Always up for snaps

I gotta admit that I don't really love what I'm doing right now but I don't hate it either. I love it when my students make sense. I mean when they're a bit chatty, I get to hear a lot of things I don't know - their life story, the places they've been, the food they hate, stuff like that.

On the other hand, I despise pleasing people. But with ESL jobs, you've got no choice. You have to market yourself as the most understanding and empathic tutor you can be since your bookings depend on that. No matter how good you are at talking, they'd still rate you low if your aura feels off in any way.

Anyways, one of the things I love is when they share their photos with me. That's like, my favorite thing in the world. It's as if I'm catching up with a long-lost friend whose photo updates always make me feel giddy! In this article, I'm gonna share with you some photos my students sent me and a little bit of something about them.

I often get a lot of dog pics as I talk about my dogs so much. This baby right here is my student's 11-year old pet who died just months before we talked. I did not remember his name but I certainly remember tearing up listening to his owner's story about him.

This one's from my student somewhere in Shizuoka who loves growing his own fruits and vegetables. He happily showed me his freshly harvested watermelons he was so proud of. And of course, I told him that my mom loves planting too and sent him a picture of her strawberries.

This photo is from a teenage girl who visited a temple in Japan. She took a snap of this candied strawberry that's called Tanghulu in Chinese. I couldn't really remember if there's a Japanese term for this or if they call it the same way. She was complaining about how expensive this was and that she wasn't able to enjoy it because it melted as they were roaming around.

This is from a guy who has a thing for busts. He doesn't know how to sculpt so he draws them instead. I complimented him for this artwork since I'm not that good at sketching. I love painting and pencils are not for me! I asked him what this piece meant but he said it meant nothing, lol. He just loves busts and that's about it.

If I am not mistaken, this is in Bremen, Germany. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I was kind of impressed with this guy's guts to travel with the pandemic still in full swing. He did not mind getting the requirements he needed. Not to mention the 14-day quarantine he had to do when he came back.

And I guess that would be my top 5 favorites, friends. I still have a lot in here but most of them are digital arts and dog pics. I might share them with you next time but for now, I'm gonna end it here. Thank you for reading and enjoy the rest of your week! Ciao!