The First Week of Lessons

Well we've been here for one week now. It has really been a fantastic week. It feels like longer, but not because I've been bored or lonely, but because we've done so much. The first few days as I've already described were full of activity.

It has certainly been a week of lessons. The first group of lessons are the classes I taught. I'm going to be thoroughly spoiled by the time I come home. If I didn't have to do brand new preps for P-chem, I almost wouldn't have to work. My schedule is Introduction to General Chemistry Monday through Thursday from 10-11 AM, Biochemistry on Monday and Wednesday from 4:30-6:30 PM, and Physical Chemistry Tuesday and Thursday 8-10 AM. P-chem was originally from 4:30-6:30 on Tues and Thurs, but since none of us had anything at 8, we decided being sleepy was better than brain dead for class. We do enjoy getting to take a break in the middle of P-chem to eat breakfast. Of course, we've only had class at 8 once, so who knows if we might get tired of it. But it looks like I'll be getting up just before class and waiting until after Intro chem to shower and put on make up on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Can I just say that I love teaching at CasaACU where I don't have to wear shoes or makeup to class???

I am really enjoying my students. It is pretty cool to have students that I know so well. On the first day of class I brought up the fact that it was going to be weird sometimes that I hung out with them, but would be telling them what to do in class and sometimes out of class. I think it is going to work out fine. You know, grading goes a lot faster when you only have 4 people in class!

Second set of lessons: Rhonda has organized English class for the people at church on Tuesday nights. I and the students are the teachers. We work one on one with los estudiantes. It was amazing, there were the exact number students as teachers. 15 students 15 teachers. I was working with Mary, who speaks no English... But it was good because I had to use the Spanish I knew. We were doing English that I knew the Spanish for. "What is your name? My name is... Where are you from? I'm from... What do you do? I'm a..." It was pretty fun.

Third set of lessons: TANGO... Rhonda brought in a couple of Tango teachers to the International Studies class. The teachers were really great and the class was super fun. I now know the basic steps. The picture is of me dancing with one the teachers. That night some of the students went to the teachers class that they have every week. I had to work on P-chem so I couldn't go, but I may go next time. Some how it seems like it would just be cool to know how to tango.

Fourth set of lessons: I've been learning a lot about being in Uruguay. I'm sure I'll be expounding on some of these later. First: The people are really nice and helpful. I've had all sorts of people gently give me mini-Spanish lessons. The guy at the meat counter, the servers at restaurants, the people at church. They are much more tolerant of my inability to speak Spanish than we are tolerant of peoples' inability to speak English in the States. Second: Don't say you are an American as a nationality. They are Americans too. Third: The food is great. I may like the food here more than any place I've traveled except for maybe Italy. Fourth: I had been told that Montevideo was really European. I had found that hard to believe, after having been here for a week and I can agree that it does remind me of many places I've been in Europe.

It has been a great first week!