After teaching my 4th and final lesson for the first week of my two week CELTA training, I was happy to meet up with my old NeWP friend Cathie for a local’s tour of the town and some really good barbecue. We decided to go to Pappy’s Place, which is a tiny little bistro attached …
CELTA I feel like I have told some people that I’m doing this CELTA thing, but not many really understand it. Quite frankly, I’m not 100% certain I get it myself, so I’m writing about it to work through and untangle the mystery. According to Cambridge, CELTA stands for “Certification in Teaching English to Speakers …
July 4th, 2017 Springfield, Missouri, USA The video pretty much says it all. Blake and I ended up watching Sense8 after a long, long trip to the Steak & Shake, which has really cheap food, and really slow service (but I still recommend it). As we are here teaching English to language learners, we were …
As I am sitting here in my room in Springfield, Missouri, it feels like this is good practice for my move to Latvia which happens in just three weeks. In 22 days, I’ll be on a plane headed for Milan, Italy, and then on August 1, I’ll be in Riga, Latvia. So everything here and …
Greetings from CELTA bootcamp in Springfield, Missouri! The odd timing had us starting our CELTA teaching on Monday, July 3, and now we have a day of rest, a hiatus, a stoppage, a pause before our teaching assignment begins in earnest on Wednesday. So I am taking this day to wrestle with some thoughts through …
I decided to quit Facebook… again. This will be my third attempt to get this social media monkey off my back. I knew I had a problem when I found myself checking my phone for updates, posting all the time, and just sifting through posts that I had seen more than once before. “Show me …
He’s Leaving Home I was trying to go to sleep to be fresh and ready for Wednesday. I have an early morning AP Comp class, but something inside of me just needed to write. I have been contemplating how to phrase all of what I am feeling for weeks now, and I suppose it’s time …
The Epilogue In some cases, this might be called the “What did we learn?” segment. I think epilogue is appropriate. I wrote most of this on the plane as I flew home next to a hyperactive little kid and a father trying his best to be patient. Writing was therapeutic. Now I’m editing listening to …
Riga: Die Fledermaus Thursday, January 5 Because life loves me sometimes, I was given the opportunity to attend the Latvian National Opera. If you ever go to Riga, this building is one of the landmark treasures that you see any time you go to Old Town or walk through the main parks. It looks beautiful …
Salaspils on Thursday January 5, 2017 Bruno set up a plan to come pick me up on Thursday morning, 11 a.m., and then take me back to Riga. There, I would spend the night at his flat, and we would drive to the airport together on Friday morning. Again, I didn’t really sleep on Wednesday …