has evolved through many things. At first it was just to chronicle about life in Dominican Republic. Then it turned into talking about my travels in general. Now, I suppose it will encompass just everything about living in Dominican Republic, my everyday life, and more. I will try as much as possible to tie it back to Dominican Republic as much as possible, for those of my friends and family that are keeping up with what is going on and are curious about life in another country.
Anyway, as far as today, it was normal...but incase anyone is interested to see just what a "normal day" is like for me I'll try to divulge as much as possible. A lot seems to get lost when I generalize my day anyway. There are subtle cultural differences that don't come across when I am vague. So lets see...
730am Woke up to get ready for class and went right back to sleep...la la la
800am Got out of bed and got dressed.
815am Left for class.
830am Arrived at school and started the first class which is Conversation (basically the student's last class before they move on to advanced english or they can be completed altogether if they want to, approximate age is between 16-20, sometimes there are older students too.)
915am First class is over, went home, went back to sleep since I didn't go to sleep until 6am lastnight
200pm Woke up and got ready for class again
215pm Walked to class
230pm Arrived and started Phonics Class (basically is made up of first, second, and third graders that are learning their letters and basic frequently used words such as my, is, on, the. During this class I ended up having an issue with one of the students named Jehu (pronounced hey-oo). Basically he was pounding away on two of the other students...not totally sure why but this little boy just has a lot of pent up anger. He refuses to speak in english, what little he knows, refuses to do his inclass work, and refuses to do his homework. He recently had an exam that we spent three weeks reviewing for and it consisted of knowing three letters S, T, B and four words my, is, on, the. He did ok, meaning he copied off of another student mostly. It's hard to explain to a child that he/she needs to have repect for themselves and not to assume that his/her neighbor is more intelligent than themselves, blah blah blah, and much more difficult to explain to a child that speaks another language. I just basically try my best to seperate them as much as possible and I keep pointing at thier own paper which brings their attention back to the correct paper in front of them. Anyway, I sent him to the office and had the secretary to call his mother. Him mother came, she speaks no english, and I had to try to explain to her why she had to come to class early just to pick up her student...fortunately my spanish skills have gotten better because she had not problems with taking him home and I think that pounding your fist into your other hand is universal for "someone has been fighting". Class what much better after that I must say.)
430pm Phonics came to an end and my second class of Conversation students began and there was nothing significan to talk about
545pm Conversation class ended and off to next class
600pm Conversation class number three was a bit difficult because of one student in particular, his name is Josef, currently he has 9 absences (you are only allowed 8) so the Director told me that he can stay in the class but he needs to have documentation that states why he could not be in class, he was told on Monday to bring this today, he didn't. When I asked him if he had it he basically responded by saying that he doesn't have it YET! >.> So I told him that he needed to bring it no later than Thursday. Then I asked him if he had the makeup homework that I allowed him to do since he was absent all of last week and he responded by saying that he will have that also on Thursday. I continued on with class and one of the activities called for a group participation. I put Josef in a group with only one other student and Josef basically told me that he doesn't go to sleep until around 4am in the morning so he doesn't feel like participating. I had the attitude of "whatever" and let him do his thing. I moved the other student to another group. At this point Josef interrupts the class to tell me that he going to sit there and do the homework that was given to him lastnight. I didn't say any. I just nodded and continued with class. A few moments later he politely, I must say, requested to leave the class early. At that point I didn't really want him in the class and he was disturbing the other students so I let him go. After class ended I went to the Director's office and told her of what happened to Josef today and she said that we need to sit him down and talk with him. I left it at that until tomorrow.
715pm Class ended and I was off to the last class of the day.
730pm Arrived at the last class called Up Close II which consist of students of the same approximate age as Conversation...these students have three more classes (Grammar, Up Close III, and Up Close IV) to go through until they are able to be in Conversation. This class is going to be the death of me. Imagine having a class clown in the class, and now imagine having a class FILLED with nothing but class clowns. That is this class. Enough said.
845pm Classes finally are over.
Pleasantly enough, I was greeted by Roman and his sister Indira, mi pana (Dominican for best or favorite friend) and we all went to my favorite maimi-ish restaurant, Sabor. The food there is some of the most delicious food I have had here in Santiago. Not only is it good but it is a piece of edible art. The way they prepair the food makes you want to take a picture of it before you actually eat it. The atmosphere, minus the beach, is very miami-ish. The colors they use for the building, the shape of the building and well...it is right next to a bar owned by the owner's son. Someday I will have my camera with me and pass by there during the day AND at night so I can post the pic here so stay tuned.
AHH, off to sleep on a full tummy! ^^
<3 Lotus
PS. By the way for the record, my hard drive that has all my pics on it is failing so I might have to move it to my C drive that is working without problems, so the adding picture fest is over for the moment. *cries*
