Well, it's been over a year since I last posted anything, but I think it would be fun to keep blogging... This is my second year teaching in the US, and I think it took me, like 11 months to get over that whole Ecuador experience. For better or worse. I'm going to start off as if I'd been updating, because one thing that always gets me down about blogging, or keeping a diary or anything is that, if you miss a month, or a year, or two (!) then I feel like I have to update the important details of my life. I don't feel like it.
Right now I'm on my prep, and taking a short, but necessary break from grading papers! Actually it's my fault- I should have had them all graded, and I KIND of told the kids that I'd graded them all, and there were still 25 or so that I haven't finished up. They're good, though. We read "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock" and analyzed how Eliot's use of figurative language reveals Prufrock's character. I enjoy reading short, well-supported essays.
I am somewhat dreading the rest of the day. Between 4 more classes, grading, attitudes, and then play rehearsal (Which is getting deadlier and deadlier) I am hoping to have the energy to take care of it. Oh man.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Saturday, July 12, 2008
11 days...
Well, when it comes down to it I am freaking out. I haven't updated since April 26th and it is now July 12 (okay.. it's 12:38 am, which means that it's just July 11 plus 38 minutes.. but that's more of a technicality). A LOT has happened! My dad came in May which was amazing. We went to the jungle and saw all kinds of amazing plants and animals. We went to the Napo Wildlife Center in the Yasuni National Park. It was beautiful, and best of all, the profits of the organization go into the local indigenous community. We saw monkeys and caymans (Caymen?) and birds-- not too many insects.. and one giant tarantula! It was amazing- you travel 2 hours in a motorized canoe and then another 2 hours in a paddle canoe (the guides do all the canoeing!) down a BEAUTIFUL river until we got to this lake- it was so pristine, so clear that it perfectly reflected the indigenous-styled, although fairly luxurious cabins, the surrounding trees and flora-- it was impossible to take my eyes away from the water. And best of all, at night we looked up and saw the Southern Cross! It's amazing! AND- (the only place you can do this, btw, is on the equator or very close to it) then you turn around, and see the North Star. It literally brought tears to my eyes-- and it was a nice change to cry over something that wasn't bad students.
Then my birthday came, and my boyfriend (professional soccer player by day, club bouncer by night) Darwin (remember, the Galapagos Islands are in Ecuador, and Darwin is a popular name) decorated my entire room in flowers. There were rose petals that said "Happy B-DAY" on my bed (Angie helped him because his English is not very good. He doesn't know the difference between "I like" and "I like you"- so he goes around saying "I like you, movie!" and "I like you, rice!" It's so cute I don't want to correct him!), long stemmed red roses flanking my door and closet and woven, with sunflowers, into my headboard. There were daisies and other flowers in my closet, tucked behind my wall-hangings, daisies and carnations in my curtains, and two vases of two dozen roses adorning my bedside table and my toilet! He also had a huge flower arrangement of roses for me. It was SO amazing.. it also literally brought tears to my eyes. I was beside myself. Having counted, I had 120 roses, 40 long-stemmed, and more other flowers than I could count. In the States it would have cost HUNDREDS of dollars. Here, he paid $30 (there's no taboo in Ecuador about asking how much things cost- which was good, because I was REALLY curious!) including the cab ride to the florist! Wild, right?
School wound down with incredible and unbelievable drama that is literally only possible here: Here, as I have explained, the students all travel to all the same classes with their "curso"- which has some benefits, but what happens if a student fails a class, you might wonder. Answer: they have to repeat all 14 classes the following year. SO in order to prevent that from happening, students who don't receive a total sum (remember, each trimester is graded out of 20) of 40 or higher have to take a mandatory "Supletorio" exam. It's kind of like a 4 week summer school. If they pass that exam, they pass the class. If they don't pass the exam they don't. Well- in theory. There were two kids in "6to Curso" - which is basically senior year- who had failed TWO supletorio exams. They needed a 12 to pass and they both received 6. (6!) One of the classes was English. When a kid fails the exam the parents can appeal it. First step is to have the exam re-graded by 3 different teachers from the school. Being a native speaker, I was naturally called to be part of this committee. I'll spare all the nasty details, but through some very liberal and, occasionally, only semi-ethical finessing, we raised the girl's grade to a 9 and the boy's to a 7. We wrote up a report and handed it in to the principal who then freaked out about how any good teacher can't make that big a mistake- and then I explain that although there were 2 questions that were graded incorrectly (one was marked correct that was wrong, and the other wrong that was right), the points were given because we gave the kid the benefit of the doubt. Then they called (another!) junta- or meeting of all the teachers to review the re-graded exams, to vote on whether or not the kids should pass the year (and why the science, math, history, social studies, spanish grammar, art, dance, and P.E. teachers should get a vote on whether or not the kid passes English is something I still don't understand-- but anyway), and then, discuss whether or not the teacher should be sanctioned for the grading "errors." The result of which was that everyone in the school was fighting, and except for me, the other two teachers who re-graded, and the original teacher, no one was actually involved in the situation. The junta decided that the teacher should not be sanctioned, and that the students did not pass.
The parents, then, went on to the Ministry and the students' tests were again re-graded. This time they passed. Meanwhile, nearly everyone in the school, somehow, was mad at me for re-grading the exam. In a staff meeting I asked a question and said "I don't understand" and was yelled at instantly from the back of the room "No mamita- you DON'T understand!" Then some students broke into my classroom and stole my camera and $15 dollars from my purse. Thankfully they didn't take my computer!
SO- although there were ups and downs, I wasn't too sad to leave when the time came. It was tough to say goodbye to my students, because as much as they gave me hell, they were all very sweet as individuals. One student, at the end, apologized to me for making me cry once, and then gave me a hug so strong that my back cracked. I also had some great friends there who really took good care of me and gave me good advice. My friend Jesus took me out to lunch one day and told me that he was really proud of me for how I had handled myself over the year. He congratulated me on staying away from people who had (in his words) "bad intentions" and on making good friends with good people. He said I'd earned the respect of a lot of people- which was really nice to hear after feeling occasionally very alone. In the end, I'm SO glad I worked there. I learned so much more than I would have anywhere else and I will carry what I learned with me forever.. hopefully I'll let go of some of the yelling and crying- but I'll remember encouragment, flexibility, consistency, toughness, and that no matter WHAT I accidentally scream at kids one day before leaving the room in tears, the next day is always a chance to make a new start. (For the record- the worst thing I ever yelled was "YOU ARE NOT MONKEYS! YOU ARE HUMAN BEINGS!"- which was not great- but at least there was no profanity!) And I can remember how my 5th graders collapsed with laughter every time I said "ooh baby!" or "okay-dokey artichokey"---- which may not be the best English ever, but just remembering their laughter fills me up.
(I've been trying- as I said- to get a job teaching in the states- and because of that I have been practicing interview questions and answers. I went through many ideas about how to answer the inevitable "classroom management" question. I thought of anecdotes- where my student pulled out a very weapon-y looking bebe gun during class, pointed it at another student, and shot it (there were no bebes thankfully!). When my 9B students formed a gauntlet every day for the 9A students to walk through as they left class, effectively causing a brawl in my classroom twice a week (hence the monkeys comment and subsequent tears). I thought about explaining the cheating and the disrespect. I thought about explaining when I gave them a seating chart- how they sat in their assigned seats, and then got up and sat where they wanted. Then I told them: "No, this is your desk. You have to sit in this desk," how some of them then tried to move the desk to sit next to their friends. I thought about the pantsing epidemic, the unscrewing of various parts of the desks so that when someone sat down, stood up, or leaned back (depending on what had been loosened) they would fall down. I thought about when the kids decided to cut off the white stripes on the pants of their track suits to be cool, and then denied it in front of their tutor (class advisor) until I said "Jose Daniel- you took the stripes, tied them together, put them on your head and pretended you were a NINJA!" and he couldn't help from laughing. I've decided that if and when I am asked my answer will be "My classroom management experience in Ecuador was this: With the exception of violence, I have never heard a story, read a book, or seen a movie in which the students consistently behaved as badly as my 8th and 9th graders that year." Of course- now that it's all over, I'm laughing hysterically as I'm remembering this-- especially the ninja thing. I'm not saying that kid wasn't so frustrating that I didn't want to shove him out the window a little bit.... I'm just saying that he was a little bit funny.)
AFTER that- Darwin and I went to Manta for our 6 month anniversary and stayed with his mom. Manta is a coastal town so, for the second time in nearly 10 months, I was warm! The beach was lovely, and his family was very nice. I felt a little awkward sometimes, but I think they were very intimidated by having a "gringa" in the house. There's this conception that we all have money, and I know Darwin was very worried that I would judge the place for being poor.. and that idea carried over to his family. Hopefully they didn't take any of that away from me. Their house was lovely. Small, definitely, but cozy and comfortable and clean. The food was fantastic. They didn't want for anything- and there were always children, neighbors, brothers and sisters in law, nieces, nephews, second cousins, -- babies crying, children laughing, men talking, women calling across the way, motorcycles revving, bachata, vallenato, and reggaeton competing with each other as every open-windowed house blasted their stereo system. At one point Darwin yelled at me for criticizing his house and I had to stop and tell him that if he felt that I was judging them, then those feelings were not based on any of my actions, because I had nothing to judge or criticize. I really enjoyed it. Also, Darwin's niece and nephew spend most of their time with their grandmother, and it was really fun getting a taste of what it's like to have kids around. Darwin and I bought his 7 year old niece, Nicole, a backpack to congratulate her on getting 20s on her exams, and some racecars for his 1 year old nephew. We took Nicole to the beach and for ice cream. Naturally she loves him, and with all the presents she got, she would have been crazy not to love me too!! Of course- it was a little awkward at times being with a family- an outsider and foreigner- and someone who didn't always understand their Costeño accents-- but in the end I was sad to go.
So that's it! I'm back in Quito. It's freezing. Everyone I know is either in the states or working, so while I keep busy, I'm definitely going to be ready to go back to the states. I'm still looking for a job- was told by the Los Angeles Unified School District that they don't do phone interviews, so I'm out of luck there. It is going to be really really hard to leave- so I don't know if I'll come back or not. There are plusses and minuses to everything right now. Mom keeps telling me to take care of myself- don't get sick and don't get mugged. (I had strep throat again btw.) Well, I have another parasite (But thank GOD I'm not nearly as sick as last time-- just a little rumbly in the tummy) and got followed by some guy last night, so I started running until I got to a hotel and hid behind the reception counter.
Actually, right as I was writing this I had an experience. I was at Bungalow 6, this cool club where my boyfriend works, but I was bored and took a cab home. The cab driver started whispering into his radio and making noises. He was telling his friend where he was, saying he'd meet him somewhere else, and then some things really fast and whispered that I didn't understand. Then he locked all the doors. I immediately unlocked mine and rolled down the window. (In my head, I would jump out of the running car, tuck and roll, and hightail it to another hotel-- hotels are my safe-spots). Then I thought, maybe he's going to drug me- because that's common here- there's a drug that knocks someone out if they touch or breathe it, so I start breathing only the air that's coming in from the open window, and I decide to give him my 5 dollar bill after getting out of the cab in case the change he gave me was drugged. Also, I called Darwin (who was working, bless his soul) and pretended like I was going to meet him in a second "Okay honey- I'll be there in one minute! Wait for me." Thankfully the cab driver was creepy, but either realizing that all my Alias watching had given me above-and-beyond skills to evade his trickster efforts, or just not being creepy enough to drug and kidnap me, he dropped me off at home. I then called Darwin again who, again, picked up the phone while working, and I explained that the cab driver had freaked me out. Then I put my phone in my pocket and it accidentally went on SILENT... so I'm writing this very long, very random of blogs and he rushes into my room and hugs me and then yells at me "WHERE WERE YOU! I CALLED YOU 9 TIMES!!!!" I checked my phone and there they were- 9 missed calls. He then contritely asked me for cab money to go back to work. I'm very curious as to whether he got permission to leave or not. There's no such thing as a break in Ecuador. We'll see tomorrow. Well, more accurately, later this morning. It's now 1:28. I'm still not sure how I feel about leaving. It is more offically June 12, which means 11 more days. I'm praying and crying.. sometimes I'm not sure for what.. but whatever happens- I've survived so far- God willing I'll make it another 2 weeks.
Then my birthday came, and my boyfriend (professional soccer player by day, club bouncer by night) Darwin (remember, the Galapagos Islands are in Ecuador, and Darwin is a popular name) decorated my entire room in flowers. There were rose petals that said "Happy B-DAY" on my bed (Angie helped him because his English is not very good. He doesn't know the difference between "I like" and "I like you"- so he goes around saying "I like you, movie!" and "I like you, rice!" It's so cute I don't want to correct him!), long stemmed red roses flanking my door and closet and woven, with sunflowers, into my headboard. There were daisies and other flowers in my closet, tucked behind my wall-hangings, daisies and carnations in my curtains, and two vases of two dozen roses adorning my bedside table and my toilet! He also had a huge flower arrangement of roses for me. It was SO amazing.. it also literally brought tears to my eyes. I was beside myself. Having counted, I had 120 roses, 40 long-stemmed, and more other flowers than I could count. In the States it would have cost HUNDREDS of dollars. Here, he paid $30 (there's no taboo in Ecuador about asking how much things cost- which was good, because I was REALLY curious!) including the cab ride to the florist! Wild, right?
School wound down with incredible and unbelievable drama that is literally only possible here: Here, as I have explained, the students all travel to all the same classes with their "curso"- which has some benefits, but what happens if a student fails a class, you might wonder. Answer: they have to repeat all 14 classes the following year. SO in order to prevent that from happening, students who don't receive a total sum (remember, each trimester is graded out of 20) of 40 or higher have to take a mandatory "Supletorio" exam. It's kind of like a 4 week summer school. If they pass that exam, they pass the class. If they don't pass the exam they don't. Well- in theory. There were two kids in "6to Curso" - which is basically senior year- who had failed TWO supletorio exams. They needed a 12 to pass and they both received 6. (6!) One of the classes was English. When a kid fails the exam the parents can appeal it. First step is to have the exam re-graded by 3 different teachers from the school. Being a native speaker, I was naturally called to be part of this committee. I'll spare all the nasty details, but through some very liberal and, occasionally, only semi-ethical finessing, we raised the girl's grade to a 9 and the boy's to a 7. We wrote up a report and handed it in to the principal who then freaked out about how any good teacher can't make that big a mistake- and then I explain that although there were 2 questions that were graded incorrectly (one was marked correct that was wrong, and the other wrong that was right), the points were given because we gave the kid the benefit of the doubt. Then they called (another!) junta- or meeting of all the teachers to review the re-graded exams, to vote on whether or not the kids should pass the year (and why the science, math, history, social studies, spanish grammar, art, dance, and P.E. teachers should get a vote on whether or not the kid passes English is something I still don't understand-- but anyway), and then, discuss whether or not the teacher should be sanctioned for the grading "errors." The result of which was that everyone in the school was fighting, and except for me, the other two teachers who re-graded, and the original teacher, no one was actually involved in the situation. The junta decided that the teacher should not be sanctioned, and that the students did not pass.
The parents, then, went on to the Ministry and the students' tests were again re-graded. This time they passed. Meanwhile, nearly everyone in the school, somehow, was mad at me for re-grading the exam. In a staff meeting I asked a question and said "I don't understand" and was yelled at instantly from the back of the room "No mamita- you DON'T understand!" Then some students broke into my classroom and stole my camera and $15 dollars from my purse. Thankfully they didn't take my computer!
SO- although there were ups and downs, I wasn't too sad to leave when the time came. It was tough to say goodbye to my students, because as much as they gave me hell, they were all very sweet as individuals. One student, at the end, apologized to me for making me cry once, and then gave me a hug so strong that my back cracked. I also had some great friends there who really took good care of me and gave me good advice. My friend Jesus took me out to lunch one day and told me that he was really proud of me for how I had handled myself over the year. He congratulated me on staying away from people who had (in his words) "bad intentions" and on making good friends with good people. He said I'd earned the respect of a lot of people- which was really nice to hear after feeling occasionally very alone. In the end, I'm SO glad I worked there. I learned so much more than I would have anywhere else and I will carry what I learned with me forever.. hopefully I'll let go of some of the yelling and crying- but I'll remember encouragment, flexibility, consistency, toughness, and that no matter WHAT I accidentally scream at kids one day before leaving the room in tears, the next day is always a chance to make a new start. (For the record- the worst thing I ever yelled was "YOU ARE NOT MONKEYS! YOU ARE HUMAN BEINGS!"- which was not great- but at least there was no profanity!) And I can remember how my 5th graders collapsed with laughter every time I said "ooh baby!" or "okay-dokey artichokey"---- which may not be the best English ever, but just remembering their laughter fills me up.
(I've been trying- as I said- to get a job teaching in the states- and because of that I have been practicing interview questions and answers. I went through many ideas about how to answer the inevitable "classroom management" question. I thought of anecdotes- where my student pulled out a very weapon-y looking bebe gun during class, pointed it at another student, and shot it (there were no bebes thankfully!). When my 9B students formed a gauntlet every day for the 9A students to walk through as they left class, effectively causing a brawl in my classroom twice a week (hence the monkeys comment and subsequent tears). I thought about explaining the cheating and the disrespect. I thought about explaining when I gave them a seating chart- how they sat in their assigned seats, and then got up and sat where they wanted. Then I told them: "No, this is your desk. You have to sit in this desk," how some of them then tried to move the desk to sit next to their friends. I thought about the pantsing epidemic, the unscrewing of various parts of the desks so that when someone sat down, stood up, or leaned back (depending on what had been loosened) they would fall down. I thought about when the kids decided to cut off the white stripes on the pants of their track suits to be cool, and then denied it in front of their tutor (class advisor) until I said "Jose Daniel- you took the stripes, tied them together, put them on your head and pretended you were a NINJA!" and he couldn't help from laughing. I've decided that if and when I am asked my answer will be "My classroom management experience in Ecuador was this: With the exception of violence, I have never heard a story, read a book, or seen a movie in which the students consistently behaved as badly as my 8th and 9th graders that year." Of course- now that it's all over, I'm laughing hysterically as I'm remembering this-- especially the ninja thing. I'm not saying that kid wasn't so frustrating that I didn't want to shove him out the window a little bit.... I'm just saying that he was a little bit funny.)
AFTER that- Darwin and I went to Manta for our 6 month anniversary and stayed with his mom. Manta is a coastal town so, for the second time in nearly 10 months, I was warm! The beach was lovely, and his family was very nice. I felt a little awkward sometimes, but I think they were very intimidated by having a "gringa" in the house. There's this conception that we all have money, and I know Darwin was very worried that I would judge the place for being poor.. and that idea carried over to his family. Hopefully they didn't take any of that away from me. Their house was lovely. Small, definitely, but cozy and comfortable and clean. The food was fantastic. They didn't want for anything- and there were always children, neighbors, brothers and sisters in law, nieces, nephews, second cousins, -- babies crying, children laughing, men talking, women calling across the way, motorcycles revving, bachata, vallenato, and reggaeton competing with each other as every open-windowed house blasted their stereo system. At one point Darwin yelled at me for criticizing his house and I had to stop and tell him that if he felt that I was judging them, then those feelings were not based on any of my actions, because I had nothing to judge or criticize. I really enjoyed it. Also, Darwin's niece and nephew spend most of their time with their grandmother, and it was really fun getting a taste of what it's like to have kids around. Darwin and I bought his 7 year old niece, Nicole, a backpack to congratulate her on getting 20s on her exams, and some racecars for his 1 year old nephew. We took Nicole to the beach and for ice cream. Naturally she loves him, and with all the presents she got, she would have been crazy not to love me too!! Of course- it was a little awkward at times being with a family- an outsider and foreigner- and someone who didn't always understand their Costeño accents-- but in the end I was sad to go.
So that's it! I'm back in Quito. It's freezing. Everyone I know is either in the states or working, so while I keep busy, I'm definitely going to be ready to go back to the states. I'm still looking for a job- was told by the Los Angeles Unified School District that they don't do phone interviews, so I'm out of luck there. It is going to be really really hard to leave- so I don't know if I'll come back or not. There are plusses and minuses to everything right now. Mom keeps telling me to take care of myself- don't get sick and don't get mugged. (I had strep throat again btw.) Well, I have another parasite (But thank GOD I'm not nearly as sick as last time-- just a little rumbly in the tummy) and got followed by some guy last night, so I started running until I got to a hotel and hid behind the reception counter.
Actually, right as I was writing this I had an experience. I was at Bungalow 6, this cool club where my boyfriend works, but I was bored and took a cab home. The cab driver started whispering into his radio and making noises. He was telling his friend where he was, saying he'd meet him somewhere else, and then some things really fast and whispered that I didn't understand. Then he locked all the doors. I immediately unlocked mine and rolled down the window. (In my head, I would jump out of the running car, tuck and roll, and hightail it to another hotel-- hotels are my safe-spots). Then I thought, maybe he's going to drug me- because that's common here- there's a drug that knocks someone out if they touch or breathe it, so I start breathing only the air that's coming in from the open window, and I decide to give him my 5 dollar bill after getting out of the cab in case the change he gave me was drugged. Also, I called Darwin (who was working, bless his soul) and pretended like I was going to meet him in a second "Okay honey- I'll be there in one minute! Wait for me." Thankfully the cab driver was creepy, but either realizing that all my Alias watching had given me above-and-beyond skills to evade his trickster efforts, or just not being creepy enough to drug and kidnap me, he dropped me off at home. I then called Darwin again who, again, picked up the phone while working, and I explained that the cab driver had freaked me out. Then I put my phone in my pocket and it accidentally went on SILENT... so I'm writing this very long, very random of blogs and he rushes into my room and hugs me and then yells at me "WHERE WERE YOU! I CALLED YOU 9 TIMES!!!!" I checked my phone and there they were- 9 missed calls. He then contritely asked me for cab money to go back to work. I'm very curious as to whether he got permission to leave or not. There's no such thing as a break in Ecuador. We'll see tomorrow. Well, more accurately, later this morning. It's now 1:28. I'm still not sure how I feel about leaving. It is more offically June 12, which means 11 more days. I'm praying and crying.. sometimes I'm not sure for what.. but whatever happens- I've survived so far- God willing I'll make it another 2 weeks.
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Casa Abierta....AAAAH!!
Well- it's been a while since I've updated.. but they say pictures are worth a thousand words, so I've added all my new pictures on links on the right. SO, here's the story of the Open House that we just had. Thankfully, this story has a happy ending, but I was really not sure that was going to happen at first.
Well, about two weeks ago my boss told me that I had to do an Open House, so I was like "fine." And she asked me what I wanted to do and I explained, well, my fifth graders are writing personal narratives, so I can have those typed up and put up on the wall, and my older kids were making posters, so we could get that going... and I trailed off as she was looking at me like I was out of my mind. "No Margaret. You can not do that. You can have different stands for each of your grades where the kids can explain something. Your kids could dress up like animals and you could turn the room into a zoo!" This time I looked at her like She was crazy. "Or," she continued, "They could dress up like different world cultures. Alexandra Chuva is doing a Casa de Terror- how do you say in English?" I said: "Haunted House. Um, Adriana, I have no idea what this is. We don't do this in the states." She was surprised. "You don't have Open House in the United States?" and I said "Yeah- but it's more for the parents to come in, see some of the kids work and talk to the teacher-- there's no presentation really." And she said "Oh- okay, then just work with the 5th graders. You could have them dress up like animals and turn the room into a zoo!!" (Again). Also, she said that I would have to work with all the kids who weren't signed up to be in an open house yet for English. Realize, I only work with half of the fifth graders (there are 30 students, I have 14 in my class).
So, the next week she asks me "Margaret, what happened with the Open House?" (Everything she asks me begins with "What happened with..." it always freaks me out.) I told her I didn't know. She asked if I had an idea yet, and I told her I was thinking about doing play set in a restaurant and the kids could bring in food. "No." she told me. "What happened with the zoo? You could have the kids dress up like animals and be a zoo." I told her I still wasn't feeling that idea. So she said "Okay. You will have them explain Indigenous Cultures of Ecuador. They will dress up in Indigenous disguises (she meant costumes)" and she gave me a stack of information (in Spanish) about Indigenous cultures.
Then, the Monday before Open House I still didn't know which kids I was supposed to work with, so I sent representatives to some teachers and they gave me a list of kids I was obligated to work with. The other teachers had chosen 4 or 6 of the best students in the grade, so the 18 that were left over were obligated to be in my class. 13 of these 10-year-olds, by the way, were kids I'd never met before, and were the biggest trouble makers in the class. So I gave them some things to memorize about Indigenous cultures, and my boss came in. "Margaret, what happened with the parents?" "I don't know Adriana, what happened?" "Margaret, you need to ask them to help you. They will help you very much. I remember last year when these kids were with Patty Leon and they all dressed up like zoo animals and made a zoo." Although that was funny, my kids were LITERALLY kicking desks across the room for fun, and I freaked out. I told her "Adriana- I don't know what to do! I don't know what to ask, I don't know what to have them do, I don't even know these kids! I NEED HELP!" and she said "Margaret, don't get upset. I have things to do right now." and left. At that point, I turned around and saw one 10 year old flipping off another one. Then the bell rang, I took the kid to the principal, went back to my room, and I cried cried cried. The problem is that I knew there was this big presentational expectation, and I had no idea how to do it. I felt horrible.
Luckily, the next day (4 school days to Open House) two teachers pulled me into my bosses room and figured out everything I needed to ask the parents to bring. They ranged from construction paper to "Ask Jorge's parents to build two big palm trees out of wood," and then came to my class and assigned the kids what they had to bring... so then once that was done I was okay. It was Friday and all was right with the world.
Monday came and my boss asks me "Margaret, what happened with the Open House" and I told her "I've gotten it all under control.... for now" and things went according to schedule. I started to decorate my room. I put blue celophane over my windows to make the ocean and started to get my stuff together. On Tuesday I took all sorts of foam that the kids had brought and spent all afternoon and night cutting out foam letters to put up on the wall the next day, and when Wednesday came (the day before Open House) I got the ocean put together. One girl made a sun and clouds, so we put those up. Then I cut construction paper mountains to make the Andes and tried to make the mountains. I had the kids put up foam letters of all their indigenous tribes and tried to get the room organized. One girl brought in a garbage bag of aromatic plants and branches that I had no idea what to do with, I moved some desks out of the room and put more against the edges of the room and felt pretty good. Each kid had their space, the room was decorated... it wasn't great, but it was pretty cute.
Then one kid poked his head in my door and said "Oh. Well, that's okay teacher, it's your first open house." I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. Immediately afterwards another teacher (the same one who told me the other morning when I greeted him "Good Morning Milton" he said "You're getting fat. You should eat less and excercise more.") came in and said- "Here, let me help you. You need to separate these stations with hanging curtains. You need to have the kids bring in plants and decorations from the rainforest and then..." The tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that my room was a disappointment and a failure, and I didn't have enough time or resources to fix it. He came in and tried to help, but instead of actually helping, he just told me everything that was wrong with what I'd done. I asked him to leave and locked the door and cried. Then my boss came in and said "Margaret, what happened with the room?" I explained to her that I was doing my best, but I wasn't sure what else to do, and she said "What happened with your friend the Tennis teacher?" I said "I don't know! What happened?" and she said "Why don't you ask him to help you?"
So I found Esteban (my friend from school.. he's amazing) and he comes in and says: "Okay Margo, we want this place to look like a forest. What's this?" and he grabbed the bag of plants "Excellent! He said, and he grabbed plants and started to tape them to the walls. He pulled leaves off and put them on the ground to make a boundary for the kids to stand behind. He gave me instructions for the rest of the plants and left. Then he said "I'll be back" and he came back with our friend Luis, the Ping Pong teacher (really. that's his job.) and left Luis to help me. As my students were wandering by they came in to help, cutting out flowers and organizing things. One boy told me that he had a number of indigenous things in his house if I wanted him to loan them to me. The others offered to help me decorate the hallway outside my room. At the end of the day, I felt really good about everything.
The next day the boy showed up with two 4 1/2 foot tall palm trees made out of wood and another boy showed up with a jungle cat skin, a throwing spear, weapons and a turtle shell to loan me. I got everything ready. An hour went by. Then another one. At that point things were starting to get going for the Casa Abierta, and I started to look for my kids. They needed to get in their costumes and get ready. So, since I'm working with 5th graders, I went to their teacher's room to look for her. This woman has never been particularly friendly or helpful, but whatever. So I go find her room and knock on her door..... and there are all my kids-- in her Open House. So I ask her when they'll be ready for mine (realize, Open House goes from 9 to 2) and she goes "I don't know... MAYBE 1:30?" "One thirty?" I asked her? "Maybe" she said-- and my Spanish got stuck in my head as I tried to figure out how to tell her "Well, that would have been nice to know before." I STORMED back to my room and threw a temper tantrum. I tried to call my mom but my phone wouldn't work, so I went to my friend Ana's class. There were only 2 or 3 kids in there and they were busy playing chess. (It's the latest fad for all the 13th graders-- they're learning in a class or something.) So I Start telling Ana what happened.. how they forced me to do an open house, how they assigned me these students even though I didn't even know them from Adam, how they criticized my room and made me worry for two weeks about it, and now this teacher wasn't going to let me have my kids until it was almost over.. after all that. She advised me to talk to someone, so I found the director of the primary school and told her.. and she freaked out. She looked me in the face and said "Margaret, you know what happened? That teacher was supposed to make a list and a schedule a WEEK ago so that this wouldn't happen, but she didn't do it, so now she's trying to blame you for the conflict. Don't worry. What time do you want your kids?" So, I told her 12:30- so that the kids could do their open house with her, eat, and then come to mine for an hour or so.
That wound up being great because I got to go to all the other Open Houses-- TWO of which included mini tequila shots for everone 18 and over. Which I thought was funny. Here's the thing- after all this expectation and all my being told that, essentially, my room needed to resemble a Hollywood movie set, most of the other open houses had kids in some sort of costume, and a poster behind them. No one else had anything as elaborate even as mine. Except the English Teacher with the haunted house. That was amazing. They had sound and light effects, costumes, a black maze, and not one word of English in the entire thing. It was crazy! So all in all, I felt pretty good about mine.
When the time came, my students came in disguise. One mother brought chocolates with "Thanks for come to Open House 2008" attached to give away as goody prizes, and another mother brought scalloped potatoes to hand out. One mother brought brown face paint and "authenticated" two of my boys who had dressed to represent the AfroEcuadorian population (although I had SPECIFICALLY prohibited blackface) and then the kids went around and recited their information. It was a blast. They looked great, they knew their stuff, it was a success! Everyone kept complimenting me and congratulating me, but I wanted to tell them: I didn't do anything. They're the ones who made the costumes and the palm trees.
So all in all, it was a terrifying and overwhelming experience with expectations that I met, if only barely, but then turned out to not be actual expectations-- I'm still not sure on that part. I recommend looking through the pictures. It's a blast. I took pictures of all the open houses I went to, but at the very least, check out the ones of my room and my kids.
Thank God it's almost over, but in the meantime, it is a lot a lot of learning and a little bit of fun and, when I'm lucky and I have help, a success.
Well, about two weeks ago my boss told me that I had to do an Open House, so I was like "fine." And she asked me what I wanted to do and I explained, well, my fifth graders are writing personal narratives, so I can have those typed up and put up on the wall, and my older kids were making posters, so we could get that going... and I trailed off as she was looking at me like I was out of my mind. "No Margaret. You can not do that. You can have different stands for each of your grades where the kids can explain something. Your kids could dress up like animals and you could turn the room into a zoo!" This time I looked at her like She was crazy. "Or," she continued, "They could dress up like different world cultures. Alexandra Chuva is doing a Casa de Terror- how do you say in English?" I said: "Haunted House. Um, Adriana, I have no idea what this is. We don't do this in the states." She was surprised. "You don't have Open House in the United States?" and I said "Yeah- but it's more for the parents to come in, see some of the kids work and talk to the teacher-- there's no presentation really." And she said "Oh- okay, then just work with the 5th graders. You could have them dress up like animals and turn the room into a zoo!!" (Again). Also, she said that I would have to work with all the kids who weren't signed up to be in an open house yet for English. Realize, I only work with half of the fifth graders (there are 30 students, I have 14 in my class).
So, the next week she asks me "Margaret, what happened with the Open House?" (Everything she asks me begins with "What happened with..." it always freaks me out.) I told her I didn't know. She asked if I had an idea yet, and I told her I was thinking about doing play set in a restaurant and the kids could bring in food. "No." she told me. "What happened with the zoo? You could have the kids dress up like animals and be a zoo." I told her I still wasn't feeling that idea. So she said "Okay. You will have them explain Indigenous Cultures of Ecuador. They will dress up in Indigenous disguises (she meant costumes)" and she gave me a stack of information (in Spanish) about Indigenous cultures.
Then, the Monday before Open House I still didn't know which kids I was supposed to work with, so I sent representatives to some teachers and they gave me a list of kids I was obligated to work with. The other teachers had chosen 4 or 6 of the best students in the grade, so the 18 that were left over were obligated to be in my class. 13 of these 10-year-olds, by the way, were kids I'd never met before, and were the biggest trouble makers in the class. So I gave them some things to memorize about Indigenous cultures, and my boss came in. "Margaret, what happened with the parents?" "I don't know Adriana, what happened?" "Margaret, you need to ask them to help you. They will help you very much. I remember last year when these kids were with Patty Leon and they all dressed up like zoo animals and made a zoo." Although that was funny, my kids were LITERALLY kicking desks across the room for fun, and I freaked out. I told her "Adriana- I don't know what to do! I don't know what to ask, I don't know what to have them do, I don't even know these kids! I NEED HELP!" and she said "Margaret, don't get upset. I have things to do right now." and left. At that point, I turned around and saw one 10 year old flipping off another one. Then the bell rang, I took the kid to the principal, went back to my room, and I cried cried cried. The problem is that I knew there was this big presentational expectation, and I had no idea how to do it. I felt horrible.
Luckily, the next day (4 school days to Open House) two teachers pulled me into my bosses room and figured out everything I needed to ask the parents to bring. They ranged from construction paper to "Ask Jorge's parents to build two big palm trees out of wood," and then came to my class and assigned the kids what they had to bring... so then once that was done I was okay. It was Friday and all was right with the world.
Monday came and my boss asks me "Margaret, what happened with the Open House" and I told her "I've gotten it all under control.... for now" and things went according to schedule. I started to decorate my room. I put blue celophane over my windows to make the ocean and started to get my stuff together. On Tuesday I took all sorts of foam that the kids had brought and spent all afternoon and night cutting out foam letters to put up on the wall the next day, and when Wednesday came (the day before Open House) I got the ocean put together. One girl made a sun and clouds, so we put those up. Then I cut construction paper mountains to make the Andes and tried to make the mountains. I had the kids put up foam letters of all their indigenous tribes and tried to get the room organized. One girl brought in a garbage bag of aromatic plants and branches that I had no idea what to do with, I moved some desks out of the room and put more against the edges of the room and felt pretty good. Each kid had their space, the room was decorated... it wasn't great, but it was pretty cute.
Then one kid poked his head in my door and said "Oh. Well, that's okay teacher, it's your first open house." I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. Immediately afterwards another teacher (the same one who told me the other morning when I greeted him "Good Morning Milton" he said "You're getting fat. You should eat less and excercise more.") came in and said- "Here, let me help you. You need to separate these stations with hanging curtains. You need to have the kids bring in plants and decorations from the rainforest and then..." The tears welled up in my eyes as I realized that my room was a disappointment and a failure, and I didn't have enough time or resources to fix it. He came in and tried to help, but instead of actually helping, he just told me everything that was wrong with what I'd done. I asked him to leave and locked the door and cried. Then my boss came in and said "Margaret, what happened with the room?" I explained to her that I was doing my best, but I wasn't sure what else to do, and she said "What happened with your friend the Tennis teacher?" I said "I don't know! What happened?" and she said "Why don't you ask him to help you?"
So I found Esteban (my friend from school.. he's amazing) and he comes in and says: "Okay Margo, we want this place to look like a forest. What's this?" and he grabbed the bag of plants "Excellent! He said, and he grabbed plants and started to tape them to the walls. He pulled leaves off and put them on the ground to make a boundary for the kids to stand behind. He gave me instructions for the rest of the plants and left. Then he said "I'll be back" and he came back with our friend Luis, the Ping Pong teacher (really. that's his job.) and left Luis to help me. As my students were wandering by they came in to help, cutting out flowers and organizing things. One boy told me that he had a number of indigenous things in his house if I wanted him to loan them to me. The others offered to help me decorate the hallway outside my room. At the end of the day, I felt really good about everything.
The next day the boy showed up with two 4 1/2 foot tall palm trees made out of wood and another boy showed up with a jungle cat skin, a throwing spear, weapons and a turtle shell to loan me. I got everything ready. An hour went by. Then another one. At that point things were starting to get going for the Casa Abierta, and I started to look for my kids. They needed to get in their costumes and get ready. So, since I'm working with 5th graders, I went to their teacher's room to look for her. This woman has never been particularly friendly or helpful, but whatever. So I go find her room and knock on her door..... and there are all my kids-- in her Open House. So I ask her when they'll be ready for mine (realize, Open House goes from 9 to 2) and she goes "I don't know... MAYBE 1:30?" "One thirty?" I asked her? "Maybe" she said-- and my Spanish got stuck in my head as I tried to figure out how to tell her "Well, that would have been nice to know before." I STORMED back to my room and threw a temper tantrum. I tried to call my mom but my phone wouldn't work, so I went to my friend Ana's class. There were only 2 or 3 kids in there and they were busy playing chess. (It's the latest fad for all the 13th graders-- they're learning in a class or something.) So I Start telling Ana what happened.. how they forced me to do an open house, how they assigned me these students even though I didn't even know them from Adam, how they criticized my room and made me worry for two weeks about it, and now this teacher wasn't going to let me have my kids until it was almost over.. after all that. She advised me to talk to someone, so I found the director of the primary school and told her.. and she freaked out. She looked me in the face and said "Margaret, you know what happened? That teacher was supposed to make a list and a schedule a WEEK ago so that this wouldn't happen, but she didn't do it, so now she's trying to blame you for the conflict. Don't worry. What time do you want your kids?" So, I told her 12:30- so that the kids could do their open house with her, eat, and then come to mine for an hour or so.
That wound up being great because I got to go to all the other Open Houses-- TWO of which included mini tequila shots for everone 18 and over. Which I thought was funny. Here's the thing- after all this expectation and all my being told that, essentially, my room needed to resemble a Hollywood movie set, most of the other open houses had kids in some sort of costume, and a poster behind them. No one else had anything as elaborate even as mine. Except the English Teacher with the haunted house. That was amazing. They had sound and light effects, costumes, a black maze, and not one word of English in the entire thing. It was crazy! So all in all, I felt pretty good about mine.
When the time came, my students came in disguise. One mother brought chocolates with "Thanks for come to Open House 2008" attached to give away as goody prizes, and another mother brought scalloped potatoes to hand out. One mother brought brown face paint and "authenticated" two of my boys who had dressed to represent the AfroEcuadorian population (although I had SPECIFICALLY prohibited blackface) and then the kids went around and recited their information. It was a blast. They looked great, they knew their stuff, it was a success! Everyone kept complimenting me and congratulating me, but I wanted to tell them: I didn't do anything. They're the ones who made the costumes and the palm trees.
So all in all, it was a terrifying and overwhelming experience with expectations that I met, if only barely, but then turned out to not be actual expectations-- I'm still not sure on that part. I recommend looking through the pictures. It's a blast. I took pictures of all the open houses I went to, but at the very least, check out the ones of my room and my kids.
Thank God it's almost over, but in the meantime, it is a lot a lot of learning and a little bit of fun and, when I'm lucky and I have help, a success.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Upside, Inside-Out
Holy Macaroni---
Oh my goodness gracious--
Oy jeesh--
Yikes!
Oh for the love of Pete and his mother!!
Okay Pablo- even if you did miss class last week to go to a soccer game and so you didn't know we had homework what should you have done? huh? What should you have done? No, seriously! Do you think you should have asked me "Hey Profe- what did I miss last week?" or do you think you should have come to class, goofed around, and given Juan a purple nurple until he punched you-- RUBEN DO NOT TOUCH JUAN'S NIPPLE!!
These are a few little things I've been known to say in class these last few weeks.. that last one was all in one breath to the kid who was laying on the floor holding his crotch and crying because Juan had had enough and punched him "in the front of his pants"- which is how I had to explain it later. And, yes, some might say that I was perhaps being a little antagonistic to this kid- but it may make it better if you realize that he didn't understand a single mother-loving word of it.
So- needless to say-- it's been quite a week. I'm laughing now, but this is crazy. I have no idea why I'm here. Earlier this week I started looking up lesson plans from last year student teaching and realized that when the kids can sit down for more than 5 minutes you can actually do a LOT! I can't believe I used to complain about the kids at Florin and their lack of motivation! Then, after the purple nurple incident I was ready to come home. I called my mom to tell her to buy me a plane ticket. But what it really comes down to is two things: (are two things?): 1) the kids are really really really really bad. 2)It's really hard to be a part of a different culture. I am feeling so strongly about immigrants now-- being foreign is constant and exhausting, and I don't think most people would CHOOSE to live such a frustrating life unless they really had to. This is making me really really want to come home and work with immigrants and provide some sort of respite for them. Someone told me today that "We're foreigners and they should be kissing our feet to be here." I, on the other hand, tend to feel the opposite. Everything I do reflects on all of us and all of our culture. My anger is unjustified and unpolite. I am a guest in this country.... and imagine being a guest for four months!! It's definitely a drag.
However- complaining aside-- things are kind of going okay. Tiring for sure, but I'm starting to get a handle on a few things. No matter how angry and foreign I feel, I still love being the only non-Ecuadorian, or only American in a situation. The other week I went to la Parque Carolina to watch a friend play intermural soccer, and it was too much fun to be in Ecuador watching a local inter-mural soccer game and chatting with the Argentian professional player who came to unofficially scout and root for some friends. Mostly we chatted about how I had no idea what was going on, and then I asked him what a yellow card was-- but in my defense, Argentinians have a weird accent and I didn't understand him. Also- some of my students are starting to come to talk to me about their lives-- their parents or boyfriends or girlfriends or friends. They've taken to hanging out in my room during breaks to play Uno or practice their dance competition choreography or tell me about how Christian Guzman has dated all the 9th grade girls whose names start with M, so they call him "4M Guzman".
Plus- the other week I took my 9th graders outside to play American football on the condition that they all spoke English- well- they played Ecua-football, which was just soccer with a football.. there's a snap, and a play, but when the person with the ball gets stuck or something, they can throw it to whoever they want, who can then pass it to whoever they want, until they score a goal. At one point one of my kids (no matter how many times I tell them "TWO-HAND TOUCH") tackled me and left me with a HUGE bruise on my leg and arm-- which was fine.. it was just funny. But whenever anyone asks me "Teacher- what happened?" I tell them "Paolo Caicedo- that's who--" and he turns all red. Of course- nothing in this story would be even mildly appropriate in an American middle school, but everyone is very touchy here and (as long as you're appropriate which, HELLO, I always am) there's no problem!
Speaking of touchy- I promised a quick explanation of how Ecuadorian boys can't keep their hands off each other- and here are some examples. The other week I was teaching, and as it's virtually impossible to keep them in their seats, occasionally I turn a blind eye to two boys or two girls sharing a seat because they're sharing a book or something. However, this time I had to stop in the middle of what I was saying to watch as one boy sat on the other one's lap and STROKED the other one's hair while they discussed what the answer to #7 was or, more likely, who their favorite football player is and why the Barcelona team sucks. However, I'd rather have them caress each other than pull out each other's armpit hair or, as above mentioned, give each other purple nurples and engage in crotch-punching defenses. The point is- there's no taboo about touching here- no one thinks twice. Even in such a homophobic culture (as I've been told Latin cultures tend to be, though I have never personally witnessed anything) no one thinks twice about it. The girls are a little tougher. My who-I've-made-cry count as of today is: 9 boys 0 girls.
On the other hand, some little boys are the same in all countries. Yesterday I was playing The Beatles for my 5th graders because they know a lot of the songs and they like to sing along, and one of the lines was about kissing, so I teased one of the boys who's always causing trouble "Matiz- in a couple years you're going to have a girlfriend, and you're going to kiss her just like in the song" and he dry heaved on the floor for a minute while his friends laughed- then looked at me very seriously and quizzically and said (in English no less) "No. Ok. I kiss her one time so she marry with me-- but no again." While- at the exact same time another boy had found a picture of Meg Ryan and her adopted (apparently) Asian daughter and was pointing at it asking "Teacher Margaret, Teacher Margaret! Mistake of science?" Which- between the two of them- both being deathly serious- I almost fell on the floor from laughing.
One more silly one that will only be funny if you don't really speak Spanish- but the word in Spanish for "annoy, bother, or tease" is "molestar"-- so when my kids try to speak in English they'll tell me "Teacher! He molest me!" at which point (at least for the 9 year olds) I need to vaguely, but seriously, impress upon them that that is NOT the correct word, without giving too much explanation as to WHY.
So- I'm off to make salad dressing and be in bed by 9:30. Let me tell you, Ricky Martin knew what he was talking about-- because if this isn't "La Vida Loca" I really don't know what is.
Oh my goodness gracious--
Oy jeesh--
Yikes!
Oh for the love of Pete and his mother!!
Okay Pablo- even if you did miss class last week to go to a soccer game and so you didn't know we had homework what should you have done? huh? What should you have done? No, seriously! Do you think you should have asked me "Hey Profe- what did I miss last week?" or do you think you should have come to class, goofed around, and given Juan a purple nurple until he punched you-- RUBEN DO NOT TOUCH JUAN'S NIPPLE!!
These are a few little things I've been known to say in class these last few weeks.. that last one was all in one breath to the kid who was laying on the floor holding his crotch and crying because Juan had had enough and punched him "in the front of his pants"- which is how I had to explain it later. And, yes, some might say that I was perhaps being a little antagonistic to this kid- but it may make it better if you realize that he didn't understand a single mother-loving word of it.
So- needless to say-- it's been quite a week. I'm laughing now, but this is crazy. I have no idea why I'm here. Earlier this week I started looking up lesson plans from last year student teaching and realized that when the kids can sit down for more than 5 minutes you can actually do a LOT! I can't believe I used to complain about the kids at Florin and their lack of motivation! Then, after the purple nurple incident I was ready to come home. I called my mom to tell her to buy me a plane ticket. But what it really comes down to is two things: (are two things?): 1) the kids are really really really really bad. 2)It's really hard to be a part of a different culture. I am feeling so strongly about immigrants now-- being foreign is constant and exhausting, and I don't think most people would CHOOSE to live such a frustrating life unless they really had to. This is making me really really want to come home and work with immigrants and provide some sort of respite for them. Someone told me today that "We're foreigners and they should be kissing our feet to be here." I, on the other hand, tend to feel the opposite. Everything I do reflects on all of us and all of our culture. My anger is unjustified and unpolite. I am a guest in this country.... and imagine being a guest for four months!! It's definitely a drag.
However- complaining aside-- things are kind of going okay. Tiring for sure, but I'm starting to get a handle on a few things. No matter how angry and foreign I feel, I still love being the only non-Ecuadorian, or only American in a situation. The other week I went to la Parque Carolina to watch a friend play intermural soccer, and it was too much fun to be in Ecuador watching a local inter-mural soccer game and chatting with the Argentian professional player who came to unofficially scout and root for some friends. Mostly we chatted about how I had no idea what was going on, and then I asked him what a yellow card was-- but in my defense, Argentinians have a weird accent and I didn't understand him. Also- some of my students are starting to come to talk to me about their lives-- their parents or boyfriends or girlfriends or friends. They've taken to hanging out in my room during breaks to play Uno or practice their dance competition choreography or tell me about how Christian Guzman has dated all the 9th grade girls whose names start with M, so they call him "4M Guzman".
Plus- the other week I took my 9th graders outside to play American football on the condition that they all spoke English- well- they played Ecua-football, which was just soccer with a football.. there's a snap, and a play, but when the person with the ball gets stuck or something, they can throw it to whoever they want, who can then pass it to whoever they want, until they score a goal. At one point one of my kids (no matter how many times I tell them "TWO-HAND TOUCH") tackled me and left me with a HUGE bruise on my leg and arm-- which was fine.. it was just funny. But whenever anyone asks me "Teacher- what happened?" I tell them "Paolo Caicedo- that's who--" and he turns all red. Of course- nothing in this story would be even mildly appropriate in an American middle school, but everyone is very touchy here and (as long as you're appropriate which, HELLO, I always am) there's no problem!
Speaking of touchy- I promised a quick explanation of how Ecuadorian boys can't keep their hands off each other- and here are some examples. The other week I was teaching, and as it's virtually impossible to keep them in their seats, occasionally I turn a blind eye to two boys or two girls sharing a seat because they're sharing a book or something. However, this time I had to stop in the middle of what I was saying to watch as one boy sat on the other one's lap and STROKED the other one's hair while they discussed what the answer to #7 was or, more likely, who their favorite football player is and why the Barcelona team sucks. However, I'd rather have them caress each other than pull out each other's armpit hair or, as above mentioned, give each other purple nurples and engage in crotch-punching defenses. The point is- there's no taboo about touching here- no one thinks twice. Even in such a homophobic culture (as I've been told Latin cultures tend to be, though I have never personally witnessed anything) no one thinks twice about it. The girls are a little tougher. My who-I've-made-cry count as of today is: 9 boys 0 girls.
On the other hand, some little boys are the same in all countries. Yesterday I was playing The Beatles for my 5th graders because they know a lot of the songs and they like to sing along, and one of the lines was about kissing, so I teased one of the boys who's always causing trouble "Matiz- in a couple years you're going to have a girlfriend, and you're going to kiss her just like in the song" and he dry heaved on the floor for a minute while his friends laughed- then looked at me very seriously and quizzically and said (in English no less) "No. Ok. I kiss her one time so she marry with me-- but no again." While- at the exact same time another boy had found a picture of Meg Ryan and her adopted (apparently) Asian daughter and was pointing at it asking "Teacher Margaret, Teacher Margaret! Mistake of science?" Which- between the two of them- both being deathly serious- I almost fell on the floor from laughing.
One more silly one that will only be funny if you don't really speak Spanish- but the word in Spanish for "annoy, bother, or tease" is "molestar"-- so when my kids try to speak in English they'll tell me "Teacher! He molest me!" at which point (at least for the 9 year olds) I need to vaguely, but seriously, impress upon them that that is NOT the correct word, without giving too much explanation as to WHY.
So- I'm off to make salad dressing and be in bed by 9:30. Let me tell you, Ricky Martin knew what he was talking about-- because if this isn't "La Vida Loca" I really don't know what is.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
It's Quit-astic
So- it's been a long time since my last update- it's just that so much has happened here that I've wanted to take the time to adequately express it all... well... that's not going to happen, but I'll give you the overview.
First of all- December 6 was a holiday for Las Fiestas de Quito- the day where the whole city gets off work and parties just because they're Quitenos! We had 3 days off from school, and it was absolute insanity. The weekend before my school had a big party on campus called La Noche de Liga where there were all sorts of cultural events. First, there was a bullfight in the Plaza de Toros that they have there on campus-- that's right, ON CAMPUS. They bring out 1 year old calves to fight some professional, although not incredibly talented, Torreros, and then the students get to go out - 14, 15, 16 years old- and fight the bulls. I couldn't BELIEVE it! One of my 8th grade students/the bane of my existence (more on him later) got knocked down by the bull and kicked around a bit. His shirt was torn and he had a gash in his side. He cried in the bullpen when one of the parents who was "supervising" distracted the bull and he was able to get away. When I saw him afterwards he told me the fight was "Chevere" (cool) with a big smile on his face while he showed me his battle wounds.
Needless to say, it was insane. Can you imagine what would happen in the states if a 14 year old was gored by a bull at a school function? Here it was hardly cause for concern!
Then they had some of the students do traditional dances, as well as a professional indigenous dance team come in. It was pretty amazing. The other crazy thing- 4 of my students-8th graders as well-- in the same class as the bullfight kid, actually, sat on a wall during the dance exhibition, surrounded by parents and school officials, smoking cigarettes. They sat up there all night- said hello to the principal and vice principals and were left unbothered. It's such a weird experience because I find myself repressing the urge to scold every 30 minutes at least. People are very tranquila here.... not that I'm in favor of letting 14 year olds smoke-- especially not at school-- but it's all different.
The Fiestas de Quito were crazy- we went out every night- Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I got really sick, so I stayed home Saturday night-- but everyone else went out. There were parades and bands on every corner. There were chivas-- party busses where people drink Canelazos- a sweet alcoholic traditional drink- and scream "QUE VIVA QUITO!" and then respond "QUE VIVA!" Or sometimes- "QUE CHUPE QUITO!"- "QUE CHUPE!" "HASTA DONDE?" - "HASTA LAS HUEVAS!" I figure "Viva Quito" is self-explanatory, but "Que chupe Quito" is like "That everyone in Quito drinks!" "That they drink!" and honestly, I still don't understand what "Hasta las huevas" means. Anyway- there are bands on the chivas too- and there's this song called "El Chullo Quiteno" which is almost 150 years old.. it was on non-stop loops on every corner, every stereo, every chiva. The song was in my dreams... I had to cover my head with a pillow just to not hear it... but it was cool.
Other than that- things are going well. I'm working hard- thinking about school all the time, but that's okay! Yesterday, two of my students came into my class during one of my free periods. They asked me "Teacher?" (They all call me "teacher"-- as if it was my name. Sometimes "Teacher Margaret"- but that's about it.) "Teacher, You have class now?" I told them "No"- and they said "You want play with us One?" and I said "What?" and they pulled out a deck of UNO cards!! I laughed for a while and played with them until I realized they were cutting science and I had to kick them out. You'd think that woud be self-explanatory, but here, the school will call meetings where every teacher will be in attendence, and the kids get to have free time for an hour and a half or so. If a teacher doesn't show up, they don't have subs- the kids just have free time... so you never really know- plus, no one really seems to care. I don't mean this in a negative way. Somehow the kids still learn-- but you have to wonder how!
For example- this may be my favorite thing that has happened so far in Ecuadror-- the first trimester just ended, and my department head told me that grades were due at 8:00 Tuesday morning. They don't have grade programs on the computers here- because computers are expensive and hard to come by- so we have a few at school- but almost everything is done by hand... so after I spent all weekend adding and dividing the kids' grades by hand- I wrote up a list of grades. Realize, that every person here has 2 first names and 2 last names (For example: "Daniela Alejandra Ubidia De La Torre" or "Jose Daniel Loaiza Santos".. so for 150 students, that got to be a lot of writing. Also, the grades here are numbers, not letters, and they're out of 20. SO a 18,19,20 is like an A-- a 16 or 17 is like a B, etc. Anything below a 13 is failing, but the kid can earn a 09 or a 04 or a 12 and it comes up as that number of the report card. It's a little confusing. Also- the school here is kind of like Harry Potter. Kids switch classes, but they stay with the same people all day long.. and every grade is divided into 2 parts- A and B. SO the 10th grade is composed of 10A and 10B, and 10A all go to science together, and then reading, then language, then personal development, then aesthetics, then drawing (no I'm not making up these classes), then espanol and lenguage and math.
ANYWAY- I show up at 7:30 Tuesday morning and was told to give my 9th graders some work and then leave them alone in my classroom... which seems like a great idea, right? Then I went to this meeting at 8. All the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade teachers were there, so there were 20 of us or so.. which meant that anyone who had class with them got free time. I have my stack of papers with all the kids' all four names and their grades. I sit down feeling prepared and planning my next class when the meeting started (at 8:30 or so because, let's face it, it's Ecuador). So they start: "Let's start with 10 B. Ready?" Then the Tutor of that class (kind of like the homeroom teacher and class advisor rolled into one) gave a little summary of what's going on with the class. How is their group dynamic? What have been their successes and failures? Which particular students are causing problems or particularlay excelling. Etc. Then, when he was done, they said- "Okay. Acosta, Ariana?" Who is the first student on the roll sheet in 10B. I quickly learned, that we were going to discuss each individual student for at least a few seconds- and if a student was earning a 13 or lower, then we had to tell their grade to the whole group while the tutor and principal's secretary wrote them down. Naturally, this wasn't all. Teachers would explain WHY a kid earned a certain grade- or discuss their impressions of a kid- or conversations with a kid's parents. There would be arguments and questions. Then- once we went from Acosta, Ariana to Zamora, Rommel in 10 B, it was time for the Discipline grade- at which point the Inspector- a person in administration whose job it is to discipline the kids- read off the list of kids and gave them a grade based on how many times they'd been written up, not worn their uniform, been late, or been caught doing something bad. Then- this is the best part- the teachers would CHALLENGE the grades. "No no no! Alvaro Ayala can not have a 19! He threw a lit firecracker at a group of teachers! That is disrespect...... (this went on for quite a while- it was a good 7 minute story which, I'm not going to lie, was damn entertaining-- this is a true story. This is also the kid who got run over by the bull during La Noche de la Liga). He deserves a 15." And then the inspector asks: "Who is in favor of a 15 raise your hand?" And we'd vote. Sometimes they'd get into fights. "NO! 17!" "No! 19!" and there was always "Una cosita mas"-- one more little thing to add about a student and how messy their notebook was- or how sweet they were in class.
Every 20 minutes or so I just looked around the room and started laughing. It was, literally, the least efficient thing I've ever seen in my life. But after 6 hours (SIX HOURS-- during which time my students had- you guessed it- FREE TIME!) I was so bored and frustrated that I gave up speaking in Spanish and started calling out my grades in English "De La Cruz, Ulises- Thirteen in Reading!" and then everyone would laugh at me.. and I'd have to repeat myself in Spanish because most people there don't speak English, but I was DELIRIOUS! Plus- I had to attend two meetings at once because I teach primary and secondary school-- and the primary meeting was worse. I spent 45 minutes there during which we discussed 10 students. In that time they'd given grades for all of 8B and half of 8A in the secondary meeting.
The cool thing was, though, that there was REAL communication. There were students that I was worried about, or frustrated with, and I got to see how they were doing in other classes. I made notes about who needs extra support- and empathized with some kids who, when their names were mentioned, everyone rolled their eyes and groaned. There was one kid that I sat down with yesterday and told him flat out that in the meeting teachers expressed worries about him because his grades have fallen and his behavior was so bad. I got to ask him what was going on, and tell him that I would help him- and I think (I don't know yet) that it was effective!
That being said- (I know this is really long, but there's a lot going on)-- there is a real dark side to being here. I had a BRUTAL week at school where I just felt worthless and incapable and disrespected and objectified. My Spanish is getting better, but I'm still not fluent by any means-- and by virtue of being a gringa I am constantly being whistled at, kissed, grabbed and, once on the Trole, petted on the head by a creepy old man. So- students and even some teachers have gotten into the habit of saying things to me, or about me, under their breath and really quickly so that I can't understand. Occasionally when I do catch a word or two all I can figure out is that it's really offensive. I feel like some people don't take me seriously at all- it's just a contest with them to see who can talk to me, sit next to me, dance with me at a school event, Who can make the best little comment to their friends about me without me understanding, etc. It sucks. I have literally never felt this outraged in my life. Thankfully I have some really good Ecuadorian friends who protect me though. On Tuesday I was walking up the street and this guy whistled at me. I grimaced, looked straight ahead, and kept walking. Then my phone rang. It was my friend Andy. "Hey- are you walking up Mariana de Jesus?" he asked me. "Yeah.." I told him. He went on "Did some guy just whistle at you?" and I said "Yeah- where are you?" He said "I'm driving down the street-- I'm going to pull over and talk to him okay?" Apparently (I've heard this part 2nd hand because my phone was stolen in approximately the next 15 minutes)- he pulled over, got out of the car, chased the guys down and yelled at them telling them "That's why people don't want to come to our country because you make them uncomfortable. The guidebooks for Ecuador advise women against walking alone ever... yada yada yada" Then apparently he realized he was yelling at two big men and he got kind of scared so he pointed at his temple and said: "Piensalo bien"- THINK ABOUT IT! and ran away! That cracks me up!!
More though, with my students, is that I feel incapable so often because I can't understand them. I don't want to talk to parents because I'm afraid that I'll sound stupid and they won't have any confidence in me. My friend Esteban, who is also a teacher at Liga, tells me that the students talk to him- sometimes I kick them out of class when they "haven't done anything wrong" (That from the kid who pointed a bebe gun at the head of another student in the middle of my SCINTILLATING lecture on plurals). I don't understand them and they don't understand me.. and sometimes I have zero control. But I have support and I'm learning.. I just hope I'm doing a good job.
One more thing and then I'm done- I swear. If you think High School Musical is a big deal in the states- you have NO IDEA! Here- it's all the kids talk about, think about, or do. My sister, Lesley, met Zac Efron- the star of HSM once because she has a friend at UCLA who was friends with him growing up. I told this to 3 or 4 of my 5th graders once before class. Since that day I have students coming up to me 2 or 3 times a week asking me if it's true that my sister knows "Troy" - the character from HSM-- or "Zac Efron". Since Lesley's coming next week (!) I've had groups of students asking me for pictures of Zac Efron- asking me excitedly if my sister really does know him. 4 6th grade boys I've never met before stopped me on the way to class the other day and asked me excitedly: "Profe- well-- we LOVE LOVE LOVE high school musical, and someone told me that your sister knows Troy and- well----" at this point he was so excited he was vibrating. He took a big gulp of air and said in one big, fast, spanish breath "Do you think your sister could bring us some pictures of him?" I told them I would ask here if she could bring some for them to look at, but I'm not sure because she doesn't actually know him- she just met him. At which point the 4 boys jumped up and down, squealed, held hands, and ran away. (A later blog on how Ecuadorian boys never stop touching each other-- and how I've so far made 7 (!) boys cry, but not one girl) I had a group of girls that I don't even know find me at lunch the other day and ask me if my sister was coming and something about Zac Efron that I didn't understand because they spoke so fast. I told them "My sister met Zac Efron once and she has a friend who is friends with him. When she comes next week you can ask her about him!" and they got really disappointed. "You mean," they asked, "He isn't coming with her?" I felt so bad because these kids honestly believed that Zac Efron was coming to Ecuador to visit me. It's amazing how fast a rumor about the gringa teacher's sister's celebrity connections will spread in an Ecuadorian private school- that's all I'm saying.
Okay-I know Herman Melville's got nothing on me after this. Maybe I'll opt for shorter, more frequent updates in the future? I can not WAIT for my mom and sister to come- and Mom's bringing me whiteboard markers!!!!!!!!! The ones here suck and they only come in blue, black, green, and red. I've been promising my students colors now for 2 weeks. They can't wait... okay- so it's no rumor about Hollywood celebrities- but I'm honestly more excited about these markers than if Zac Efron really were coming to visit me. Anyway
First of all- December 6 was a holiday for Las Fiestas de Quito- the day where the whole city gets off work and parties just because they're Quitenos! We had 3 days off from school, and it was absolute insanity. The weekend before my school had a big party on campus called La Noche de Liga where there were all sorts of cultural events. First, there was a bullfight in the Plaza de Toros that they have there on campus-- that's right, ON CAMPUS. They bring out 1 year old calves to fight some professional, although not incredibly talented, Torreros, and then the students get to go out - 14, 15, 16 years old- and fight the bulls. I couldn't BELIEVE it! One of my 8th grade students/the bane of my existence (more on him later) got knocked down by the bull and kicked around a bit. His shirt was torn and he had a gash in his side. He cried in the bullpen when one of the parents who was "supervising" distracted the bull and he was able to get away. When I saw him afterwards he told me the fight was "Chevere" (cool) with a big smile on his face while he showed me his battle wounds.
Needless to say, it was insane. Can you imagine what would happen in the states if a 14 year old was gored by a bull at a school function? Here it was hardly cause for concern!
Then they had some of the students do traditional dances, as well as a professional indigenous dance team come in. It was pretty amazing. The other crazy thing- 4 of my students-8th graders as well-- in the same class as the bullfight kid, actually, sat on a wall during the dance exhibition, surrounded by parents and school officials, smoking cigarettes. They sat up there all night- said hello to the principal and vice principals and were left unbothered. It's such a weird experience because I find myself repressing the urge to scold every 30 minutes at least. People are very tranquila here.... not that I'm in favor of letting 14 year olds smoke-- especially not at school-- but it's all different.
The Fiestas de Quito were crazy- we went out every night- Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I got really sick, so I stayed home Saturday night-- but everyone else went out. There were parades and bands on every corner. There were chivas-- party busses where people drink Canelazos- a sweet alcoholic traditional drink- and scream "QUE VIVA QUITO!" and then respond "QUE VIVA!" Or sometimes- "QUE CHUPE QUITO!"- "QUE CHUPE!" "HASTA DONDE?" - "HASTA LAS HUEVAS!" I figure "Viva Quito" is self-explanatory, but "Que chupe Quito" is like "That everyone in Quito drinks!" "That they drink!" and honestly, I still don't understand what "Hasta las huevas" means. Anyway- there are bands on the chivas too- and there's this song called "El Chullo Quiteno" which is almost 150 years old.. it was on non-stop loops on every corner, every stereo, every chiva. The song was in my dreams... I had to cover my head with a pillow just to not hear it... but it was cool.
Other than that- things are going well. I'm working hard- thinking about school all the time, but that's okay! Yesterday, two of my students came into my class during one of my free periods. They asked me "Teacher?" (They all call me "teacher"-- as if it was my name. Sometimes "Teacher Margaret"- but that's about it.) "Teacher, You have class now?" I told them "No"- and they said "You want play with us One?" and I said "What?" and they pulled out a deck of UNO cards!! I laughed for a while and played with them until I realized they were cutting science and I had to kick them out. You'd think that woud be self-explanatory, but here, the school will call meetings where every teacher will be in attendence, and the kids get to have free time for an hour and a half or so. If a teacher doesn't show up, they don't have subs- the kids just have free time... so you never really know- plus, no one really seems to care. I don't mean this in a negative way. Somehow the kids still learn-- but you have to wonder how!
For example- this may be my favorite thing that has happened so far in Ecuadror-- the first trimester just ended, and my department head told me that grades were due at 8:00 Tuesday morning. They don't have grade programs on the computers here- because computers are expensive and hard to come by- so we have a few at school- but almost everything is done by hand... so after I spent all weekend adding and dividing the kids' grades by hand- I wrote up a list of grades. Realize, that every person here has 2 first names and 2 last names (For example: "Daniela Alejandra Ubidia De La Torre" or "Jose Daniel Loaiza Santos".. so for 150 students, that got to be a lot of writing. Also, the grades here are numbers, not letters, and they're out of 20. SO a 18,19,20 is like an A-- a 16 or 17 is like a B, etc. Anything below a 13 is failing, but the kid can earn a 09 or a 04 or a 12 and it comes up as that number of the report card. It's a little confusing. Also- the school here is kind of like Harry Potter. Kids switch classes, but they stay with the same people all day long.. and every grade is divided into 2 parts- A and B. SO the 10th grade is composed of 10A and 10B, and 10A all go to science together, and then reading, then language, then personal development, then aesthetics, then drawing (no I'm not making up these classes), then espanol and lenguage and math.
ANYWAY- I show up at 7:30 Tuesday morning and was told to give my 9th graders some work and then leave them alone in my classroom... which seems like a great idea, right? Then I went to this meeting at 8. All the 8th, 9th, and 10th grade teachers were there, so there were 20 of us or so.. which meant that anyone who had class with them got free time. I have my stack of papers with all the kids' all four names and their grades. I sit down feeling prepared and planning my next class when the meeting started (at 8:30 or so because, let's face it, it's Ecuador). So they start: "Let's start with 10 B. Ready?" Then the Tutor of that class (kind of like the homeroom teacher and class advisor rolled into one) gave a little summary of what's going on with the class. How is their group dynamic? What have been their successes and failures? Which particular students are causing problems or particularlay excelling. Etc. Then, when he was done, they said- "Okay. Acosta, Ariana?" Who is the first student on the roll sheet in 10B. I quickly learned, that we were going to discuss each individual student for at least a few seconds- and if a student was earning a 13 or lower, then we had to tell their grade to the whole group while the tutor and principal's secretary wrote them down. Naturally, this wasn't all. Teachers would explain WHY a kid earned a certain grade- or discuss their impressions of a kid- or conversations with a kid's parents. There would be arguments and questions. Then- once we went from Acosta, Ariana to Zamora, Rommel in 10 B, it was time for the Discipline grade- at which point the Inspector- a person in administration whose job it is to discipline the kids- read off the list of kids and gave them a grade based on how many times they'd been written up, not worn their uniform, been late, or been caught doing something bad. Then- this is the best part- the teachers would CHALLENGE the grades. "No no no! Alvaro Ayala can not have a 19! He threw a lit firecracker at a group of teachers! That is disrespect...... (this went on for quite a while- it was a good 7 minute story which, I'm not going to lie, was damn entertaining-- this is a true story. This is also the kid who got run over by the bull during La Noche de la Liga). He deserves a 15." And then the inspector asks: "Who is in favor of a 15 raise your hand?" And we'd vote. Sometimes they'd get into fights. "NO! 17!" "No! 19!" and there was always "Una cosita mas"-- one more little thing to add about a student and how messy their notebook was- or how sweet they were in class.
Every 20 minutes or so I just looked around the room and started laughing. It was, literally, the least efficient thing I've ever seen in my life. But after 6 hours (SIX HOURS-- during which time my students had- you guessed it- FREE TIME!) I was so bored and frustrated that I gave up speaking in Spanish and started calling out my grades in English "De La Cruz, Ulises- Thirteen in Reading!" and then everyone would laugh at me.. and I'd have to repeat myself in Spanish because most people there don't speak English, but I was DELIRIOUS! Plus- I had to attend two meetings at once because I teach primary and secondary school-- and the primary meeting was worse. I spent 45 minutes there during which we discussed 10 students. In that time they'd given grades for all of 8B and half of 8A in the secondary meeting.
The cool thing was, though, that there was REAL communication. There were students that I was worried about, or frustrated with, and I got to see how they were doing in other classes. I made notes about who needs extra support- and empathized with some kids who, when their names were mentioned, everyone rolled their eyes and groaned. There was one kid that I sat down with yesterday and told him flat out that in the meeting teachers expressed worries about him because his grades have fallen and his behavior was so bad. I got to ask him what was going on, and tell him that I would help him- and I think (I don't know yet) that it was effective!
That being said- (I know this is really long, but there's a lot going on)-- there is a real dark side to being here. I had a BRUTAL week at school where I just felt worthless and incapable and disrespected and objectified. My Spanish is getting better, but I'm still not fluent by any means-- and by virtue of being a gringa I am constantly being whistled at, kissed, grabbed and, once on the Trole, petted on the head by a creepy old man. So- students and even some teachers have gotten into the habit of saying things to me, or about me, under their breath and really quickly so that I can't understand. Occasionally when I do catch a word or two all I can figure out is that it's really offensive. I feel like some people don't take me seriously at all- it's just a contest with them to see who can talk to me, sit next to me, dance with me at a school event, Who can make the best little comment to their friends about me without me understanding, etc. It sucks. I have literally never felt this outraged in my life. Thankfully I have some really good Ecuadorian friends who protect me though. On Tuesday I was walking up the street and this guy whistled at me. I grimaced, looked straight ahead, and kept walking. Then my phone rang. It was my friend Andy. "Hey- are you walking up Mariana de Jesus?" he asked me. "Yeah.." I told him. He went on "Did some guy just whistle at you?" and I said "Yeah- where are you?" He said "I'm driving down the street-- I'm going to pull over and talk to him okay?" Apparently (I've heard this part 2nd hand because my phone was stolen in approximately the next 15 minutes)- he pulled over, got out of the car, chased the guys down and yelled at them telling them "That's why people don't want to come to our country because you make them uncomfortable. The guidebooks for Ecuador advise women against walking alone ever... yada yada yada" Then apparently he realized he was yelling at two big men and he got kind of scared so he pointed at his temple and said: "Piensalo bien"- THINK ABOUT IT! and ran away! That cracks me up!!
More though, with my students, is that I feel incapable so often because I can't understand them. I don't want to talk to parents because I'm afraid that I'll sound stupid and they won't have any confidence in me. My friend Esteban, who is also a teacher at Liga, tells me that the students talk to him- sometimes I kick them out of class when they "haven't done anything wrong" (That from the kid who pointed a bebe gun at the head of another student in the middle of my SCINTILLATING lecture on plurals). I don't understand them and they don't understand me.. and sometimes I have zero control. But I have support and I'm learning.. I just hope I'm doing a good job.
One more thing and then I'm done- I swear. If you think High School Musical is a big deal in the states- you have NO IDEA! Here- it's all the kids talk about, think about, or do. My sister, Lesley, met Zac Efron- the star of HSM once because she has a friend at UCLA who was friends with him growing up. I told this to 3 or 4 of my 5th graders once before class. Since that day I have students coming up to me 2 or 3 times a week asking me if it's true that my sister knows "Troy" - the character from HSM-- or "Zac Efron". Since Lesley's coming next week (!) I've had groups of students asking me for pictures of Zac Efron- asking me excitedly if my sister really does know him. 4 6th grade boys I've never met before stopped me on the way to class the other day and asked me excitedly: "Profe- well-- we LOVE LOVE LOVE high school musical, and someone told me that your sister knows Troy and- well----" at this point he was so excited he was vibrating. He took a big gulp of air and said in one big, fast, spanish breath "Do you think your sister could bring us some pictures of him?" I told them I would ask here if she could bring some for them to look at, but I'm not sure because she doesn't actually know him- she just met him. At which point the 4 boys jumped up and down, squealed, held hands, and ran away. (A later blog on how Ecuadorian boys never stop touching each other-- and how I've so far made 7 (!) boys cry, but not one girl) I had a group of girls that I don't even know find me at lunch the other day and ask me if my sister was coming and something about Zac Efron that I didn't understand because they spoke so fast. I told them "My sister met Zac Efron once and she has a friend who is friends with him. When she comes next week you can ask her about him!" and they got really disappointed. "You mean," they asked, "He isn't coming with her?" I felt so bad because these kids honestly believed that Zac Efron was coming to Ecuador to visit me. It's amazing how fast a rumor about the gringa teacher's sister's celebrity connections will spread in an Ecuadorian private school- that's all I'm saying.
Okay-I know Herman Melville's got nothing on me after this. Maybe I'll opt for shorter, more frequent updates in the future? I can not WAIT for my mom and sister to come- and Mom's bringing me whiteboard markers!!!!!!!!! The ones here suck and they only come in blue, black, green, and red. I've been promising my students colors now for 2 weeks. They can't wait... okay- so it's no rumor about Hollywood celebrities- but I'm honestly more excited about these markers than if Zac Efron really were coming to visit me. Anyway
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thanksgiving Saturday!
Well, it's been a tough week to be honest. It's been really hard to be away from home over Thanksgiving. It was great that Aunt Mary and Uncle Dan called me on Thursday, and I got to talk to Mom, Dad, Les and Grandma... of course, I had to talk to them all after I got off of work! But it was okay. I explained to my students all about Thanksgiving and we did some work. They are DEFINITELY getting a cultural lesson from me. One of my 8th grade classes asked me about the "Himno Nacional de los Estados Unidos"- so I downloaded and copied lyrics to the Star Spangled Banner, and we spent a class period looking up unknown words (I know... "ramparts" is going to take them far in life. I don't even know what that means!) and SINGING it! It was hilarious!
BUT, this weekend was a blast. On Friday I was required to go to this dance. On Thursday we had a meeting at school for all the teachers to go over what our jobs were going to be at the dance, and to decide if we should sell alcohol to the students who were 18, or just to teachers and parents! They eventually decided that anyone who was 18 could drink.. which meant that a LOT of people who weren't 18 were drinking at the dance, but no one seemed to care! The dance was for the crowning of the Reina del Colegio (Queen of the High School), so each contestant put on a dance for the school on Friday afternoon. Some danced to Salsa and Reggaeton music, while others danced to "Thriller" and "You're the One That I Want" from Grease! Then they had a fashion show- casual and formal wear, and then an interview portion where they discussed their views on the role of women in present society and the solutions for the problem of child labor in Ecuador.
Then, when they crowned Mary Frances the reina, and the dance was on! Teachers, parents and students danced the night away until 2 in the morning. Teachers took shots of whiskey in the back, while parents and students smoked cigarettes on the dance floor. It was a BLAST! My friend Nick and I tried to keep up with them, but at one point we were doing our lame-ass gringo salsa, and I turned around to see one of my students, Kenny, who is 13 and 5 feet tall at most, PULLING OUT the most incredible dance moves with a girl approximately twice his height. I got embarassed, so we sat down.. but it was really fun otherwise!
Then, Saturday, we had our HUGE Thanksgiving feast! We started cooking at 10 in the morning (as in the picture)-- Angie splurged and bought a turkey, and I made mashed potatoes. She also made vegetables and cranberry sauce. We had two sweet potato dishes, cake, brownies, broccoli, stuffing, garlic bread, more turkey, macaroni and cheese, Kinua salad, Taco dip, mangoes, homemade apple pies from the boys downstairs, soda, beer, rum, and wine. We had invited everone over at 3:00-- but dinner didn't actually go on until 5. It was Thanksgiving Ecuador style-- two hours late but totally worth it!!
We had everyone in our building- Nick, Seth, Summer, Andrew Moose and his Ecuadorian girlfriend Ani, Noah, me, Rozana, Angie, John, Jeff, Sam, their friend Chase, Libby, her Ecuadorian boyfriend William, Jon, Vaughn, Liz, her roommate Jessie, Nicole, Justin, his British girlfriend Helen, Gillian, Rachel, and two American exchange students from Colegio de Liga- Lacey and Weston! That's 27 if you're counting!! We crammed them into our apartment, and amazingly we had enough food to feed everyone!
The food was really good too. It was great. We had everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for.. and we even had one in Spanish! It felt like Thanksgiving, and it felt good.
As for me- this week I've been frustrated in my job and with my students. I've been homesick and sad... but not once have I been unhappy. Last night was amazing. This morning Nick and I went to this market in Parque Eljido where there are artisans and paintings and children and relaxation. This afternoon, and every Sunday, Angie, Rozana and I went to Plaza Foch and drank coffee while this really cool band played in the plaza as clouds rolled in over the volcano Pichincha. I love it here. My Spanish has definitely turned a corner, too-- and that makes it easier. I miss home, but I am so glad to be here-- and Saturday just reminded me that if I can get 25 people sat and fed at our dining room table, then I can do anything!!
I miss you all very much!
BUT, this weekend was a blast. On Friday I was required to go to this dance. On Thursday we had a meeting at school for all the teachers to go over what our jobs were going to be at the dance, and to decide if we should sell alcohol to the students who were 18, or just to teachers and parents! They eventually decided that anyone who was 18 could drink.. which meant that a LOT of people who weren't 18 were drinking at the dance, but no one seemed to care! The dance was for the crowning of the Reina del Colegio (Queen of the High School), so each contestant put on a dance for the school on Friday afternoon. Some danced to Salsa and Reggaeton music, while others danced to "Thriller" and "You're the One That I Want" from Grease! Then they had a fashion show- casual and formal wear, and then an interview portion where they discussed their views on the role of women in present society and the solutions for the problem of child labor in Ecuador.
Then, when they crowned Mary Frances the reina, and the dance was on! Teachers, parents and students danced the night away until 2 in the morning. Teachers took shots of whiskey in the back, while parents and students smoked cigarettes on the dance floor. It was a BLAST! My friend Nick and I tried to keep up with them, but at one point we were doing our lame-ass gringo salsa, and I turned around to see one of my students, Kenny, who is 13 and 5 feet tall at most, PULLING OUT the most incredible dance moves with a girl approximately twice his height. I got embarassed, so we sat down.. but it was really fun otherwise!
Then, Saturday, we had our HUGE Thanksgiving feast! We started cooking at 10 in the morning (as in the picture)-- Angie splurged and bought a turkey, and I made mashed potatoes. She also made vegetables and cranberry sauce. We had two sweet potato dishes, cake, brownies, broccoli, stuffing, garlic bread, more turkey, macaroni and cheese, Kinua salad, Taco dip, mangoes, homemade apple pies from the boys downstairs, soda, beer, rum, and wine. We had invited everone over at 3:00-- but dinner didn't actually go on until 5. It was Thanksgiving Ecuador style-- two hours late but totally worth it!!
We had everyone in our building- Nick, Seth, Summer, Andrew Moose and his Ecuadorian girlfriend Ani, Noah, me, Rozana, Angie, John, Jeff, Sam, their friend Chase, Libby, her Ecuadorian boyfriend William, Jon, Vaughn, Liz, her roommate Jessie, Nicole, Justin, his British girlfriend Helen, Gillian, Rachel, and two American exchange students from Colegio de Liga- Lacey and Weston! That's 27 if you're counting!! We crammed them into our apartment, and amazingly we had enough food to feed everyone!
The food was really good too. It was great. We had everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for.. and we even had one in Spanish! It felt like Thanksgiving, and it felt good.
As for me- this week I've been frustrated in my job and with my students. I've been homesick and sad... but not once have I been unhappy. Last night was amazing. This morning Nick and I went to this market in Parque Eljido where there are artisans and paintings and children and relaxation. This afternoon, and every Sunday, Angie, Rozana and I went to Plaza Foch and drank coffee while this really cool band played in the plaza as clouds rolled in over the volcano Pichincha. I love it here. My Spanish has definitely turned a corner, too-- and that makes it easier. I miss home, but I am so glad to be here-- and Saturday just reminded me that if I can get 25 people sat and fed at our dining room table, then I can do anything!!
I miss you all very much!
Friday, November 16, 2007
Oh man!
Well-- It has definitely been a while since I updated-- I've gotten at leat one written request for a new blog.. honestly I've just been SO busy I haven't had time or energy. Every day I catch the school bus-- which is really just a yellow van-- at 6:10 and I get home around 6:30 pm, at which point I have lessons to plan and food to eat etc. Plus, for as busy as I've been, nothing too exciting has happened.
Well- Banos was pretty amazing. I posted pictures. The pictures start in Quito when we went out for Andrew's birthday- it was insane.... as you will see-- but there was good dancing and it was FUN! Then we went out to celebrate that we were done with TESOL (teaching english as a second language). That may have been the most fun I've ever had in my life! Finally, we went to Banos, and you'll see pictures there too. We started out by taking this bike ride to el Pailon del Diablo-- I've included all the pictures, but it was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen! I even jumped off a bridge! It wasn't bungee jumping because the cord wasn't flexible at all-- it was sort of like swinging. It was a RUSH for sure!
Finally- in this quick update- we had a MASSIVE Halloween party the day after Halloween... but it was Thursday and everyone had work off on Friday because of el Dia de los Fieles Difuntos-- or Day of the Dead. So we threw a house party. We had beer pong and flip cup- and we invited everyone we knew, which meant that there were Americans, Ecuadorians, English and Australians. We had 18 year olds and 60 year olds. It was crazy.... house parties are not really my thing, but it was a blast.
I dressed up as Smurfette (yes I got the idea from Emily Karrs), but I didn't realize that there was no such thing as blue face paint in Ecuador- so I bought blue eyeshadow and face lotion and I coverd myself. The result was that I looked more like a dead nurse than Smurfette, but it was fun.
In the picture I'm with my roommates Rozana and Angie who dressed up as the Doublemint Twins!
Things have been going well at work. The Fiestas de Quito are coming up in December. December 6 is the anniversary of the Independence of Quito. Most of the streets here are named for state holidays, and so it actually makes it really easy to remember when things are. For example, one of the best malls is on a street named 6 de Diciembre. I actually live on 9 de Octubre (which I BELIEVE is the independence of Guayaquil- another big Ecuadorian city-- but I'm not sure.)
Finally-- I am starting to get kind of homesick- especially as Thanksgiving is coming up, but it's okay. I FINALLY got on the Skype train, and soon I will be getting my own Skype number where you can call me for CHEAP! For now, I highly recommend that you download it (www.skype.com). It's totally free, but you have to put money on the account to call. You call using your computer, but that means that anyone can call me for two cents a minute!! I talked on the phone for 2 hours today for 2 dollars! (my cell is 98920233. The country code for Ecuador is 593 and the code to dial out of the us is 011-- so to call me you dial 01159398920233... but on skype, just the 098920233 number.. fyi.)
Anyway- kind of laundry listy, but I'll be sure to have some great anecdores for you next time. I miss you all very much! Peace out.
Well- Banos was pretty amazing. I posted pictures. The pictures start in Quito when we went out for Andrew's birthday- it was insane.... as you will see-- but there was good dancing and it was FUN! Then we went out to celebrate that we were done with TESOL (teaching english as a second language). That may have been the most fun I've ever had in my life! Finally, we went to Banos, and you'll see pictures there too. We started out by taking this bike ride to el Pailon del Diablo-- I've included all the pictures, but it was one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen! I even jumped off a bridge! It wasn't bungee jumping because the cord wasn't flexible at all-- it was sort of like swinging. It was a RUSH for sure!
Finally- in this quick update- we had a MASSIVE Halloween party the day after Halloween... but it was Thursday and everyone had work off on Friday because of el Dia de los Fieles Difuntos-- or Day of the Dead. So we threw a house party. We had beer pong and flip cup- and we invited everyone we knew, which meant that there were Americans, Ecuadorians, English and Australians. We had 18 year olds and 60 year olds. It was crazy.... house parties are not really my thing, but it was a blast.
I dressed up as Smurfette (yes I got the idea from Emily Karrs), but I didn't realize that there was no such thing as blue face paint in Ecuador- so I bought blue eyeshadow and face lotion and I coverd myself. The result was that I looked more like a dead nurse than Smurfette, but it was fun.
In the picture I'm with my roommates Rozana and Angie who dressed up as the Doublemint Twins!Things have been going well at work. The Fiestas de Quito are coming up in December. December 6 is the anniversary of the Independence of Quito. Most of the streets here are named for state holidays, and so it actually makes it really easy to remember when things are. For example, one of the best malls is on a street named 6 de Diciembre. I actually live on 9 de Octubre (which I BELIEVE is the independence of Guayaquil- another big Ecuadorian city-- but I'm not sure.)
Finally-- I am starting to get kind of homesick- especially as Thanksgiving is coming up, but it's okay. I FINALLY got on the Skype train, and soon I will be getting my own Skype number where you can call me for CHEAP! For now, I highly recommend that you download it (www.skype.com). It's totally free, but you have to put money on the account to call. You call using your computer, but that means that anyone can call me for two cents a minute!! I talked on the phone for 2 hours today for 2 dollars! (my cell is 98920233. The country code for Ecuador is 593 and the code to dial out of the us is 011-- so to call me you dial 01159398920233... but on skype, just the 098920233 number.. fyi.)
Anyway- kind of laundry listy, but I'll be sure to have some great anecdores for you next time. I miss you all very much! Peace out.
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