I just roughly calculated how much time I have spent at class or studying in the last five days. About... 70 hours. The janitor actually asked me to turn out the lights when I left one evening, as he got fed up waiting for me to go. I'm the last student here again tonight, which I think is developing into my 'role'... first to arrive, last to leave. Not such a bad role to play.

I suppose.

I cried in class today. This stuff is INTENSE. I didn't know that there was SO MUCH that I didn't know about the English language. I seriously regret not committing all of the verb tenses to memory before starting this course.

Shall I fill you in?

I’m taking the CELTA course at Global Village in Vancouver. It’s a high-speed wham-bam of a course, aimed at getting me certified to teach English as a second language to adult learners. That’s the gist of it. I think I might have already mentioned as much… I had no idea HOW crazy it was going to be. It’s crazy. CRAZY-crazy. And wonderful. I won’t regret a minute of it when I am a teacher, of that I’m certain. Even the crying part will serve its purpose.

There are ten of us taking this course together; most of us are Canadian, though there’s an American guy that we tease every time he says ‘copy’ or ‘roof’ or ‘college’ (I suppose we’re getting back on behalf of all those Canadians out there who have been hassled for their ‘eh’s’), and a girl from… Israel, I believe? and another girl who grew up in India but who lives in Canada now. Should that be ‘whom lives in Canada now’? Good Lord, I’ve got a grammatical conscience. Yikes.

There is a TESOL course being taught simultaneously in our department; this course is for non-native speakers of English who think they might like to teach English in their home countries. The students are all Korean or Japanese. I spend more time talking with them during the breaks than I do with my own classmates. I guess it’s partly because most of my classmates are constantly oozing panicked anxiety, and I keep unintentionally sponging it up. The TESOL students aren’t studying at the same frenetic pace, and therefore seem to be a little more laid-back and cheery. They certainly don’t whine as much as my classmates do. Could be a cultural thing, too.

I’m living in Vancouver now, with my friend’s friend, Pat. Though now I think I can claim him genuinely as my friend as well. Last night I went to FRIGHT NIGHT with him and his four friends, and brought Akihiro (one of the TESOL students) along. It was crazy-busy; today turned out to be a Pro-D day, so every boogermuncher in Vancouver was whooping it up at the PNE last night. We waited nearly two hours in line for one haunted house which turned out to be painfully lame. I felt really bad for Aki, who was a good sport about it. But we soldiered on; after 10:30 pm the crowd began to thin a bit and we managed to get a couple of rides in (one on the Corkscrew coaster and one on the Crazy Beach Party ride) and we went through the Toxic Nightmare haunted house, which was pretty creepy. Sufficiently creepy anyway—Aki just about had a heart attack at one point when some costumed madman leapt out at him! There were some really neat costumed creepers zombie-ing around the park… a ‘dead’ couple, an insane clown posse, spooky stilt-walkers, etc. They would just kind of smoothly saunter up to people who weren’t paying attention and scare the crap out of them; I could usually tell where they were by the screams. Although one of the sinister clowns got me good while I was zoning out in the line-up for the Crazy Beach. He appeared out of nowhere and suddenly yelled “BONJOUR!” in my face in his scary clown voice. Predictably, I shrieked. Aki was disturbed that he didn’t say “Bonsoire,” seeing that it was the evening.

Anyway. That was last night. I paid for my late night of fun with tears in class today… I don’t foresee going out on weeknights for the rest of the duration of this course!

I’ll try to write whenever I can grab a few free moments, though it seems unlikely at this stage in the game. Know this: I love this course. It’s exhausting, but it is SO rewarding. If you think of me, send me some good vibes, I could use them! (Thank you, in advance!)

Namaste

Endrene