not even kind of in the swing of things yet...

so it´s the 4th day of school, and things are going slowly. not necessarily in a bad way, just in a literal way. i have made sooo many attempts at lining kids up, having them try again, and then repeatedly telling at them to do what i ask them to, while all the time wondering if they even understand me in the first place. it´s so hard to know where to start, and not only because they are recent kindergarten graduates and not used to real school. from what i can gather, they understand english actually fairly well. most of them, that is. and then there are a few who give me blank stares on a regular basis, and i just don´t know what they know. i wish they didn`t know that i knew spanish, becuase that would force them to use what little english they had. because the problem is that they cannot speak in english. they´ll generally ask me something in spanish (which is actually helpful as i know what they´re looking for) but then i demand 'english please!' with a smile. then they either walk away (i pull them back, don`t worry) or say something like 'water?' which i suppose is a start. it`s so interesting, though, and i`m learning a ton of new things. should i decide to continue teaching 1st grade next year, i´m relatively certain that it´ll be far easier the 2nd time around. i´m having fun with the kids... they`re absolutely adorable.

i´ll post pictures (and update more!) when my harddrive gets here from the states. i haven`t had such good luck with technology so far! this`ll change, i`m hoping, and then i can be more consistent and more organized. :) i`d better go plan... my kids are almost done with spanish class!

first day of first grade!

today was the first day of first grade! it was fun at first... then just long. time might have even stood still; i'm not sure. but my first graders are adorable. some of them are 5 (wayyyyyyy too young) but most are about the right age. and their english is actually pretty good. i was talking with the other first grade teachers, and they were saying that they were absolutely shocked at the kids' awful spanish. but i suggested that it probably had a lot to do with expectations. i wasn't expecting much at all. i all but assumed i'd be talking at a brick wall all day. but i think they actually understood what i was saying... most of the time. they're really cute.

speaking of cute, i was able to see a considerable amount of fun and confusion surrounding 'diepenhorst.' good times for hondurans. we played a name game today in which i asked students to say their own names and the names of others. i think that almost all could say something resembling 'diepenhorst.' they're too cute. i'll post pictures soon. which brings me to my next point.

my computer crashed. my second day here in teguc, it kicked the bucket. a man who works at international school is thankfully apple certified and he has been super helpful with trying to figure out the problem. he found that the harddrive is toasted. sooooo that's not good. and today he told me that i lost absolutely all of my files. i'm trying not to think about what that means; i can't get it back anyway. people have been very nice lending me their computers, but i need mine up and running stat.

on another note, i went on a tour through the city with a couple of guys from school and a honduran. we rode in the back of his pickup truck right as there was somewhat of a riot unfolding downtown. it wasn't scary at all, just interesting. there were many cars and trucks that were pro-mel weaving through the traffic, horns honking all the way. they were so loud and passionate and so intent on closing down the city. yet they weren't malicious in any way and were very respectful of the other drivers and people around. strange sight. it was the first and only evidence of a coup that i've seen so far.

don't really have anything life-shattering planned for this weekend; just a lot of lesson planning! it was nice to have students today (only pre-k, 1st grade, and 6th grade did) so that i'll have an idea of what i'm planning before i start with an entire week's plans.

in honduras!

I made it to Honduras! It's been great so far! We got here yesterday afternoon and found a house far nicer than I thought. I have 3 roommates who are all fabulous. La Chinita is a 4-bedroom house, each with its own bathroom connected. There's an outside courtyard, big living room, walk-in pantry, and large dining room. We inherited all sorts of things from old teachers that made shopping very easy. I feel very fortunate to live here, as it feels rather homey already.

The big news of the day came on our way to church this morning. Amid more introductions (there are about 30 teachers, and I think I'm finally almost done meeting them all), someone said, "oh YOU'RE the new 1st grade teacher!" followed by "has anyone told you that you start school earlier than the rest of the school?" No, they hadn't. So now I'm psyching up for the first day of school in 4 days, while most other teachers are getting ready for a relaxing weekend. (Kidding. Most have their open houses on Saturday.) This way, I'll have the whole weekend to think about what happened and how I can get ready for a busy first full week.

Tomorrow we're headed back to the school. I haven't seen my classroom or been in the elementary school yet, so I'm hoping there'll be time to get my classroom ready very early this week so that I"m ready for the open house on Thursday and my first day Friday!

ready for takeoff?

Alright, I'm going to try this again. An attempt to start a blog earlier this month was foiled by my creation of a password that was impossible to remember. So for those of you who may have found my first blog, I will be using this blog instead.

So, with Honduras about 10 days away, I have very mixed emotions. I think that I decided today, though, that the strongest of these emotions is excitement. I'm excited to go, start teaching, meet my first graders, get to know other teachers, talk in Spanish, eat rice and beans, and live in a place where there is never any snow.

As of now, I haven't packed a thing, unless you count a couple of boxes that I shipped out about a month ago. But there are many things still on the dining room table that will be used in my classroom, and I haven't spent any considerable amount of time thinking about clothes that I'll wear. I also have a lengthy reading list that I'd love to make it through. Basically, there's a lot that has to happen in the next 10 days, including goodbyes to friends and family. It'll get done. I'm not worried about it. :)