Sunday, July 3, 2011

Settling in...or diving in!



You never quite remember how disorganized and last minute everything is here until you arrive. The meeting I was supposed to have at 4 on Friday...didn´t happen. I got my books in the office and the lady who was supposed to meet me showed up at 435 and told me I had students waiting for me. Might I note here that I was told that I would be starting yesterday (saturday) so that I had time to prepare class after the meeting on friday evening. So, lucky me, I had to walk into a class of 15 preteens and pull a class out of my butt. Luckily, since I thought I just had a short meeting I was not dressed formally at all, so the students didnt think I was their teacher, rather a random stranger pulled off the street to subsitute teach them. Great, right! Anyway, somehow I managed that and then came out to meet my boss she proceded to tell me that I had to give a speech the next day, or yesterday, for 20 minutes about the importance of American Independence Day. I said, you do realize I am British right, and therefore the ¨bad guy¨ in the war of Independence. She was like, basically they just want a white native speaker to talk about it. So I gave this speech in English to about 50 students with basic English so they didnt understand and it had to be translated into Spanish anyway...and they filmed me! Weird feeling. Anyway, I didnt appreciate having to spend Friday night after teaching preparing a powerpoint and speech about July 4th. AND, I didn´t have a chance to prepare for my 4 hour Saturday morning class with 20 lively teenagers. They were pretty good though, so it was ok. So, there I am at 1 after the presentation and my boss tells me she has a family emergency and has to travel to Chiclayo, and can I teach her class for her. Ok, mmm how long is it? Well, its 1245-630!! Wow! That is suchhh a long time to sit still. But I agreed because she gave me cash and I need to buy things like a bath towel which I didnt pack because it was too heavy. I was CURSING the decision to wear high heels to work by 630 believe me, because I was standing up and teaching from 8 in the morning until 630 with 1 hour of breaks but all broken up, in 2 of which I was still teaching because students came to me with questions about other random things they wanted to know in English or culturally. Actually, I am glad I took the afternoon class because it was not a regular cycled class from ICPNA. The students were all public school teachers, all at least 6 years older than me and the best thing about teachers? THEY ANSWER WHEN YOU ASK QUESTIONS!! They know what it is like to ask a question and have nobody volunteer an answer. Also, since they are English teachers, their English was quite good and I didnt have to try to speak slowly for them. They also had interesting input as to the topic, which was big business and corporations. Apparently this class is paid for by the mine, which I dont really get. One of the students travels from Bambamarca every week for her class, which is a 2.5 hour journey providing there are no hiccups en route. So, rather than being oozed slowly into work here I feel that I have dived in!
Apart from work, Cesar and I are busy trying to keep the apartment clean. Due to developments across the road we get a lot of dust come in, which is lovely.
Last night we went out for his friends birthday, and later met up with my collegues in this bar that used to be an artsy rock place, and is now full of teenagers (seriously, 13 yr olds) and pop tunes, which is a shame.
As for today, I am off to meet Cesar´s mum for lunch, and then we´ll see what happens later...
thanks for checking in! Hope you like the pics of our home! The stained glass roof doesn´t look too dirty there right! byeee!

3 comments:

  1. Aw Gem, I am glad that you have settled (or dived) right in! Your home looks beautiful. Bots is still great and I can't believe I'm coming home in a month and a half. O the people I am going to miss :(

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  2. i WANT ur apartment! Jealous of those windows! Do they often pull random strangers off the street to teach classes? lols.

    I wouldn't know enuf about the war of independence to teach it, so kudos on a better memory than mine (lols, like that shud b surprising :P)

    (btw, after a hectic and very sad week (c-section on one sow did her in and all but two of her piglets died, one crushed by his mom as she died @ about 3am and one died of scours), all remaining pigs and piglets are doing great. Looks like all of them might b breeder quality (means $500 bucks per 6-month old, though a couple runts might not make the grade).

    Hope u dont get buried in dust!

    <3

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  3. The stained glass windows look lovely but the green walls look like that green stuff you ate on the other posting!!!
    No wonder you have been sick!!!
    Take care and eat well!
    xxx

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