So much has happened in eight short days! Last week, after a beautiful day at la playa en Isla verde (the beach at Isla Verde), I spent MLK day preparing for my first week of teaching. My roommate Ashley and I headed to Escuela Elemental de UPR (that's the name of our school) to help our teacher clean and set up her room for the new semester. This semester, our teacher wanted the kids to focus on telling their story and as always, learning from the life experiences and the stories of others. To promote this idea, Ashley and I designed a lovely bulletin board. :)
(The quote at the top says, "Este año nuevo, dejanos leer tu historia" which means, this new year, let us read your story. Each of the books surrounding the big book have the kid's names on them)
After preparing, our teacher treated us AGAIN to a Mexican meal at a little restaurant right down the corner from our dorm. I'm not sure if it was the food or nerves, but right after that, the butterflies started fluttering in my stomach.
The next day Ashley and I woke up at the crack of dawn to head for the school. The school is located about ten minutes away from where we live so every morning we get to enjoy a nice little walk through UPR's campus.
When we arrived at the school, I instantly went into teacher mode, and the feeling was incredible! So many smiling faces greeted me and any anxiety I had instantly disappeared. I knew at that moment, this is what I was meant to do!
Tuesday we spent the day observing and planning for Wednesday. OUR FIRST DAY OF TEACHING! Ashley and I spent most of Tuesday evening working relentlessly on our lesson and to make a long story short, we rocked it! Speaking completely in Spanish in front of a class of sixth graders...who speak better Spanish than you...for an hour...is pretty intimidating, but seeing the kids engaged in our lesson's activities and watching their faces light up as we complimented them on their good work was well worth it!
The rest of the week we spent observing, grading, and getting used to the school. We also got to know our class pretty well. So far, I'd say the most difficult challenge is learning the kid's names. It's one thing to try to memorize familiar sounding names, but ones that you can barely pronounce is a tremendous obstacle. I'm persevering and falling in love with my students...and Puerto Rico :)
Finally the weekend arrived. :) Friday night, Ashley and I went out with one of our friends we met in Old San Juan for sushi in Bayamón (a city in Puerto Rico). Our friend was quite the gentleman. Not only did he pay for both of our dinners, but he bought us each a rose as well! (I gave mine to Dora.) Ashley and I felt pretty special!
On Saturday, Ashley and I laid out by the pool. Actually....we kinda laid on the steps by the pool because the pool was closed. We still managed to get sun and avoid being reprimanded by the staff at UPR. Our only obstacle was the rain. You see, it rains every day here...but only for ten minutes TOPS. Well....Ashley and got rained on for a little bit while we laid out. So, like two silly girls we were laying in our bathing suits with our umbrellas until the rain stopped. What made it funnier was the my umbrella inverted twice in five minutes. I was definitely pullin' a Mary Poppins!
Later that night, we did laundry for the first time. One dollar for a wash and one dollar for a dry. IN QUARTERS ONLY. Now normally that wouldn't be a big deal, but the change machine in the laundry room wasn't working, the security guard in our dorm didn't have any change, and Ashley and I only had nickles, pennies and dimes. After buying some snacks and scrounging around, we managed to find enough money for three loads of laundry. We also got to goof off between loads :)
(my nickname for her is Flakita which means skinny girl! I'd say it's appropriate since she can fit in the dryer)
After laundry and much needed showers, we met up with our new friends Melissa, Abby (student teachers from Boston) and Caleb (an international student) for more sushi in Río Piedras (my little city in Puerto Rico). I guess you could say the sushi in Puerto Rico is pretty good seeing as we had in twice in a row!
When we finished stuffing our faces, the five of us headed to Vidy's, a little restaurant and bar in Rio Piedras for dancing and karaoke. Yep that's right. I sang both Spanish and English karaoke. The song we chose to sing in Spanish was called "Preciosa" which is Puerto Rico's national anthem...or something like that. Basically, if you were to sing it pretty much anywhere in PR, everyone would start singing with you and they would know every word. After Ashley and I finished singing, all the Puertoriqueños were cheering and applauding us! Some even asked us if we were from Puerto Rico! It was so cool!
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| (From left to right: Caleb, Ashley, Melissa, Abby) |
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| I love the new friends! |
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| Singing "Preciosa" |
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| So proud of ourselves! |
Feeling like superstars, Ashley and I then decided to sing Madonna's "Material Girl" with one of the girls we met there. I felt more comfortable singing that song, and based on the response from the audience, I'd say it was another crowd pleaser.
So that finally brings us to today! After a good night's rest, Ashley, Abby, Melissa and I ran on the track. Three miles in Puerto Rican sun is INTENSE! I gotta train for that 10k though! Then we headed to la playa for Sunday Funday! Our guagua (the bus) experience was much better this week than last week and we made it to the beach in less than an hour!
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| Chicas bonitas |
After tomando el sol en la playa (sunbathing on the beach), we went to Metropol (a Puerto Rican / Cuban restaurant). I don't think I've ever eaten so much food!
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| My meal was called La Fiesta Cubana :) |
So, with our tummies full of good food, we went back to campus to get ready for another wonderful week en la isla del encanto!
Next week I'll try to be more consistent in updating my blog! Thanks for reading and God bless!
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