So I’m back. It was the most hectic month I’ve ever been through. We started quizes and midterms, grading sessions and staying at school till late at night.

I guess I should have a page designed and ready to put up every time I have exams and no time for the blog lol “Temporarily out of order. Busy correcting exams! Leave some awesome encouraging notes ” or something like that..

So we’ve been going through hell for many reasons. One of our English Dep. teachers is pregnant and has been ordered by her doctor to stay home and rest before her delivery. So we’re 1 teacher short. Then exams hit us.

We’re just 5 teachers, correcting the whole school’s exams… and carrying extra classes. The nice thing is that the administration and other staffs know that we’re under pressure and don’t want to ask for classes or change or schedule or do anything to bother us or add to the burden.

The latest news we’ve heard is that our headmistress and supervisor are working hard to get us a teacher to help the balance in the staff room. Of course, it could be a lie since we’ve been lied to before, to shut us up and keep us hard at work. But I’ll try to keep the faith and say yea, sure, we’ll see. If we get a teacher, why not. If we don’t… teaching is already tough as it is and at the end of the day, the students are the only people we should care about since the school revolves around them and their futures. So I’ll try to put the students first. I’ve been trying to remind myself constantly that it’s just from 7:00am to 2:00pm. At least those are the hours where I work the hardest and can’t sleep or take a break lol

Anyways… I’ll see y’all later since it’s way past my bedtime. Adios!

On the 4th of April 2007, I started teaching.

I fell in love with that career and I still am in love with it, even with its ups and downs. Sure, it may drive me crazy sometimes and I wish I could leave it, but I would never dare to leave something I love so much ever since I was a wee tween.

I mean, I could make a difference in some people’s lives. Maybe not Gandhi/Mother Teresa/Princess Diana proportions, but every little minuscule interaction I have with any random student could somehow change the world in the future.

So here’s to an awesome 5 years and 50 more to come!

I’m still not used to the idea that I’m a mother and that I have a son and that some of my students think of me as maternal, so this is still all new to me lol

Since it was such an eventful day, this is an eventful post! So if you’re up for it, click for more…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a huge fan of youtube for many various reasons. It has helped me for school, it has taught me new crafts and sewing techniques, I find new poets/artists/songs there and explore a little music-wise, I find new stand-up comedians, and finally and the most important: It teaches me a LOT of things.

I’m sometimes a girly girl and like to give myself facials & face cleansing spa treatments at home, and sometimes I just play with my make-up. So from time to time, as practice for whenever there’s a wedding I have to attend, I watch some tutorials and practice on my face lol

That has come to be very very handy. All I  do now is go to the salon really early (around 3 if it’s a weekday and I have work, at 10 or 11 am if it’s a weekend. So basically before salon rush hours), get my hair in curlers and keep them that way and NOT stay at the salon for hours waiting to get my hair or make-up done just a few hours before the wedding.

My favorite make-up artists are the Pixiwoo team, Nicola and Sam are sisters and really cool and they keep up with the latest trends so they can keep us viewers up to date, so I think that’s awesome. I also love how they have a few tutorials for cancer fighters, showing their inner and outer beauty.

Nicola, the one on the left in the header, is my favourite because she does some looks that I find really interesting and we both happen to have almost, just a tiny bit, the same eye shape (but different eyebrow shapes), so that’s great for eyeshadows and contouring.

Here’s my latest favourite video, the “On the Floor” J.Lo make-up tutorial:

I haven’t tried it yet, but I know that it’s what I’ll be copying for any upcoming wedding I’m attending (minus the fake lower lashes and extra contouring.. so imagine it but with a little less of the *WOAH!* factor lol).

Another make-up artist I’ve learned a lot from also happens to be a drag queen lol Petrilude has a number of tutorials that’ve helped me with some basics, such as learning how to keep my eyebrow shape nice and clean whenever I don’t have time for the salon, how to apply fake eyelashes, and how to keep my make-up brushes clean. He has worked with M.A.C and I think it’s awesome how he’s teaching the basics through his videos and is very thorough.

Just to throw in some extra info, here are a couple more videos I’ve learned from, from random youtube users:

How to get really nice curly hair overnight, and I also learned a new twisty braid from it:

How to do that awesome top knot hair that looks really sleek and clean:

Enjoy!

I learned something new: We teachers go up a rank/status every 3 years. The part I want to focus on: THREE YEARS.

I’ve been teaching for 5 years, and apparently I was supposed to update my info 2 years ago. Every 3 years, my status goes up a letter. It currently says that I’m a ” د ” teacher, when I’m actually a ” ج ” teacher.
Nobody ever told me that throughout my career! Every year we update our status in forms that we send to the supervisors/tawjeeh, EVERY YEAR. How can they not notice that I’ve been teaching for 5 years? How can they not notice that I’ve always maintained an “emteyaz” every single year? Why did they wait right after the kadar became and official thing to tell us to go to the Ministry?

So imagine, I could’ve gone another year, completed 6 years, went up two ranks, become a ” ب ” teacher and I wouldn’t have known it.

What really really annoyed us was how mean some (emphasis on SOME) of the employees were there! So lazy, mean and full of themselves! One of them refused to even look at us and almost yelled at us to go to our educational district so we don’t interrupt her while she was busy solving World Hunger, planting new rain forests and having a video conference with Kofi Anan and Bashar Al-Assad.

We went to three different buildings and in each one, nobody knew where we should be and who we should go to or even whatever the hell it was we were there for! It was annoying and one employee didn’t speak to us nicely and I was so close to slapping her and telling her to watch her mouth if I weren’t so polite.

Then in the end it turned out that we should’ve gone to the educational district in the first place. By that time, it was too late and we had wasted a day running around the MOE, not getting any work done, and getting yelled at by MOE employees.

Great day lol