At school I met with Inés to try and get a schedule set-up. Inés is trying so hard to incorporate all the school’s needs with the Cultural Ambassadors program standards, with me having Fridays off and also not putting a bunch of breaks in between my classes (so I’m not there all day just to teach an hour or two and have the ability to travel on weekends.). It’s proving to be quite the challenge. My schedule is not ‘set in stone’ (a phrase I taught Inés today) but hopefully Javier (the “head teacher” aka principal) will ok it this afternoon. I will be working mostly with Sebas, Inés and the preschool teachers. Sebas is the main English teacher (and also the one who gave me directions to buy towels yesterday) and Inés fills in the blocks that Sebas can’t get to. I will also be working with an adult group from the EOI (the local language school) once a week for an hour in the afternoon. My task for this weekend is to create a powerpoint of my life/country/city that the kids can see on Monday. At this point it is hard to know what level of vocabulary to use, but as time goes by I will have a better idea of where the kids are at. When Inés was talking to me there were 4 of her second grade students in the room helping her get papers organized. Pedro, Rocio, Antonio, and the 4th who hide from me under the desk (Hey, at least 3 of the 4 kids liked me…and realistically the 4th was just playing with me.). Inés frequently switches between English and Spanish when talking to me. Pedro and Rocio giggled when she spoke in English. They think she sounds funny in another language. I can only imagine what that means for me! The kids were super cute though.
My next task for the day was to find a place I could get my passport scanned. The Cultural Ambassadors program needed me to send them an electronic copy of my passport via e-mail so I can get paid. In Siles, a town where it’s hard to find towels and the internet access leaves something to be desired…how many scanners do you think there are? Answer: One. When I was at school I asked Inés where I could scan something and she didn’t know. She suggested I go to Correos, the post office. So I headed in the general direction of Correos and got lost. Instead I found the other side of El Cubo.
I also met an old man who tried to sell me socks. Haha. Not sure what it is about me that said “Hey, she needs socks!” I continued on and managed to find Correos, but they didn’t have a scanner. I got a hard copy instead thinking maybe I would just have to mail it somewhere. On my way home I saw the bookstore that Silvia and I went to earlier this week. I stopped in and asked her where I could find a scanner. She pointed me in the direction of Casa Gregorio, one street up. On my way I remembered that there is a locutorio (a place to use computers) close by on El Paseo. I stopped there first but they couldn’t scan things either. The man there also pointed me towards Casa Gregorio. He gave me specific directions and sent me on my way. I got there and sure enough, he could scan it for me. He also had phones there. I asked about getting my old Spanish phone fixed. He said I would have to go to a Movistar and buy a new number because I hadn’t added “saldo” (money to use on a prepaid phone) in more than 6 months. Well the nearest Movistar is 20km away so I asked him about getting a new Spanish phone. (He sells Vodaphone phones). In 2 weeks he is getting more in, so I’ll probably buy a new phone then. Only $19 euro. It will be worth it to have a way people can get in touch with me, and that I can call others with and not have to use my expensive American phone. After that I stopped in at one more store to get some Siles postcards and a snack and then finally headed home.
It’s Friday. I wonder what people do on Friday. I think I’ll at least go to the restaurant by the discoteca for dinner so I can check it out. I need to figure out how I can meet people my age. I’m hoping once I actually start teaching classes I will connect better with the teachers and be able to go out with them. Right now I only stop in during their recess and don’t really get to talk to them much. I’m hoping Sebas and I will get along well since I will be spending so much time in his classes.
So far a successful day. It’s funny…success in the US is trying to get my to-do list of 50 things done that day, and success here is finding a scanner. I could get used to this…
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