One Full Week of Teaching Down… A Lot More To Go.

Here are some highlights from the first week of school:

-Getting life advice from a 7th grade boy, "Don't get married until you are 28."

-The morning view from the school:

-Having two senior boys share ONE piece of prize candy. The winning boy had made a pact with his friend that if either of them won they would share the prize even though they did not know what it was. Sure enough, the winner took a bite of half of the chocolate and gave the other half to his friend. But the first boy's bit took the hazelnut that was in the middle. This caused a whole class (all four students) uproar! "You don't take a Venezuelan's nut!" Noted.

-Being called Miss. It's similar to in Florida where everyone said ma'am.

-My new "gym"… many of the parks here have body weight exercise equipment aka adult playgrounds.

-Salads that don't actually have lettuce in them.

-Arepitas (like mini corn dogs without the dog):

-Getting my second pedicure of my life and accidentally way over tipping.

-Stealing some of the street vines and replanting them in my window planter. I hope they take off, they're a pretty green and purple.

-Sunset views from my living room:

Now for some not-so highlights from the week:

-Finding out how LOW my students are in math. It's a school-wide phenomenon and I cannot pinpoint why.

-Spending my whole local pay-check in one stop at the grocery store.

-Nothing is priced at the grocery store and if it is then it's most likely not the current price.

-Getting into a closed line at the grocery store and not realizing until the cashier said something and I had already put all of my groceries up. (Luckily she was nice enough to ring me out still AND the baggers even used my reusable bags!)

-Grocery shopping in general is pretty much the worst thing I have to do here. I never minded it back in the States, but I DREAD it here.

-Being woken up by the worst sound you've ever heard in your life! These ugly turkey birds screech starting around 5 am. I told myself if I saw one I would kill it that's how awful the sound is. Well I saw one when I was walking down the street; luckily for him I did not have a gun. It is as ugly looking as it sounds. It is called a Guacharaca after the horrible sound it makes.

-Not being able to go places and explore by myself. Luckily I've had a lot of work to keep me busy, but I don't like staying around the apartment so much.


After a full week of school, I was exhausted and fell asleep at 9 pm on Friday night. I'm expecting everything will get easier as the weeks go on.