Day 1 at LPV

If you managed to read my last post, thank you. I know it was long. I just felt that I needed to write down our experience somewhere so I would never forget it. I want to be able to laugh about our visa process for a long time. Also, I need to mention that the only reason it was so difficult to get a visa is because the U.S. makes it incredibly difficult and degrading for Colombians to even get tourist visas for the United States.

Today was our first day of "work." School starts on January 28th, but teachers began today. Our day went something like this: we arrived at school at 8:30 this morning with Stellita. We then mingled (i.e. said hi to people who remembered us and then talked to each other while everyone else ignored us) with the other teachers until 9 a.m. At 9, we went into the computer lab and Stellita talked to everyone in Spanish for an hour about the last school year, how we can improve, and how we should treat our students (with love and respect). I didn't understand very much, and neither did Warren, but we tried.

Then we had morning snack. For an hour.

After the snack, we went to a meeting with the primary school teachers. It was led by Luz M, who is in charge of us. She only speaks Spanish, but she is one of the kindest souls in the world. We like her a lot, although communication is difficult. Anyway, we were in a meeting for about an hour (this time, the 3A teacher, Tatiana, translated for us). The outcome of this meeting was that I am definitely teaching 5th grade and Warren is teaching 3rd grade. He is lucky because Tati will be able to help him, and she has taught 3rd grade twice. I'm lucky because I can be creative and I don't have to coordinate with other teachers. I think we are both going to be happy this year. I'm excited to start planning.

After our first meeting, we had lunch. Then we had another meeting with the primary school where they debated a new grading scale for 2 hours. In Spanish. Basically, I just tuned out and wrote down what they told me.

I really need to work on my Spanish.

It was nice to be a little bit busy today. I've definitely enjoyed our little vacation time, but I'm ready to get started now. We spent Sunday at Stellita's finca, which was sooooooo pleasant (watching the sunset and soaking in the hot tub), where we were able to relax and mentally prepare for the next year.

I plan to continue writing throughout the week, so expect a few more updates. I should have news about our apartment hunt tomorrow!