I haven't mentioned my night classes so I figured now was as good a time as ever. I've cut down my classes to just three days a week. I have a group class Tuesday and Thursday, and then an individual class on Wednesday. My group class is made up of three people from last semester and two new ones. At first I was a little hesitant with a large group because many times the levels don't match up, but I love this class. We've actually been having some pretty awesome classes these past few weeks. I introduced them to an edited version of the "Never Have I Ever..." game. We were practicing the present perfect and past simple so it worked in quite well. They got a huge kick out of it and we spent a great deal of time laughing at each other from some of their crazy things. Most recently I started the 20 questions games with them and its caused some arguments. I told them can fight all they want as long as they do it in English! My individual class is with a fifty-something year old man who just had his first child at the beginning of the month. He hasn't been getting much sleep but still manages to come to class all energized. We are supposed to do grammatical stuff but he just loves to talk. Usually I get him started on one topic and we spend the rest of the class just talking about it. Recently, I learned that he's nervous that his son his going to turn out like him as a child because he was a little trouble maker. Him and his twin were known throughout their village for causing trouble. His stories are great and its nice to get paid to just sit, listen, and laugh at great tales. I'm really enjoying this semester at Mosaic a lot more because I actually like my students and I'm not as overworked.
Now, about my dear little school in the vast desert land of Rivas. On the way into school on Wednesday one of the teachers asked us if we were sad. She said some other words as well but since her English is terrible Steve and I decided to ignore her. (This sounds harsh but we have some issues with her, not to mention the next day she tried to correct our pronunciation on 'Hasta Luego' which is another story within itself) Anyways, upon entering school we noticed that most of the children were wearing black. I fortunately hadn't done laundry in about 3 weeks so I was wearing nice dress pants and a black sweater, so I fit right in. Upon investigation we learned that the giant paper sardine in the front lobby that the children had decorated would be burned right after lunch. So many things go through your head when you're told that there would be sardine sacrifice to symbolize the end of Carnaval. Where am? Who possibly came up with this idea? You're joking, right? But no, this was reality. This is my reality, I work at a school that has bonfires after lunch.
I'm veering, as promised we were led out to the sandpit playground on the side of the patio along with all 752 children. Everyone waited patiently until we heard it, the sound of the drums. The crowd looks in the direction of the main doors as 8 sixth graders carry the doomed sardine out on handles. Following them are four of our teachers playing the death march by saxophones and drums. If you still remember who I am and how I react to ridiculousness like this, please applaud me for keeping my composure. I fought back laughter during the whole procession because I feel it would have been inappropriate. Just when I thought the seriousness from the musical number was going to do me in, the students put the sardine on the skewer to be burnt. Goyo, being ever so handy, lit the poor 15 foot paper fish and there it went. Flames devouring ever last part from head to tail. After about five minutes of bonfire glory the children chanted to extinguish the flames. So let's see, how can we keep this in true Spanish fashion? Oh yes, use an extinguisher that once sprayed is taken by the wind and blown in the face of all the six year olds sitting down wind. I had to hear for the next couple of days that my students were not fine, they were feeling quite sick because if I had seen correctly they were the ones whose faces filled with hazardous smoke. How dramatic. How Spanish. How I love my life.
(for the record, if you doubt any of my stories from Rivas I have many available references.)
Oh, and the other exciting activity for the day? If you remember a few weeks back I had to show my 6 years olds about Valentines day and all its glory. Well in class I like to color with them and made my own picture. On Wednesday I finally finished the picture during my free time before lunch and decided how fitting the picture really was for the English room. I proceeded to assign us all characters that fit our personalities in one way or another. The end result? The picture is now online and the original copy is laminated for all to see.
Negative: Grocery shopping at Carrefour on a Saturday morning, it makes you hate people. Positive: Going out for sushi with everybody at school on Friday.
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