Day 15

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I recall I said last Friday, that Friday was a day for things going wrong. Well, this Friday things went wrong too.

We got assignment two back, all marked and graded...and I think every single one of us has to resubmit for one reason or another. In my case it's because I didn't define "Souvenir" with sufficient rigour and I missed out some phonetic symbols in the definition of "Sightseeing".

Of my subgroup of five, two were scheduled to teach. One called in sick with a bronchial infection - absolutely genuine I'm sure given how ill she's been. And the other's lesson relied on taped monologues. The tape managed to get twisted and play backwards - something I've only seen once before when I made it happen deliberately as an experiment at age ten.

The new coursebook we teach from is a pile of poo. The instructors know it, the trainees and learners know it. It is actually easier to design a whole sixty minute lesson from scratch than bash the provided modules into usable shape.

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Us trainees are showing strain in different ways. One's had a nonstop pounding headache for two days, another breaks out in acne, a third has severe insomnia, one simply hasn't turned up, some have constant colds. I just feel like crying or shouting at odd moments, and get entranced by displacement activity, neither of which is especially helpful.

I've somehow managed to lose half a stone in weight over the last three weeks, living on sugary coffee and sandwiches stuffed with saturated fats and the cheapest ingredients. Half the others have lost similar amounts.

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We are, somehow, three quarters of the way through, and there's a feeling of being on the home run. The obstacles are worse in the final week, but the end is in sight.

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