So today was another day at the water sanitation plant. Somehow, I am always surprised by the fact that I enjoy being there. I have that same, "Oh god, here we go again," feeling in the morning that I do for my other job, but then I get there, and I do stuff with the kids, and crazily enough, I thoroughly enjoy myself. I am also happy about the fact that I am learning to be much more outspoken with the children.

Meg's Phrase of the Day: "What did I JUST say?"

The person I had the biggest beef with today was a parent chaperone, the father of one of the kids. He was making me crazy! And the woman who laughed at his asinine jokes was equally as frustrating (I wish I'd thought to tell her to stop encouraging him). I have enough work to do managing the kids! I don't need to manage the adults, too! So, the guy was talking while I was talking and cracking stupid jokes about eating the wild animals we were observing, namely the crayfish. I don't care if he actually does eat them. I just want him to shut the hell up while I am teaching!

So every time I thought to tell him, "Knock it off!" or something of the equivalent, he stopped before I got the first words out. So I ignored him and continued saying whatever it was I had to say. Then his son, not surprisingly, did something I'd told him not to do. He was one of the most difficult kids I had today. Wonder what was provoking him? I don't even remember what it was that he did, but I told him in my best Official Teacher Voice, "You need to not do that."

The man said, "Yeah. Trouble-maker."

I looked him dead in the eye and snapped, "I wouldn't talk."

It took about 15 seconds before he realized what I'd said at which point he responded, "HEY! Wait a minute!" I ignored him, and thankfully, he stopped talking.

When we got back to the meeting grounds, I told the teacher that the only problem I'd had all day was the parents of that particular group (there were 4 groups total). When I was nine years old, like these kids, I was afraid of being a tattle-tale. Obviously, it's no longer an issue for me.

I even found out after the fact that I am not actually required to have the parents there with me. They're there to help, period. If they're not helping, they don't need to be present. Nice. The next time I have an issue, I'm sending the parents away!

Today, I got some thorny things in my socks, I rescued a lost net from the water, I attempted to rescue a second lost net (but was unable to), and one kid fell in, getting soaked up to his hips.

My reaction? "I told you it was slippery!"

(Maybe I'm the child now? "I told ya so, nyah nyah!")

Despite everything, it was a great day. The kids were really cute and asked all kinds of questions. They were really excited and listened to me. The ones I had problems with were only a problem because they were so excited that they could hardly stand still long enough to just listen for a second. And after I repeated myself for the third or fourth time, they were usually like, "Oh okay," and apologized if/when appropriate. They were trying, they were interested, they were excited, and they had a fun time.

Also, I love starting my morning outside, in the fresh air. The weather was gorgeous today, slightly overcast at times, breezy, and later, quite sunshiney. My fellow teachers and I made fun of the misbehaving parents once they were gone. And I got to read an entire packet of thank you notes from the class that was there last time, which was just incredibly cute and funny.

So, yeah. Today was a good day.