School Begins...

Last Tuesday was Colombia's Bicentennial so there was no school. Woohoo! School began Tuesday, July 13 and as of today I have taught nine days. As excited as I was about teaching geometry, it didn't happen because the day before school began one of the English teachers said she had to be gone for 15 days. I am, therefore, covering her classes while she is gone. The girls are friendly, cute, and very talkative. I am sure I will love them, but right now I am working on setting ground rules for the classes. I told the girls on Friday that the only way I can teach them English is if we are on the same team. I wrote some rules on the board that they have mostly followed, but we'll see how the rest of this week goes. At some point I'll have some pictures of the students, but I think it's a little early to be snapping pictures and putting them on my blog. The girls have learned a great deal of English up to this point, but most of them are terrified to speak it. I think my job here (once I am not subbing for someone else) is to help the girls gain confidence in speaking. It seems I will be working with all the students from 6th-12th grade one-two times a week.

The students are currently preparing for the English Show. It is a musical written by a couple 11th grade girls, and it is very good. It's a combination of High School Musical, Mean Girls, and Glee. The show is July 30, and some of the girls are still working on memorizing their lines. Since their lines are all in English and they speak Spanish, I figure it's understandable that they don't know every line. Once they know their lines, we will definitely be working on pronunciation. When they speak their lines, they speak rapidly to attempt to sound American, but I have a difficult time understanding them. I keep telling them to slow down, but I think maybe working on their diction will help more. The girls from 7th-12th (6th-11th here) are involved, with each grade doing a dance (although only a few girls from each grade are dancing) and all of the main characters singing. I will be taking many pictures on performance day.




One Friday of the first week of school, Alexandra (one of the English teachers) had her birthday. A group of us went out with her after school to celebrate. The pictures show the celebrants who happen to also be fellow teachers. Alexandra is the one in the center of the picture of three without me. Jenny is to the left of her and Virna is to the right. The picture of the three people with me in it has Kelly and Virna, as well. I have written about Kelly and Virna before. They are the two English teachers who have really worked hard to make me feel welcome. I am just getting to know Alexandra, but she seems extremely sweet and kind. The third picture is of Kelly alone. (She is interested in meeting an American man, so I told her I would put her picture on my blog. Please let me know if you are interested in meeting Kelly.) We ate a restaurant with many names - Papa Loca/Hot - America's Favorite Pizza/El Torito/and another name I can't remember. The girls called it Papa Loca, so I figure that is the most important part of the name. Since it was called Papa Loca, I decided to get a potato. I ordered the same thing as Kelly because she said it was good, and it was. Here was the problem: The potato itself was huge and it was filled massive amounts of butter and cheese. Ooops! I ate much of the potato, but not much of the cheese. Although it was yummy going down, I had a huge stomachache all night.







I know I've posted some pictures of the convent, but I took some pictures of the chapel that is connected to the convent a couple of days ago that hint at how beautiful the chapel really is. The chapel is shaped like a cross, and at the intersection of the two parts, the are amazing stained-glass windows depicting the life of St. Jeanne. Hopefully that is somewhat clear from the pictures. The middle and high schoolers had mass in there the day after independence day and it was beautiful.

Speaking of independence day, it was a great day. After watching the Colombian Military Parade during the morning for almost three hours, Ana Elisa asked me if I wanted to join her at a desfile at 3:00. I didn't know what a desfile was, but I figured it would be nice to leave the house and escape from watching the military parade. Looking back, I am so mad at myself for forgetting to take my camera with me, but I didn't really understand where I was going. I should know to always take my camera when I leave the convent. As I now know, a desfile is a parade. We watched a wonderful 30-45 minute parade with dancing groups, schools, scout troops, etc. It was sweet and simple and I have no pictures of it. After the parade Ana Elisa and I decided we wanted some ice cream (yes, I know ice cream doesn't really work for me, but I figured I'd get a fruit sorbet). We went to one of her favorite places called Crepes and Waffles. I decided to order a Nutella and banana crepe, my favorite, and Ana Elisa ordered a forest berries crepe with vanilla ice cream. Mine was delicious, but Ana Elisa hated hers because it was warm. I guess she had never had a crepe before and it was too much for her that everything was warm. She didn't understand how ice cream could be warm. For the next three days she talked about her disappointment with the warm ice cream. It was actually funny to hear her obsess about ice cream. On day four, Gustavo brought cold ice cream. She has been fine ever since.




I need to take some pictures of the curbs here because many of them are really high. People have been telling me they have to be high because when it rains there are arroyos. My understanding of the word arroyo was clearly incorrect. I didn't see what the big deal was...until yesterday. I had seen a clip on the news of an arroyo knocking down an abandoned house and it was pretty scary, but I hadn't experienced one first-hand. Yesterday I was at Virna and Jose's house eating lunch when an arroyo came rushing down their street. I took these pictures just outside Virna's front door. As with most pictures, they don't really show how powerfully the water was rushing down the street. It was a sight to behold, and now I understand why people talk a great deal about the arroyos.

A last little story. Please stop reading if you are offended by politically incorrect comments by 84-year-old Colombian nuns. One day I was sitting in the kitchen working on something for school and Juana Maria walked in. She looked at me and said to Ana Rosa, "Trabajando como una negra." I don't speak a lot of Spanish, but I am pretty sure I understood completely. I burst out laughing and so did Ana Rosa. It was hilarious, but wrong. I am sure I should have chastised her for her racist remark, but all I could do was laugh.