if you are bored, you are boring

Once upon a time, I thought it would be great to get paid to sit around and do nothing but play on the internets and knit all day.

Over the past two days, I have found that it is the most profoundly boring thing ever.

Students are taking mid-term exams, and so after a day of having all but one of my classes pulled for test prep and a day of nothing at all due to testing, I was incredibly grateful for the chance to go to my elementary school workshop. Tomorrow I will be at the other middle school, which while usually also very boring, will be less boring as I will actually have classes to teach.

The downside to having the class was that since students were done after lunch, a group of teachers went on a group hike up a nearby mountain. I was invited, but couldn't go because of the workshop.

It is interesting to be able to watch the dynamics of what goes on in a school, and see how similar it is everywhere. Even when you don't know the language, you can see the personalities and the way people interact - maybe even more clearly. It was kind of bittersweet to sit and thing about the people that I would have gotten along with if I had been able to communicate with them or them with me. Because English is a required subject, most of the teachers have at least some reading and writing ability in English, and several are actually pretty good. But there is a difference between being able to say hello, thank you, and goodbye in shared languages and being able to make friends.