1. I was walking to the university this morning, I realized that I no longer find it strange or terrifying that crossing the street is like playing tag with a bus.
2. I had a quiz in Algebra Lineal y Geometria Analitica today! Quizes typically take the entire class time (90 minutes). I quite enjoy quizzes!! Because on quiz days, I get to spend 90 minutes straight doing math!! It's so fun!! I don't know WHY I never realized this before! Maybe I'm just feeling academically free since I sort of but not really already graduated.
3. I TAUGHT AGAIN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today's lesson was about triangles! Today is Thursday. On Tuesday, Profesor Aguilar asked me if I wanted to teach on Thursday. Of course, I said YES. I told him that I would stop by on Wednesday to get a copy of the stuff that he wanted me to teach. There are many differences between my experiences in Peru and my experiences in the States. One of those is that every time I have ever taught in the States, I have known far in advance and had a lot of time to prepare. Also, in the States, the teachers that I have taught with have all wanted to know more of what I'm going to be doing. Profesor Aguilar, however, doesn't seem to have any problem with handing his class over to me with little time in advance and without knowing what my plan is. So, today I taught all about triangles!! Things went alright. It wasn't easy. Right now, the way I'm feeling is that I really hope I get another chance to teach, because there are definitely some things that I want to do differently. The main thing has to do with classroom management. Every time I ask a question, I'm pretty sure all of the students respond, at the same time, very loudly, using different words. That is really hard to understand, no matter what language it is!! No one raises their hands. They just... talk. Loud. Because each individual wants me to hear HIS answer the best. Oh man. The class is just always very loud. Everything is loud. And, I'm not a huge fan of that. I don't want to have to talk over students or quite them down every 14 seconds. It is hard to teach (and learn, for that matter) in that atmosphere. However, at the same time, as a guest teacher from a different country, I don't really want to change anything either. I don't want to change the students' routine or the expectations. But right now, I'm thinking that if I get another chance to teach, I'm going to try to have them raise their hands to talk, and we'll just see how that goes. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to teach here in Arequipa!!
4. On Wednesday evening, I got to have conversation group with Danery! We went to a performance of the San Pablo dance team that was going on at the university! It was super cool! They did about 10 dances, all traditional dances, mostly from Peru, but a few from other South American countries. It was REALLY cool!!
5. On Wednesday, I observed an English class at Colegio Claretiano (FINALLY!! I got to go to one last week, too, right before we left for Cusco!). After the English class, I spoke with Profesor Aguilar about the lesson that I was going to teach today. We talked for a little while, and one of the things that he told me was that when I enter the classroom, I should greet the students, and that when I leave, I should say "good bye" or something. I have not been doing that because when I arrive they are in the middle of class, and I don't want to interrupt. I quietly enter and take a seat. Also, when I leave, they are in the middle of class, and, again, I don't want to interrupt, so I quietly sneak out. But Profesor Aguilar said that it is more important to greet the students than it is to not interrupt the class. This is different from my experiences in the States. My instinct is to try to not distract as much as possible. So, today when I arrived, I greeted the students. And I told them "good bye" as I left. And it was a little weird. But that's okay! I'm learning!!
6. Today was a day that I realized... I speak Spanish!! This was an awesome realization!! How did I realize this? Well, at lunch, as I was talking with Andrea and Tita, I realized that I was having a real conversation. I was understanding everything and I was able to express myself. And I realized that I've been doing that for a while now!! And I realized that I actually TAUGHT in Spanish!! Really!! This means thinking on the fly - there's no way to practice everything that I am going to say during teaching. I understand what people are saying, and I can talk back! I realized that I am confident to talk to anyone in Spanish at any time!! I didn't feel like this at the beginning of this semester!!
7. So, Barack Obama is the new president of the United States of America. It has been very eye opening to be in a different country during election season. Only American citizens vote for the President of the United States of America. But our decision affects the rest of the world almost as much as it affects us. It's almost as if the entire world should vote on the president. The elections were one of the top news stories for the past few weeks. It's as if the whole world was holding it's breath, waiting to see who we would decide would determine their future.
8. Today was a really good day! After getting to teach AND take a math quiz, I also got to each lunch with my family and have TWO conversation groups!! One with Anthony and Alonso, and the other with David! Conversation groups are neat. I like them a lot.
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