Laura Carr's TEFLing in Taiwan is keeping her busy although she will soon be moving back to north-east England. Marathon efforts  I’ve been very busy at work. We had yet another parent’s evening. This event was aimed at showing the parents what we do in our ESL classes, so we all had to play games in front of the parents. These things are always a bit nerve-wracking because you just don’t know how the kids will react to their parents being there. You’d think that they’d all behave beautifully but having their mums and dads there tends to bring out the silent, the silly or just the downright ugly side to them, and this year they didn’t disappoint. 11th job log I’ve also been working hard on my kindergarten’s theme project which is My Body. Last week, we didn’t give them any breakfast and forced them to run around a lot so they could understand what it felt like to be hungry and exhausted. Yesterday, we deprived them of water for the morning and made a bar chart of how many times they went to the bathroom. Today, they had to drink glassful after glassful of water so we could compare and contrast the effects of water on the body. I think they get that water = pee pee now. I’m still trying to decide what I can sufferings I can inflict on them in the name of learning for next week! The futureWhile I’ve been working hard at school I can’t say I’ve been overdoing the career planning. I have, however, updated my CV, and written half a covering letter. I have also sent out an e-mail asking for the name of the head of the ESOL department at a further education college in Newcastle. Once I have this information, I’ll send off my CV on the off chance that there’ll be any work available teaching adults. It’s highly unlikely I’ll get any teaching English work so I’m also going to send my CV off to the local council to see if I can get on the temp lists. I’ve stopped trying to figure out what I want to do with my life for the time being, and have accepted that I’m going to have to wait until I get back and see what’s out there. On the runAlthough I haven’t been coming on leaps and bounds with my future plans, I have been leaping and bounding around the gym (or at least chugging along on the tread mill). In a moment of madness, my two sisters and I decided it would be a great idea if we applied to take part in the Great North Run in October. So we did, thinking that all the places would be taken anyway, and at least we could say that the intention was there. But as it turns out, we overestimated the nation’s willingness to run 13 miles in the name of charity, and got a place relatively easily. We have three and a half months to get fit and raise over £300 each for Great Ormond Street Hospital. I should probably point out that we come from a long line of gym-dropouts and no one on either side of the family has ever shown any keep-fit tendencies. Neither I nor my sisters have done any exercise since we were teenagers and only then because it was part of the school curriculum. I suppose at university, we made the odd dash to the bus stop, but even that has stopped now we’ve got cars and scooters. The task of getting fit enough to run half a marathon is daunting, to say the least. But the good news is (other than giving money to sick children of course) that I can now put on my CV that I go to the gym. Well, my CV has always claimed that I enjoy keeping fit and going to the gym, but it’s never been true before!
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