My bitter days

I don't like to give y'all a bad impression of Edinburgh or Scotland. It really is a lovely place and I would love for you to experience it yourself, but I have to be honest. It was really cold today. My computer's weather thingie says 30° F, and it feels it. We had our first hard frost of winter, as you can see, forcing me to wear Matth's big ol' hat. Aren't I cute?

It didn't let up by the time I left work at 4 pm. A freezing fog had descended over the entire city.


It didn't let up on Tuesday either. When I looked out the window the next morning, everything was blanketed with white. This is on my way to work, though it really doesn't show how covered everything was.


I'm considering having just a blog to bitch about teaching experiences here. Just know that the title has as much to do with my work situation as it does with the current weather wave.

A little about my school: I teach in a posh school. Now if you know anything about me, you know that this is not my first experience with a posh school. My first teaching post was in an affluent school. Save a good friend who still works there, I do not look back on those three years with complete fondness. The parents were very demanding and kept me on my toes (to put it lightly). Eventually, I left because I knew if I stayed, I would have been crucified by disgruntled parents.

Now I had an inkling that this current school was a posh school. But I thought I would be able to handle it as I was older and wiser. I had more tricks (so to speak) to help me deal with parents. I wouldn't be intimidated like I was last time. Well, the parents are the least of my worries. (Although, I did have a set of parents grumpy that I was providing resource for their child in math. I mean, he had a Ph.D in mathematics and she was an accountant. So, I should just "let her off" because of her pedigree? WHAT-ever) It's my colleagues.

I think that working part-time and working in resource does me no favours. I am never around in the afternoon, which is when all teachers let their hair down and socialise. And classroom teachers are notoriously renown for distrusting resource teachers. I also think that being foreign doesn't help. They look down on me because I don't know the reading schemes that they use here. Big fucking deal that I don't know anything about these books. They're stupid and boring. (Sorry I cursed, but the reading scheme is a particularly sore point for me)

There is one teacher who is particularly bad. She is so very snippy and unprofessional. I could tell you stories upon stories about this woman. The one I will share is that I was offhandedly saying to her in the staffroom that from my observations the group that one of her pupils were in might be inappropriate. She went off on me in front of everyone eating their lunch. It was all I could to not snatch her up. The next day, another teacher approached me and apologised for the other bitchy one, saying, "She's like that." She's very chatty with everyone else in the school, but very cool to me. I think this is because she doesn't know how to handle a little brownie foreigner. Unfortunately, she gets under my skin. And she was giving me a hard time on Monday, making me a very bitter person.

Sometimes I think I romanticise my school in Durham. It wasn't perfect. We had a kooky principal and it was tough going teaching some of the pupils. But I did love it. Probably because I was surrounded by (mostly) professional, conscientious teachers. I was inspired to try harder and learn more to make my teaching practice even better. Here, it takes all I can not to call in sick.

Well, I would have a relevant excuse. I'm still ill. The cough has lessened, but now it's a sore throat. But only on the left side. My back hurts, which is never a good sign. Ever since my accident, that is my indicator that I'm not doing well. The stress of work and life is not helping me get any better. But I do feel better for sharing with you.