My Life after CELTA

I had a class with Charlette today, and it was fantastic. Despite the slight chance of relapse I experienced today - yeah, the long-term effects of this ruddy coronavirus are still causing some unwanted symptoms - I could pull myself together and concentrate on the lesson. Nevertheless, my mind went blank after the lesson. I had to sit in front of the telly and watch silly videos to regain consciousness. The weather is definitely colder; winter has finally arrived. However, according to the latest forecast, there are two more freezing days, and the early spring-like weather will return. It's certainly good for the budget, but it's terrible against the pests.

It happened again; HBD to me. Heading towards being an old miserable git makes life so much easier. Not being able to fit the candles on the birthday cake tells you what an old plonker you became. Nevertheless, after so many decades, I can confidently say that the most precious gifts from life are my wife, my dogs, and my health. As I mature and my life slowly turns into slow-motion recording, things previously considered valuable lose their charm completely.  Enough of this prattling on, and let's focus on what happened today. After waking up, I realised I felt much better than yesterday. Apparently, some of COVID's long-term side effects disappeared, although the persistent loss of smell is a tad vexing. I wish I could get a nice olfactory experience while preparing dinner! I haven't lost my sense of smell completely; it's just not as good as it used to be. I do hope it's something temporary. As for the weather, it is changing. Winter is back! The wind blew arctic...

Bureaucracy has been at its peak for a good few decades. Even the most insignificant chores require the involvement of dozens of embittered officials, who, with their inadequate responses, can destroy all our hopes in a split second we cast into humanity. Nevertheless, should we bump into someone showing signs of expertise, it's still not an insurance of success. Sometimes, these individuals can cause more trouble, but the funny thing is they think highly of themselves. However, more often than not, these human beings can cause more harm with their incompetence. If I point out their mistakes, they go mad and angry. They play the victim card immediately, and their answers contain disdain, contempt, and pique. Their stance is: I only wanted to help! The saying that the path to hell is paved with goodwill is no coincidence.  I had to visit the Hungarian National Tax Office today. Despite the lady's benevolence, who helped us navigate the intricate world of accounting and tax, she ...

The warm days are officially over. The Northern wind brought cold air and snowy clouds, so the unusually warm period was replaced swiftly. A week ago, the highest temperature was well above the usual average temperatures. Still, today, the temperature is well below the typical average. The higher peaks saw some snow today, and the continuous cold front will bring more and more snow in the next few days. The freezing wind made our walks rather unpleasant, and even Abby was miffed about it during her afternoon walk. After doing what she had to do - it only took her 4 minutes - she turned back and dragged me home like a sled dog. I didn't learn nor plan another lesson today because I wanted to plan my schedule, which has been a tad hectic and erratic recently. I need to find time to structure my days much better than I've done in the last few months. I know the reasons, and I'm not going to moan about it at all. I'm glad we could renovate the house this year, and the progr...

Winter is back. It's cold outside. The sun rises at 7:03 a.m. and seats at 3:57 p.m. The walks in the freezing wind are anything but pleasant. We found ourselves wanting more than anything to sleep for hours under thick, warm blankets. (I wrapped a winter blanket around my waist, even though it's not cold in the house.) Anyway, the planned class today must have been postponed due to the internet hiccups Roya experienced and reported yesterday. Fortunately, Ági was keen on learning more, so we decided to check the past simple and continuous and the present perfect simple and continuous tenses. I used the definitions and tasks in my Destination C1&C2 book to explain and practice them. Despite being exposed to the heavy tasks and the tense explanations, Ági did a marvellous job. Undoubtedly, her analytical and language-oriented brain will help her process the information and use these tenses properly, provided that I expose her to more relevant tasks.

The last-minute lesson plan change did good for my class today. Even though I wanted to do a review lesson, I changed my mind, re-created it, and turned it into a listening practice. I think I made the right call. She enjoyed the class, and so did I. Anyway, the class was good, and after finishing it, we had a chat about her motivation, progress, and how I saw her during the classes.  The weather is changing. Even though the highest temperature was around +8-10°C, the northern wind made it feel much colder; no wonder Abby's evening walk was brisk and short. She did what she had to in five minutes, and right after the final act, she turned towards the house, signalling she was ready to go home. The weather forecast predicts much colder temperatures, wind, and snow.  Hello Winter! 🥶 ❄️  By the same token, in a month, it's Christmas 🎄 . And the end of the year. So, even though it feels like we've just started 2023, the year is ending astonishingly soon. We'll have plenty...

I felt much better today than yesterday. The vitamins mitigated the symptoms of this life-threatening man-flu disease, and my mood aligned with that. The recurring onset of the severe symptoms this afternoon worsened the overall picture. Anyway, I hope my immune system conquered this irritating disease. Apart from a few adjustments, I'm almost ready with my lesson plans. I completed the beginner and the advanced syllabuses. Tomorrow, I'll have to check the advanced lesson plan and practice how to teach it. The weather is getting colder, and the warmer days are over. Tomorrow will bring significantly colder air, so winter will greet us with low temperatures. The last few months were unusually warm, but from next week, we may even have snow. It's been a while since we last saw some snow in Hungary. I don't miss it, as the street we live in is quite steep, and shovelling the snow is not my cup of tea. But what else can we expect at the end of November or the beginning of D...

My recovery seems to be longer than expected. Although there is nothing to complain about. Strictly speaking, there are no other symptoms besides the slightly sore throat and the weakness, so my wee system heals itself in record time. It could have been the latest variant of COVID-19 or merely the flu. What surprised me was how much I enjoyed the inhalation today. Right after being exposed to the hot steam session - I added chamomile, salt, and menthol oil to the boiling water - I fell asleep again. It wasn't difficult if I'm being completely honest with myself. My head was wrapped in a huge towel, and I looked like a Touareg-wanna-be with severe mental problems.  But let's move on and focus on my lesson planning. I completed my beginner student's class, and there are a couple of enhancements I need to apply to Ági's lesson plan, but these are only minor issues I must fix, and the plan will be ready. Meanwhile, my books - some of them with audio files - arrived, and...

We got a taste of winter today. After a long and windy Friday - the wind has blown ferociously since yesterday morning - which brought much colder air above us, today was quite chilly. We popped into town to post some goods Ági'd sold on the internet, and even though the walk per se was pleasant, the strong wind couldn't make it desirable. We can't really complain about the weather returning to its normal temperatures towards the end of November, right?  The class I taught today was all right. My plan worked, and I could remain within the allocated sixty minutes, which is quite an achievement, I would say. Planning is one of my strengths, and it has been acknowledged today and during the CELTA course. I reviewed the syllabus several times, calculated how much time each stage would require, and guesstimated how my students would react. I was lucky as things panned out eventually. After the last few classes I've taught recently, I started to believe in myself. I'm wel...

Winter is around the corner. Again. It's irritating that the cold weather is still with us after a long grey winter. We didn't see the Sun today, and the temperatures dropped significantly. And to top it off, it was snowing, covering the Eastern countryside with 10cm thick fresh snow. The next four days will bring more rain, so we are unhappy. As for my English studies: I was exceptionally productive today. I did a lot of tests with fairly good results. Half of the mistakes I made were irritating - I attributed them to the lack of attention - and the other half - mainly phrasal verb-related ones - because I needed to be 100% sure of the meaning. And the scariest part of my learning today was my chat with chatGPT. The way and speed with which AI can explain even the most complicated grammatical rules and structures are simply baffling. I was shocked to see how easily it could come up with an explanation, and how it interacts with humans is scary. But it was a great experience an...