I now have a skylight in my former bat-cave of a bedroom which formerly had no natural light entering (except for whatever crept through the cracks in the walls/ceiling/floor). My host brother (who lives in San Jose) came over and cut a big hole in the ceiling this past weekend. It was quite an event and as expect all my stuff is covered in saw dust/chips. But now there is light which is nice.
Almost done with tests and exams for this trimester. Grading soon! Some people will do outstanding and others... just don't come to class. It's a mixed bag. So hard to motivate when their other teacher (i.e. the director) doesn't exactly teach. She definitely talks the talk to her students that they should come to class and stuff but doesn't exactly walk the walk when it comes to her own effort. Kids know how to read between the lines by the time they get to 4th grade.
It's almost the end of the 2nd trimester?!?! When did that happen? ::mild panic sets in::
I'm going on a trip with the MAG-FAO youth group this weekend. Not sure where or how or who exactly but I'm gonna just put myself out there and hope it's fun. It'll definitely put my Spanish to the test.
I had to tell one of my (two) first graders yesterday to stop eating his eraser during the test. Repeatedly. I don't know if its kids in general or just these kids but a lot of them seem to have weird oral fixations like that. They're always chewing on their notebooks or their pencil bags or something. No wonder EVERYONE is sick. The funniest part though is that eraser in Spanish is "borrador" so when I told him I actually ended up making this awesome rhyme (No come su borrador, mi amor, por favor) that made us all laugh.
When you can make a joke in a foreign language you've definitely advanced to the next level. What level that is, I don't know. I'm attempting to read "Twilight" in Spanish. So far, do-able but challenging. I definitely don't get a lot of the words but I'm following the gist so far. We'll see how far I get. The school cook lent me her book but she'll probably want it back before she goes grey so I might not get to finish it.
8.25.2010
8.11.2010
random update
I've had an unprecedented amount of internet time this week. Fun update today. My 6 year old host "niece" finally said my name correctly today for the first time since I got here. She's been calling me "Elin" for 7 months and today she finally figured it out and proceed to prance around the house shouting "eRin, eRin, eRin." It was one of the moments about this year that I will treasure.
Classes are going well. I've finally taken control of the schedule so that is pretty regular everyday. We've been learning about illnesses and practicing a dialogue between Mr. Monkey and Dr. Mouse. In a word: adorable. We're still working on pronunciation And they are doing great with it. We're going to do some puppet performances next week as a project. Tomorrow we're having a baby shower at the school in the afternoon for one of the mothers in kindergarten. Should be interesting. They were making the desert today which consisted of strawberry jello in a plastic cup, topped with canned mixed fruit and a condensed milk/evaporated milk mixture. These people love their condensed milk. It comes in squeeze containers for christ sakes. I'll take lots of pictures tomorrow. I'm sure it will be an interesting experience.
Classes are going well. I've finally taken control of the schedule so that is pretty regular everyday. We've been learning about illnesses and practicing a dialogue between Mr. Monkey and Dr. Mouse. In a word: adorable. We're still working on pronunciation And they are doing great with it. We're going to do some puppet performances next week as a project. Tomorrow we're having a baby shower at the school in the afternoon for one of the mothers in kindergarten. Should be interesting. They were making the desert today which consisted of strawberry jello in a plastic cup, topped with canned mixed fruit and a condensed milk/evaporated milk mixture. These people love their condensed milk. It comes in squeeze containers for christ sakes. I'll take lots of pictures tomorrow. I'm sure it will be an interesting experience.
8.09.2010
just start, the rest will follow
I'm afraid I'm not a very reliable blogger. I do enjoy keeping up with other people's blogs but it usually just makes me realize how irregular and unfunny and uninsightful my blog is. Lets face it, I'm doing a pretty lousy job of keeping in touch. But that doesn't mean I don't miss you.
I'm getting back into the swing of things after vacation. Got some sort of weird virus when I got back from vacation. At first it was just the worlds worst motion sickness. I was debating and rehearsing how to ask someone for a plastic bag on the bus and spent the second half of the ride back with my head halfway out the window. When I finally got back it didn't get better and I spent 2 days unable to do anything but lie in bed and sleep because every time I was awake my stomach hurt or I felt super nauseous. Ick! Anyway, when I finally forced myself to get back to teaching I started to feel better. Doing something you love usually has a healing effect.
That being said there are often days when I feel like an absolute zombie after lunch (I swear its the rice and beans... super soporific) and I can't imagine teaching three more classes, even though I know I will. I sometimes put the three desks together in my room and lie down for a bit since the floor is cold and kind of dirty. And then I get up after my pseudo-nap and manage to teach my classes with some secret source of energy I didn't know I had. I guess the point is you can know you will do something even if you don't have all the courage, energy, faith or knowledge up front. Sometimes, you just start and the rest will follow.
I spent last weekend in San Jose with unas de mis compañeras. Monday, August 2 is La Dia del Virgen de Los Angeles who is the patron (saint?) of Costa Rica. In other words, a big deal. People walk as a pilgrimage from all over CR to Cartago where her church is and she is said to help people who are sick or need help. I was informed by a family here that many people hold the incorrect assumption that La Negrita (the nickname for the Virgin) performs miracles, but really she just relays the messages. The big guys in charge of the miracles. So she's just one of God's many secretaries. Helps to be nice to the messengers and show them gratitude I guess. Anyway the three of us went out to eat, went shopping and I finally got my hair cut. An unintentionally girly weekend. Next weekend is the 2nd “mid-service” for all the volunteers so I will get to see everyone from the program (that are still here... we've had a record number of defectors this year.) Pretty excited about that.
This week I had my official site visit from the director of World Teach. I wasn't really nervous but it was a lot of work to be really “on” all day, knowing that someone is watching you teach. It went well though and she didn't really have many criticisms (which I was sort of disappointed about, I was hoping she would nitpick a little because there's always room for improvement). She said I was one of the best teachers she's seen and had a lot of nice things to praise about my teaching style. It's nice to get confirmation that all my hard work is not for nothing.
We've been doing some little art projects here and there. We spent a week drawing and describing different monsters to learn how to talk about parts of the body. Lots of funny pictures. We also made monster face masks gluing different colored shapes for eyes, mouth, nose etc. As those of you who've worked with young children know, they seem to have a complete inability to regulate the amount of glue they use. It never ceases to amaze me. No amount of warning and explaining helps (How much glue? A LITTLE glue). It's like that part of their brain has not developed yet. My advice to future teachers: there's no stopping it, learn to live with the mess and maybe even find humor in it. Pretty good life advice too I guess.
I'm getting back into the swing of things after vacation. Got some sort of weird virus when I got back from vacation. At first it was just the worlds worst motion sickness. I was debating and rehearsing how to ask someone for a plastic bag on the bus and spent the second half of the ride back with my head halfway out the window. When I finally got back it didn't get better and I spent 2 days unable to do anything but lie in bed and sleep because every time I was awake my stomach hurt or I felt super nauseous. Ick! Anyway, when I finally forced myself to get back to teaching I started to feel better. Doing something you love usually has a healing effect.
That being said there are often days when I feel like an absolute zombie after lunch (I swear its the rice and beans... super soporific) and I can't imagine teaching three more classes, even though I know I will. I sometimes put the three desks together in my room and lie down for a bit since the floor is cold and kind of dirty. And then I get up after my pseudo-nap and manage to teach my classes with some secret source of energy I didn't know I had. I guess the point is you can know you will do something even if you don't have all the courage, energy, faith or knowledge up front. Sometimes, you just start and the rest will follow.
I spent last weekend in San Jose with unas de mis compañeras. Monday, August 2 is La Dia del Virgen de Los Angeles who is the patron (saint?) of Costa Rica. In other words, a big deal. People walk as a pilgrimage from all over CR to Cartago where her church is and she is said to help people who are sick or need help. I was informed by a family here that many people hold the incorrect assumption that La Negrita (the nickname for the Virgin) performs miracles, but really she just relays the messages. The big guys in charge of the miracles. So she's just one of God's many secretaries. Helps to be nice to the messengers and show them gratitude I guess. Anyway the three of us went out to eat, went shopping and I finally got my hair cut. An unintentionally girly weekend. Next weekend is the 2nd “mid-service” for all the volunteers so I will get to see everyone from the program (that are still here... we've had a record number of defectors this year.) Pretty excited about that.
This week I had my official site visit from the director of World Teach. I wasn't really nervous but it was a lot of work to be really “on” all day, knowing that someone is watching you teach. It went well though and she didn't really have many criticisms (which I was sort of disappointed about, I was hoping she would nitpick a little because there's always room for improvement). She said I was one of the best teachers she's seen and had a lot of nice things to praise about my teaching style. It's nice to get confirmation that all my hard work is not for nothing.
We've been doing some little art projects here and there. We spent a week drawing and describing different monsters to learn how to talk about parts of the body. Lots of funny pictures. We also made monster face masks gluing different colored shapes for eyes, mouth, nose etc. As those of you who've worked with young children know, they seem to have a complete inability to regulate the amount of glue they use. It never ceases to amaze me. No amount of warning and explaining helps (How much glue? A LITTLE glue). It's like that part of their brain has not developed yet. My advice to future teachers: there's no stopping it, learn to live with the mess and maybe even find humor in it. Pretty good life advice too I guess.
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