Irony

I am now officially the one thing that I swore to my family I would never become- namely, what they are. (Not that there's anything wrong with it, of course.) Needless to say, everyone was delighted to see me eat my words as I shared the news that I was going to become a lecturer at the National University of Samoa after having grown up wanting to be "anything BUT a college professor." A week and a half into the term I am now officially working. Lecturing, getting on students' butts about not showing up on time, inhaling chalk dust by the pound, and asking the kinds of questions that I used to hate as a student, those annoying ones that require them to think. I am teaching four courses that meet twice a week for two hour sessions. The courses are all in special needs education. One is on the individualized education program, one on assessment techniques and teaching strategies for individuals with special needs, one on barriers to learning, and the last on the situation of special needs here in Samoa. It takes up basically all of my time and I hardly have a free moment to get ready from one course to the next, including a schedule that is so confusing I'm never quite sure exactly which class I'm supposed to be teaching until I start, but it's really great to be busy and working all the time. I find with my (slightly) compulsive personality I do much better with too much on my plate than not enough so this has been good for me in that it keeps me totally engaged all of the time. The timing of the term works out perfectly because in the education department the last four weeks of the semester are teaching practice for the students rather than lecture so my courses end the week before we leave to go home to get married. I have a feeling it will be quite intense for the next couple of months working full time and also planning everything but hey at least I won't be bored :)