The Adventures of Me: And Finally, We're Caught Up!

First day of school!

I showed up in the morning, not sure exactly what I was supposed to do, somehow thinking there was an exercise video we were supposed to all follow and move along with. Turned out I was the exercise videos, and it’s amazing how little you can think of when that happens. We ended up playing an aborted form of Simon says, stretching and counting to ten, playing follow the leader, and doing a little jumpstick. Since they were between the ages of 2 and 6, I had to moderate the spinning – I didn’t really want to make kids puke on my first day.

Harris has asked Renee to come with me tomorrow morning and show me the ropes, which I think means that my sweaty (it was hot, and I became like a shower of grossness) screaming (they were excited about jumping and being silly) fiasco was perhaps not exactly what he had intended.

I then spent the rest of the day stalking Renee. It was awesome. I feel a lot more confident about teaching these classes now; they seem complicated on paper, but in actuality should be just fine once I get into the swing of things.

The kids are super cute. I work with ages 3 – 9, with a few older kids to come, and they are all pretty funny and sweet. I think my favorite class is the 6 year olds – just old enough to talk fairly well, but young enough to be pretty silly still.

The lizard that lived on Harris’s window sill is still there. I’m thinking it’s territorial?

Alison took me to get rid of the garbage today, and apparently garbage time is social time for those of us in these wonderful brick buildings. We met a nice man named Mr. Who, who apparently was taught English by a girl who works with us but is not currently in town, Tiffany. You separate out recycling, trash, and food waste; the former goes out on Wednesday and Saturday, and the latter two are every day except Sunday with the food going to feed pigs.

Other Things of Possible Interest:

- I randomly pointed and bought tea today. Apparently, it had butter and milk in it. Tasted fine, though!

- I went for my first scooter ride today, hanging on to poor Alison for dear life. Since I’d met her like 12 hours earlier, this was relatively awkward. The scooter ride itself was fun, and not too terrifying until we came to the scary merging traffic circle, where I just barely resisted the urge to close my eyes and bang my helmet into her shoulder until it was all over.

- Found out it hasn’t been as hot as I thought. My AC tells me the temperature inside the room in Celsius, and I had been rounding up… a lot. I keep telling myself it’s the humidity – I am NOT a sissy! Really!

- We have cockroaches here. I have not yet met any. Apparently, they get up to 2 inches in length… and fly. I hate bugs that fly – all of a sudden they have a whole 3D space to work with, and I think that really gives them the advantage in any dispute.

- The toilets at the school are TINY so the Kindergarten kids can use them… and they’re almost impossible to sit on. I felt like Alice in wonderland, and nearly brained myself cuz I didn’t realize how far down they were. The mirror at the sink doesn’t show anything higher than my navel.

…omg. I am a GIANT to these people!

Random Photos!