The girls start school in two more days (and I don't start for another week - yeah!) - Angie moves from elementary to middle school (6-8), so she gets to change schools, even though we were careful to stay in the same area when we moved so they would'nt have to move from one system to another - each town here has its own system, even if that consists of only four schools total. We attended the middle school orientation tonight, and I realized that the beginning of this year stands in sharp contrast to the previous year, at least for me.

Last September, when the girls first went to school, I felt very dissociated from what they were doing - not only was I panicking over the 'homework' that I had in preparing to teach on my own for the very first time, I was unsure about how long we would stay here, uncertain about the quality of education they might be receiving, and frankly, a little self-absorbed in my own difficulty adjusting to the move. I still regret that I managed to lose touch with one friend during that awful time, and have not been able to make contact again. It's not a part of my life I'd like to relive, though if I ever decide to write about someone who loses grip with reality, I think I came close enough that I could see over that edge and would be able to fairly realistically describe it.

[self-edit] I don't want to psychobabble though.

I think I'm kicking myself right now because I feel like I'm stalling out on creating a new syllabus for this year. You'd think that gaining three weeks in changing from quarters last year to semesters this year would be easy, but accommodating the extra work that they want to incorporate into the curriculum will be difficult. The biggest foul-up is the fact that I lose two classes only a couple of weeks apart for Veteran's day (Rememberance Day) and Thanksgiving (last week of November) - and they're near the end of the term. (Columbus day in October falls on the same weekend as Canadian Thanksgiving).

I'm also not looking forward to my own classes - there's not much that interests me that's being offered this term - and next term, there's too much! Ergh! I'll have to do most of my work independently - that's one thing I've had difficulty adjusting to here in this program - I'm really on my own as far as most of my work goes - there's very little guidance regarding my own studies, or even help with adjusting my teaching schedule to the new semester system. Just makes it harder. A friend of mine told me today: "A calm sea does not a good sailor make". Which is true. Which means I'm gonna be a kick ass sailor by the time this is all over!