I accomplished impressively little today, which is exactly what I needed after this week. This week I taught nine hours of 2nde (10th grade), six hours of 4eme (6th grade) and five hours of Premiere (11th grade). On top of this, every day without exception, someone new has approached me about learning English. So there's 4-5 hours a week with Pierette, 2 with Noro, 3-4 with Bema, and a few others whose name I don't know yet. On Thursdays I hang out with Solofo in the market selling pineapple juice and lychees for a few hours, which, while not tutoring, still feels like work a lot of the time. I now have to carry around a spreadsheet of my schedule to figure out when people can come by to study.
Last year I'd stay awake until about 10 every night, reading and studying. So far this year, I'm lucky if my candle is still burning past 8. The worst part is that it isn't making time go by any faster; in fact, it's going by incredibly slowly now. I have to stop myself and ask, 'have I really only been in town for 4 days? Was that class only this morning? Less than 10 hours ago?'
I'm sure that those of you working three jobs 70 hours a week are scoffing at me, and rightly so. 30 hours isn't even a full time job. I think there's just something a) about teaching, b) teaching a foreign language, and c) having few forms of relaxation. I can't come home and sit in front of the TV or computer, hang out with friends, or go see a movie. It's just correcting exams, studying, or reading by candlelight. (That I'm also not being paid for any of the effort might lead to an energy breakdown past hour 20, also). Now, people want to study during my lunch breaks telling me it's the only time they have available. Well, if they don't mind me eating my 100,000th peanut butter and jelly sandwich, alright come by. I feel like I can't justify telling someone that 'no, I don't have time for you' when so many others already study with me. Luckily, people are often as lazy as I am and give up studying after a few weeks and stop coming. I'm certainly not pounding on their doors asking why they didn't show up.
