One Step Closer

The weeks just have a way of flying by. I remember waking up on Monday morning dreading the upcoming week and next thing I know it is Thursday night and I am basically done work wise. It was a very busy week and perhaps that is why it flew by. I even slept in two of these days and instead of waking up at 5am to go to the gym I slept late, ie 630. I remember rolling out of bed on Monday at 630 and my family thought I was sick. They kept asking what I was doing sleeping so so late and if I should go to the doctor. I still run into this dilemma every Sunday when I like to forget about the alarm clock and just rest. I think back to when I was in the states and my friends thought I was crazy for getting up at 8am. Look at me now 5am is the norm and anything past 6 is considered midday. It has been a little difficult getting used to but I guess it makes sense since I am usually in bed by 9pm.

Besides the new sleeping schedule it has just been an overall good week. I was expecting this week to be full of anxiety with our new professor, me teaching my last class, our youth group, and the dreaded placement interview. In fact, the big to do of the interview was perhaps the most miniscule part of my week. The interview was nothing too note worthy. I talked about my preferences and work style and basically got no hints about where I might be going. I am anxious but felt pretty calm all week. Perhaps the trigger that has made me nervous is that many of the directors are saying that my town is the most calm about this whole process.

I felt like this week I was back at home or maybe I felt like this is now my home. Who can tell, but anyways I felt comfortable and in a good routine. I continuing to stay busy with a gym routine and I am even making friends there. I have been hanging out with my little brother and I know it is rubbing off when I eagerly await the next episode of Ben 10 and hastely ask him for quick summaries of what I have missed. I hate to admit it but I love watching cartoons now and I was super excited when I got to watch the Naruto movie last night. To go along with my inner child I also hung out with one of the guys from the gym this week by going to a Nintendo or an arcade. It is pretty hilarious since it is basically someones house that they have gutted and retrofitted with about 30 tvs and videogames. Now I am used to xbox 360 and consider that a fairly old system. Well I got to play the newest and latest which was a PlayStation 2 and most people were still using Nintendo 64s and Game Cubes. I of course being a nerd found it hilarious but it was fun playing an archaic shooting game in the middle of Nicaragua.

On the work end of things I taught my final 5th grade class here in Masatepe. I had a blast and taught about ecosystems and the abiotic and biotic components. I have been slowly making my lessons more active and we played two games with my class of 45 students. They did great and I really got lucky with my group. I have observed some classes and heard about others where the kids are just animals and it is craziness. I started off on day one by kicking a kid out of my class and requiring they raise their hand. I think it really paid off because I never have to worry about discipline and the worst I have is an occasional shout of an answer. Also, I had my second and final youth group charla today about gender roles. It started off a little dissapointing when only 5 kids showed up, but they did great. We originally had a power group of 13 jovenes, but we noticed that some drama has been surrounding our meetings with boyfriends and girlfriends and today we only had 5. Yet, they did great and we actually had a lively conversation about what boys and girls are expected-able to do. I am not sure how much they will take away from it, but I know they at least had fun.

The final part of all of this is I am again thinking about what I want to do when I get back to the states. I have done some research already and I think I am going to tour the country. Basically I am piggybacking off Dans idea but it looks like too much fun to pass up. I found some old Honda Oddesseys or Volkswagen Microbuses for under 5000 dollars and now my hunt is to see if any of them are diesel. I dont know how practical it would be but I remember hearing about kits you can buy to transform diesel engines into engines that run off of vegetable oil. I think it would be fun to travel that way, possibly cheaper, and I wont feel like I am just burning gas. Since I only have limited internet time feel free to do this research for me.