Odds and Ends Thursday 8

It’s been raining here since Monday, and it’s been difficult for me to wrap my brain around it. Part of it is that the sky changes so often here, it’s amazing the rain has the attention span to make the sky overcast for 4 days straight. And the sky just seems so big here, it somehow seems like it takes more clouds to rain here than in San Francisco. And it’s just so much rain. It seems improbable that evaporation could handle that much water. It’s mindboggling. Here are some other odds and ends from the week:

• For those of you that missed yesterday’s comments section, the Hillary news was an April Fools joke. I am not aware of any plans for Hillary Clinton to visit Samoa. The ESOMAR conference (for which blogger flubbed the link yesterday) is an international market research conference, in which the US State department probably has little interest. Apologies to anyone who bought into the ruse.
  
• I have made a lot of progress in befriending the other computer teacher. That said, she’s been worrying a lot about the students tracking mud into the computer lab. I acknowledge this is an issue, but with no end to the torrential downpour in sight, it almost seems pointless to clean up the mud before the next class tracks a new layer in.
  
• The rain has kept me in my house all week. I’ve had errands to run this week, but they all keep getting put on hold because a mile’s walk or bike ride in this weather just sounds lousy. I did walk to Erik’s on Tuesday evening before the rain started, but I ended up needing to take a cab home, which was expensive.
  
• ”The Wire” ended last week, “Arrested Development” the week before. I also cleared through the 10 episodes of Season 5 of “The Office” that I had acquired. So with April begins “Weeds” and “The West Wing,” although I only have the first 3 seasons and first 1 season respectively. After this, maybe “Six Feet Under.” We’ll see.
  
• One of my year 13s who I helped with a few questions on a biology test tried to give me a $5 WST bill yesterday as a token of thanks. There were other students and the other computer teacher present and it was really awkward. I graciously declined.
  
• My year 11s have finally started using Microsoft Word on their own, and I can’t help feeling bad for them. These 4 girls are crowded around 1 computer, the one sitting on the laps of 2 of the others. It’s good that they’re all getting computer time, but it seems like giving everybody a little exposure to ensure no one knows anything by the end of the term.
  
• The problem-based teaching method I wrote about Monday is getting mixed results. Some of the year 13s are doing amazingly well and some are stuck in word processing doldrums. I’ve employed one of the experts to walk around and help the ones who are stuck, which is good because they can tutor in Samoan. The program still has a few more days.
  
• One thing that really stinks (literally) about this rain is laundry. I desperately need to do laundry, but I can’t do it manually because there’s been no sun to dry it, and I can’t take it to the Laundromat because that would mean I’d have to walk home through potential rain with it, and once again, there’s been no sun to dry it.
  
• They show American Idol on TV here. The competition show on Wednesdays and the results show on Friday. I don’t watch it, but I can hear my neighbor tuning in. The few brief glimpses I’ve seen have had the word “live” in the corner, which seems highly improbable.
  
• I swept one of those dirt clumps that the ants make out from in front of my bathroom sink this afternoon and within 2 hours, the ants had made noticeable progress in starting a new pile. I had to respect their determination.

That’s all I got. I hope you’re also being industrious. No pictures below. Forgive me, but I feel like I’ve posted enough pictures of rain.