I've gotten a total of 3.5 hours of teaching in, and man, some days I feel REALLY bad for the students that we “practice” teach on. For the most part, I think that the students like me just fine. They laugh at me a lot because of course I am constantly making a fool of myself, but I like to believe that they are LEARNING as well. One of my students, Henrry (yes, to r's), seems to have really taken a liking to me. He is somewhere around 40 years old (he refuses to tell me his age), and he is SUPER tall, and SUPER gangly – something very rare in Ecuador. He is about as hippie as they come. He has dread locks and a straggly beard, is constantly talking about the environment, and wore the same shirt for 4 of the 5 days that I saw him this week.
Henrry is FUNNY. For example. On Friday, the instructor that I was observing (when I'm not teaching, I'm observing and learning), had the students stand around in a circle. The lesson had been on request/favors, so he had the students stand in this circle, and they had to go around asking each other “ridiculous favors” and come up with “crazy excuses”. In addition, they weren't allowed to smile. The instructor is... a character. But hey, I got a good laugh out of it. The students were all asking favors like “Would you mind if I borrowed your elephant?” or “Could you lend me 1 million dollars?” When it got to Henrry, he thought about it for a minute, and then he goes, “Would you ehhhh-please, ehhhhhh- shave... me?” The other observers and I just about fell out of our seats laughing at him. What a guy.
The reason that I think Henrry has taken a special liking to me is because on Wednesday, he came into the class, and handed me a piece of paper. The day before, one of their class activities was to write a poem using some target vocabulary. Henrry had gone home after class and written me a poem:
“Beatyful red bird Teacher”
Allmost every day, when I weak up
Allmost allways late. I or we can see,
some times trough to the window
or some times closer a particuler
voluntier working.
I or We can see a cheerful and fun
hard working voluntier in our or their
community ecologic and small gardin.
It's wonderful. I or we don't know
if he knows that he is a confident
teacher for me or us.
Some times I feel than you are
that beauty red bird teaching me or us.
I feel realy good when you have a fun
teaching me or us.
Am I a good teacher? I'll let you be the judge...
In other news, the persian blinds in my room broke. My host sister, God only knows WHAT she was trying to do, over-pulled the string of something, and they wouldn't close. Now, there are three windows in my tiny room. Two small ones, and one large one that takes up an entire wall (a couple feet longer than a twin bed, to give you an idea). One of the small ones broke, which you would think is no big deal. Until I tell you that right outside every single one of my windows is a garage light. With the blinds open at night, I don't need my bedroom light on. So now, one is broken. They cover it up with a WHITE SHEET. Yes. THAT will solve the problem.
The next day, I came home from school, and ALL of the blinds were down in my room. My host mom decided to get them all repaired. So, they put up blankets to cover my windows. WHITE SHEETS. Are you kidding me? It was literally like sleeping with my bedroom light on. I am not exaggerating. Yes, I took sleeping pills. No, I'm not addicted to them, but Jesus, I can't sleep in these conditions! Thank GOD when I got home from school on Thursday the new blinds were up. Thursday night it was so dark in the room I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. They're getting the job done. And now I go into some sort of coma when I sleep, because my room is so dark. Or maybe I just can't tell if my eyes are closed? It's weird.
My host mom must be doing well in her pastry shop, because also on Thursday, we got a new car. YAY! Now I have a seat belt. Good thing I have a seat belt too, because we're leaving the plastic on the seats to “keep the car newer, longer”. If I wasn't buckled in, I would seriously go sliding from one side of the back seat to the other. Oh, and this car has air conditioning too, which is ALWAYS blasting, no matter what the temperature. Apparently, it's one of those give and take situations – I gave up being a comfortable temperature while riding in the car, and now I'm going to get hypothermia. But hey, at least I'll be buckled. That's another thing with having this new car. Apparently, we are invincible. Let's just say that if I know we're going somewhere in the car, I MAKE myself go to the bathroom first, otherwise I'd pee my pants because I'm so scared. Although, it wouldn't REALLY matter: the seats ARE covered in plastic.
Next week I'll start sending my resume to schools in Quito (ranging from English institutes, to Universities, to high schools) and looking at an apartment to live in. I'm going to live with a girl named Kristin, who is also in my program. She's the same age as me, and we get along well, so I don't think it will be a problem. Except that she really likes to dance? And well, we've seen how well dancing goes for me. Great. Looks like also next week I'll be looking for a place to take dancing lessons. Maybe I should trade one of my students: dancing for English. Probably not though – they already laugh at me enough.
Until next time,
The Beatyful red bird Teacher
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