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