Jet Lag

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As 24 (the TV show) plays in the background I think about the last couple of days of primarily jet lag and working my butt off. On Saturday I worked from 9am-7pm straight with a 40 minute lunch break. After work I spent 3 hours grading. Then on Sunday I worked from 8am-7pm with my normal two hour and 40 minute breaks (not all together). After working on Sunday I came back to my apartment and passed out. I was exhausted. From all the jet lag I got from my trip I had been sleeping funny hours and was only tired when I should have been awake. Hence Saturday night I went to bed around 4am and got up at 7am. Last night after working I relaxed for a little while and then at Camillo's request went over there. His cousin and grandmother were there, as they have been for a little while recently, as well as his two roommates. We hung out for a while although I was still really tired. Camillo's been trying to help me with the job situation. He realizes that I don't really enjoy being a teacher all the time and has recently come up with the idea that I should be a hairdresser (an interesting idea although I'm not sure how well it would work. The idea of me with scissors is a little scary and the idea of me and fashion working together I just can't see really at all). So last night when Camillo called me over he said "I'm working on my English and want you to help. Can you come over?" So I went over thinking I would help him translate but the whole time he just copied his English book. He's working on making a translation of the book that I got him from the TIGI Academy - copying all of it in English and then adding a dictionary side for the words he doesn't already know. I was thinking "what am I doing here?" And then after he finished copying for the night he called me over and said "come sit" and then he started explaining a lot of hairdressing terms to me, primarily in English I think although I'm not really sure as I sometimes don't even think about what language we're speaking just that we understand each other. About two minutes later I realized that was his purpose of bringing me over. He wanted me to start understanding some of the terms and how things work. I was there for him to teach me, not for me to teach him. As he said "sometimes you teach me, sometimes I teach you". Lately he has also been working to teach me Cantonese (which is a bit difficult but I'm working on it). He went through many ways of trying to teach me the same idea before he realized what I really needed. First he just told me with words. Then as I still didn't understand he used a picture to try and show me. I still didn't understand but I knew how I would. "Show me" I asked him repeatedly. When he finally did I started to really understand and after another couple of minutes he said "you're really doing well. My grandmother's gotta get some sleep but we'll start some more later."

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