My sitting muscles feel well used today . . .

I've always heard about clothing items shrinking in the wash, but I've never actually seen it happen. Honestly, I always thought of it as sort of an urban legend, or at least something exaggerated by companies trying to sell new dryers. But no, yesterday I was sticking some clothes into the washing machine in a bit of a hurry (I wanted to get outside for a walk while it was still light out) and stuck a sweater in there without noticing it. Two hours later, I pulled out the sweater, which had, in fact, shrunk. Drastically, dramatically, and permanently.

So . . . anyone have a baby or a doll in the market for a green sweater?

Today was one of those days where I was expecting to get things done and instead was forced to sit around, which is annoying. Tuesday is usually my busiest day - I have class in the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth periods. Today would have been even busier, too, since I was planning to have the first meeting of the English discussion group I'm starting at school at the end of the day, after the seventh period.

Yesterday, though, the teacher I'm with in the third and fourth periods told me that she wouldn't be at school - she was taking another class to an English theater workshop. Then, the teacher of the fifth period class told me that I didn't need to come, since the students were taking a test. So, I was basically looking at a big gap between the first and sixth periods. I spent the time preparing a lesson for tomorrow, reading the paper, and doing some thumb twiddling.

Then, in the middle of the fifth period, my Betreuungslehrer - which basically means "mentor;" he's the person who's sort of in charge of me and who I'm supposed to go to if I have problems - came and told me that the sixth period class where I was supposed to be would have only six members; the others were going to the English theater group I mentioned before. So, instead of doing the lesson with them and then having to catch the others up, he'd decided to just have them watch The Graduate (they were reading a coming of age short story, so it was sort of not tangential). So I went up and watched it with them. It's a very funny movie, but it wasn't like I needed to be there to watch it.

Well, I thought, at least I have the first meeting of the English group. Yeah, that didn't exactly turn out as expected either. First of all, the room I'd planned to use, and that my Betreuungslehrer (oh, let's just call him Bl) told me was free, was already in use - luckily by a teacher I knew, so I was able to explain the confusion and apologize. Then, the students who had expressed interest in coming to the group came by and told me that they were sorry, but their Cambridge English course - which the Bl is also responsible for organizing - was at the same time as I'd planned the meeting, so they couldn't come. There was only one person there from another class, and after waiting vainly for about ten minutes, I thanked her and let her go.

So, it's been sort of a frustrating day. I don't mind finding another time to have the English group, especially since I'm grateful that people are actually interested in it. I'm just feel like I sat around for nothing, and it's disheartening to realize that the Bl, while he's very nice, is not exactly the most reliable source of information, and that I need to check things like room availability and student schedules more carefully in the future.

Not to whine too much, though - things are otherwise going well. I'm trying to put together a pasta dinner for a few other assistants in Berlin - I've felt quite hostess-y lately. I'm also trying to think ahead to next week for fun things I can do to tell my classes about Thanksgiving - I'd really like to work the old "trace your hand and make a turkey" into an actual English lesson, since I always got a kick out of it as a child, and it's such a venerable American tradition.