Labor Day, Ain't That the Truth

Fried
My brain is a little fried, so I'm not quite too sure where to start. Today was our first half day. Now some of you might be thinking, "Lucky", but that only rings true for the students. (Besides, you all got Labor Day off, while we actually labored.) Sure, I don't have to plan things for the second half of the day, but the rest of the day is spent in meetings. I only had two meetings today, but back to back they lasted around four hours. The first one, the three hour long one, was spent discussing philosophy, scope and sequence, unit plans, etc... for Language Arts K-12. Yep, we're starting with the big one. For accreditation we are focusing on developing curriculum guides and aligning them K-12 in each subject area. This semester the focus is on Language Arts and Bible. The elementary teachers (yeah, that includes me) looked over two different Bible curriculums, Desiring God and Positive Action, and voted to adopt/buy the Desiring God curriculums, minus the workbooks. Both curriculums had pros and cons, but I'm excited to use a curriculum I have already worked with and start adapting the lessons so they can stretch over a three day period.
Anyways, I am definitely feeling overwhelmed and unfit for the task ahead, but I also know the devil and his lies. Please pray that I would seek help and dive head long into this project ahead and not find alternate escape methods. I also just graded my class' first social studies test last night and while there are about a third in the A and B range, there are many that struggled, especially the english language learners. I am still trying to develop strategies to help them understand the content that's being taught. Math tests are coming up for 4th grade tomorrow and 3rd grade on Friday, so pray that my students would retain the knowledge they have hopefully gained from my teaching. Alright, enough about school, I just had to vent a little I think.
Coroico
Yeah, this wasn't last weekend, but the one before. It was beautiful! The sun didn't come out as much as we all hoped, but it didn't matter. Stronger bonds among the teachers were definitely formed. Here are some highlights:
1. Playing scum or P&A (yeah, nobody had heard of this name for the card game, so I got labeled as the rebellious one) the first night until 1 in the morning. Hey, that's late for me now. I tend to go to bed somewhere between 8:30 and 10 every school night.
2. Beginning a hike, called the Flat Trail, and having everybody except Deborah bail on it, because a. it wasn't flat , b. we kept taking wrong turns and weren't sure of the trail, and c. the others wanted to get back for lunch and the pool at the Hotel Esmerelda (the name fits well into the Eagles song). Deborah, who loves to rock climb and mountain bike and has taught for the past five years in China, and I had a great time conquering the "Not So Flat Trail" together, enjoying the amazing views of the mountainous jungle valleys, and chatting about eachother's past and our views about things. For example, she asked me if I had my eye on any of the single female teacher's my age. My response? People who know me well enough should know my answer. "I'm content being single. I'm not opposed to a relationship, but I'm not seeking one. As of right now, my eye is on having a great first year of teaching." She appreciated the response and proceeded to open up to me how it was for her to stay single. I'll leave her pearls of wisdom with me.
3. The pool. I finally got to swim a little and show off. :) You know, like my handstand trick to get out of the pool, turn and fall back in. I also enjoyed convincing Ashlyn, Whitney, and Kristen that I would not play "Open Book" unless they jumped in the pool. You all know me, I would have played regardless, but they didn't know and therefore jumped.
4. Bonding with the other teachers over games of "Open Book" and the Spelling Game (as I will call it). "Open Book" was all about answering truthfully any hard-hitting questions someone had to ask you. Each person had their turn in the hot seat. We got to know eachother pretty well.
There's the highlights. It was very relaxing. I didn't do any school work, a much needed break. Of course, I just had a ton to do when I got back. :)

Last Weekend
Friday night was spent watching the Bourne Supremacy and Bourne Ultimatum (great movies) at Kristen, Ashlyn, and Whitney's place with Scott and Alison. I got home at 2 and then got up at 9, so I could go for my run with Jason, our principal. He ran a marathon before coming to Bolivia last year, but he didn't run much last year, so after our run, he wasn't in that much better shape than I was. Our plan is to start off running twice a week (it's probably more like jogging for right now :) ) So our next day to run is tomorrow after school. It's a good stress reliever and fog clearer. The rest of the day was spent talking with the family and doing some planning, topping it off with a night of Bamboozle, spoons, golf, and euchre. Yeah, the last three are kinds of card games. Euchre was by far my favorite, mainly because Alison and I won. Sunday was spent like this: After church and lunch at a Beatles themed chicken wings place, many of the teachers went up to school to help Kristen and Ashlyn put their rooms back in order after getting their new flooring in their rooms. I was due to get my floor done next weekend. Lo and behold, we get to school and Ashlyn's room is done, but Kristen's concrete floor was apparently not set enough to lay down the new floor, so the workers had taken out all my desks and bookshelves and done my floor. They'll apparently do Kristen's next week. So I had lots of fun putting everything back not only into their rooms, but mine as well.
After our laboring we went part way back home to a good climbing rock that Jason and I had found during our run. Deborah had brought her climbing gear and many of us, including me, got a chance to rock climb. The route that was set was around a level 7 (European standard), or 10 (American standard). Deborah climbed up and she said it was one of the toughest climbs she had ever done, and guess who got to go up next? Yeah, my first time ever on a very, very difficulty level of climbing. I made it to the third clip which was about as high as eveyone else got that went after me. But I had lots of fun and can't wait to climb again. My forearms were killing me. I came down and couldn't open up my hands for awhile since they had locked in the grab position.

Yeah, I know. My update is long. I am trying to find adequate time to get work done, teach, do the fun things, and fill in everybody on how all that is going. A quick blurb about my family. Yeah, they're still awesome. Alberto, Charo is in the U.S. with her oldest daughter who just had triplets, still continues to get up when I do at 5 in the morning and get breakfast ready. I have even had the opportunity to babysit Daniel, Kindergarten at Highlands, and help him out with his homework. He learned that tijeras are called scissors, and vice versa for me. My Spanish recognition is improving, but my responses are coming along much slower. Spanish lessons are helping, but I'm still not close to being conversational, although I understand much more just due to daily routines.

Plans for next weekend
As far as I know, my stay home sister's boyfriend works for Youth for Christ and is organizing a Bolivian dodgeball tournament for this weekend. Many of the high schoolers and teachers from Highlands will be participating including myself. It should be a blast. Other than another run with Jason and a Skype conversation sometime on Saturday with anyone who is on, that's about all I know.

I hope y'all (Whitney and John are rubbing off on me a little) are doing well back home. I miss you all, but at the same time am not anxious to go back yet. Teaching may be tough, but I love my kids and Bolivia and am not ready to leave yet, not even close.

Dios le bendiga todos. Ciao.