I have to edit my list from before to give credit to Jens Lekman's Night Falls Over Kortedala as my favorite new listen of 2008. His songs tell stories and describe feelings and memories in a way that's transcendent but with refreshingly normal lyrics. Beautiful music, lovely voice, cute Swedish accent. Bonus.

My TEFL practicum has started, and even though I won't be student teaching tonight, I get butterflies thinking about it.

I am nervous, but also very excited about working with this class. Myself and five other students in the TEFL class are sharing student teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Commonwealth Terrace Cooperative on the St. Paul campus of the U of M. We're working mostly with spouses of graduate students who have tested at a high intermediate level of English (although different levels individually). Basically, they can all communicate well, but want to improve their fluency with the language. We're focusing a lot on listening and speaking.

I'm teaching on Tuesday, and I think I have a good lesson plan. However, my biggest challenge will be individually evaluating the students' progress. Since I'm such an optimist, I worry that I won't be identifying specific problems. So that's going to be my main individual goal for the practicum, to actually look for each student's problem areas.

The job hunt has also begun. I'm seriously considering Chile as a place to apply. What appeals to me about Chile, in addition to it having a fascinating history, amazing geography, and a climate (at least in the major cities) that I could definitely live in, is the opportunity to resurrect my Spanish. There's a job there that lasts from April through November, but also others for 5- and 10- month periods. Korea and China are also in the running, although there are so many jobs offered there that I don't know where to begin to sort them out.

Tomorrow and Saturday I have free days, though, so maybe I'll get some of that sorting and applying done then. If I don't end up watching Buffy a lot. The 'mates have got me into it. So . . . wish me the ability to focus.