"by December"

Happy 4th of July to all! I am wearing my t-shirt with fireworks on it today in honor of the holiday (Thanks Kathy and 5th grade). I said the following to two of the sisters this morning and either I made no sense because of my Spanish or I made no sense because of my accent. Either way, they looked at me with question marks on their faces. Here's what I said: "Feliz dia de las independences de los Estados Unidos." Was I close? Of course I said it extremely slowly and I am sure with incorrect accentuation, but I thought it made sense.

If I understood her Spanish correctly, and we know how unlikely that is, today Sr. Ana Elisa said I would be speaking Spanish "by December." I guess that's better than taking four years of Spanish in high school and not speaking it. I wish I had a videotape to record the faces of the older sisters as they laugh at my Spanish. I haven't yet broached the subject of taking their pictures to put on my blog, but I will. Next week Srs. Cecilia, Elvira, and Kathy are coming to Barranquilla, so I will take many pictures of them with the sisters who live here. That might seem more natural than just asking to take their picture.

By the way, thank you to those of you who commented on my last post in Spanish. I was able to understand much of what you wrote. (Was it cheating to use my dictionary to help me understand?) I will definitely be repeating Raechel's as I have already been asked several times if I sing. I guess everyone here loves to sing, and when I answer that I do not sing, people are shocked. I am sure you already guessed that my answering that I do not sing is with a simple, "No." We are all using a great deal of body language to communicate.

Last night I went to dinner with Srs. Ana Elisa and Maria Victoria. They are both in their 60s, and they are both extremely nice. We went to a pizzeria and Ana Elisa ordered a pizza tropical. At the time I was very impressed with myself for understanding "pizza tropical," but when it came I was very surprised. It had cheese (of course), pina (pineapple), cerezas (marischino(sp)cherries), and ciruela pasa (I didn't know at the time what this was, and I probably would not have eaten it had I known it was prune). She gave me a piece to try and it was actually quite good. By the way, all the of the fruits were cooked on the pizza, which must be why I liked the prune :).


Once we got home from dinner, I went to my room to read and a HUGE moth flew into my room. I tried to get it out, but it flew to my screen window and would not leave. I didn't sleep very well because every hour or so it would try to fly out the window and it would make a great deal of noise. Because I was half asleep, the noise would make me think it was headed for my head. It was still on my screen this morning so I took a picture. The picture does not give perspective to the size of the bug, so you'll have to use your imagination. I kept my bedroom door open hoping it would fly out, but it just sat contentedly on my screen. After lunch I showed it to Sr. Ana Elisa who said she hates bugs, so she called sister Ana Rosa (the cutest little nun in the world) to come deal with it. Ana Rosa came with a broom and tried to smash it. That didn't work, so Ana Elisa brought her bug spray and sprayed it. That also didn't work because Ana Elisa was too afraid to get close enough for the spray to do any good. Every time the moth moved, she would jump and squeal (another thing I wish I had on tape). Finally, Ana Rosa was able to get the moth off the screen and out of my room. I was so tempted to take a picture of Ana Rosa, in her white habit, hitting a moth on my screen. I think it's still a little early to take those liberties.


After we took care of the moth, the sky opened and we had a wonderful rain storm. I put my desk chair outside my door and read while watching the rain fall. I am sure my pictures do not capture how hard the rain was falling, but you can actually see the rain drops.

On Thursday and Friday I spent part of the day with two of the English teachers named Virna and Kelly (There are actually 3 English teachers named Kelly - who knew it was such a popular name in Colombia?). Unfortunately, Ana Elisa told me today that she found out yesterday that Virna has taken a job with the government and will not be teaching at the school. What?!?!?! Today, Ana Elisa and I interviewed a woman to take Virna's position. Ana Elisa wanted me there so I could report on her English skills. I was actually very impressed with her English, but I guess there is a second part of the interview in which the woman has to actually teach an English lesson in front of me and two of the other English teachers. Thank you Sr. Charlotte for not making me do that before you hired me.

Oh, I almost forgot what is probably the most exciting piece of news. I am going to teach math! The geometry teacher had an operation a few days ago and she will be recuperating for the first couple of weeks of the second semester, so I will be teaching her geometry classes. Everyone is worried about the students because they already don't understand geometry in Spanish, so in English they will die. As long as we do not have to do formal proofs, I don't think it will be a problem. As my former students know, I love geometry. I hope I love it in Spanish.

I guess it's back to studying Spanish for me. December will come sooner than I think, and I want Sr. Ana Elisa to be correct about my speaking Spanish.

Love to all!