Mi primer día

So today was my first day teaching in Serra de Outes. I am exhuasted (I forgot just how much little kids resemble the energizer bunny), but I had such a great day!

I am teaching at an infantry school, meaning children between the ages of 3-12. Such a wide range, but I loved all of the children. Especially the 3 and 9 year olds. They were SO adorable. I have been in contact with my supervisor ever since I received my region assignment and was told to be at school at 10 a.m. Yesterday, I went to the bus station to look at the horario (time schedule) and was horrified to find that the first bus to LEAVE Santiago was at 10 a.m. After a mini heart attack, I called Carla and broke the news to her. I feared that she would be upset with me, but to my surprise she said, “no te preocupes!” (don’t worry! Arrive when you can) *insert huge sigh of relief here*

Serra de Outes is about 20-30 minutes away from Santiago by car, which isn’t bad at all. However, by bus…. It’s an hour away. Needless to say I was an hour late (I thought I would try running on Spanish time to really establish that first impression), but everyone was really understanding. Upon arriving at the school, I was introduced to the faculty and got a quick little tour. I showed my first set of fourth graders a PowerPoint I had put together. A few things I noticed:

1. They thought Seattle was absolutely beautiful and asked why they didn’t live there (too cute!)
2. They were amazed by my “mascota” aka dog – Kobe
3. I have never seen so much booger eating going on at one time in my life
4. Two hour lunches are crazy. I’m still trying to decide whether I like them or not. I think I’m leaning a little more towards the dislike side – I don’t know what to do with myself!

It’s a bit of a challenge, but Carla has asked me to pretend like I don’t speak or understand Spanish. By doing so, this helps reinforce the use of Spanish. The other staff members were really kind and were all excited to practice English :p I think they expected to me to have 0 knowledge of castellano and asked if I preferred English or Spanish – and I told them I would like to practice my Gallego with them 🙂