Fergus and Lee

My classmates and I are fortunate to have two very experience teachers with us this session. Fergus is from Ireland and at 6 ft 7 in he is one of the sweetest beanpoles you will ever meet. I don't know how much more Irish you can get with a name like Fergus Fadden. He originally went to school to study to be a lawyer and worked in corporate law for two years. One day (I have yet to ask him the story) he decided to switch and left the country to go teach English all over the world. I know so far he lived in Spain for two years, most recently was in Brazil for four, and currently is in Novia Scotia. He is the youngest of a family of eight. Like my little sister Deborah, he was a caboose in his family as there is a seven year age gap between him and his other 7 siblings. He pretty close with them all though as he tells us all the time he spoke with one brother one day and another sibling the next. In fact, our vocab lesson this morning was about odd terms his father had for things around the house. I can understand why his dad calls the remote control the "clicker," but as to why in the world he calls the microwave the "shlammer" is beyond me. I told Fergus we had a term in English for "slammer" to which he then informs me his dad was a cop. Not sure if there was meant to be any correlation.

Lee on the other hand is British. It is really hard to tell when he's trying to be funny and when he's not. We did find out he is married, his wife is pregnant and they are expecting in December. One of our sessions was suggesting ideas for names. He didn't like any of the Hungarian ones I recommended. I guess his wife and him currently reside in Venezuela. He has been through 63 countries.

These two have been involved in the world of English as a Second Language teaching for years. They've made careers out of it. From what I can gather, it sounds a little like a vagabond sort of life style. They both have come to San Diego to teach this class, and of course, to explore. Just this past weekend they took off to go to the Grand Canyon. I thought they were brave because we were having a hot weekend in Escondido. What the temperature was in Arizona, I don't want to know.

Overall they've been great. Believe it or not though I've somehow become the class clown of the group. Nobody seems to crack jokes or make others laugh as often as I do. Just the other day Fergus was laughing at something I did. After teaching a lesson I had to put on my self reflection sheet what I had learned from the lesson. My response was, "Grammar is painful." Well, I really think it is. To Learn AND to teach.

I took Sasha and JayJay to La Jolla Cove Friday night. Out on the rocks there were seals all over the place. We could walk right up to them and they didn't flinch at all. They were so used to humans. I even saw a baby one curled up with it's mom. Sasha says so far that has been her favorite part of her trip.

She came over for dinner on Sunday also. Deborah was having some people over and cooking, so I though she could get an in-depth look to how things are done in the USA. When you're away from home for a time period, it's always nice to be in a cozy home that's stable.

Life plods on at home. This past Sunday I reflected on the time periods when I actually enjoyed going to church and felt I got something out of it instead of feeling obligated to go and dreading it. We picked up Martha once again who was wearing her helmet, hot pink tight leggings, and a white t-shirt that said San Diego on it.

I guess she's okay making a continual fashion statement.