feet and first grade

Notice: for your convenience, I will first write the normal, newsy post, and then at the end summarize in one sentence per item, so if you are short on time, just scroll down.

Well, there’s news! I am going to be the first grade teacher! You may ask, but aren’t you teaching PK 4? Yes, I am, but they desperately need a 1st grade teacher, so they asked if I would consider it. And I’m fine with it. It’s a shorter day (ends at 4 instead of 5ish), one group of kids (instead of two), and multiple subjects. I’m hoping they will be able to understand me better and obey more. I’m not holding my breath.

The weather these past two weeks has been cooler than the first week that I got here. Maybe it’s cooling down! I still sweat when I walk into town (probably TMI), but it’s not so bad anymore. Brooke (upstairs, 2nd grade teacher) says it gets REALLY cold here in the winter; because it gets down to the 50s and there’s no heat. I’m pretty excited, especially since at home we know how cold it gets!!

I think in order to refer to certain people, I’m going to need to take pictures of the main people I encounter and post them here. I will do my best, but we all know how successful I am at getting those up right when I want to.

I bought some claves concretas (concrete nails) so that I can hang some things on my wall AND hopefully a mosquito net! I need someone tall to put the nail in on my ceiling. I’m slowly but surely organizing things! I don’t know if I mentioned this, but prior to my departure I had shipped a vast amount of my shoes here. When they arrived on Tuesday I realized how silly and futile it was to send most of them. I sent quite a few pairs of heels from the last year working in an office setting. I do not think they would do so well on our gravel roads.

I usually wear a pair of “house slippers” (in reality they are fake crocs that I got in China for like a dollar, basically just rubbery/plastic material) inside because the floors get dirty very easily. Last night I just wore my socks around and immediately noticed that my feet hurt even more. I’m sitting down as much as possible now; I had trouble falling sleep last night because my legs were hurting so much.

Blog Abridged:
-I’m switching from PK 4 to 1st grade cause they need a teacher.
-The weather’s gotten cooler
-I plan to take some pictures of the other teachers so you know who I’m referring to.
-I bought some nails to hang things, hopefully a mosquito net.
-I sent myself a lot of my heels from home and that was silly.
-my feet and my legs hurt in a major way.

Food!

I just successfully made guacamole, balsamic vinegrette dressing, and quesadillas. On a gas stove. I invited my PK 4 aide over for dinner, and she and i plus cecelia had a lively conversation in spanish, with cecelia doing some translating.

As a quick aside, I've had a few comments about the warm milk. let me explain. It's not warm; they just don't refrigerate it in the stores. I personally put mine in the fridge right away so that it's cold.

Pray for my feet. I didn't realize the benefits of carpet on podiatry until now. Walking around on concrete and tile literally makes my feet utterly ache.

Pictures from the beach trip!

Day 15

People (Ok, just my MOM) have been asking for a translation of Candy's Noah story. I didn't bother because I knew it wouldn't make sense, but when it's your mom, what are you gonna do? Here it goes:

Noah was in the boat because, besides, the water was falling because they couldn't go outside because after the animals would get wet. And after, they couldn't leave [the boat] And later all the animals left and also Noah and his family.

I had Gracie and Jasmine over for lunch today (Kraft macaroni and cheese - a step up from college because it was NOT Easy Mac!) and we had a good time. They were excited to see my house. I was excited that they speak English.

ALSO best part of the day - I got MAIL!!!! The two packages I sent my self (I have hangers and shoes now - thank the Lord!!), as well as a package from my mom, AND letters from some of you!!! I haven't opened them yet because I want to prolong the happiness. :) I'm VERY happy because my dad sent a wireless router which means we don't have to connect to the one upstairs!! FIVE BARS!!! Also, I got cereal, hand sanitizer, spices, hand soap, AND a crossword puzzle. :) I love my parents!!

Pictures I hope to upload after I've cleaned off all of this stuff: beach and AM PK4.

a quick update...

I am ready to fall asleep, but some fun recent things:

Tonight I had dinner with a wonderful Dominican family who is part of the JCS school board. They have a daughter my age who speaks fluent English and we had a wonderful time talking. It was great to spend some time with a family.

I just need to comment on some of the glories of nature here. I have seen geckos and lizards crawling all over the place, I watched a crab scurry across the sand, I held a live starfish in my hands from the Carib Sea, and there's a dead moth being consumed by ants on our floor.

Tomorrow I am having two of my (english speaking) AM preschoolers over for lunch. They are two of my favorites; I'm pretty excited!

I really will put pictures up soon!

SOSUA!

What a glorious day. Yesterday we met at 7 am, brought a cooler and some drinking water and took a taxi van down to the beach. If you've never swam in the Caribbean, I highly encourage you to do so. The water was clear, turquoise, and warm. And cleaner than Waikiki beach. Hearing the ever cautioning voice of reason of my mother in my head, I dutifully applied SPF 50 to my arms, face, and shoulders, which proved to be wise. That sun was HOT in the afternoon! I kept moving my chair to stay in the shade.

The trip down was just as interesting. Absolutely beautiful countryside, but it has little collections of little houses of the poor. They use that corregated tin on their roofs.

My skin is covered in bites. I don't know what's in my sheets, but i'm spraying them with bug spray tonight and installing a mosquito net on Monday.

The cutest video ever

The story of Noah, according to Candy

My house!!

This is the outside of where I live! I couldn't back up anymore because there's a wall for another house across the road, so you might say my back was up against a wall. Ba-dum ching! Anyway, I live on the first floor (through the gate - the door is kind of hidden here by an orange pillar) with Cecelia (school psychologist, Colombian, good cook, fluent in Spanish) and the 3rd Natalie (dubbed Natalia, because I am Nat and the other gets Natalie). Alicia (PK 3 teacher), Holly (HS English, Texan) and Brooke (2nd grade) live above us. That is their porch you see.