My sickness is over so now I'm easing back into things and trying to get my energy and appetite back, which is not all that easy. Soup has been the easiest food to make myself eat more of and soaking it up with bread helps too. I can't believe I ate soup in the heat here. I almost took a picture of myself because it looked very similar to my post-work out face (red, sweat droplets), but didn't in the end because I didn't look too pretty haha But, sweating through those spoonfuls wasn't too bad. Food never tasted so good. It's funny when you haven't been eating much how different and delicious regular things taste.
So yesterday I ventured out and planned with the English teacher who teaches at the Seminary (and is part of the new drama, "stealing" English classes from another teacher at his school). We planned some things and he said we would teach 7:30-9:30pm, 1 1/2 hours. Hmm, that doesn't sound right. I said well 2 hours is a lot and he said, no only 1 1/2 hours, 7:30-9:30pm. You know those times when people make you question yourself and think you're crazy, this was one of those. I almost thought I was the crazy one, but then after I told him no that's two hours and he counted 7:30 to 8:30, then 8:30 to 9:30pm, he came to the realization that it was indeed two hours and that he actually meant to say 9pm. Ok, well I said that was still too late because I know we usually go after the set time and I don't like being out there that late and getting home so late. Gosh, can I say the word late anymore times here?! Well we agreed on 7:30-8:30pm and I thought to myself that we probably wouldn't get out of there until 9pm anyway, but at least it's not til 9pm and leaving by 9:30pm.
So I went to meet him at the school at 7pm so we could drive over to the seminary. I don't know why I got there so early because I knew that the guys would be eating dinner at 7pm, but he said that they can change the schedule around so class starts when we want it to start. Well, we got there a little after 7pm and dinner started late and we didn't start teaching until 8pm. Then the teacher decided that I was going to do everything and he got out his laptop to work on some things. Ugh. Frustrating since we "planned" to do specific things and he was supposed to be a part of it. And it's not like I could just walk out and leave since we're way out in the middle of nowhere. Ok, so I started a review and we had a pretty interesting class and then the teacher was about to start a new activity when I saw it was already 9pm so I said I had to leave. He told the students that I had to go, but he would continue their reading class. Hmm, ok so I had to ask about the priest giving me a ride home because that was the previous arrangement. Then he asked me why I wouldn't accept money for transportation. This was a little confusing. I think there was a little miscommunication, go figure. Apparently, he wants me to arrange my own transportation home and they will reimburse me. Hmm, ok. It's kinda hard to get a taxi to come all the way out there at 9pm on the really bad road in complete darkness--most of the road doesn't have any lights. They would definitely charge c$50 cordobas or more (the usually in town taxi price is c$10). Good thing this is only a once a month thing! They ended up taking me home and I was thankful to be back. I cleaned off my sandals on the porch as I had slid into a mud hole at the seminary since I couldn't see anything. At least I hope it was mud ;) Then I found out my host family was back from their ranch. Sorry host mom about the muddy mess on the porch! Oops!
I wasn't too excited to get to bed because I knew that I needed to go to the public school today which meant I needed to get up a little earlier. Blah. *not a morning person here* Oh well. I decided I would set my alarm for 6am, snooze a bit and get to school before 8am.
This morning came and I did exactly that. I gave myself a little pep talk about how my counterpart would be happy to see me and it would be good to be there so we can talk about the schedule for this semester, etc. Well, I walked up to what looked like an abandoned school. Since it's under construction, it looks pretty bad, but I knew something was up when I didn't hear or see any people. Since the construction, most classes are being held in the corridors, which means outside in the "fresh" air. I walked around toward the back and heard something from the teacher's lounge and I sorta regret going to the teacher's lounge. They were having a meeting and I sorta felt like I had to go in since I said hi and they saw me. I sat down and then felt that I had to stay for awhile since I was there and my chair wasn't near the door. Bummer. It turned out to be quite entertaining. Oh, and my counterpart wasn't even there. Seriously?! Well, they were talking about upcoming events, including Central America's Independence day, which is pretty big here and all the schools have band/dance team competitions that day. The holiday also is celebrated with a battle that took place the day before. This year those happen to fall on a Friday and Saturday, so naturally, they're taking off Friday, but also Monday and Tuesday to "observe" the holidays. I won't even go into how I feel about that. Anyway, they were talking about the band not having enough instruments and then about the dance team uniforms. This is where it got funny. Last year the uniforms were horrendous. They usually look pretty bad, but the instituto's were pretty darn ugly that they even changed part of it after the parade to not have it in the competition. One teacher made some comment regarding this saying that she imagined only the poor mothers of those girls would have said they looked pretty hahaha Other teachers commented and the director said they needed something different so that other people wouldn't make fun of them this year. It was kinda sad, but really, who approved of those outfits? They talked about using a more simple type of outfit with only a few colors. I liked where they were going so I nodded my head in agreement. We'll see if that really happens come September. Speaking of September, that's when the holidays are, but they're practicing things now and they do it during school time. This means lots of noise and no students in class. Well, they said very seriously that they were going to take attendance in the band & dance team practices because those kids won't really be in class for the next month. Oh ok, well at least you're taking attendance then. Really?! I don't even know how they don't understand why their students don't get good grades.
Let's put that aside and talk about something else that happened at the meeting, unrelated to the actual meeting itself. I received a text message from my Access counterpart telling me he was going to start the parent meeting. He had invited me to the meeting but told me it was on Tuesday and I wasn't able to go because I wasn't able to prepare anything from being sick. So, I texted him back that he told me it was Tuesday and today I was at the instituto. He just said "oh yeah I changed it". Oh ok, and how was I supposed to know this?? hahaha I'm actually glad he didn't tell me earlier because then I would have probably skipped out on the instituto and missed this very lively meeting. ;)
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