Things have been super busy.
Yesterday I went to see my new apartment! It looks pretty awesome, for Guatemalan standards. I'm excited! Moving in this weekend. And someone is already throwing us a house warming party...literally the day we move in. Pictures to follow!
And walking home in the rain I was spoken to in English by a Guatemalan male stranger and for the first time it was a phrase other than "I love you", "you so beautiful", or "wow" etc. It was actually "I'm sorry. Take care" when he realized he was blocking my way in the rain. Progress in restoring my opinion of the male population here. Well, until 10 minutes later down the road when I was called after by another group of males with yet again more cheesy english pick up lines.
Still getting used to my new class... my class from last year still gives me lots of love which is nice. New class and I had a bonding moment today. It was "choose a book" read-aloud day and the kid whose turn it was is the kid who tries to speak spanish at school whenever he can even though its a rule not to. So of course he picks the book that is Spanish/English that a teacher from last year passed on to me. And they all beg me to read it in Spanish. They think it is wildly entertaining for the English speaking teachers to speak in spanish when technically everything is supposed to be in English. Apparently I was feeling generous today because I agreed to read some pages in English and some in Spanish. And it is kind of intimidating to speak Spanish in front of native spanish speakers, especially when they are your students, for some reason. But I did it. And they all giggled hysterically, and not because I was making mistakes (because I asked if I was and they said no), but just because they find it so entertaining. One of the boys, who is quite a character just kept saying, "I can't stop smiling! I just can't stop smiling!
And then it was funny because I would say "Oh boy, I don't know that word" when I came to unfamiliar words and they would all just yell, "Try it! Just try your best! Sound it out!!" As entertaining as the whole experience was, it was also a lesson learned. It is easy to forget sometimes just how much having English as their second language affects things for them. But I can relate with Spanish being my second language.
Here's an actual picture of me with my class! I had no idea it was being taken, although aparently the rest of the class did. We were really just taking a bathroom break, but since I don't have many pics from school, I thought I'd share!
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