Counting down

Well I am entering my last week as a school secretary tomorrow. For the past week I have been training my replacement and doing things around here for the final time. I can already tell I maybe a tad emotional when I finally say goodbye a week on Tuesday!

This week is going to be busy, I have two school Christmas parties and my new employer very kindly invited me to their Christmas lunch as well. Tomorrow a colleague at work is cooking me a mexican lunch as her gift to me and we will all get to enjoy it. So healthy eating maybe a problem this week! I just finished baking Sticky Toffee Pudding for one of the parties, my final gift to my colleagues who loved it after I made it once before.

The kids are starting to realise I am leaving and as they come up and hug me and tell me they will miss me, it's getting harder everytime.

And then the little funnies you get with kids happen and remind me why I have loved this job for four years.

Last week I decided to dress for the season and wore bright red lipstick one day. As I left a classroom I heard a third grader say to his teacher "Miss Sarah has ALOT of lipstick on today!". It was very tempting to go back and kiss him on the cheek, but his teacher and I got a big giggle out of it.

I have a feeling I am going to be needing a hankie!

Lost in translation!

So the other day I had to get hold of a parent after her child puked. I tried calling her to no avail and the child informed me she was now working nights.

So I reverted to the next contact his aunt, also a parent at the school, this was our conversation (names changed for privacy).

Me: "Hi Jo, I have been trying to get hold of Ann because John has been sick and we need him picked up. As you're the next contact and I can't get her, I am calling you"

Jo: "Ok no problem"

Me: "Would you mind coming for him, or do you think you could send someone around to knock Ann up"

Dead silence for about 5 seconds, whilst we both absorbed what I'd said.

Me: "Oh my gosh Jo that's not what I mean't, that has a whole different meaning in England!"

Jo: Trying to speak through laughter "omg don't worry I knew you didn't mean that"

Me: "I am so sorry" also laughing

Jo: "Oh no you just made my day, I'll send Jim to get him"

Me: Bright red with mortification!!

A change is gonna come

Well there's a good reason I have been silent.

You know when there's something exciting afoot that you can't share, it tends to be all you can think about and that makes blogging kind of tough. Well that's been me for the past 6 weeks because......

I HAVE A NEW & EXCITING JOB!!!!

I have loved my current job as an Elementary School Secretary over the past few years and it gave me a perfect transition into the American workplace. But back in England I was very much an ambitious career woman and I am ready to restart my career, using skills I have the school doesn't need from me. So it was time for a change, plus the Hubster is ready for a more significant contribution to the bank account!

I saw my new job advertised, realized I had previous experience in England that offered the skills they were needing. So I applied, I interviewed, I got it and as it's not the kind of job that will probably come up again in this area, I was over the moon.

The main city in our tri-state area is building a brand new state of the art Conference Center (architect drawing above) and I am going to be an Event Coordinator for it.

It's over 29,000 square foot and will accommodate approximately 650 people in a round table event, 1200 in a lecture type seating, 110 booth spaces, and 75 people in the three training rooms, acting as a hub for multi-purpose conference and education facilitating.

I have given notice at the school and am due to start a month before the building is finished, probably December sometime. I will be an employee of the city Tourism Bureau and that means lots of involvement in promoting the area and events to attend and help plan.

This is a first for the area and I am so chuffed they have decided they want me as part of their team for this exciting project.

Saying goodbye to the school, my colleagues and the kids will be hard and no doubt require some kleenex, but this was an opportunity I just could not turn down.

So now the secret is out, I'll be blogging again!

Teaching 'British'

Well I got to do something really fun on Monday night, our High School play this year is a Sherlock Holmes skit and they nearly all have to speak with a British accent. So when I was asked to help the students get the accent, I was delighted to help out.

It's not easy trying to help someone sound British, especially when you don't really 'hear' your own accent. So I concentrated on the difference in vowel pronunciations, speaking slower, more clearly and enunciating every letter.

It was a real giggle for all of us, I took them in small groups and read through the lines with them.  I got them to watch my mouth closely as I spoke as apparently Brits do not open their mouths as wide as Americans when they speak and we repeated problem words until they improved.

At first they were typical self-conscious teenagers, but then we started to have fun and they relaxed and got better. It was amazing how speaking slower and saying the whole word clearly actually made them sound more British.

I felt most sorry for the young lad playing Jeeves.  He was the first one told he needed to spend time with me and I hated to tell him Jeeves was an iconic character who spoke very 'posh'. We persevered and he did improve but it was a real struggle for him.

I did have a success with one of the young girls though. Her teacher commented during the rehearsal afterards that she now really sounded British and was too timid to even try before my intervention.  Overall I think they all went away with an understanding of how to sound more British and there was definite improvement.

I also left them with the perfect warm-up word before they go on stage - Water, pronouned war-terr by Brits, rather than the American wadda.

I can't wait to see how they do in November.