IS 2007/08: Part 2
December 26th, 2007
Not much of note to say about today, seeing as it was a day of travelling. How can I make that worth reading?!
I suppose the thing that most stood out was the fact that we, well, might well have missed our flight. Whoops. It was due to take off at 14:10, boarding about ten minutes before. Well, come 14:01, I had just come out of the loo, and Gavan was working on his laptop to try to get a programme for a light show at the IS finished whilst we hadn’t even made it to the gate. Unbelievable, but that was us.
I pointed out to Gavan that we might want to consider getting on board the plane now. “OK, I’ve just gotta shut down”, he said, as the message “Last call for passengers Stanton, Owen, and Stanton [sic]” blared over the tannoy. At this point, Katja decided that she wanted to buy a drink! I sped off to get to our gate. (When I say “sped”, I mean in comparison to my usual lumbering. I doubt anybody else would refer to it as anymore than a brisk walk.)
Anyway, we got on the plane. It was tiny. And pretty much empty. Sweet.
[Skips details about the flight and train journey. All that needs to be said is that our train was due to leave at 18:01 and at that exact time, we weren’t on the platform. We got lucky.]
We met with Rolf and a chunk of the IS teamo at the train station, and went out for a meal courtesy of the IS’s budget. Chinese *licks lips*
Petra, Rolf, Andreas, a girl whose name escapes me, and I walked back to the ejo. The best bit was that there was snow on the ground! I’ve not seen snow in a long, long time. I think I might have been slim at the time, which gives one an idea of how long ago this was.
So, there we are, a day before the IS kicks off. I was a little irked to see a tonne of electrical stuff, speakers, frames and so on that needed carrying upstairs and assembling. Nonetheless, most people did at least do a little something. I cursed having decided to walk back from the restaurant, since those who took the tram actually arrived after the heavy stuff was done.
Anyway, this was a nothing day. Off to bed I trotted.
December 27th, 2007
This is the day when the IS kicked off. After a shower, I and the other members of the teamo went off for breakfast, again paid for by the IS. Bargain.
An hour later, it was time to set up the main office and the merchandise stand. Rolf asked me to make a display of the t-shirts that were on sale. I must say, I felt a certain pride in looking at how the t-shirts that I had designed looked when I had placed them on the wall. It was a good feeling, that’s for sure. I haven’t actually worn mine yet, but I certainly will do soon enough.
Bit by bit, people arrived and signed in. It was surprisingly enjoyable turning a corner to receive a big hug from people with whom I had bonded last year. I was particularly pleased that my students from last year seemed to hold an affection with the old teacher. Top stuff.
Afternoon was spent … shopping. Petra is determined to put her usual great effort into the fancy-dress competition, which this year is based on extra terrestrials. She decided that she needed some black leather boots to complete her outfit. I don’t know how she pulled it off, but the first shoe shop she found had some on offer for €5. Of course, being of the fairer sex, she had to browse in a few other shops first, so off we went.
Remember that I spoke about there being snow earlier? Well, it was 2 degrees according to a sign thing. I wouldn’t have known; my broken internal thermometer means that I don’t feel the temperature the same as everyone else, so I was walking around in my t-shirt for two hours. By evening time, I was feeling the effects of it, sneezing, talking with an even deeper voice, and spluttering. Nonetheless, if I were to be given a choice of either catching a cold or having to wear a few layers (and thus overheating), I’d leave the coat behind every time.
As we headed into the evening, there was still a slight problem looming in the ever-nearer distance; my beginners’ course, and the fact that I still hadn’t prepared lesson one, which was due to take place in the following morning. I have something wrong with me, in that I don’t sweat things like this. Many’s the time that I’ve had to work through the night to meet deadlines, and I couldn’t imagine doing things any other way.
So, instead of sitting in the room typing away, I figured I’d be a social animal for a bit, and then do a couple hours’ work before hitting the sack. This all went awry when one of my room-mates decided that 22:00 was his bed-time. This is a guy in his twenties folks.
Another problem rose its head. Andreas, my equivalent in the German version of JEB, was ill, and would be unable to take the newbies programme in the morning. A girl called Tina (was) volunteered to step in to the fold. Well, I made it my business to get involved too, so my night finished at 04:30 and my morning started three and a half hours later.
December 28th, 2007
Things seemed to go pretty well with the novuloj. I don’t know what Andreas’s intention to fill 90 minutes was, but we managed to keep them from getting too bored. I ended up teaching fourteen of them straight after in my beginners’ course. Armed with a flipchart, we breezed through the lesson.
Of course, I still hadn’t prepared anything. The reason is pretty self explanatory (aside from my tendencies to procrastinate): In any other language, you automatically have an idea of what a ‘beginner’ can do, and can work around it, by building your lesson around, say, irregular verbs.
You can’t in Esperanto. I look at it that there are two types of beginner; those who are totally new to the language, and so would benefit from going over the alphabet, learning that –o marks singular nouns in the nominative and so on, and those who are new to Esperanto but who have nonetheless read up on the basics.
This morning’s lesson—like its equivalent last year—was aimed at trying to get an idea of where they are, punctuating the class with comments on expressions that they had used. Sure enough, the second person had gone from saying “mia nomo estas…” to “mi nomiĝas…”, which reinforced my point that there were people present who were new to Esperanto, but who weren’t outright “komencantoj” in the true sense.
Anyway, I got some feedback from my buddy Carsten that the novuloj had made some pleasing comments about the class, so things seem to be going fine. I’ll shortly prepare tomorrow’s lesson, which will revolve around –ad, -eg, -et, -il and suchlike.
When I received my programme for the week, I was particularly looking forward to an item on today’s agenda: It was a lecture on “Ekonomia Malkreskado”; recession. Unfortunately, today was not to be my day; during last night’s team meeting, it became clear that the admin team were due to work all day without a break. Rolf volunteered to cover a couple of hours, and asked for someone else to put their name forward too. Being stupid, I agreed to assist with the running of the office, at a time which coincided with lecture that I wanted to see. To make things even more frustrating, it transpired that members of the admin team stayed in the office whilst I was in there anyway. They worked on various things whilst I played an inconspicuous role of moving around and cutting ID badges. Quite frustrating.
I suppose that I was somewhat vindicated later when a couple of people told me about the lecture, and that it actually wasn’t about economics at all. Apparently, it was all based on ecology, and things of which we are all aware anyway. It reminds me of Ian Fantom’s lecture at the year’s British Congress which was titled something like “The Psychology Of Esperanto” but which was actually a rant about EAB and allegations about people who are members of the organisation. It makes me think of buying a tin of chicken soup only to find apricots on the inside.
Anyway, I’ve done precious little with the rest of the day, needing a nap because of my self-inflicted cold. It could’ve been a much busier day, incorporating presentations on autism, ‘arpinta’ (a language from France), an excursion to the local castle, a debating-type thing, a lecture on fascism in Russia, a game of charades, a film and discussion on human rights, and other things. There’s a concert about to start by the group ‘Martin Sen La Talpoj’, although, as I wrote earlier, I fear that I shall post this, grab a coffee, and then prepare tomorrow’s lesson instead of seeing it.
I send my apologies for not updating the blog sooner; the internet connection here has only been active for the last few hours.
All being well, I’ll post another update tomorrow.
Ĝis!
Tags: Internacia Seminario
