Adjusting

I knew the days of basically only taking care of my girls would be over soon. The days when I had plenty of time to read a novel, the news, articles of interest, blogs, watch my favorite series, and so on and so forth.

So much has changed in my life all at once and I sometimes feel like I'm floundering in all the newness and different circumstances and situations I'm now facing. The changes were necessary and they're for the better. I'm happy about them. Although at the same time it's quite a lot to take in at once and adapt to.

This is the first time that I have a child enrolled in a school (institution). Preparing snacks for Alina to take every day, going over her homework with her, checking on how she's doing at school, having uniforms to take care of, having obligations to a school, etc., etc. is pretty new to me.

I used to be her teacher. I knew how she was doing, I knew what she needed to work on. Now I have to rely on sometimes unclear communications with her teacher or the incomplete messages she passes on to me with the unvarying answer "I don't know" for most everything. 

An almost daily occurrence:

Me: What are you supposed to do here?
Alina: I don't know?
Me: Didn't your teacher say?
Alina: Yes, but I didn't understand.
Me: Well then you have to ask her to explain it to you for you to tell me so that I can help you.

Or:

Me: What on earth is this (some undecipherable word)? 
Alina: I don't know, it's what the teacher wrote on the board.
Me: She wrote this?
Alina: Well, that's what it looked like. 
Me: Did you ask her what it was?
Alina: I don't know. I don't think so.

My days have become filled to the brim with work and happenings once again, for which I'm glad. 2010 felt like a pretty useless year for me, work-wise. 

Nowadays I'm up at 6 to help Alina get ready for school, serve her breakfast, etc. and then Daddy drives her and her aunt to school. Meanwhile, the little monkey wakes up with the commotion and thinks it's time for her day to begin, thus snatching any hopes I had of sleeping a little more and throwing them out the window, down the drain, and any other such expression. 

Anyhoo, I work from 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with a 1-hour break for lunch, which is when I go over Alina's homework with her. Thankfully, there's no commute to work and that sure makes a lot of things easier.

To pursue a desire I've had for a while, and which I've only been able to do now, I enrolled in an university and am studying for a degree in teaching and education. Yay!

Classes started this week and so naturally, all of a sudden there's a LOT of information and regulations to assimilate. My poor brain.

Most of my closer acquaintances tease me about my horrid accent (when I speak in Portuguese) and all the verb tenses I get mixed up. But I had the "last laugh" when the results of the entrance exam were posted and I came in fourth place. Apparently, there are a ton of people out there with worse Portuguese than mine.

I do feel smug just now.   

Oh well, Alina is adapting just fine to her new situation. She's become friends with some of her classmates, is doing well in school, and tonight she'll be going to the first of many birthday parties.

Sadly, I can't accompany her because I have to study, but I'm sure she'll have plenty of fun.