Public Transportation v. Lara.......PT - 2

I need to type quickly, because again I have procrastinated. I have "A Dios Le Pido" in my head. Yay Juanes

This morning started off(7:45)really relaxed. I made myself some coffee, then settled down to type my lesson plans. When Maria Laura returned, she brought me some yummy fresh bread from across the street. We chatted for a bit - which it's good that she's talking with me now. I think she gets tired of having to speak slow though.

Headed to school, where we discussed how to deal with problems in the classroom, as well as how to balance teaching with being authoritarian. Ugh. I was cringing the whole time; I have a problem being the "tough guy", as experiences have shown. One plus of teaching adults on Thurs. is that they want to be there!

SRA WILSON shoutout!! So as 3 days have passed, I have constantly thought of her in class as we discuss various methods. And when I think about how I will teach, I hope to emulate her. Today, we were discussing grammar, and he was asking if we liked grammar rules when learning new languages. I said, "YEA!" and he was like, huh? And I explained how Sra. Wilson made it catchy. For ex. SER/ESTAR. we learned COP (characteristic, origin, profession) for ser, and HELPP (health, emotion, location, and present progressive) for estar. That trick still gets me through my conversations! Not to mention the irregular commands to the bell tune. Yes, her enthusiasm lives on.

Right before breaking for lunch, we had to prepare an outline of how we would present the "present simple" to a class. You think it's simple, then you try to do it and you're like, uhhhhh. Grammar lessons are hard to effectively present.

Haha, lunch story is good. Angie (Pennsylvanian college student) and I couldn't find the restaurant we were looking for, so we ducked into one. Turns out it was fairly nice. She was brave and ordered the hamburguesas (in France I thought I ordered one and got grossness). I ordered the "torta del dia", because when I had Maria Laura's torta (como quiche) I really liked it. Pues, I'm convinced that TORTA DEL DIA = leftovers from last night. It was a HUGE serving of chicken, squash? and some other sketch additions that I decided to just suck it up and eat. My second bite produced a bone half the length of my finger. My fifth bite the same. After that, I steered away from the chicken. We didn't order any drinks b/c we can get them for free at the center, but the camerero had mercy on us and brought us some water (sin gas!) for free. I had a bite of Angie's hamburgers, and they were AMAZING! We could've just split one plate. As it was $5 for lunch wasn't bad; my helping was enormous. Haha, when we went to leave, we asked for a to-go box. He seriously laughed at us and said they didn't have them. Well, I was fine with leaving my concoction, but Angie's burger and fries were seriously good! ..........So with as much class as possible, we wrapped them in a napkin and walked out laughing. We felt so sketchy; it was hilarious! Oh, and then we almost got clipped on the corner by a car. They're so freakin' fast!

Back at the Center, we received feedback on our lessons. With a little tweaking, including writing my intro phar. with the Simpsons as the theme, mine passed muster in terms of overall idea. Then we left, and Angie and I went to the Disco. Aka the grocery store. I wanted bread and some kind of addition to make sandwiches during lunch, but alas, nothing struck me. I did get some knock-off brand of Nutella, some granolas, some little breads that I had with coffee at a cafe, some yogurt, and two HUGE bottles of water. One for the house, one for school. Also ran into Rebe there, which was amusing. P.S. To use a credit card, you ALWAYS have to show your i.d.

So I'm walking back, which my house is 5 minutes away. And I'm still at the stage of taking in my surroundings. Especially the people. I've decided that if I look really weird, I'll have a better chance of fitting in. Oh, and I need to go back to brown hair...darker than normal actually. But anywho, I digress, just like this, I'm following people onto the main crowded street of Santa Fe. Then the guy in front of me STARTS. RUNNING.

I look to my left, and see a MASSIVE TWOSTORY BUS gunning right for me. I DIDNT KNOW I COULD RUN THAT FAST WITH A BACKPACK. My heart was in my throat. Apparently the ppl started walking without the go sign, and I was just going with the flow. The public transportation is the dangerous part of Argentina, verdad.


Came back around 5, fully prepared to knock out my lesson plans. Pues, I started talking to Lulu about her day, etc. Her English is MUCH better than my Spanish...and she's 8! Then Martin came by, and I swear he's my twin! We started chatting about various cosas; I got in a good hour and a half practicing Spanish while talking about politics, differences between U.S./Argentina, life goals, music etc. When he said, I'm a citizen of the world (in Spanish, claro), I freaked, because I've definitely written that on a few applications. Haha, of course, every other sentence almost tied to New York. We were talking about music. He brought up a Puerto Rican artist, which I then found out the guy sings about New York and it all made sense. He knows I like country, and all of a sudden he was singing songs from "O Brother Where Art Thou"....aka his perception of country. Slash apparently George Clooney is very popular. I just died laughing because he was singing "Man of Constant Sorrow", "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby", etc. Oh man, it was great!

Then Lulu came by, and I practiced my weather lesson on her, trying to succintly describe various weather conditions without any Spanish. She was a great sport. Then we had dinner, which we all ate together around 9:15! It was some mix of meats and vegetables on top of rice. I had another experience of biting down on something unedible, and I quietly snuck it into my napkin. Dinner was tiring because Maria Laura and Martin were talking at full speed, and I could barely keep up. The hour was mainly spent with me zoning in and out of the discussion. It's exhausting.

Now, I am going to stay off the Internet and finish my lesson plan. I teach from 6-7 tomorrow...wish me luck!

Besos!!