A not so typical Thanksgiving Day

It's the fourth Thursday of November and for Americans, that means it's Thanksgiving; our celebrations won't actually happen until tomorrow and Sunday.  Today started out like any normal day here, I got up, got ready, went to school to teach my classes.  The first one at 8:00am was a computer class, Internet & Email.  Not long after class started the power went out.  I explained as much as I could about the Internet, without actually using a computer to show them, at least their class manual has some good screen shots in it!  Then I gave them free time to study for the test they had the next period.  The other class I have Tuesday and Thursday mornings typically doesn't require anything that electricity is crucial to operate, I still had to change my lesson around a little, but nothing too bad.  The power finally came back on after we got back from lunch.  :)

The afternoon was much better, I showed a Planet Earth movie relating to what we have been discussing in Geography class and the students enjoyed it.  I also went pumpkin shopping with one of my roommates, the pumpkins here are pretty small and we will use them as table decorations tomorrow night when we celebrate with the students.  Then a local friend invited a couple teachers out to dinner, it turned out to be something more to the effect of showing off the Americans to a group of her friends, not just a small dinner with her.  We had to leave the dinner early to get back for study hall, at least I did and it provided the others with a good reason to head out early.

I got dropped off at the school gate just as study hall was about to start, walk up the stairs and find two students standing at the end of the hallway talking.  Turns out two girls got into a fight, hair was pulled, some punches were thrown.   Good times.  Our policy is that fighting is an immediate cause for suspension.  That means not only will the two students miss classes tomorrow and Monday, but they will not be allowed to participate in our Thanksgiving dinner.  That is a huge thing and carries a lot of importance because the students will plan a program to show their appreciation to the teachers.  So after we heard everyone involved side of the story and decided on the consequences, there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.  I'm not sure what we are going to do if they try to show up tomorrow evening; things could get really interesting then.

I have this theory that I get the difficult study hall nights.  Most of the time study hall is no big deal, sometimes I can get stuck in the computer lab the whole time answering questions, but it's usually pretty calm up there.  Last year, I got the night when one girl had kidney stones and was lying on a couch crying in pain.  In America I am much better equipped to handle the situation, I at least can speak the language, not so much over here.  I think that tonight's was probably worse than last year though.

So that was my Thanksgiving day, I'm glad that our celebrations weren't in the midst of this.  Hopefully the next couple days go a little smoother.  There is still a lot to for which I am thankful, I just hope you can enjoy your day a little more than I did mine!