I had a chat with my boss the other day regarding my supposed to be pay raise for doing this new work I do with the little ones.. She said it's not happening this year, I thought she meant year 2009, but then she said no, she meant defintitely no pay increase for school year 2009-2010 and we'll see what the next schoolyear brings us. So that means not until when?

I know, I know, with budget cuts and lay-off nowadays, we should be happy with what we are getting. I am thankful for my job. However, the only thing I don't understand was:  why she lied to me that she would give me and my colleague a new salary package when she told us that she and  the board  decided to add more children in my class than planned till end of the year (3 more) and give me another assistant.

It's probably just to calm me down with the extra work of having more children. Well what can I say? Nothing. I did my best. I said all the arguements I could think of. At the moment I really cannot do much, just be thankful for a job, carry on and study more. At the end of this , I really learned not to trust my boss especially after  after doing all that hard work setting up a new class and a new curriculum.

So I need to count my blessings, I really get on well with my colleague. The other one I am still training and she is already giving me the headache but at least it's better than not getting anyone and still getting more work.

Just talking to a friend a while ago and realised that in 2 weeks it's December. Time flies indeed....


We still don't have definite plans for Christmas and New Year's, but one thing is for sure we will stay here in Germany. Just don't know if we'll  go to friends or if our friends will come here and join for one of those holidays.. Nevertheless I am looking forward to the 3 week holiday - hurray!

And speaking of holidays next week, we have a long weekend. Since I work in an international school, we also celebrate the American Thanksgiving. So it's Thursday and Friday off for me and we plan to visit my cousin and her husband who lives in an American base down South. So looking forward to visiting some family and enjoying the weekend which would probably mean a lot of eating and turkey.


To brighten this gloomy, gray November days I decided to post some pictures of flowers we had in our garden last summer.Aren't they beautiful?

Hope to see them bloom again next year. We planted some of them from seeds and they turned out really well.



Well that's it for now and see you in my next post. Have a great week everyone.

These flowers are called sneezeweed, aren't they pretty? The bees love them. Kayni a blog friend, asked about it so some of you may want to know it as well.




Well that's it for now and see you in my next post. Have a great week everyone

This week went so fast - since the last three days I've only had 3 kids in my classroom. Due to the swine flu invasion in our school, we have 3 cases to date. Parents decided to either have the kids vaccinated or let them stay at home. On normal days I would have had 12 children and starting December, 15.

The health department said  it will get worst actually so we need not panic now. Apparently some kids might have gotten it already but they just didn't know about it because the doctors don't test them unless you really insist on it.

There is too much panic ongoing but really Swine Flu is just a normal flu - other than it being really contagious and dangerous to high risk people like pregnant women, people with chronic lung/heart diseases and children under 2 years old. Well most flu and other sickness are dangerous to such people anyway. Some of my colleagues wanted to close the kindergarten,  which would have been nice but nevertheless not so because then we have to do a super., super  general cleaning, which I am not fond of at all. I clean the shelves and the materials every week and that's it.

I don't know if I should even take the vaccine. I am still contemplating on it.. hmmm...

Another week - another gray week. If you are suffering from a depression or some sort of sadness, this month would not help you to cheer up a bit but rather it will help you to feel  sadder than sad. Rainy, gray, foggy, overcast skies and a wet day... that's all there is to it the past few weeks. Although I dread each end of the month because of my essay deadlines, I really can't wait till it's December and there is at least something to look forward to than the dreadful weather of November - Christmas  and of course the long Christmas holidays! Hurra!

We still don't have plans for Christmas, our supposed to be plan to go to the Philippines has been cancelled due to unexpected reasons. We hope to fly soon when the skies this side of the world are not as gray as it is at the moment. Just to end this post I will share the last rays of summer taken at the banks of the Main River last September.
Prost!

This was probably one of the best days of September, where The V. and I decided to go and have a drink along the river and head for  a hearty German meal at the end of the evening (sauerkraut, lots of meat and potatoes). I accidentally deleted the photos so could not show you anymore - such humongous portion, it's enough to feed a family!

Yes, it's still November but it's not too early to think of Christmas - in the Philippines once the month has a  --ber ending then  Christmas is in the air. So as early as September we  start to think of Christmas and count the days, once in a while even hear a bit of Christmas carols.

So why Christmas in a shoebox? Our church decided to join this program where one can put some things in a shoebox for a child who normally could not get any  Christmas gifts this time of the year because of financial reasons.
This box  which is really a shoe box  wrapped with christmas wrapping, is filled with assorted materials like a litle toy, some kind of clothing, sweeties, writing materials, toiletries and of course a card or a picture from the giver.
What a nice way to start the holiday season! Now we are all sending these boxes early because those packages have to go a long way!Deadline is November 15 - so if you are anywhere in  Germany, Austria or Switzerland - why not click on the link, maybe you are interested as well. There are lots of drop off points where you can hand in your shoebox.

I'm not sure if you have this in other countries- maybe? Let me know.

The house smells of chocolate - I am baking chocolate cake from a box but I don't think it really tastes good - the smell is exhilirating though and if it's not worth eating at least I enjoyed its scent.

October is almost over and this weekend I am going to do my- hibernation from the world also known as essay writing. I've been living the last 8 years here in Germany and it dawned on me while I was talking to a friend of ours who we have known since I came here  that since they knew me - I have always been studying! The last 8 years ! When I met them I couldn't even speak German yet. I was studying German. After I have learned German and passed some profiency exams. I still  couldn't find work so I went to another course which could tell me what to do and do some practicum to find what I can do. These friends would listen to me now speaking in  German about my plans and options.  But yet I still went to school everyday!

After that this school advised me  do a career change and study again. So I went to find another school and started studying to be a kindergarten teacher -yes all in german! My friends would always think of me and wish me all the best for my exams. After passing my exams and doing all my practicum and some exams again - I've gotten a job and didn't see much of my friends. But we talk once in a while.

Yesterday we went to their house and they asked me the same questions just like from the very  beginning of my life here and  I realised that I am back to where we started years ago - I am studying again and it seems like forever! I am really not a studious person! My mom told me I am an intelligent girl then again what kind of mom would she be if she doesn't tell me that I am  not intelligent or beautiful ? Is it possible that the brain starts to lose its intelligence -  I mean is there still some left after studying so much. I find myself forgetting tiny glimpses and moments in my past life which is really sad - those brain nerves must have been taken over by conjugated german verbs and theories of childhood development.

Oh and I've finished this post and the chocolate cake is not so delicious so I put some american chocolate frosting which we all know is also not real chocolate ;) Gotta go now for some real freshly grounded brewed coffee with a not so chocolatey but very brown cake..

In honor of my 38th birthday I thought I will make a post about it. Since I just turned 28 38, I decided to write about myself. Here goes - 38 things about me.

1. Savoury vs sweets? Savoury - definitely.
2. I worked in a cruise ship to see the world  and travelled from North to South America in 9 months.
3. My favourite colour is yellow although I don't have yellow things.
4. My best friend in high school was a boy - his girls hated me!
   
5. I got so drank in college, I woke up the next day lying on our door mat.
6. I made a list of 100 things I wanted to do when I was 28 years old ( 10 years ago!!!! ) and one of them is to live in a foreign country, breathe, cry and laugh in their language  und jetzt bin ich hier in Deutschland, atme und lache und weine und esse viele Würstchen und und ....(and now I am in Germany, breathing, laughing and crying and eating lots of sausages and and..)
7. I have worked on a beautiful private island and walked along the beach before sleeping,  went for dives on my break and watched beautiful sunsets before going to the toilet.
8. I wanted to go to Africa and teach underpriveleged children and nowI am teaching children of the richest people in our area.
9. I am a very clumsy person, I almost never wear white!
   
10. I can eat chicken everyday! 
11. I go to  a bible study every other Sunday.
    
12. I was a working student in college - supporting myself partly from my meager Mc Donald's salaries, a scholarship and my mom when she could.
13. I started this blog  in February 2005.
14. I love the scent of citrus.
    
15. I eat the same flavour of ice cream wherever I go - peppermint!
16. I love to cook and imagine how a dish would taste before I cook it then I figure out what to put in it.
    
17. My fondest childhood memory is dipping my finger  in a big steel drum of molasses somewhere in the sugarcane fields of Pangasinan.
18. I was sent to the principal's office only one time in my life - I stuck a pen upside down before my classmate sat on it.
19. Back in high school, my stepfather asked me to light his cigarette for him and try it - it was horrible. Maybe that's why I don't and wouldn't smoke cigarettes.
20. I love old music - 60,`s, 70's and 80's.
    
21. I love cats.
22. Spring is my favourite season because it reminds me so much of my hometown Baguio where it is forever spring except during typhoon season.
23. I am working on my 3rd diploma and hope to finish it before I turn 40.
24. I'm a great procrastinator.
25. I failed  french because I was always late in class and Monsieur D. gave me a mark of failure due to absences before I could  have my finals. I was always late only because of no. 12.
26. I sleep with my socks on.
27. If there is a soundtrack to my life one of the songs in it should be You Gotta Be from Desree.
28. I read endings of books before I start to read it.
    
29. I'm a night person. I am most active in the evenings. 
30. In relation to the above statement, I hate waking up early.
31. There was a slight moment in my life that I wanted to get a tattoo but could not think of a design - I am so glad I did not do it.
32.  I have a garden with raspberries, rhubarbs, strawberries, mint, sage and lots of thorny roses.
33.  I don't like roses and orchids.
    
34. When I was in grade 1, I danced on my own with Chic's Le Freak  in front of the whole school. What confidence! The teachers must have thought that was hilarious.
35. My family thought I danced like a grasshopper, my teachers probably too.
36. Dancer or singer - singer!
37. My husband and I speak with each other in our  third language (mine: tagalog, english, german; his: bulgarian, russian, german)
38. I think writing 38 random things was difficult. I think you should try it.