06 October 2010

Life in a 26 minute post:

So, I have to be on the bus in 26 minutes (25 now that the page loaded...slow internet) and so I thought I'd speed type (excuse any typos) and talk about my life.

I just came from prekinder. Today we finished making paper bag puppets that look like each student. these puppets are "their english friends". Mine "English friend" is named Elika, and she DOESN'T UNDERSTAND SPANISH. So all the kids need to speak to her in english, or else she ignores them. But they really like their friends. Here's a photo with two of my favorite (except not because I don't have favorites) students:



The one on your right is named Kendy. He's also my neighbor. Sweetest kid alive. And cutest hair. I'll take real-life photos soon, and you'll see. His parents have been very active in the intensive, and every night during our consultation on how the day went, he falls asleep in his dad's arms, which just makes me want to sigh like a great grandmother at a wedding.

The one on the left is Andre. He has eyebrows because in real life, he has very expressive eyebrows. He enjoys speaking in a Batman voice, which really makes it difficult to understand what he's saying. In the mornings, though, when the bus picks him up, he says "Hola chimilinga/o" to every single person on the bus, including me! (I learned yesterday that chimilinga means like, tiny child. But whatever.)

I had colegio yesterday. I had to "be mean"...Like I gave them a seating chart and everything. I felt a little bad but I feel like they learned a lot more than the other time. And, I still let them pick their own groups. Oh! The best news? The textbooks are due to come tomorrow. So cross your fingers...

My colegio has 15 kids. Taking Maryam's advice, I created a participation points system, so they lose points when they're being rude or talking or not following directions. And the improvement was great. I am getting a lot more observation into the whole disciplinary process...I mean, I hated step, and time out, and all that, but I think its worse not having it. Maybe its just that I'm not aware of it, but there's not a real set system of what to do if a kid is acting up in class. You can learn more about this on Maryam's blog, and her experiences.

After school, and on weekends, I've been intensiving. I love intensives. I love Ruhi books. I was in a group that worked on part of book 7, and even in Spanish, the format, font and discussion was so familiar! Its so cool to think about study circles that are going on all over the world, and how similar they all are!

The people are amazing too. Too amazing to describe in the 8 minutes I have remaining. But some anecdotes:
--Yesterday we watched Flight of the Conchords and laughed and laughed. Even Belen, who doesn't speak a ton of English, laughed and laughed. I thought of how a lot of times our intensives with Jamie and Elika and Carol Shoe ended up with us watching FoTC. Parallel! haha.
--We play frisbee! And its amazingly fun, although I didn't describe the rules super well with my limited spanish. But we have a blast anyways.
--We play ukulele! Maryam and I wrote a song, which will be posted as soon as can be. And Marlon plays the guitar! And everyone sings! Its just so musical :)
--Mauro eats powdered milk. I was strongly reminded of my dear sister Cori (WHO WON STATE LAST WEEKEND!!!! SHOUT OUT!!!!) and her affinity to half and half.

Which brings me to: I think I may be subconciously homesick. Because I'm never depressed or sad during the day or at night before going to bed or even in the morning when I wake up at 5:45 (although even if I was homesick I wouldn't be at that time, I'm too tired then to feel anything) but I had some dreams which included my family/Alaska. But really, I'm enjoying it here. Loving it. The independence, the friends, even the teaching. And today is a FREE DAY at the intensive (although I had school...sigh) so we're going to go chill and possibly bake cookies and definitely buy a warm sweater! And play frisbee and eat lunch and--
gotta go!