So for some reason this week, writing a blog entry is really difficult for me. It has a lot to do with how tired I am, how I feel that my time is no longer my own, and just the fact that there is so much that I have done in the past week or two weeks that I don't even know where to begin.
Like I said last time, the school year is in full effect. And with that comes weekly planning sessions with each of my counterpart teachers, re-doing class schedules over and over again, and my bi-yearly site visit by one of my bosses. But first, I attended a two-day training workshop here in Matagalpa given by a local chapter of "Junior Achievement." In fact it was an interesting workshop, but was a 6 week course condensed into 2 days, and in my opinion could have been better tailored to the needs of the teachers. But it was a start and thats what's most important right? It pretty much ate up my weekend, and Sunday's gym workout left me as a heap of a sweaty mess on the floor, so I don't feel like I really had much of a weekend. (But this is not my complaining, I love my work and am thankful that I get to be doing what I get to do, I only mention this because it is quite a change from just one month ago, when my time was MY time.)
Monday was my site visit, and it was great to get to spend time with my boss and go visit all of my counterparts and local bosses. I got a lot of great feedback, some areas where I can improve, and had a chance to really connect with my Peace Corps boss. I was glad to finally get to show her who I really am, and not the totally freaked out and messed up trainee that I was in training. I know we are both happy to see the real me again! Ha ha.
Classes have been going ok. It's hard to get students who have never met you excited about a class they have no experience with. But the good thing is one of my schools I worked with the students last year, so we are flying through the first classes, and having fun. It was nice too to see that the students and fellow teachers had noticed that I had lost some more weight too! One student even asked me why I was "more sexy" than last year. I quickly put the kabash on that talk, as I am his teacher, but secretly I thought it was VERY funny. As for the rest of my classes, since they have never met me before, I think they think I am just a strange gringa. I will work very hard to change that opinion!
Well that's it for the moment, I am sure you don't want details of how my planning sessions went... So keep making good choices and I love and miss you all!
Sounds like you'll be busy but I think that's a good thing. Your students are right, you are looking great! I know you've been doing some strenuous workouts at the gym, just hope you'll find time to keep it up with everything else going on this month. Good luck with it all!
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