It isn’t often, dear reader, that I post personal stuff on this blog as you know. But when those things affect my teaching, then this blog becomes quite important as it allows me to work through the issue to possibly come to a solution of some kind. To be honest, the issue may have started last Sunday. The reason I didn’t blog about it in last Tuesday’s post is because it didn’t feel like an issue then. It’s swiftly turned into one, however. What happened was just this, the house begin to twitch. No, no, that’s not right. Let’s try this again. On Sunday last week we to the gym to workout. I taught and then went to see friends. I had my normal VIPKid zoom drinks and fell asleep. I woke on Monday to some strange sensations in my feet. The best way to describe it is pins and needles. What I thought was a sensation that would surely end, didn’t. I cannot feel my feet. I did go to the GP and they have referred me to a neurologist as I may have slipped a disc or have a pinched nerve. I also took the precaution of scheduling a physical therapy appointment but the doctor said to hold off until after the neurology visit. What this means for my teaching is quite clear.
I taught last week with this feeling and it is affecting my balance as I’m not able to stand very well or do all of the interactive movements that I normally do when teaching my students, like jumping or running or walking to teach those verbs. It’s not the best sensation in the world, and it makes walking around and getting to work considerably more difficult than it needs to be because I cannot currently feel changes in pavement or feel depth as I step down or up. I have also started noticing sharp pains in my back, though those are intermittent. We will have to see what neurology says on Thursday. Speaking of, as much as I love living in the Netherlands, I often panic because I don’t speak enough Dutch and feel that people don’t speak enough English here to actually understand complicated descriptions of a medical nature. Still, I’ll muddle through somehow.
Rest assured, you will know almost as soon as I do what’s happening and what the prognosis is but right now I’m just trying not to be totally terrified.
The conversation playground is a no go which means that I need to figure out my schedule for next week. I had kept it closed to both VIPKid and the English center, in anticipation of a Boot Camp for the conversation playground. But there wasn’t enough interest. It is the way of the English teaching world in Amsterdam so I opened my schedule to VIPKid. Yesterday morning I woke to 7 hours of teaching for the week. Out of 21 hours. Well, on the bright side, it took over three years for the ridiculous amount of hiring to kick me in the ass.
Over in the writing world I have canceled further writing sessions through October, as the search of a new location has to commence. With the changng of the schedule at the bookstore, this has now become imperative. I rather dread trying to find a new location but people have been sending in suggestions. It’s going to be a whil,e however. Covid numbers in the Netherlands continue to rise as people continue to be stupid. New restrictions came out last week and we wait to see if there will be more strict ones. Apparently the mandatory wearing of masks has passed the second chamber, which I understand is The Netherlands’ version of the US Congress. It remains to be seen whether mandatory mask wearing nationally will be advocated in the first chamber. For myself, I have been wearing masks inside stores and trying to normalize the feeling of having a mask indoors, and sometimes even out, if the population density in an area is too much for me to handle.
A small part of me fears that this ridiculous insane 2020 will kill the Writers Group, but I am trying to remain optimistic that it will not as most of us are in touch.
That’s all she wrote for this Inkreadable installment. But stay tuned. As always, there is more to come.
Inkreadable 