After nearly three weeks off sick from my teaching job, I started back to work yesterday. It’s good to get back into the swing of things, but busy! My poor recovering body is already getting overworked. I felt kinda woozy while teaching my third class of the day yesterday, but one of my lovely students went up to the cafeteria and bought me an orange juice, so I was able to down it quickly to get my energy level back up.
Kids are funny, and really sweet. Choruses of “Welcome back, Miss!” or “Great to see you back, Madame!” have greeted me in the hallways, as well as looks of incredulity (cuz being away for 3 weeks is like being away for 3 YEARS in teenage time). Some students looked at me, mouth agape, as if I was a ghost that had come back from the dead. I quipped that I was like the epic phoenix, rising from the ashes, and in true teenage form, the reference was lost on most of them. LOL. Oh well. But the reception from students and colleagues has been really nice. I guess they kinda like me here after all… 😉
My classroom was an absolute disaster after more than two weeks of being away- with papers and books and left-behind articles of clothing strewn about (typically I corral my students and try to make sure that they don’t trash the classroom, but kids are kids…). My desk is also a nightmare- after leaving three weeks of assignments to be done and collected in my absence for my six classes (totalling about 100 kids), the amount of stuff to be sorted, graded, and filed is RIDICULOUS.
Not to mention that it is report card season!! Report cards are due on Monday. So I haven’t had the time to clean up my messy classroom- I’ve been a marking machine! I DID however find the time this morning to take some self-indulgent pictures of myself at work.
So this is me, the survivor, post-nightmarish hospital stay… A little older, a little wiser, a little slimmer, and a LOT more intent on making sure I don’t have to return to the hospital for a LOOOOOOOOOONG time:
Back to the grind!
11 Comments
I love the first pic! You look gorgeous…but too skinny! (says the 5'3" girl who weighs 40kgs)
Glad to hear you are well and back to work. Take it easy though so you don't get sick again!
LOL omg!! Thanks so much, Crystal! You know, it's pretty funny because everybody at work (even the students!) is like "ohmigosh you got so thin"… I guess that's what not being able to eat for a month will do to you… I'm steadily eating carbs and have gained back 6 of the 12 pounds I lost, so t'inquiète!
You are naturally petite! And gorgeous just as you are! Question: do get a lot of people "hating" on you because of your size… I know that in North America there is SO MUCH bashing on thin/petite women..If you do it must be soo freakin' annoying!!!
I've never noticed any "thin bashing" in France because as skinny as I am, I don't really 'stand out' in France as I did in Canada. In Canada, people were never really mean because I'm quite short and thin so I just looked 'petite' rather than tall and skinny (which got you called anorexic among other things)..and I have always had a healthy appetite and a great metabolism so the other girls were more jealous than mean 😉
I can see why you fit in in Asia. You are so thin! When I went there, I could almost hear people thinking, "Don't look at her hips, don't look at her hips, don't look at her hips, AHHH I looked!" And, I am fit but quite curvy so a bit of an outsider there.
@Crystal: Lucky you with the fast metabolism! I know that French girls on the whole are pretty slim, so it doesn't surprise me that you wouldn't stand out there. But in the States and Canada there is all this bashing/hating/accusing people of being anorexic- I know an overweight comedian who had a whole routine called "skinny bitches"… So discriminatory!
@Swirl: Honestly, I am considered big here (at least before I lost weight from being sick)… The girls in Asia are sooooo small, and I think it's altered my perception as to what I think is big!! What is considered a "small" in Canada or the U.S. is an X-Large here- no joke! I've had storekeepers in Hong Kong some of my fuller-figured friends that they were "too big" for the clothes on the rack. Hence, us Westerners tend to shop in Western clothing chains like H&M, where we know we can find stuff made to fit our bodies.
I admire your knack for travelling, over 40 countries, so impressive! I would love to do that one day, I will be a bad teacher though.
@grace: thanks for reading! why a bad teacher, though? teaching abroad is definitely a great way to see the world! i very much recommend it!
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