Speeches, the cold, Goodbyes, and the cold

So at my open class I met a teacher who didn't have a native teacher. Her school was having a speech competition and she wanted to have a native speaker judge. So she asked if I could come help (well I never actually get asked anything directly, but she asked my co-teacher who told her yes and then asked me...same-same) .

So I headed over there Wednesday. Oh my goodness the kids were ADORABLE! It was fifth and sixth graders. They seemed to fall in two categories which I will horribly explain using politically incorrect stereotypes. If I offend anyone you probably don't know me, some of my nearest and dearest friends fall into these stereotypes and are nothing like the pigeonhole I am putting people in so please, in advance, don't be offended.

The first category is the engineering student who cannot make a public speech to save his life (you know, very monotonous, no nonverbal cues, same pace the whole way through, few visual cues etc.). The other is the SDSU PR student who is basically a ham (their voice hits more tones than a grand piano, their props are sewn onto their clothes, their hand motions are exaggerated and every word has a hand motion!). It was quite a kick to watch.

Some of the students gave speeches on their dreams. One's dream was to become to the head of the UN...the speech was surprisingly good...I feel like I suddenly have very low goals. Another speech was on how people should be nice and not write mean things online because people kill themselves(and actress in Korea recently committed suicide), and one girl read a Halloween story she wrote. There was definitely a lot of different stuff and it was fun to listen to it all. Plus I got $50 (well with the won now about $40) and a box of chocolates...woo!

It is starting to get cold, I wear my ski jacket about every day and do all my lesson planning in bed with the covers pulled up to keep me warm.

This Tuesday Ant leaves the country and heads back to South Africa and this Saturday Aaron leaves. Goodbyes stink! But I guess I am going to have a lot more of them now that I am halfway through (only 10 more teachers classes until I leave).