Birthday blues

Wanna be turned inside out, tested within an inch of your life, and be made terrified? Try TEFL! You'll spend your Birthday writing a lesson plan to introduce the concepts of no none any to a handful of stony-eyed Slavs who can't string an english sentence together much better than you can a Czech one. You'll you turn 26 preparing for a day of mutual incomprehension, frustration, and possible tears.

Ok, I'm being melodramatic! But this business is hard, hard. hard. I long for some garrulous Spaniards or Agressive Ruskis. Anything but the silent czechs! To be fair, though, I loved my Advanced class the other day--who talked and talked quite happily about homelessness, the war in Iraq, and mandatory English in schools. Its just those beginners who'll get you down. No matter how hard you try--even how hard they try--you'll never seem to convey a single solitary thing.