Unchangeable

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It's strange how there will always be some things that never change. Like the three taxi drivers that are always on the corner of my street late at night (around midnight) washing their taxis, or the fact that walking up to my door at night still scares the shit out of me even though I know I'll do it and be fine, or the fact that I always walk the same way home from Cat's place even though there are three ways to get home or try the fact that no matter how much I prepare for a class (not tutoring an actual class) I'm still nervous about it until I walk in and teach it. Today I realized that I've been taking a little backwards way to get back home from Samuel and Sally's house so I decided to change it. I was taking one bus (4) and then walking about five blocks to get to my next bus (27) and another three blocks home. If I wanted to get to Peace Plaza I'd have to walk another four blocks once I got off the bus. Now I've realized that I could take the same bus (4) one stop further and walk half a block to the next bus (23) that takes me directly to the doorstep of Peace Plaza and only four blocks home. Smart girl.

Yesterday after teaching Angel and her brother Silence (who live out by 27 Square - I teach them three times a week now). I finally got sick of trying to teach Silence and it not working at all. I stopped and told Angel that based on the level of English he was showing me he barely knew a word and I thought it was due to the book we were using. Angel had some sort of hissy fit with Silence in Korean (none of which I understood obviously). After it I tested Silence for his real English level and finally got to understand how he works best. Today when I went I decided to use a different book that Angel and I've been using for about a week now and it really worked a lot. It also finally clicked with me that the other book I've been using with Angel is too low for her English level and we need to get a new book for her. (yeah, I know this is boring talk but this is the kind of thing teachers start thinking about after they've taught for a while). I taught five tutoring students in a row today which was a bit crazy as I had to practically race to get from 27 Square to school to 81 Road - the three are set in a triangle with 27 Square at the bottom left corner of the triangle and the school at the bottom right. It takes about 20 minutes by bus to get from one to the other. 81 Road is a different matter because it's the topmost corner of the triangle but in order to get there from the school one has to go to the middle of the triangle and then take a bus north. Today I practically booked it walking to the middle of the triangle. As I did I passed the small Japanese houses. They could be very well kept historical buildings but they're not. Instead they're used as the headquarters for collecting recycling of all kinds and trash. The houses themselves are falling down and the recycling is left sticking out of every crack and window of the house. Anyways, I taught Angel, Silence, Sally and Lucy and then went over to 81 Road where I was supposed to teach Samuel spanish but ended up teaching Sally spanish instead. So I had two classes with Sally today - one English at Rockies and one Spanish at her home.

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