Colegio Ingles

Well, I woke up this morning feeling a little bummed out. I guess it's because I'm hitting that point where I wonder what I'm doing here and why I've chosen to be a teacher for another year.

But, after teaching a few periods and talking with one of my co-workers for a bit, I feel much better. I guess what has gotten me down the most is the fact that I've felt slightly ill in the mornings, kind of like having a small cold. It's really starting to bother me.

I hope it goes away.

The kids are pretty good, on average. I think the story that I am reading with them is too difficult for some. But it will be over soon. We are going to do mind mirrors! yay!

Well, hopefull I will love this job soon. It reallys is much better than Lehman, and I do much less work. I guess, however, work is work. I think I tricked myself into believing that this school year wouldn't be work at all.

I am not stressed at all, at least. I think I do expect perfection, which I shouldn't. Oh crazy me.

Tomorrow is the first day of school!

Well, I've been going to the gym and swimming and taking an aerobics class and playing tennis too. Dang...some might call me white, especially now that I work at a private school.

Tomorrow is the first day of classes. :( BOOOOOOOOOO

I guess it will be pretty good. At least I have textbooks and workbooks to work with. I still get the freedom to teach how I want and cover what I want, so I don't feel too trapped under a curriculum.

The roommate and I had people over last night for a discada (where many different types are thrown on this disk and mixed together and cooked over a fire....kind of like a cook out but slightly different. Then, you put the meat in a taco and eat it. It was nice to gather all of the people together and get to see them in a different environment.

Tomorrow is not a normal school day however.......There are many meetings and I'm not sure which students I will see.

One thing that does suck is that all of the kids have two first names and two last names...that really sucks when I put them in my excel spreadsheet program...........tooooo many names to type.

The roommate has finally moved in!

Well, my new roommate is from Tennessee, is 24, AND is gay! Menos mal. He worked here last year. That's good to know because he's even more obviously gay than I am....so it seems that I won't have to worry about this Catholic school after all. I was slightly concerned since it is a Catholic school..........well I guess you can imagine.



The other good thing about this is now I can share a cab with someone when I want to go out instead of taking the bus (which I already don't love to do). The bus always gets really crowded. To get off of the bus, you just stand in the back door and either scream "BAJA" or you loudly tap twice right above the back door. Then, the bus driver stops immediately on whichever corner he happens to be at. I guess this is convenient in the sense that you don't have to wait for any predetermined bus stops! The same goes for getting on--you just wave the driver down and he normally will stop anyway to let you on...and that doesn't really mean that he will completely stop --ROLLING STOPS. I almost fell out of the bus trying to get on yesterday. Well, it wasn't so dramatic, but it did feel like I was going to for a split second.



Wow, after writing this, it looks like I'm glad I have a roommate only because I want to ride the bus less!





In another note, the school is absolutely beautiful and huge. It seems very organized. However, I get a sense that the children will be about the same as they were in NYC, except that unlike NYC, they won't be able to curse at me! SO I guess that's not so bad.





Hasta la proxima.

Yikes--Scary Cops

So, last night I went to a club here and it was pretty funny. There was a stripper show, but here, the strippers aren't allowed to show anything. I guess, then, that they were only go-go dancers.

I sat at a table and about five minutes later a guy came up to me to tell me that his friend thought I was cute. I told him to send his friend over. We talked for a while. This kid is only 18 years old. His friends were only 21. I feel so old. LO BUENO is that they guessed that I was 20. I did shave and I do look younger.

We danced for a while. I hadn't danced that much in a long time.

When I left, the taxi driver didn't know how to get to my house, so they offered to drive me home.

During the drive, we were pulled over by the cops. We all had to get out while they searched the car. Then, they let us go, but the driver had to give them a bribe. According to the guys that I was with, the police do this regularly during the weekend when there aren't many cars on the road so they can make extra money from the bribes.

As if that weren't enough, we were pulled over five minutes later by more cops. However, this time the guy told him that he had just been pulled over, so they let us go.

VERY STRANGE. Yikes. I'm only taking taxis if I'm out at night from now on.

Photos of my house from the inside!

Extremely large living room kitchen

My bedroom

This is part of the kitchen with the pantry on the right. The pantry is huge. We have every appliance that you could want....except a dish washer. I've never had one. I guess I never will.

This is about half of the patio as seen from my room (on the second floor).

These are the shelves as seen from my walk in closet.

This is my walk-in closet. You can't see the sheves on the right side.

This is my private bathroom. There are 5 bathrooms in the house, however. WOOT.

more later.