Ellen In Amerika!"MY EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND MY ADJUSTMENT TO LIFE IN CALIFORNIA SINCE SEPTEMBER 2008"

Sorry, already a week has passed by. Things are pretty busy here, but I do not complain. Every morning I love it when I can bike to school and be there for the students. It is so great to see when the children react more responsively toward me and that they actually like to see me every morning Of course there are several occasions when the children do not react so nice. Like, one of the girls had to stop bad behavior, and in response to my firm request to be a good girl, she hit me with her nails in my face, and gave me an upper lip that Angelina Jolie would be jealous of. And, what about a boy in our class, who loves to spit in your face, when you ask him to go in line because recess is over. Apparently, he does not want to go back to the class. Bummer! I already have a big scratch on my neck, a bruise on my arm and the thick lip. But do not worry, I still love to work with the little devils. They are most of the time great kids, who are very special.

Last Friday Dan, Ryan and I went to the mall in Ventura. Dan went to a book store, I vanished into Macy’s, Target and Payless Shoes. and Ryan did his thing. It is sale time, the best time of the year. I saw some great shoes, the so called shape up sneakers. Payless has them now too, and they have the sale, second shoes half the price. Because of my weak  and painful Achilles tendon, I was thinking of buying a pair. This evening, we went to a local Payless store and bought two pair of them. They walk as if you are on cushions. And so far, it seems to help support me with walking.

Saturday morning we went to the gym. The rest of the day was filled with cleaning and doing groceries. For Sunday, I had invited my Dutch friends to come over for dinner. I did not have to work at the hospital, so that would not cause a problem…Yeah right…At 7.15 AM Sunday morning, the phone rings;  my colleague Maria at the hospital. “Ellen, should you not be at the hospital in Camarillo?” I said, I do not think so, but I stepped out of bed to check my printed schedule for this week. Phew, I was right. But, apparently, my manager had changed the schedule last Friday, without telling me I was having the Sunday morning shift. I told Maria that I cannot help it, that I have had made my plans for that day, and that they should have asked me ahead if I was available. She understood. 5 minutes later the supervisor called me and he said, I had to hang on to my print out, because they already hang up the new schedule, so I have prove that I was indeed not supposed to work. How they’ve solved it, I do not know. But I sent an email to my manager, that I hope in the future, they will call me ahead if they need to reschedule my shifts. Then, I can be as diligent as I always am toward my job in the hospital. My manager wrote back later : “I will.”

After those phone calls, I could not sleep anymore. It did not matter that much, because I had to make the preparations for the Dutch friends dinner. But before I started, I first called my sister Marja, who was having her birthday. We had a short but very warm talk! For dinner, I made chicken with curry, pineapple and rice, fish with curry and sate. I had  yellow Squash soup as a starter. I managed to find kroepoek (shrimp chips), but they tasted horrible.  My friends brought food with them too, so we had a complete meal for all of us. We had a wonderful evening, and I was very happy it was a success. Then, dishwashers are a blessing, lol.

Monday was a holiday. We went to the gym and the rest of the day was filled with trivial things and lot of reading in the backyard. A great labor-day weekend!

Today, I had another interview for another school for a permanent position. The interview went, as the previous one, great. I could answer the questions quickly and felt I had done my preparations well. Again, we will see how the results will be.

So, that’s it for now. How was your weekend, and are you having special plans for the rest of the week?