So remember those speaking tasks I told you I had to slog through and write? Well, they're not using them this year. Yep, they liked them so much (and I'm not being sarcastic, they really did like them) that they want to use them with the 11th graders next year. The 11th grade (the highest grade in Ukranian schools) is the important one at Olympiads: the winners get free rides to university. Since my questions are so good, and since this year's 11th form questions are already written, they'll save them for next year, I was told. Glad my work will live on after I go.
Of course, the replacement questions were simply taken out of a book and handed to me to type. Also handed to me were this year's handwritten questions for the 11th graders, which I judiciously edited as I typed so that questions like:
"Explain why it is wrong for mothers to pay strangers to watch their young children while they work."
became:
"How do you feel about mothers paying people to watch their young children while they work?"
And while I was told to write 6 original listening tasks (which requires hunting down appropriate articles and writing 10 true/false questions and 10 multiple choice questions), only three will be used (not a total loss, I'll use the others in my teaching materials packets) and the reading tasks, which follow the same format and, one would think, would also be original, were once again taken out of a book and given to me to type.
I am the American secretary.
On another note, we had two birthdays at work this week. This events, while quite enjoyable, involve large lunches during which I am forced to consume much food and drink much alcohol and then am pressed to play songs on the guitar for the birthday person. The humerous thing to me is that all these teachers, now quite toasted, all go and teach right afterwards. Me, I was back in the office and typing, concentrating on keeping my fingers moving correctly.
And lastly, the sadness: Peace Corps has a newsletter called "Nu Shcho?" ("Well, what?") that I've had an article in every single issue since I came to Ukraine. My reputation (other than as the climbing guy) is as "oh, you're the guy that writes all the articles". I even had one prepared for this issue and was waiting for the "request for articles" email that always came before. The editor was sick, the email never sent and it was today, in Kyiv, that the editor asked me: "no article this time?" and when I, realizing the implication, asked if I could get one in last minute, was told it was already laid out and done. Saddness. The streak is over. I'm slighly upset. Not torn up, but really dissapointed. What can you do?
Back to work.