Once a Princess, Always a Princess

There are days when I really should be focused on all of the things that I have to do, and I should absolutely not be writing blog posts.

There are days when I need to lighten up and focus more on what is actually important.

I'm pretty positive that today is one of the former days, but I'm going to pretend like writing this post is life-changing. If it changes your life, whoever you are, please tell me so I can justify all future entries.

______________________

Let me tell you where I am with school. To be honest, I've had a bit of a rough time lately. Some of the complications are derived by the fact that my job is a bit nebulous still- and it doesn't help that the FBI takes every bit of 8 weeks to process criminal record checks...

So I have been making it through the day just doing what I think that I should do. I'm not like the typical Slovene teachers. Obviously. I am an American- I was trained in a totally different system and was raised in the Heartland. I AM different, plus I am young and like to smile... a somewhat-difficult disposition to gain ultimate respect sometimes.

Additionally, there are times when I do not know the where to put the border between how I should act and how I want to act. Don't get the wrong idea- I understand the things that are really unacceptable, however there is a fairly large 'gray' in teaching. And then there is the small but NOT-insignificant fact that I'm teaching some really young kids this year in addition to the older ones. Now, I haven't had much experience babysitting in my adult life and don't really know all that there is to know about 5th graders. I've learned quickly, however, that they really like me. When they see me in the hall, they gasp, sometimes drop their folders, and wave with both hands. ''UČITELJICA!'' they call me. It's adorable. And anything that I tell them is pretty much considered gold. This is the reason that they start each class by chanting 'English, English, ENGLISH!' with fists in the air (hey, we were learning the parts of the body- what a better way than to teach them how to make a fist?). This is also the reason that they do the Michael Scott 'slow' run every time I ask them to slowly line up by the door. However, sometimes they start things with cues that I didn't even mean to give.

Last Friday, we were reading together. The Princess and The Pea. I made a big mistake:
I told them, just to make conversation, that we have this big dance at the end of high school in America, and the school decides that one person should be a queen, and one should be king, and they're crowned. Obviously, I thought that this would impress them, however, I didn't realize that they would change their excited-hallway-yells. Now, whenever I enter a hall for the lower grades, I will hear an excited gasp or a fake trumpet blow. ''Your Majesty!'' they call me. Though this is hilarious, it's possibly NOT helping some of the more-stressful relationships around.