May and June have been wicked busy for me, but I am just starting to see the hints of daylight. Yesterday we had the exam board at Middlesex and I filled out my final two reports meaning that I am completely done there for the 2009-2010 school year. I will have to be back on 15 October. I just finished my marking for Birmingham although I haven't sent it off yet. This leaves me with a couple of presentations to write, a viva to prepare for, and a French homework to complete before leaving for a week on the night of 27 June. When I get home from that trip, I will have a quiet summer until I have my French exam at the end of September. After I finish French, well, I don't know what I will do with myself.
I sort of blew the marking of the exams in one of the courses I taught this year: they had to be completely redone. I realised what I did wrong, but I was really embarrassed about the whole thing. I should have done better. The trip was good, but I was happy to get home: I worked a lot and drove a lot. It was good to see the Yorkshire moors especially as they are sort of related to Sylvia Plath going mad. Scotland was nice and the B&B was nice. I should have just stopped working on Saturday and Sunday and enjoyed it, but I was trying to finish up my marking the whole time.
Soon, I will be 28. This is not really a milestone of any kind in life. I feel like I spent most of 27 keeping my head down and working hard. I suspect 28 will be much of the same. I am very happy to be working and doing what I enjoy though. The family is happy and I am tired, but content. One of the things that's really been on my mind the last couple of weeks is how few friends I have left. Working and having a family all while moving to a new country has really made my base of friends smaller. I am also realising how hard it is to maintain relationships with the Christians that were in my life before I left. How can you continue to be friends with people who think that your shedding of belief is a problem that needs solving. I feel like I am always having to assure everyone that I am, in fact, okay. Perhaps it's all in my mind.