on patience and inner zen.
09.30 -- Reflect how amazing it is that even when basically Chalk-and-Talk -ed at for an hour amazing little ones still making clever jokes and behaving beautifully
10.45 -- Meet the two 12th graders with whom I am leading an independent study. LeLe and KK are sweet, thoughtful, and try their best. They choose to read Animal Farm first, which is technically banned here
13.00 -- Get invited on a day-trip to a river tomorrow. Have officially made new friends!
14.15 -- Wonder how the hell everyone here has the emotional self-discipline not to scream when the internet keeps flashing in and out of service or loads suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuppppppppppppeeeeeerrrrrr slowly. GGGGGAAAAAAKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
15.00 -- Put up bulletin board paper and staple my favourite quotes up to make ¨my¨classroom -- not really mine at all, the spare room -- cozier
16.40 -- How the fuck did the time go by so fast?!! Am in serious danger of being late to tennis lesson.
16.45 -- Arrive at home and change double time into exercise friendly clothes. Johnny reminds me how ridiculous I look in my tight cotton shorts, but it´s these or jean ones
16.58 -- By some miracle arrive on time!
17.35 -- Thank god have not smoked in 33 days. Would be dead otherwise.
18.00 -- Have made real progress in only 3 days of tennis lessons. Today I only hit three balls outside the fenced-in perimeter!! Can switch smoothly between forehand and backhand grip. Know the difference between the two!
18.30 -- Eat yummy dinner of thin steak, brown rice, and string beans. I pretty much eat string beans for every meal, maybe because they´re in season right now??
19.30 -- Play three games of Spider on the computer. Best score an eh score of 112 (Dad says a good score is under 100 moves. Bah!)
20.00 -- Log on to Gmail. No new messages!! Intend to post guilt-inducing status on Facebook about why friends never email...
20.10 -- Think kind thoughts about all my many loved ones, family and friends. Miss my little chunkster Willie in particular