Bits and pieces again...

Hahaha, I got a Valentine's Day gift for the first time in my life. It was from a female student who isn't even a regular of mine. It was nice of her. :) Another student brought in cakes she had baked; chocolate ones for the male teachers, and a tea cake for the female teachers.

Valentine's Day is quite different here than in Australia. For a start, the main idea of it is for women to give their boyfriends/husbands chocolate (there is a different holiday for men to give their women gifts). But it's very common for people to give Valentine's gifts to their friends, co-workers, boss, parents, etc.

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I mentioned in an earlier post that a new student, almost a total beginner, was going to start private lessons with me. Already he's become one of my favourite students. People's personalities will come through somehow, even if they don't have many words. He's extremely bright so I think he'll progress very quickly.

We had another new student start recently, I think I mentioned the guy who decided to join after taking one of my trial lessons? (To clarify, it's not that he decided to join because of my trial lesson. But at any rate, my lesson didn't deter him from going ahead and signing up. :))

Anyway, this new guy is great. I like him so much. He's probably in his early or mid twenties, and you can tell he just likes people. He's got this super positive, energetic vibe about him. Every time he sees me, his eyes light up - and probably, my eyes light up too - it's like seeing an old friend, and we immediately start talking yak-yak-yak. In the one class I had him in, he was asking the other students questions, asking me questions; he was interested in getting to know everyone (and it sounds funny, but most students don't do that so much; they don't really talk to each other unless told to :)).


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I made a 'resolution' to try at least one new restaurant each week, and eat at least one new thing each week. This sounds stupid but I've already settled into such a rut of patronising the same stores and cafes all the time. I have a lunchtime routine of Subway and Starbucks, where I order exactly the same thing every day. It's pretty sad...