Paris was so wonderful and romantic- I didn't want to leave. In fact it seems so far away now- the only holiday I have to look forward to is in summer which is a long way away (unlike my boyfriend who gets to go to Texas and New York in March with his band...jealous??!! Moi??). Anyway school is fairly normal; the playground was covered in ice this morning and one of my S1 pupils fell over because he was messing about, despite the fact that I had warned him to get a move on when I was walking by him. Is it cruel that it brought a smile to my face when he turned up late to class with scabby, cold hands?! Probably a bit, but I don't care!

Like you previously, I teach outwith the main school building in delapidated huts! Still, I quite like the anonymity and the fact that you're outside the chaos of the main building, which can get very hot, very crowded and extremely hectic at times. It's our own microcosim of school life; the English Department against the world. We have the government inspectors in just now so it's pretty tense, but to be honest I'm not fussed; I'll just keep doing what I do and hopefully that will suffice. Still, it's another hectic and exhausting day over...and one day closer to the Easter holidays! I'm off to watch 'ER' and relax...

Here's a photo of my husband and I in our parkas. My husbands is lined with Musk Ox and trimmed out with red fox. Mine is lined with sheep skin and trimmed with Arctic Fox. I am also wearing seal skin mittens and a beaver hat. We don't have a car in Brevig but you can see our transportation in the background.

The first day back to school was very exciting for my students and me. A year and a half ago we got an addition on the school. The addition was a new junior high and high school wing. It basically doubled the size of our school. It was a much needed addition, the older and younger students were always on top of each other. Anyway, we also had money available for a remodel of the elementary wing. The work for that has been going on all school year and it was finally completed after the Christmas break. We had crammed the elementary in with the older students or in out buildings. I had actually been teaching in a building separate from the main school. So every time my students had lunch or activities in the school we had to get our winter gear on and trudge outside. But not anymore, we are in the school, we have a big beautiful new classroom and a gymnasium to play it. My poor little kids have not run around for any part of the day until now. I think it’s terrible to be 5 years old and just sit all day. I think kids need to be kids and run free at times.

Since my husband and I were not out of town during the holidays, we ended up working on moving classrooms and supplies into the new school. We both put in many hours during our “holiday” so that the school would not be a disaster when the other teachers came back. Since we haven’t had time off since August, we decided to take a week off in February. I have 6 personal days available for me to use this school year so we are going to go to the desert, Tucson, Arizona. My girlfriend lives there so we’ll get to catch up with her, and I have never seen the desert so it’ll be a new experience for me. It’s also going to be warm! Yeah! I think it’ll make the rest of the cold, dark winter more bearable. How was your trip to Paris?

That’s great that you’re going out on a limb and pursuing a new career path. Too many people are afraid to take chances like that. But I say, go for it, what’s the worse that could happen? I feel like I have a great work situation. I don’t teach up here because I love it more than anything (though, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy it). But it does allow me to do things that I really am passionate about. 1) Spend a lot of time with my husband. 2) Travel. We get over 2 months off each summer and can spend that time experiencing new parts of the world and catching up with family. It’s perfect. Anyway, life is too short to just think about doing what you really love.

I am totally and utterly exhausted! Today was the first day back after the Christmas holidays...I awoke after the most sleepless night I think I have ever had (I spent all night worrying about how my S4 class would react when I told them they were moving seats) to a dark, stormy and damp morning. Despite my doom and gloom, I didn't get caught in any traffic jams on the way to work and the kids were, on the whole, not that bad...well apart from my S2 class who took 20 minutes (that's right, 20 minutes!) to calm down at the end of the day and get some bloody work done! Everyone seemed really bummed about being back at school- pupils and teachers alike- and to be frank, most of my lessons were utterly shambolic; I think I was too tired to focus on anything other than keeping the wee ones in their seats!

Still, it's a new year and I've made the bold decision to take a break from my high flying educational career and concentrate on something I'm actually really passionate about (writing stuff and having fun) once this academic year is over, so fingers crossed my plan comes to fruition by the end of the summer holidays in August or else I'm really screwed!!

So, like I said...day one of being a teacher in 2007 is down...only till June to go!