Between planning, grading, spirit week, buying a car, preparing to teach a Teaching ESL class and some fun and travel in between, I haven’t had time to post in a while. And I still don’t now! But if you’re interested in seeing what my fourth and fifth grade classes have been up to, check them out below!
I’ve always lived near the coast. Ever since I was little, I’ve felt a strong connection to the ocean; I never felt more peaceful than when I was at the beach. If I was sad or angry, the ocean calmed my nerves. When I got older and hangovers became a part of my life, the rhythm of the waves mixed with laying in the sun was the cure of all cures. I’ve always thought I was a dolphin in my past life and some of the most spiritual moments I’ve ever had have come to me on the beach or in the ocean. When I moved to San Diego, I had the hardest time reassociating myself to know that the water would be on my left when I was facing north. But at least I had the ocean. It cost me roughly $200 per month more to have it closeby, but I had to live within a block from the beach. I didn’t move to San Diego to live further than that from the water, after all.
When I first was researching Santa Lucia, the town appeared to be right on the coast. I was so pumped- it was a sign that I was meant to be here. When I found out that I in fact would be about an hour’s driving distance away from the beach, I honestly considered not coming. That would hands-down be the furthest away I had ever lived from water.
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The first week of school is through and I’m already in love with my students. Now in the States, a statement like that would be deemed completely inappropriate to say. Teachers are warned against showing any signs of affection for fear of a lawsuit or scandal. We’ve resulted to giving high fives or even ‘hand hugs’ to our students in order to protect ourselves.
On my first day of school in Guatemala, I found myself quickly leaning backwards as many of my students bent in to kiss me on the cheek as we first met. The act was so counterintuitive to everything that I’ve been warned against in my training and experience as a teacher. Yet there was something so endearing about the small daily gesture from each of my students- so much so that after only one week with these kiddos, I know all 54 of their names and I feel pretty darn attached to them already.
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A lot has happened in the past week and a half, including moving in to our own place and gearing up for the start of the school year. I’ll be sure to describe our new home, lifestyle and school life in a later post. I’ve been meaning to recount our trip to Lake Atitlan two weekends ago to go along with the pictures I have posted, so here it goes.
To start out, I need to say that when I first started looking into coming to Guatemala, all anyone wanted to tell me about was how beautiful Lake Atitlan was. Knowing this, you can gauge my expectations of the place. Let me just say that our trip far exceeded those already high expectations.
Read moreMas photos de Lake Atitlan
Once we finally made it to our own party, we were able to get to know the rest of the CAS faculty a little bit better. All different types of faculty and staff came- young and old teachers, primary through high school, IT staff, secretaries, administrators and even some cafeteria and janitorial staff, I think. We were able to find out which coworkers spoke some English and which ones were able to suffer through our considerably broken Spanish (which I must say improves immensely after a few glasses of local rum). The food was delicious- an array of homemade black bean dips, queso dip, tortillas, chicken, shrimp and fruits and vegetables. My lasagna was a bit late making it to the party; we couldn’t put it in the oven until we got home and the dial on the oven does not resemble at all our oven dials in the states, making it difficult to choose how to set it. When it did finally make it to the table, the Guatemalans tore into it. They were apparently pretty fond of it; there was none left out of an enormous pan and an 50-year old man professed his love to me after eating it. Maybe a few of us could open an Italian restaurant here and make a pretty decent living.
The rest of the night included a piñata beating (and stabbing, thanks to Oregon Sean) as well as lots of dancing. The salsa and the tango were two popular dances although I couldn’t help but bring the ‘shopping cart’ and ‘running man’ into the mix. The night ended with an epic cake fight started by LA Maricela but escalated into a full on food fight at the hands of our assistant director, Claudia. The house was a mess, much to the dismay of the maid the next morning, but a good time was most definitely had by all. Worried that things had maybe gotten too out of hand, we apologized to our director (whose house this was, mind you) who then thanked us for bringing fun, excitement and unity to a campus that had long lacked all three.
I’m finding that things are much more lighthearted and laid-back in this central American country. I think I might just stay a while.
