have kindly sponsored

Two weeks of student teaching has done me in. I am a walking anxiety timebomb. I can feel my skin crawl at night in anticipation of facing the next day at school.

There reaches a point though when you just think: I have had enough. Meaning, I have had enough of stress. The teaching is not that bad. It is enduring the wait until each class, each day that is too much. Like standing in the queue for a roller coaster. You know you are going to enjoy it, but the wait scares the sh*t out of you. I have had enough.

This weekend I put it all behind me and enjoyed myself. I relaxed. I watched films. I read books. I went to pubs. I went to Canterbury, which was brilliant. I went to more pubs.

What I did not do was prepare much for class. And as I am always finding, no matter how much you prepare you always have more to do. Also, what I did not do was anything about my wedding. Here as well I felt I deserved a break. And have a break I did. I relaxed. I went to pubs. I already went through this.

Moving on to a different topic. Quite literally. Gareth and I have been talking about where we are going to be living next year. At the moment we are living with two other couples in an extremely cramped flat. Many people seem to assume that after we are married we will automatically move out and on our own. And of course, this would be the ideal situation, but our finances may have other ideas. It is possible that we may get a place in university married/family housing for next year. We will find out in a couple of weeks about our chances. Thankfully, we are great friends with the people we live with, and so for now it is working out.

The only strange bit are two flatmates who have come to the conclusion that anything gross looking or needing to be fixed, should just be thrown out. Several household items have met their doom recently, including a saucepan, our dish-rack, the shower rail and curtain, and everyones toothbrushes. This odd behaviour seems to go unnoticed by anyone beside myself, but, in the grand scheme of things, it seems pretty minor.

24 January 2000,

Stacie Lewis