The English Show

Everyone who knows me knows how much I love musicals and live theatre. If I had my dream life, I would spend it behind the scenes and in the audience of Broadway musicals. In the past, the closest I got was being involved with the annual LP Christmas Production and The Festival of Talent, and attending as much theatre as I could in LA and New York. That of course, was until I decided to move to Colombia. Well, I must have a really nice guardian angel because one of the first duties I was charged with at La Enseñanza was to help with the English Show.

School resumed July 13 and the English Show was July 30. The title of the show was The Musical. At first I was worried about the lack of time, but there was a really good script written by two 10th (11th in the US) graders, and all of the actors were given their lines to memorize before semester break. Since I neither had to write a script nor choreograph any dances, I was more than excited to help. (Not that I didn’t love writing (or revising) the scripts for the Christmas play and choreographing with Gina.) Beginning the 15th, we held practice Monday-Thursday after school until 4:30ish. I was the only teacher to attend all of the rehearsals. I think some of the teachers thought I did it to look good to Ana Elisa or because I had nothing else to do. Although the latter is somewhat true, I attended rehearsal every day because I loved it. It was so fun to hear the girls speak English and improve their pronunciation a little every day. I actually got to act as the diction coach. The only word I was not completely successful with was cheated. Who knew that would be the most difficult English word in the play? We spent quite a bit of time practicing that word since several of the actors had it in their lines. It would not have been such a big deal, but it often sounded like the girls were saying the ch like an sh and the ea like a short i. Put those together with a ted at the end and listen to what happens. See why I was worried? Rehearsal was quite an interesting process because the actors were never all there until the week of the show. One of the girls was even out of the country until last week. Another girl was in a tennis tournament the first several days of rehearsal. A third girl was out for four days with a liver infection. On Monday of last week, I wasn’t sure there would actually be a show. On Wednesday, there were still scripts in hand during rehearsal and we hadn’t gotten through the entire play yet. The following pictures are evidence not only of a show, but of a terrific show. It was awesome! The girls all did a fabulous job. I was so proud, and there was only one girl who pronounced cheated wrong.

As with all productions, there were a couple small hiccups. For some reason, the microphones that had worked perfectly all week didn’t always want to work. The girls, however, did a great job seamlessly transitioning to another mic that worked. Secondly, in one of the ninth grade dances one of the girls had a Cindy Brady moment. All week whenever the ninth graders rehearsed Crazy in Love, it was perfect. The choreography is great and the girls danced it so well. Friday, however, halfway through the dance, the girl who dances front-and-center completely forgot the dance. The girls behind her tried to keep going, but she just stood there so they tried to play it off. It was soooooo sad. Fortunately, next Tuesday night the girls will put on the show again. Friday, the show was only for the students and teachers, but the next show is for family and friends. Last night I told Juana Maria, Ana Rosa, and Auxilia that they need to come to the show. I tried to explain that I would reserve them seats in the front row if they come. I am hoping they come because I can’t think of a better motivator to do well than three white-habited nuns sitting in the front row.

Introducing...El Colegio de la Compania de Maria "La Ensenanza"

No, I did not photoshop any of these pictures. The school where I am teaching is really as beautiful as it looks. The first two pictures are of the main entrance where teachers (who don't live at the convent) and students enter and exit. The wooden door opens to a small foyer. There is another door at the end of the foyer manned (womaned?) daily by a woman and a security guard. Parents drop off their children at the front door. If parents arrive a few minutes early to pick up their children, they may hang out in the waiting room which is through the wooden door and to the left, but they may not through the guarded door without permission. No unwanted person gets in or out of the school. It's really quite awesome. The next few outside pictures are of the campus, which is enormous. The campus of the school and convent is a city block, and there are approximately 1,000 girls from preschool-high school who attend the school.

All of the classes I teach are on the third floor. Since I have gotten no real exercise since I got here, I am pretending that walking up to the third floor 3-4 times a day is going to keep me in shape. I also keep intending to do sit-ups in my bedroom, but I can't seem to remember to do them at night. I am obviously not going to do them in the morning because all of the teachers have to be at a meeting every morning at 6:30 a.m. (Hopefully Debbie V. doesn't read this and get any ideas.) Since I live at the convent, I leave at 6:29 every morning and I haven't yet been late to a meeting. (Please, no gasps of shock from anyone about my being on time every day. Since I am not driving to work, I don't have to deal with bad drivers who insist on keeping me from getting to work on time. Yes, I am aware that I am blaming other people for my being perpetually late to things in the US. For some reason, it seems easier to get to things on time here. Maybe it's because so many things are so close together.) Classes then begin at 6:45. On many mornings the students take exams from 6:45-7:30ish. Rather than using class time to take tests, the year is set up with pre-scheduled exams for each of the subjects a certain number of times a quarter. It's a concept I'd never heard of, but I think I like it. I need to find out a little more about it. When exams are not being administered, students have homeroom time from 6:45-7:20. First period begins at 7:20 (and 7:30ish on exam days). Just like LP, there are eight periods a day (those 8 periods don't include the exam/homeroom time). There are two 30-minute breaks during the day, and classes are dismissed at 2:45. The day works well and the girls seem to like it. I like that there are only two periods after lunch. Since lunch is from 12:45-1:15, there is only time for 7th and 8th period after lunch.









The first picture in this next group is of a cute little open room not too far from the entrance to the convent. There is a statue of Mary and Jesus and a boat made out of styrofoam (yes, the boat is painted styrofoam) that used to have a net coming from it and cute little Nemo fish. The school's theme for the year is Cast Your Nets and the boat is just one way they have illustrated their theme. The next picture is the salon de las columnas (I think I got that right) and it has Auxilia admiring the backdrop for the English Show. On the right-hand side of the picture, there is a gray door (mostly hidden by a column) that is the entrance to the convent. The other pictures are of some of the school's long corridors.







Moving outside, the first picture is of the seniors' wall. Every year the seniors are given part of an outside wall to paint so their legacy will never die. Since last week was the bicentennial of Colombia, the girls chose to paint about it. As with many (most? all?) of my pictures, they do not do the wall justice. The other pictures just show some of the play and eating areas.







The last pictures are of the cutest preschool I have ever seen. There is a special small door from the playground to the preschool (not the only door to the preschool, of course) with a little playhouse inside. There is then a long sidewalk with numbers in English and Spanish and fun play-stations along the left-hand side of the path. All along the wall of the play-stations are the letters of the alphabet, each with a painting that illustrates the letter. At the end of the path is a large playground area with equipment and painted game-boards on the ground. If I were a little kid, I would want to live there. If things don't work out in the convent, I might just be living there :P.