Sleep

Well I didn't realize that it was possible to be this tired and still be alive. It's not that I didn't sleep a whole lot (I got nine hours last night) and it's not that my schedule was all that hectic today (only two classes, and a seminar that I am sitting around waiting for right now). I don't know what it is...maybe just the fact that I have two classes on complete opposite ends of the day. Or maybe it's that I had the additional stress of trying to meet the Czech university student who I am helping teach English at the right time.

I actually ended up being late for our meeting today. I thought that half an hour would be enough time for me to get to the stop on the metro we were supposed to meeting from the stop on the metro where my school is located. Apparently I was wrong. I forgot to factor in that I had to walk up a hill, make a pit stop for the bathroom, and that I was wearing shoes that have been known to draw blood when worn for 10+ minutes. It was because of all these things that I showed up late to the metro station.

Luckily, though, the meeting went well. Somehow he had found a book of English grammar, one that is pretty obviously directed towards towards already English-speaking people. So we went through the first 10 lessons of the book, passing up the things that I felt I was unable to accurately describe because for me, there are no descriptions. They just are. But after every verb tense we went over (he knew them all already, so I felt that the grammar book was unnecessary), he would look up at me and say, "Do you actually use this?" I'd look back at him and say, "Yes, but I honestly can't tell you when."

Honestly, it is impossible to describe the difference between the tense where you say, "I have done something" and the action is completed, and the tense where you say, "I have done something" and the action is still ongoing. After staring blankly at the book for a while, I told him to just listen to the question and use the words that they use in the question to formulate his response.

We finally gave up with the grammar, and I moved on to something I knew I could teach him: slang. I taught him all about "chillin'":
"What are you doing tonight?"
"Chillin' with some friends. You?"
"Yeah. I plan to chill out too. What did you do last night?"
"I chilled."
"Sweet as."

In addition to "chillin,'" I taught him about "hanging out" and what "That's a bummer" means. The hanging out was particularly confusing for him. I had used it earlier in an email to him. He asked me what it means...the only way he had ever heard of it was used in regards to laundry. It was this "hanging out" conversation that led us onto "chilling."

I have to say I was a little bit offended by the direction the conversation turned. After a while he asked me what I did every day. I told him, with the times, until I ended it by saying, "And then I go to bed." "And what time is that?" he asked. "Eleven, maybe 12," I told him. He looked at me aghast. "But you're young! You should be out with your friends! At the disco, at the pub!" I felt as though I had to justify it to him--"But I like sleeping. Plus I have to get up at like 6.30 a couple days a week for class." "Okay, okay," he said, "What time do you go to bed on Saturday?" To avoid his ridicule a second time over my sleeping patterns, I gave him a meaningful look and said, "Late." I figured this was the best answer, and allowed him to interpret it as he would, choosing not to give him another opportunity to be shocked with my sleeping habits.

Later, though, when we were making plans for when to meet the next week, he said he would be available on Wednesday. "Great!" I said. "Me too!" "Well, I have swimming thing, and I will be getting back at seven." "That's fine," I said. "We can meet when you get back." "But you go to bed so early...!" "It's fine." And I decided to never discuss my sleeping habits with him again.