Good news everyone ....
I got a job in the little restaurant in Douglas I told u about last week!! Well, I don't really trust those people, that's why I'm going to keep on searching, but the staff manager said he would keep an open place for me, so we'll see.
I can call him the week before I want to start working and they will show me everything. I'll start as a 'helper' they call it and after some time of course improve myself. But as I already said: We'll see if those people of the restaurant industry can be trusted or not (cos as far as u know I haven't made so good experiences last summer in the 'Schlosswirt zu Anif').

I really had one great week-end!! On Friday I wanted to go out but then wasn't cos I simply wasn't in the mood and furthermor I didn't want 2 spend money on alcohol when I can invest it in much better things like books and so on.
Well, so on Saturday after having neither an idea nor the right motivation Michael and I went for a little walk in Douglas and then got the bus into the city centre. He bought some necessities like blank cds and soon we went back home and watched 'The DaVinci Code' with Pat (well, she was more absent than present but me n Michael had a good time). But the movie was one miserable production though, really!! Wasn't excited at all!

AND on Sunday my 'hostfamily-mate' and I went to Kinsale, a little sleepy town in the southwest of Cork where we already could smell the salty air of the near sea ....
We went there with some Germans from our school and more or less had a good time just strolling around, examining churches, the little 'port' with mainly sailing boats and going for one drink.
We actually wanted to see the fort which is situated 'just a bit' outside the town, which by irish description would have meant up to two hours on foot or the loss of a lot of money when taking the taxi, but then for the said reason abandonned the plan and just stayed in walking distance from the bus station.

We arrived there at about 1pm and went back at about 5pm. When we arrived back in Cork, Aleks, the polish friend of mine who is living in Dublin, was already waiting for us. We fetched the car from the car park and went on our way home.
After dinner Aleks and I talked for a while and then decided to go for a ride somewhere but before I was allowed to try driving on the left side on a Tesco parking space for some time.
Then we went by car into the city centre, drove north, made a huge loop way around Cork city and got lost. Somehow we managed to get back but it took us longer than we would have imagined (about half an hour), so we must have been really far away! lol
Well, anyway, when we got back to civilisation, he even let me drive the last bit home which was for about ten minutes and surprisingly it went awfully great!!

So, yesterday was great. We came back at 11.15pm and talked some more in the living room where we totally overlooked the time and realised only shortly before 1am how late it was.
He gave us a lift to school today in the morning and after all I really enjoyed having had him here and seeing him again.

So, I have another matter to discuss but I will do that in another entry in a minute so you don't get confused. rofl
Cu lads and keep your pecker up!!

Yours,
Joanne.

Ps: I'm enjoying a free single life again .... *smile*

Kouhei, Nirah and Markus aligned with me today and we went to George to complain about mainly the structure of the course and some other issues as well.
He spoke to us individually and made notes of our requests and grievances which included changing the second class teacher (who is Orla, the sensitive bundle of nerves) to someone else like 'Master Thomas', my hero!! lol
No, I'm exaggerating but Tom really should be the best cos he was a Cambridge Exam examiner in the past and therefore has an idea what's going on.

So George, who is in responsible for organisation matters in this school, told us that he'll have to make up his mind and will let us know tomorrow. He as well stated that it is very unlikely we could change teachers because, which I understand completely, there are not a lot of possibilities for swapping and Thomas is as well a very acknowledged Business English teacher which is what he's teaching at the moment in the 2nd class.
Well, tomorrow the final decision will be revealed to us and currently we can't do anything else than waiting and hoping.

That is all for today cos I want to go on with the fascinating book I just recently began, which is absolutely addicting and is named 'The Hound Of The Baskervilles' by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
It was and still is the most popular and most selled adventure of Sherlock Holmes. The language is very very old-fashioned but one definately gets used to it and there are a lot of useful expressions to be learned by reading it.

Good day to you my dearest friends and family members for I have to end this conference.
May we hear from each other soon!

Yours,
Joanne the bookworm.

Ps: I'll update my photopage soon with pictures from my 'hosthome', Pat, the two lovely dogs and Kinsale of course.

Today was not too bad. In the morning I talked to Thomas, one of the really good teachers in this school and asked him if he would mind teaching our class and was neither for nor against it and just said that it's not his decision. So I then went to George who won't be here until Monday and instead talked to Philip who as well said that it might be possible but not for sure.

So, I have some backup now (including Kouhei, Nirah, Markus and Sophie) and we will talk to George on Monday. Let's see if we can get rid of Orla and somehow get Thomas to teach us cos I'm really fed up with having the feeling of not learning enough.

AND I have an interview on Saturday in a little restaurant called 'Ecos' in Douglas therefore I won't be going to Dublin (which frankly is the better idea) and can help Enrico move his things into the new appartment and of course study hard.

Cu, love
Joanne.

Ps: Pat is looking after a second dog now for six days, so we have two hairy fellows in the house called 'Bobby' and 'Coco'!

I know I haven't been writing some time now but things don't get easier around here. Although we could have a lot more work to do I'm busy with keeping up. Just today I copied some phrasal verbs to learn them by heart and some homework is awaiting me as well.
I'm a bit exhausted today and on the verge of falling asleep while sitting or standing but apart from that (and the cold Pat passed on to me) I'm feeling very good and had a fine day.

The last week was full of hanging around at someone's place, studying hard and doing whatever I felt like and then last Friday Enrico came for dinner to my house (which was a bit of a change to the dull evenings).
It was a really, really, really nice evening and after the dinner we drank the vine Enrico had brought while watching 'Out Of Africa' together with Pat. He then took the last bus home and again I was alone.
But not for very long 'cos my little boyfriend visited me and arrived Saturday evening. We went straight to the pub where we stayed with Pat and Marc till curfew and i think I can state without fear of contradiction that we highly enjoyed ourselves.
Alex learned some English, we met some new people and I learned more about the evolution of the English language from a computer specialist (just imagine that :) ).

So Saturday was fine and we then hardly did anything on Sunday morning. Well, that's not entirely right because I was up and helped Pat in the household and Alex stayed in bed and overslept the whole day!!
Anyway, after dinner Pat and I went into the city centre to do some shopping and to pick up the French guy from the Bus Terminal. We were too early and decided to go for a cappuccino which is very difficult in Cork. Either the restaurant, cafe or pub doesn't serve cappuccino or it is so abominable that you have to return it and demand the money back which happened in our case. The barkeeper even made a second one for both of us and when it still looked and tasted like water we asked for our money back and left.

Then we picked up Michael. Pat and I were joking all the way till his arrival that he would better not be 6'2'' tall cos my old bedroom is really very small and we burst into laughter when we first saw him as he is even smaller than me, is bald and has nearly the same shoe size as I myself. .... So, I was lucky, cos if he would have been taller I would have had to give up my room which of course I didn't want. When we got back Alex was still sleeping and only stood up for ingesting some nutrition. .... ;)

So, Michael is really nice, although his language skills are argueable, and I get on well with him.
On Monday I had to wait for him to take him home because finding the way home is very difficult in our case and while waiting I went to Eric's place with Sebastian.
We talked a bit, drank some coffee and did our homework and when I wanted to pick Michael up he had already enrolled in the city tour so I accompanied him which led to being more than three hours late for coming home.
My boyfriend was a bit upset which I can understand but all together we had a nice time. He left Tuesday in the morning and I couldn't even come with him to the airport because I couldn't be late for school ....

Well, on Tuesday I was out till curfew (@ 2 a.m.) with some people from school and I really enjoyed myself. We first went to a pub called 'Counihan' and later to a club called 'Qube' and in the club I danced some Salsa (which was harder than you can imagine). .... lol
As you can imagine I am really exhausted today, but I was on time (I even woke up Michael in the morning because I was up before him) and managed the day somehow.

Well at the mo school is not so exciting and every day I can't wait to get home.
That was it from me today ....
Have a nice week and talk to you soon. (Btw, I'm planning on going to Dublin this week-end but I'm not sure yet cos I have some work to do. ....)

Yours, Joanne.

Today was the worst day sice I came here.
Andrea is not lerning anything. She still thinks she is the star of the class and sure to pass the exam in March.
It happened today about eight times that we just spoke about an answer, corrected our faults and explained vocabs and were just finished when Andrea asked sth we had just half a minute ago explained. I'M REALLY FED UP!!

If I would be the teacher, I would say: "Listen Andrea, either you pay attention or you go studying somewhere else!!"
IT'S DRIVING ME ABSOLUTELY NUTS!!
I can't stand it anymore and of course Philip AND Orla both don't say ANYTHING! They just stay (sort of) calm and explain the things poor Andrea doesn't understand over and over and over and over and over and over and over etc.

Philip even carpeted me today for telling Andrea to 'eventually pay attention and listen properly'. He said that it would be his job. Yeah, superb, what kind of HIS JOB contains just acquiescing the unnerving behavior of that Spanish brat!!
I'm really, really fed up with those lessons by now!!!
What kind of teacher is willing to repeat things again and again and at the same time remarks other students finishing their homework in class because they are SO BORED!!

It's not that I have the ultimate knowledge and an endless range of vocabs or even be aware of all expressions but I honestly believe if so. either isn't paying attention or doesn't know the basis of the English language that person isn't interested, is in the wrong course or even shoudn't attend school anymore.

It drives me mad and today when I come home I'll dedicate my homework (which is to write a letter of complaint) to the school and the notions of the teachers about doing their jobs (properly) ....
It doesn't seem to me that if a student wants to change in a higher level at school any teacher would ever disagree and say: "Well, actually I don't think you should change because the higher level could be too difficult for you." or rather: "Personally, I believe that you would only disturb the students (and especially the CAE student who are trying to take a difficult exam here)".
So to say, we have another Spanish girl in class here and her pronounciation is SO BAD she has to repeat everything at least twice .... What kind of course is that I'm asking you?!?!?!?!

Well, my letter of complaint AND my weekly evaluation won't be very kind this week! Long enough I sat still and hold my tongue.
If it's not going to be better next week I quit school and prepare myself alone for the exam.
Why should I suffer in course? Does it help my improvement? Do I learn anything at all? The answer is: NO! NO! and NO!
And don't get your knickers in a twist dear parents!! This is my last word!!

I hope you don't have to suffer like I'm doing right now and I can tell you, I'm REALLY suffering from not getting anything done!!

Yours crestfallen,
Joanne.

.... just have a nice week-end! *smile*

Love,
Joanne.

No news today, sy lads, but apart from that Spanish girl being utterly stupid ('Dow Jones, what is it; what means it?? Down Jones? ahh, Don't Jones!, no? Doesn't Jones but makes none sense. Dow Jones? it is a abreviation? but what does it mean? not Down Jones??' and so on) nothing exciting or even funny happened ....

-> update on:
http://s147.photobucket.com/albums/r317/anfscd

Tirah!
Joanne.

My week-end was splendid.
On Friday I -as u can read in my last entry- went out. It wasn't anything like 'Pub crawling' but anyway we had a lot of fun.
On our way home the remaining four of us went to another pub and went home then shortly after 2 am.

On Saturday I slept till 2 pm and after having some brunch (and a searing pain in my head that didn't go away till Sunday morning) I went back to bed and slept from 4 pm until 10:30 pm. After waking up I read until 2 am and went back to sleep (again). lol
So anything but a fulfilled day. rofl

On Sunday, after getting up at 11:30 am (I think I had enough sleep then) I watched the telly, did my homework, drank some tea, smoked fags and began reading the last part of the Vampire novel.

So, today I'm a bit tired but ok, although the course didn't satisfy me at all. Good news anyway:
Enrico (the nice Italian guy) sent five CVs to different companies and during school today he receiced three (!) phone calls from the companies asking him to have a small chat and talk about the open posts!! That's grand and I'm really anxious to see how his application for the jobs will turn out. ....

Well, that's it from me today as I have to go for a coffee with that bundle of nerves now (if he still has time ....). *smile*

xx Joanne.

I just managed to change the settings so that everyone, logged in or not, is able to leave me comments. So, no more exuses, k?! ROLF

AND before I forget: there are loads of new pictures in all the different albums on my other site, including a video of New Year's Eve (that took me hours to upload it, so be grateful!).

Very well then.
Kisses everywhere and for everyone. lol
Yours,
Joanne.

Ps: Can't wait to do some 'Pub crawling' tonight. *smirk*

Today was the most boring day ever and ever and ever ....!
In the first lesson we did one test (I was finished after half an hour and read for fourty min till the others were finished as well), corrected it (which took very long cos the Spanish girl is never paying attention and then wants to get the answers repeated up to three times, because she doesn't understand them) and then we finally corrected our homework (which I already had finished in yesterdays' course) ....
In the last two minutes of the lesson we even managed to talk abaout our homework for week-end! Great!
This stupid Spanish girl slows down the progress of the whole class!!

Well, have to stop now, cos I have to get home to get some sleep before going out in the evening (I finished Dan Browns' novel in the night and somehow seem to have gotten too little sleep. How very strange.).
And btw: I started Anne Rice's 'Interview With The Vampire' in the morning .... It's very easy to read though ....

Have a nice week-end,
Yours Joanne.

Ps: You can't imagine how hard I bumped my knee against the sitting room door yesterday. It's black and blue all over.
And thanks for the pity. lol