morning fields of amber grey

Definitely feels like spring.  I am thinking I will be want to start walking to work again soon.  I wonder if the slugs are out yet.

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My student teacher is a bit of a dud and I'm not sure what to do with him.  It's one thing to teach teaching strategies, and another thing entirely to teach social skills, especially when it comes to working with adults.  I find it difficult and awkward to tell an adult man how to behave in ways that won't make him seem like such an oaf.  I got better at these kinds of discussions while working at the university and I'm hoping I can find some ways to get through to him; the other teacher I share him with is not too happy about him either.

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I almost fell for a scam last night when some guy who wanted to buy my bracelet (the one I won) asked me to go through an escrow service to protect both our rights in the transaction.  I was almost about to agree to it when I decided to just check quickly what the selling site advised about use of escrows, and found that the service the guy was asking for wasn't approved.  When I asked him to use one of the approved escrow services he suddenly lost interest in the bracelet.  This was all enough to make me wonder.... but I was absolutely positive he was trying to scam me when I received an identical email, the same word for word, even with the same spelling mistakes, making an offer on the bracelet - from yet another address.  I'm glad I stopped a moment to think and double check before falling into that trap.  I've become distrustful of online "stuff" and I think it's a good thing.  If the bracelet doesn't sell, we want to give it to Shawn's stepmom.   If I'd gone for this scam, not only would I have lost the money for the bracelet, but also the fake "escrow fees" and the cost of shipping and insuring the shipment.  Wow...  I reported the situation to the site management, but I worry that someone else is going to get screwed in the meantime.

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My students are trying to teach me to speak Punjabi.  They get me to say things and then scream with laughter when I mispronounce the words.  Today while trying to tell one of my students that he was acting like a "monkey", I actually told him he was acting like a "blender".

Now "blender" has become a big insult in my class.  They keep saying, "Hey, quit being such a blender!" to each other.  It's wonderful.

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