To whomever it may concern.. seriously!!

Okay.. so here it goes. I have been getting a lot of faux calls a.ka. calling-and-hanging up. The frustrating thing was, I am sure whoever that was at the end of the line were listening to me saying 'Hello' a couple of times before hanging up the phone. Sometimes it was unknown/private number sometimes there are phone numbers. I tried calling back a couple of times but after a while, I just got tired.

I get a few different numbers in a day. Sometimes the same number calling in different days. A couple of the numbers actually send me an sms, talking to someone who seems to be their girlfriend/boyfriend. At first I thought it was just a misent message but then I thought if they are having a relationship what are the chances of them calling and sending messages to the wrong number over and over again.

Although I have to admit that I rarely picked up the phone, most of them were missed calls, especially if the calls were made after my working hours as I spent most of my non-working hours at the gym. So... to whomever you/people are, if you're calling me coz you hate me, I'd say suggest you come out of the dark and confront me rather than stalking me like that, and likewise if you are trying to get my attention, I'm telling you.. I'll be more than happy to make friends... but...... if you are trying to impress me, better do it right.

Takeaway from the weekend

This is something that happened quite a lot, but it took me a while to actually sink in. It happened again almost everyday during the weekend. I went to a lot of conferences and seminars the past weekend, its basically seminars on special needs children. So as we would've guessed there are a lot of teachers, parents, psychologist, therapist, etc. One great thing about events like this was that we get to expand our networking system. I get to make friends with psychologists, therapists and lots other people who can help me with my work later on.

So, each time people would just come up during break time and talk, exchange phone numbers , exchange business cards and so on for future references. One thing that everybody said to me when they approach me was 'Hai there, are you a parent?', then I said 'No, I'm not married yet, I'm a teacher/counsellor for kids with special needs'. Then the same ol' response I got was 'Really, oh you look so young, aduh muda-muda uda jadi guru, pasti kamu guru paling muda ya di tempat kerja kamu'. And then that would be the time when you see a forced smile on my face.

The whole thing got me thinking. Since almost all of the people I met gave me the same approach, I was sort of forced to think about it and come to a very very very disturbing statement.

Apparently, I'm too young to be working but I'm just at the right age to be a parent.

Seriously.. what kind of crap is that??

Warning!! You might experience some unwanted stress after reading this.

I have to say.. now, I know what its like to work under pressure!! Let me tell you.. it was unpleasant. Eversince I got back from Melbourne, I only got to enjoy around 2 weeks of relaxing. After that it was hell all the way. It was soo bad that I didn't even realize that I've been working every saturday for the past few weeks.

Its the school holiday period, and everybody must've thought 'hmn, how nice for people who work in schools coz they get holidays'. well.. WRONG! There are vacation program (a.k.a summer school) in the place I work in. And being the only overseas graduate it wasn't pleasant coz I get to do most (if not all) of the work. Mind you, everything is new to me at this point.. but would they caree?? Of course not.

Here's an example. At the beginning, I was told that I'll be assisting a teacher (a.k.a the owner who decided to participate during vacation program) in a class. However, a few days before the program starts they told me that I will be the teacher while the owner - who's supposed to be in charge - will be assisting. So there I was, trapped in a place where I don't want to be. I rushed and make a lesson plan in an hour (which are usually done in a week or so), I also have to make the list of equipments and materials and get them myself (usually all the materials are reported to the supervisors and they ordered it). And as if it wasn't enough, I was also asked to plan activities during Kids Day in some restaurants and malls, for promotional thing. And, as a counsellor, I need to prepare hell-a-lot of stuff for my special needs children (currently Autistic, Speech Delay, Down Syndrome kids), and before I do that, I have to look at their individual report (clinical, behavioural - usually a whole stack of report just for 1 kid), then I can make lesson plan (again, individual lesson plan for each special needs kid).

To top it off, this weekend I get to skip my Kids Day at a mall thing, no.. no.. not for relaxing. Instead, my weekend are going to be filled with conferences, seminars and workshops. How nice!!

Something funny.....

Something funny happened today while I was in the classroom with my 5 year olds students..

During our journal writing session, me and 3 kids were sitting around the table. It was a free writing day, where they can write about anything they want. They were struggling to pronounce some of the words out loud as it is going to make the spelling and writing easier. Some of them were asking me questions like 'Miss Sylvia, how do you spell the word 'restaurant'? and etc. One of the kids were sitting there and just brainstorming as she got stuck. She have no idea on what she's going to write. After around 15 minutes, she got frustrated. Her friend who was sitting next to her came to her rescue.

(+) ~ is my student who is confused on what to write
(-) ~ is my other student who tried to help her confused friend.. and..
(Me) ~ is me

(+) What am I suppose to write aboutt?? I don't know what to write.
(Me) Write about your holiday to Korea... (while sharpening a box pencils)
(+) No.. (while shaking her head)
(-) Why don't you write about your weekends.. or your family.. or your pets?
(+) (Still shaking her head)
(-) Or.. you can write that Miss Sylvia is very pretty and she's also our favourite teacher.

I stopped doing whatever I was doing and was just surprised. Keep in mind that I was also trying very very hard not to burst out laughing.. because I would have to spent at least 15 minutes on explaining why I was laughing. Instead I did the next safe thing, I said thank you. Then I thought to myself.. since when does 5 year olds starts learning to kiss ass?

Reminisce

This time it felt as if I was forced to feel it all again. Although we never really walked the streets of Melbourne together, somehow everything seems to be filled with memories of you. Getting a surprise and very sweet phone call when I was waiting for the tram or a romantic message when I was walking in Melbourne Central. Maybe its because, for the whole time I was there, my heart was always filled with you. That is what made it all different, back then you were in my heart the whole time. This time I'm still walking the same streets but there's no more you in my heart or at least that's what I keep telling myself.