Buckwheat

Time goes by weirdly indeed in these corona-circumstances. On the one hand, one feels like nothing much happens, even though it does. On the other hand, now we are so used to these circumstances that it feels like the whole life has been like this ... and one cannot imagine the life without mask mandates and vaccination crazies and fear of infection everywhere. How easy was life then! I graded approximately 100 tests in the last few days. This was tiring and stressful. There is always a lot to do in school. Work is about the only interesting thing going on for me these days.

Congratulations! They look delicious. Relatively boring weekend here. A lot of work brought home. Nobody has time to hang out. So all I can do is ... do work, I suppose?

Today is a lousy day because I discovered another grey hair on my head. It wasn't the first one, but it was in another spot than the first few. These things are spreading. I am too young for this shit! But then again, it is also Friday, which means I don't have to face the commute to work (easily the hardest part of my work, or so it feels right now) for the next two days, which is something I cherish. There is a musical episode of that? In which season? Maybe I should watch on from where I stopped.

Schools and universities are opening fully next week - all of my students will be in school again! (Well, except for those in the final year, which are already finishing with their school year and they are ... not bothering being present much anymore at all.

Do you still work fully from home? Our schools jusr *might* become fully open next week. As of now, we still have only half the classes in school.

Well, looking at the bright side, I guess ... I won't take it as a suggestion, of course. Yes, very dramatic, but also very true. Especially months of working from home made the whole day our workday. So much work, so little energy ... so tired. I managed to not sleep for an hour in the afternoon today, so I hope I will fall asleep quite soon and then have more energy tomorrow. But then again, I am at my work computer again, so ...

Congratulations for keeping up with the exercise. I mean this seriously I am also very unfit, but I am also too unmotivated to start any activity by myself, even though I know I should. Today I was so tired after coming home from work that I slept a lot in the late afternoon. And went back to working later. Work evenings seem very common in this profession - I got a few emails from coworkers in the evening and one of the colleagues commented on it, saying she thought she was the only one at the computer at 8 PM ... @Arya kiddin', exciting news about the move! What is it that you do as a job again?

Yes, I mostly use fresh yeast - it is sold in small cubes in the refrigerator. I have used dried yeast (the one sold in the form of a powder) before, when the fresh one was not available. For the purpose I use it (this is, pizza dough), it really makes no difference.

I teach in a high school in a smallish town and such situations do appear (several children of the school's employees went or currently go to this school because it is the only one with this program in the region). But I am probably in another country than where you are, so my answer might or might not be relevant to you. 1. This situation isn't a conflict of interest at all. I don't see it as problematic. I find it odd that a 23-year-old works as a teacher though. In my country, you need a MA for a position in a public school, and hardly anybody finishes that by the time they are 23, let alone get a job at a school. 2. This one is trickier. A parent generally shouldn't teach their children - I never thought about a sibling situation, but I think it should be the same. If there is another teacher who teaches the same subject, the younger sibling/child of the teacher should be assigned to the class taught by another teacher. If this is really unavoidable ... maybe any oral testing and grading should be overseen by another member of the staff. And for any important tests (such as final exam at the end of high school), either a staff member from another school would be "borrowed", or the student would go take it at another school - I think our school did something like that for a student from another school who could otherwise be only examined by her mother (I think it was for an exam for a foreign language certificate),

Thanks! I worked a month and a half or so "on location", and then was sent to work from home, so it was quite hard to adjust to everything new in such a short time. Sleep schedule is a tricky thing to mantain in all cases. When I worked from home, I was just as tired in the afternoon as I am when I am in school. 4 or so hours on Zoom are really exahusting, just in a different way. I had headaches and my eyes hurt for a time almost every day. Now, I work from the school, but still have a part of the classes online. It is still better than from home, even though the commute is long. I am sure a lasagna counts. Great, now I want a lasagna.

When it comes to cooking, maybe the best strategy to learn it would be to join forces with somebody who knows what they are doing. It is a lot of fun to cook together. But sadly, covid might be a problem if you don't want to be in enclosed spaces with other people right now. Soooo ... no real idea about what to do with your buns now. But my elderly grandmother showed the valonqar and myself how to make a strudel about a month or two ago. We did most of the work, and she provided the expertise - what needs to be added, how to knead and so on. She just touched the dough and immediately knew what to add and she still has that touch to pull and spread the strudel dough, even though she hasn't baked it in a long time. It was amazing.

Hmmmm I have made pizza dough with yeast a lot of times now (we make our home made pizza sometimes) and I cannot think what could be wrong with yeast. A few days ago, I unwrapped a package of yeast and it had mould on it, so my brother and I threw it away - this was the first time I saw anything like it. I never attempted to use anything but my hands to knead dough. It works okay just using hands. How long has it been since you left it to rise? Maybe wait a bit longer. We leave our pizza dough to rise for about 45 minutes.

Yay for improved cooking, this is always useful. Keep at piano practice. I didn't really pick up any hobbies, but I had a bunch of things to learn anew because I got a new job in September and there are still areas where I am new. I still slept almost till 9 in the morning, even though I went to sleep around 10. It looks like I really needed it. The weather is changing a lot here too. Today is sunny again after a few days of horrid rain. Yesterday drive home was very unpleasant because it was pouring. I am not enjoying my weekend right now due to our upper neighbour renovating her flat and it is very loud. What kind of buns are those? Good luck with going to a store! I am sure you must be immune for some months now.

It is Friday evening, barely 8 PM. I am already showered, in my pyjama, and completely ready to sleep. Wiped out. I am having the wildest life in the last year of my twenties, I tell you.

It changes all the time. It was sunny and warm yesterday - very lucky, since we spent most of the day outside in nature, on a field trip. It would have not been pleasant if it had rained. But today, the skies became more and more grey and just an hour or so ago, we had a short, but thick rain shower. The temperatures don't drop as low as in your place, though. Congratulations to them for the vaccinations. I am a bit envious that Pfizer is reserved for young people where you are - I am young and we get AZ if we are young, also the 18-year-old students got it. It doesn't make any sense, as this vaccine is riskier for younger people. It sucks that your relatives got the riskier vaccine too ... I do hope the side effects disappear soon for them. Did you get your vaccine too? Arya Kiddin! You are back! Welcome back. How are you, how is covid-life treating you? Good luck with the vaccination.

May the Fourth be with you, spammers. Was on a trip with some students today. Most of it was spent waking trough nature, wilderness, forest, by a stream and through two small villages. It was really cute and relaxing in a way (and also muddy in places). I most enjoyed not having to wear a mask through the whole workday, due to being outside the whole time.

My paper has been published by a quite high-ranking journal for literature! Woohoo! May the Fourth be with you all.

My condolences, Helena.

Very good. I hope you have managed to calm down from all the stress by now and let others sort the situation out. You cannot just say something like that and not tell us! Congratulations on your vaccination! I hope the second dose comes quickly. I don't even have my second one scheduled - it should be some time in May.

What is going on with the builders?

Maybe this is the ultimate thread that actually never ends!

I just remembered to search if this thread already existed. I haven't listened to any of the entries yet, but I am looking forward to this year's ESC board chat.

One week in autumn, one week for Christmas/New Year, one week in February and in the spring - sometimes it would be one week, and sometimes just maybe 5 days in a row or so, depending on how the holidays fall. I see what you mean. Yep, there are plenty of holidays falling on a weekend this year. Even 1st and 2nd May, which are public holidays here, are Saturday and Sunday. Soooooo ... I technically have free days now, but I am sitting here grading essays all day. Good luck with cleaning out the flat. I hope I find some time to sort out my room these days too. Zero motivation to do any of that, of course.

A lot of vacation days sounds good. I actually think I have a lot of off days as a teacher, but obviously I cannot decide myself when to take them. (I don't mind that at all.) How do you mean, no Christmas? Shouldn't sister clean out her room herself? Did she take most of the furniture out to her new flat?

*walks into thread* Anybody here? A week without classes from tomorrow on, but I have a bunch of essays to correct and grade. The classes start on 3rd May again. The weather is going to be shitty for the next few days, so not a very fun couple of days apparently. How are the rest of the spammers?