Slackin' Off

This week has been madness.

I have 8 private students now, and 3 more starting next week.
I picked up a private student at the school who's doing an intensive program of 7 hours a week.
I have my translation work w/ one of the universities here.
I have my regular classes at the school every night.

And now, I'm almost done with a quite lengthy application/interview process for an American company. They develop ESL material for online teaching programs. I can do it here in Brazil, but get paid on dollars! If it works out (which I'm pretty sure it will, since I'm on the last step: making part of a lesson plan using their methodology), I can quit all of my classes at the school (except for 1, in order to keep my foot in the door) and have almost complete control of my schedule. And be earning a salary that would be good in the US, therefore giving me a much easier life here in Brazil!

Thank you soooooo much to Robyn from Lovely Dharma for recommending it to me! Everybody read her blog and leave her comments and click on her ads. :op Maybe you can convince her to start writing again! :)

So anyway, Alexandre and I had plans this weekend. Big plans! One of his friends here from the hospital is having a big birthday party today at her parents' house 3 hours away. She invited about 10 of us for a free weekend of food and drinks and fun at her parents' large property.

We were totally planning to go. I asked for the day off work and everything. We had plans to carpool with another couple, who wanted to leave at 8:00am.

But when our alarm clock went off this morning, our plans changed. It was cold and rainy. The cat was cuddled up between us. The sink was still full of dishes from last night's dinner, and we still hadn't packed. I had had classes at the school on a Friday night because Thursday was a holiday and the classes got bumped. I had stayed up until 2:00am working on my lesson plan for the possible new job. Alexandre had had his own busy week. Waking up at 6:30am on a Saturday morning to drive 3 hours to a party and have to be awake and chipper until 2am seemed like the least fun thing in the world.

So Alexandre texted the other couple to say that the cat was sick (100% his idea) and that we were worried about leaving her alone. (His move was totally baby whiner, but I was tired and wasn't complaining.) I could've called my boss and offered to teach my Saturday class.

But instead I slept in until 12:30. It's 1:30 now, and raining. Alexandre still hasn't made his way out of the bedroom. I'm still in my pajamas, eating cereal and enjoying one of the first episodes of Sex and the City (with subtitles, of course).

I think I'm going to wake him up and suggest a big churrascaria lunch, and maybe some used furniture shopping. We still have only 1 table that I move back and forth from the dining room to my classroom. Now that I have so many private students, it requires 3 moves a day. ANNOOYYYIINNGGG.

So this is my slack off Saturday. Life is good.

Here's a video of what I've been listening to lately. It calms me down. Her name is Mariee Sioux. She's a friend of Joanna Newsom. It's about the hippiest thing I listen to. But if you're not a Joanna fan, you still may like her. Her voice is so nice. (No, really. It is.)

Clicky click:


If she's just too hippie for you, then may I recommend Horse Feathers? Still folk, with a wonderful soothing singer. More down-home and minus the hippie-ness. Plus violins and cellos.



I'll write when I know the results of my application process for the new job. :)