Busy busy busy

New month, new list of things to complete. The biggest news I have right now is that I have a job! I am going to be moving, starting work at a high school in the country. There is a lot of work involved, and I feel like the list of things to do is enormous. I felt the same way when I was getting ready to go overseas, so I am confident in being able to make it happen. I need to be organised. Lists, more lists.

This is an accurate portrayal of how I am feeling inside this week.

Organising

Its been a very busy week for me. I had a phone call from a high school close to home, that are looking for a music teacher to start in the middle of the year. They have asked me if I am interested, and will talk with Melb Uni about alternatives for finishing my course while working full time. I am really excited about it!!! I means that the job hunting which every graduate worries about is done for me, and I will have so much help from the school in getting the VIT registration sorted which I was worried about. Every teacher I've talked to about the VIT says how much they hate it.

So that would mean starting full time work 6 months earlier than I had thought. It means that it would be easier to pay for my wedding, and I don't have to worry about being broke over christmas or begging Safeway for work. (not that I ever have to beg them, but in lieu of my 'real' job that's kind of what it would feel like.) I have a meeting with the Principal tomorrow, I have to go home and think about all the questions that I will need to ask him and the other teachers I'd be working with, and outline what I want to tell them about myself. I am really really excited that it is all working out, or almost working out. If there is a way to make this happen, I will make it happen.

I went and tried on some dresses for the wedding today. I found one I really like, looks pretty on, and not too much money. If I get this dress then it means that I have more money to put towards the honeymoon, which I spent a lot of money on. But it's something that I got what I wanted. It will be fantastic. I have been talking with the girls at work about decorations with the tables, one of the girls told me that she is having mirrored tiles on the tables, with little tea light candles, and those metalic sparkle scatter things. That would be pretty. I have a few unfinished ideas about it, but I will need to go out to the golf club and talk to the organiser about things like that. About whether they have a fire policy that outlaws candles. Maybe I can get some ones like lanterns and have them on the table with candles on the inside. Hmmm, lots of planning to do.

Connex, You Suck.

I had a horrible day on the trains wednesday. I had to be in class at 9am, so I had to take the rush hour train. 8am. The 8am was 'delayed', but really cancelled and there were heaps of people waiting for the train. Which is a sign that by the time it gets to my station, I'll have to stand. I try and aim to stand near one of the dooray barriers, then at least I can try and create a little bit of personal space in front of me. And have something to hang on to.

My station is early on in the line, there are about 6 stations before me, and about 8 after me. When the train finally pulled in, just after the announcement that it was delayed again, it was packed. I was lucky to get on. Then there were all the other stations that we stopped at, and a few people managed to shove their way on, but most were left stranded. 30 to 50 people at each station.

This happens to train travellers every morning. They have to stand crushed up against each other, fighting to stay standing when the driver slams on the brakes at the station, and slams on the accellerator to get going again. Connex KNOW that this happens, yet they don't do enough to fix the problem. There should be trains on that line, on every line, every 5/6 minutes, all day. Like the trams. Trams have to deal with traffic to stay on time. Trains don't. Yet every day the train is delayed, its cancelled, its late without warning, why can't they just run on time? What is so damn hard about having the train arrive on time, every time? And having enough trains? Surely the fact that it happens every morning should give them enough practice to work out a solution.

So anyway, later that night I waited a half hour on the platform for the train back into the city after piano lessons. The train I would have caught was delayed, and arrived 2 minutes after the next scheduled train. Which was also 'delayed'. If you ask me, that just sounds like they are trying to keep up their percentages so they don't have to count so many cancellations. The train, which was late, arrived into Flinders street at 7.40pm. The train home left at 7.39. There is a half hour wait on trains at night. Then cause there were so many people waiting on the platform, I had to stand up again. And this guy kept bumping into me. I was sooooo angry.

Connex, I hate you. Do your job! Worlds most liveable city? Not if you rely on the train every day!

Break

I've been feeling a lot better lately, I definately needed a break. Even if it wasn't really long enough.

German will be fine, I am going home soon to study some more, a little bit each day adds up. The verb changes are fine, it's remembering the translation of the words into English that is the hardest. Also the sentence construction, knowing what an object, or subject, or verb, or noun, or pronoun, or predicate, or any of that stuff is, is hard. I've never done it like that before, not when I was learning English at school. Do foreign language students do that with English when they learn it for the first time? I don't know how to label an English sentence like that, let alone translate it and put it in the correct German order. Oh well, persevere. It will make sense soon. I am waiting for the moment when it all just makes sense, when I can hear a word and remember it's meaning, when I don't have to struggle to remember how to say what I want to say. I've only just started learning this, I can't expect to 'get it' straight away.

Even Better

It's been a good day and a nicht sehr gut day. My class this morning was really good, and I feel like I have been launched forward into my assignment for this semester, and also for the research project. I can picture the assignment in my head, and I have solid ideas even at the pre-research stage about how the finished assignment will look. It's fantastic to feel excited about getting down to work, I have been so tired with Uni and assignments this year and last year. I think that a lot of assignments last year had good intentions, however I felt like a lot of them were piles of ****, and not really inspiring at all.

Or maybe it was the way they were taught. I had that guy who liked to wipe his hands down his shirt while he was talking, I am sure there is a psychological issue there. He talked a lot of nothing, and not a lot of assignment. And the criteria were really vague and not very helpful, and at the beginning of the year they were really excited about 'different' forms of assignments to hand in, but when it came time for them to mark them they were a bit all over the place and by second semester we were back to written assignments again.

So today with some assignments for German, they aren't going so well. I'm not remembering the words that they are asking on the tests. I am going o.k with it, but I need a bit more directed learning. I'll try some learning techniques on myself. At this point I still have a chance to keep my mark to a pass. It's hard learning languages at Uni, because they have to keep up the hard standard, and there isn't room in the marking standard for people to struggle with learning a language. The teacher is really nice, and I really like her, and she will help me next semester if I need it. I was a little upset and I had to stop myself from getting all teary in the class when she was asking how I was going with it. I have a week to try some different things. I am o.k with the verb congaution, it's the gender of the nouns that are hard. My teacher suggested coloured paper to remember which is masculine, feminine and neuter.

Anyone have suggestions for memorisation techniques? Leave me a message, that would be great. I have a week to get up to speed. I plan to get a H1 on the next test.

Band was awesome today. It finished at 9.30, rather than 10. Everyone is playing their best for the competition on the weekend. I'm not sure what happens after this weekend. I've been complaining so much because it is a big commitment. I think I will have to say I can't play anymore. I would love to do another solo.

I love my sister. Shes hot! I wish I were as cool as her! She's going to be an ace hairdresser!! I'm jealous that I wont ever get to be like her! I'm going to have to get her to do my hair cos i wont be able to do it as good. EVER. SHE. IS. HOT!

Alex

Hi Alex! Yay, you're on my blog! I wondered who was in France, reading this. Now I know. Hallo!

Feeling Better

Things have slowed down over the last week for me, as I wind down into holiday mode. High schools and Primary schools are on holidays this week, which means that there are no piano lessons, hence me being home now. I've been asleep on the couch this afternoon. Trashy T.V is so boring.

I went to my morning German class, it is so hard to remember all the words. I am trying, but I will need to sit and write a lot more so that it sticks in my head. I went to the Nova straight after, to see a German movie called 'The Lives of Others'. It was a beautiful movie, the characters just seemed so warm and likable. The movie is about the 'Stasi' the German police in charge of information, their stated objective 'to know everything'. The main storyline is about one of the best informers monitoring a play writer. Over the course of the movie, as he listens in to this mans life, he comes to some realisations about the kind of work that he is involved in. There wasn't much confronting violence to have to deal with, which was great for a change. The last movie I saw at the Nova was about the Irish secret police, which had horrible violence all the way through it. Anyway, I can see why this film received four stars. Definately worth getting when it comes out in the DVD store.

This weekend is the Nationals compeitions, marching on staurday and on stage on sunday. I jsut realised that I said yes to work tomorrow night, when I should be going to rehersals. Sigh, better go call them and get it changed. I've decided I want to take a break from going to Jenny this week, and save the weekly money for my dress. I have to try and cancel my gym membership, which will take some planning and arguing. Or to cancel my current credit card and get another one. I shouldn't have signed up for it in the first place. Good thing I know how to write formally. That should fix 'em. And then there is this concert on Sunday that I don't really want to go to but have to go. It's crap that they are so damn inflexible, expecially when the support act changes without warning. I wanted to go home this weekend to see Mark on his birthday, but now I will have to be travelling in the middle of the night. I don't want to be driving anywhere on monday, I just want to go home. I am ready for a holiday now, and it's been too long since I saw Mark last. Stupid companies. It makes me really angry, and I'll have to think about it a bit to get myself in the right frame of mind that I might actually enjoy it. I'm sure it will be fine when I actually go, but right now I am angry about it. Just take my tickets back! I don't want them anymore! I hate you Ticketek!