What’s going on? Not a whole lot.

This week has been  pretty uneventful, yet exhausting.  I think it’s all the rain.  It’s got me tired and lazy.  Unmotivated, that’s for sure.  Monday & Tuesday we didn’t have classes because of the anniversary stuff, as mentioned in my last blog.  Wednesday I went to the Embassy English class and helped out with that—that always is the highlight of my day because the students are more motivated and there’s one student in particular that always tries to use English whenever he can.  I love it!  Even if he’s not exact correct in what he’s saying, I am amazed at his courage.  He always sits up front near my desk and he chats with me during “down time”.  He actually called me out in class while I was teaching.  So, I was practicing numbers with the students, dictating numbers between 20 and 100 and they had to write them down.  After I had said about 8 numbers, I asked them to repeat them back to me and I wrote them on the board to make sure they had the numbers written correctly (in word form).  Well, as I was writing them, this student asked me why the students don’t go up to the board to practice the writing and pronunciation instead of me writing them. CALLED OUT! Ha!  I wasn’t hurt; I was impressed.  From that comment, I can tell he really wants to learn.  To be funny though, after he said that I said ok and pointed the marker to him and the students chuckled as his plan sort of backfired.  He really wasn’t embarrassed or anything and went up to the board to continue the lesson.  I’m glad for students like this one.  I’m so use to practically dragging students to the board in my instituto, but these ones actually volunteer. Awesome!

So, I went to school one day this week.  Thursday I went to Managua for a dental appt because one of my molars felt very sharp and I wanted them to check it.  Since our 1 year medical exams are coming up soon, they let me get my teeth cleaned while I was there.  Wahoo!  I was actually really excited about this because dental health is very important to me and I was scared from eating all this oily, sugary, starchy food that my teeth were doomed.  Fortunately, they’re just fine.  The dentist called me chiquita linda (rough translation: pretty little one) and told me she loved me teeth :D  Great news! 

After the long day’s journey to Managua and back, I was soooo tired!  I even got in bed before 9pm!  I haven’t gone to bed that early since training when we had 6 hours of Spanish class every day…talk about exhausting!  

Today I had to go to the school, but not for classes.  This Friday, like every last Friday of every month, is the teacher training/planning.  It’s usually a waste of time (the teachers share my opinion) and unfortunately, it’s just another day where students don’t get to learn :( 

The rest of today was fairly boring.  I had some plans to go out with a friend and then have dinner at somebody’s house, but the rain kept everyone in their homes.  This gave me a good excuse to complete some work for Peace Corps that I had been avoiding…was I really that bored? Ahh!  I also moved all of my laundry inside my room from outside because with all this rain, nothing was drying and it was actually starting to smell bad. Yuck!  Well, I guess I’m gonna go distract myself with yet another lazy activity now…catch ya on the flipside!

This is a mapping activity I did with the Embassy English class last Friday.  We were practicing giving/following directions.  I made a big map on the floor and students worked with partners to make directions and then they had to practice on the map.  They liked it and it went well :)

One of the street "blocks"

Writing out directions with partners

One student following directions from her partner

Traveling on the map

Here's my laundry in my room--I hung up some rope to make lines

I had to use some chairs too...