My Birthday!!!!

I knew it had been a while since I posted, but I didn't realize it had been almost a month. My, how time flies!!! A month ago today I celebrated my birthday on a silent retreat. It was a different birthday than I'd had before, but it was an adventure non-the-less.














The weekend before my birthday, though, I had some students take me to dinner for my birthday. The dinner was yummy and the girls were hilarious. They insisted on taking pictures of everything and every moment. They told the retaurant it was my birthday, and then they took pictures of my dessert, my candle, me blowing out the candle, ice cream on my nose, me eating my dessert, etc. It was quite funny.














And then the day before my birthday, Kelly and Lina (the 7th grade English teacher) took me to lunch and to the Museo Romantico. The museum is totally kitschy. It has displays with mannequins wearing the dresses of the carnaval queens, memorabilia from days of old in Barranquilla, old cameras and a printing press, and even a mannequin wearing the dress of a famous poet. I really liked it even though it was not what I would normally call a museum. It was also fun to spend the afternoon with Kelly and Lina.

As most people know, I have never been on a silent retreat. Most people proably also know me well enough to know a silent retreat and I probably wouldn't get along too well. That's what I thought, too...but I actually enjoyed it. It could have been because it wasn't all that silent. We had a great deal of silent time to meditate and reflect, but we also had plenty of time to talk, laugh, and explore. I also found time to swim in the Caribbean Sea three times. I've probably said this before, but the water temperature here is delicious. I love it. On the last morning, a group of 12 of us went swimming at 5:30 in the morning. It was so much fun.






Now to the pictures...The women in the pictures at the beach are all English teachers. The one "posing" is Kelly Torres (yes, Kelly #3 who teaches 1st-3rd English). The others are Lucia (10th & 11th grade English), Nohora (1st-3rd English), and Maria Claudia (Preschool & 2nd grade English). They have all been so wonderful to me. The final picture in the bedroom has me (looking like I am asleep or dead) with some elementary school teachers I didn't know prior to the retreat. The one my right is Rossana (3rd grade teacher), on my left is Luciana (Preschool teacher), and in the corner is Nacha. Luciana speaks some English, but the others don't, so it was fun talking to them and mutually laughing at each others' bad use of a foreign language. I felt like the retreat was a great experience not because of the hours I spent meditating, but because of the time I spent getting to know some people I didn't know before.

English Day for grades Pre-5

I really, really like the English program of the primary school here. The teachers are creative, energetic, and prepared. The students seem to be thriving under their tutelage. As much as I am not an primary school teacher, I love the time I spend with the little ones. The fact that they love me doesn't hurt, either. One of the things the primary English teachers do is plan and execute an English day every couple of months. On English day, the students perform for the other students. The English day we just had was really fun.






Each 5th grade class prepared a news report about the weather in different parts of the world during different seasons. Each location had a reporter who talked to the girls about what they were wearing and what kinds of activities they do during the season. The girls spoke loudly and clearly about their topic.




Each 4th grade class decided to focus on Justin Beiber. They began by singing one of his songs and then they pulled out posters they had made that told all about his life. After explaining about his life, they sang another one of his songs and even had choreographed moves. It was cute (and funny, although it wasn't supposed to be).





Each 3rd grade class prepared poems, with different girls reciting the poems. Some of the 3rd graders have shockingly good prononciation.



Each second grade class prepared a couple nursery rhymes.


Each first grade class prepared a couple poems with moves.





Each kindergarten class acted out a couple nursery rhymes, and each pre-kinder class sang a couple short songs.


It was all very cute and all in English. I had the students do some chants with me at end since there was a little time left. We did Chiquita Bananas Unite, Boa Constrictor, and Ooka Cha Cha. I was extremely hot and sweaty when it was over (not that anyone needed to know that).