The good.

It's time to ignore the bad and the ugly. Tis time to pull me head outta me arse and focus on the good for a change! I've been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately which means that, statistically speaking, I'm right on track! When people move away from home and the life that they know, there is a lull a couple of months in. This is the point where you call home in tears, question what the heck you were thinking and consider hopping on the next plane back to the land of the familiar. Done, done and done (thinking about, not actually doing). Now here I am cresting over the hill and awaiting the joyous carefree ride ahead.

I spent all but half of a day last week in bed because I was sick. After that nice rejuvinating experience, I came back to school on Monday with a new attitude. I needed a break from the school for a little while so it turns out the nasty sickness inducing metro germs were actually a bit of a blessing. On a side note, people totally sneeze into their hands and then put them right back on the handrails. Gross! Not only do they leave germs, they leave physical smears of saliva! Back to the topic at hand...

Here are some positives from this week:

• Our bilingual program staff meeting, although only a couple minutes long, was in English! It's like they're starting to consider the fact that we're actually people AND a part of the department. Cool!
• Without wearing makeup or even brushing my hair, I had 3 students compliment my appearance in one day. One of them is known as a "bad girl," which I tend not to believe about any students, so it was especially nice to hear something good from her. "You look...Que es guapa?...beautiful!" It's little things like this that give me constant reminders that even those who are considered bad have a lot of good in them. 
• Instead of working on her art assignment, one of my students was told by the other teacher to practice speaking English with me instead. I love the days when this happens! I especially love when it becomes my job to chat with this girl in particular. Our students, as I mentioned previously, are divided into different classrooms based on their ability levels, 'A' being the bilingual, well behaved, "good" kids down to 'E', the Spanish speaking misfits who are nothing but "bad." They were given one single test last year that determined their placement this year. Do bad on that test and you're stuck in a level where you don't belong for 2 years before you can retake it. This girl is in 'D', second from the bottom. It kind of breaks my heart because she is hands down one of the most conversationally fluent in English of any of the classes. She also likes English even more than she likes Spanish, she reads books in English at home, she listens to songs in English and her favorite subject in school? You guessed it! English! Luckily, she was able to move to a different group for English class, but she is not able to take science and other subjects in English, like the 'A' group can. In this broken system, it's not just the 'bad kids' that are suffering by being left behind, there are also students like this one who have been misplaced and are falling behind just the same. This goes the other way too though, there are students in 'A' who are totally lost because they do not have the language comprehension ability to have every subject taught in English. They are going to slip farther and farther behind their peers throughout the year because of these placements. GRRR!!!
• The science teacher I am working with told me that she loves that every time we meet she gets all these great ideas and wants to try all sorts of new things! She's really excited about assigning roles for group work and doing more team oriented stuff which will be really good for these kiddos. 
• Our teacher lessons have progressed to the point where talking about drug use, homosexual relationships and drinking is totally normal in our classroom activities. It's nice to have a laid back atmosphere where we can practice English but almost feel like friends having a good time instead of teachers and students. 
• Bert (one of my roommates) and I have made some pretty delicious meals that involved absolutely no pork. I have to get excited about the little things!
• It rained and looked a lot like Seattle. 
• I have been given permission to do a conservation project with my students (which is excellent because it's my homework and a have to do it). I was actually worried that I would not be able to complete the assignment if I was not allowed to do it during school.
• There is talk of a few classes getting involved with schools in other countries to talk about renewable resource projects and ideas.
• Got to sing Shakira's "Waka Waka" in class today. Yeah, don't be jealous. My music class is pretty awesome.
• The ultimate "bad boy" who does not even own the English text book yet (mind you, it's mid-November) actually participated in class today for most of the period! Holy crap!!! You have no idea how happy this makes me! Granted, he had to borrow the other teacher's textbook and I'm pretty sure he threw his notes in the garbage on the way out of class, but he was involved in the discussion, raised his hand and didn't totally distract the rest of the students. Major improvement! I think letting him doodle and openly appreciating his artistic abilities a couple weeks ago really helped us bond a bit. He did draw a wicked Van Gogh...during class...instead of participating in that lesson. Hey, you've gotta start somewhere. If letting him draw for one class period instead of paying attention makes him respect me for the rest of the year, it was totally worth it!

Going to the Vampire Weekend concert tomorrow night! Possibly shopping and room cleaning tomorrow earlier in the day? Ha! Sure...

For now, I think I'm going to watch a movie with the Spanish subtitles on. Hey, it's better than not studying at all!