Day at the house

2-11-10

Today has been a pretty laid back day. I woke up around 6:45 but decided to go back to sleep until 7:15. Breakfast this morning was plantains and tamales with cream. They were pretty tasty, and this was my first Salvadoran tamale so that made it extra delicious. Around 8:15 I said goodbye to Sandy since she was leaving to go back to the states. She and Kathy took off for the airport. The rest of my morning was spent checking email, updating my blog, and preparing a little for teaching. I will be teaching my first classes on Monday. From what I know now I will be at the local boy’s school teaching 2nd - 7th grade. I’m not completely sure what classes will be like: how many kids in each class, how long the classes are, how much English they know, etc. So the first day or two may be more of assessing what they know and what methods will work best for teaching them English. We shall see. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know.

Lunch today was a tortilla and soup with rice, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, and guisquil (a vegetable). Lots of food pieces and little broth- just the way I like it. This afternoon I read a little bit and worked on my Spanish. There are some points when I think I’m doing really well and I’m excited about the progress I’m making, and then at other times I feel like I’m way behind and there’s no way I’ll be able to get better. I’m just trying not to get too frustrated with myself, because once I start down that path I can spiral out of control pretty fast. If only there were some way to just inject the Spanish language into my brain. That would be great. Of course, it would also defeat the purpose of learning and struggling toward a goal. So for now I’ll keep working at it.

Dinner tonight was delicious. We had pupusas and papaya. I ate with Kathy and Chon, a visitor from Spain. She told us about the places she visited today and where we were going tomorrow. She told me that if I didn’t understand what she was saying that I should ask her repeat what she said or ask her to speak slower. I also tried a new fruit after dinner called marañon. It is similar to the fruit that grows under the cashew nut, but we were told it’s different. It kind of tasted like peach and pear with the texture of a not quite ripe pear. It has a seed in the middle.

I decided to shower tonight since we’re leaving early tomorrow morning. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to dumping cold water on myself at night as a way of showering, mainly because it’s cooler here at night and the water is pretty cold. But at least I have water to shower with, and it’s clean water. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I notice the outside of my lips are turning blue because I’m so cold.