Maybe last week's e-mail was short but those short ones have their advantages, I think the shorter they are the less likely people are to feel guilty about not reading the whole thing. But since there is no condemnation in Christ you really shouldn't feel guilty if you don't finish this weeks because of my long-windedness.
Jueves:
Today I helped out with pre-school. There are 42 students, one teacher, one very un-enthusiastic aide, and three boxes of crayons. Last week we played with clay which I thought was a disaster until today when we played with scissors. Is it ok for 3 year-olds to have scissors? I guess there was no major mis-haps but we learned that they aren't ready to cut clouds out of white paper yet. Guess what one of the students had for snack. Yeah you won't guess so I'll tell you, toothpaste.
Today was also payday and I got a raise. I now get 900 instead of 880 cords every two weeks. That means I am getting about $1.30 more than last year, however I am on campus an extra four hours.
Another exciting thing is I started a new job. Jeremy's school needed tutors so I am tutoring one eighth grade boy in algebra two hours a week. I think I can handle it, I knew those two years of college calculus were good for something. Actually I am still doubt they had any use besides bringing down my GPA.
For lunch I went to this Korean family's house and we had spaghetti and rice. I am going to be tutoring their three teen-aged children nine hours a week. I am a little nervous about the schedule because I will be teaching them in three hour blocks and that will be a lot of time to fill. Especially since they actually want to learn, so maybe crafts won't cut it.
Viernes:
School started out fine, but it usually does. One of the first grade teachers left to teach at a public school so on the second Friday of the school year the teachers have already changed. That class is very poorly behaved anyways and on Friday I held them all in during recess. I might start doing that every day. My second graders are worse than the first graders. Their teacher was absent and her husband came in instead but I do need to talk to her about helping to keep the students under control. Another thing that makes the class especially difficult is that only about half bring their books and less than that do their homework. It seems like every day I just spend the entire time getting them to be calm, but maybe that is what is needed. Third grade I love but when I was about 10 minutes into class the bell rang and school was over. I guess it was parent teacher conference or back-to-school night or something, I wasn't involved in that. After I got home Cristina and I went to the grocery store, I got a box of Kleenex that was only a dollar because it was a Christmas box. So hopefully no one judges me for being out of season. Then I had dinner at Jeremy and Cristina's, then we watched the Apprentice on DVD Jeremy said we were only going to watch two episodes but, lets face it, reality TV is addicting so we watched four.
Sabado:
For some reason the last few Saturdays I've been waking up early. I get a little frustrated when the one day I have time to sleep in I wake up and then when I need to get up I sleep in. So I got up, made some spreadsheets then after it was too hot I went for a little run. For breakfast I had eggs and that with the heat and running didn't mix well with my stomach. The rest of the afternoon was pretty much a blur. At like 5:30 or something we had taco night at the pool. One of the ladies in our complex organized it and then everyone brought something to share. It was nice and the temperature at night has been really good. After tacos some people came over to watch "She's the Man." It was a reuniting time with the movie because it was lost for the past three months and we just found it so that was pretty exciting.
Domingo:
This is one of the days that it would be nice if I woke up early of natural causes but that wasn't the case so I had to rely on my alarm. The weather was really nice, it even rained a little. Cristina didn't go to church so Jeremy and I were in charge of singing. Maybe the Eklund family singers have hope after all. We sang "Abre Mis Ojos," "Mi Pan, Mi Luz," y "Tal Como Soy." At 2:00 I had my first session with my Korean students. They definitely have higher expectations for me than I'm used to, I had them watch Saved by the Bell and we played Hang Man. While playing Hang Man these two boys came over because they were making our apartment dinner and I got all nervous about my spelling because they couldn't figure out the word. It was bookshelves.
For dinner the boys made us chili. My roommate Rachel wanted to make cinnamon rolls to go with the chili. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of both chili and cinnamon rolls but I don't really think the belong together in the same meal. At Sunday night coffee time we took a poll on whether or not that was normal I think four people actually agreed with her, they were all from Dordt college in Iowa.
Lunes:
I think this was by far my best day at school. I think that there is a chance that some of my students actually learned something. It was much better than last Monday which partially inspired my I hate being white e-mail. I would have expanded on that but it may have resulted in some "you're crazy and should never leave your apartment until you are on your way to the airport to fly home" responses and I get those from Jeremy fairly regularly already. So today, yes, it was good. I have a two hour break between my primary and secondary school classes so Cristina came to pick me up and we went out to lunch. My afternoon session went well except not all the teachers were expecting me so that caused a little confusion. Maybe next Monday they will know I'm coming.
When I got home they were burning stuff in the neighborhood and it totally made it hard to breath and it made my eyes water. In the States we have garbage day when the trucks come and empty our trash cans, here people have garbage day when the burn their garbage, and it is every day. And although I flunked out of being an Atmospheric Science major I'm pretty sure that fires aren't particularly good for the O-Zone. Plus it has been super windy lately so it probably isn't the safest route of disposal.
Mondays also hold the exciting title of grocery night. Even if I don't need anything I go just for the socialization. I bought some more of that Christmas Kleenex that is still on sale, I'm stocking up.
Martes:
Once again I woke up overly early but I was able to fall back asleep which is really all I want to get accomplished on my free day. Tuesdays are always a little awkward because I don't have to leave for any particular reason but they are Leo's main cleaning day. So I just try to stay out of her way so she doesn't have to mop around me. So I left and went for a little run. I know, shocker twice in one e-mail period I guess I was just in the mood. When I got back I read a little and talked on the phone then Cristina called to ask if I wanted to go to Elijah's doctor's appointment with her. I did. That took super long so then she just dropped me off for my math tutoring. Cassedy wasn't in the most studious of moods so it was kind of annoying.
Tonight was my night to cook dinner so I made this broccoli, chicken, cheese thing. It was good. Now I am finishing this e-mail off while watching "The Gilmore Girls," and "American Idol." I would tell you what is happening on it but you may live on the West Coast and you'll have to wait for your own turn.
Love, Joy
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