Matagalpa, I love you.

Wow!  This place rocks and I wish it was one of our site towns, but unfortunately it is not :(  There are two other sites in the department of Matagalpa, but the city of Matagalpa is not one of our sites.  We have been having so much fun exploring our area of the town and eating some great food and just relaxing in the hostel.  Yesterday was our first day of teaching and it went really well.  We got up pretty early because we had to be at the school by 6:50am and we didn't have time to eat breakfast before heading over there which was a bummer.  Julie taught an 8th grade class in the morning and then we did a little debriefing and headed back to the hostel for breakfast.  We had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs mixed with some veggies, tortillas, cheese, and fresh pineapple juice.  It was so good!  We then talked through my lesson to make sure everything was set for that and then we hung out a little before going back to the school.

My first lesson was for 7A (they split each grade level into two sections--A is for the higher level, B is lower level.  Some schools have sections all the way to I, and it's pretty unfortunate that they track the students in this way and don't mix the levels).  I taught a lesson on things we like to do in the summer, practicing "I like" and He/She likes".  It was good and the students seemed to enjoy the lesson.  They all swarmed me at the end and were asking me questions about where I was from, etc.  We then went to the teacher's lounge to do a debriefing, but our counterpart wanted us to go back to the classroom.  I thought she wanted to do the debriefing there, and I had a one of our trainers observing me there.  There was a little confusion, but apparently the computer class for 7B was canceled so she wanted me to teach my lesson then instead of waiting until their English period.  So, without a debriefing, I went straight into teaching the next class.  Fortunately, it was the same lesson, just a different class section, so I was already prepared with my lesson in mind and materials in hand.  I just wasn't expecting to be rushed in there.  Also, the class didn't start on time because we were walking around the school and the confusion was taking place.  The lesson went well though and I could tell that these students were taking a little longer to understand, so I did use some Spanish.  I was in the middle of my last activity when the bell rang and the students got up and started heading out of class.  This was weird because in the last class I had plenty of time in the end and I was reviewing some extra questions when the bell rang and all of the students stayed in their seats and let me finish the question and they answered.  Weird.

This is me teaching in the first class.  There was a skylight shining right on me, making me sweat profusely.

So, we still get a weekly allowance while we're here and we are given a certain amount of money for meals each day.  Well, Julie and I decided we wanted to go a little cheap and save some money because we did spend a lot on our handmade purses and chocolate...  So, we bought bread, jelly, and yogurt at the supermarket (I brought peanut butter from my host family), and then we bought some bananos at a little store.  We got an awesome deal on those--12 bananos for 8 cords!  They usually sell for 1 cord each, so we were pretty dang excited!  It's the simple things in life, really.  We came back to the hostel and enjoyed our cheap lunch on the balcony and relaxed in the beautiful environment.

 
We had a little debriefing session with on of the volunteers here that organized our practicum week to discuss how things are going at our schools.  It was cool to hear about the other schools too.  We are at a semi-private, Catholic high school so it's a little different--in the beginning of the first class everyday, the teachers read out of the Bible and then the students say a prayer.  That was interesting. 

After our discussion, we planned our lessons for the next two days to make sure we would be prepared.  It was nice to get all of that taken care of, because the first night we were here, we met with our teacher at 5:30pm and talked about what we should be teaching this week, and then had to go get dinner, and then we started planning around 8pm for the 7am class the next day.  This time was much better and more relaxed.  We then walked around down town and we ate dinner at the same place we had dinner the night before because it was great food for cheap.  I had gallo pinto, scrambled eggs with ham, a cooked plantain, tajadas (which are the banana chips), and some pico de gallo salsa on the side.  This was a full plate of food for 38 cords--that's less than $2.00!  I was full after eating all of that and it was delicious.  The night before I got pretty much the same thing, but I had beef with sauce and veggies instead of the eggs with ham, and that was a little more, 50 cords, but that's only $2.50.  I love it!  Julie and I also went and got Eskimo after dinner to celebrate our first day of teaching.  We had coconut ice cream, which was awesome. 

When we came back, I had a debriefing with my trainer who had observed me earlier, because he didn't have time after my class with all the schedule switching.  We had a good chat and I feel like things are going really well.  We then hung out with the other trainees and our friends that we've met in the hostel (3 girls staying in our room--1 from Canada, 1 from Australia, and 1 from Belgium). 

My class this morning was scheduled to start at 7:43am (random, I know), so we had enough time to eat breakfast before leaving.  Yes!  We got to the school and started setting up and then found out that the students were still in PE and their teacher had taken them to a field that was off campus.  We waited, and waited, and waited.  Some of the students started trickling in around 8:20 and my class was scheduled to end at 8:26am.  Needless to say, I didn't get to teach this morning, but Julie and I did have to sit and wait for 45 minutes in case the students did arrive.  Bummer!  Well, we have two more classes today which is 7A (they have two classes, split by a 45 minute break) and we are co-teaching these, so that should be fun.  I'm excited to teach with Julie because we have been working really well together. 

My empty class this morning :(