Catharsis

So, the title of this blog is...too strong a word for what this will be, but I like the word, so work with me.

Just as I suspected, this blog (and my journal) are very bottom priority along with God and sleep and reading for fun as I scramble to figure out just what to do for teaching. Exactly the same things are bottom priority when I'm at home and a student, frantically doing all my activities and studying and whatever else pops up as "more important to finish" than what ever else it is that I want to do. I've already told you all that life falls into routine no matter where you live, right? Well, it does. And I don't think people fundamentally change much from who they are at home, either, unless they really consciously work to make some changes. Attitudes and behaviors are habits, the same way that languages are.

So what have been my habits for the past 4 weeks? Man, I really couldn't tell you. Time also passes very quickly. Right around the time of the last blog, a month ago, the school shut down for a week because a very great number of our students were out sick... I still got to go to school and bleach the whole thing from top to bottom. It was actually kind of a good time... I moved a couple weekends ago, and I now have internet! Yay!! It has helped me greatly with two things: preparing for classes, and procrastinating preparing for classes... The exact same way that internet works for students, too... preparation and procrastination.

Speaking of students and preparation and classes, teaching is surprisingly like student-ing, except the stress is not, "oh, this is for my future!" but rather, "Oh, crap! I'm responsible for preparing these kids to succeed in their future!" And you know, some of them don't want to succeed, and that's fine by me. I like red pen. The others, though. :S I hope I'm doing right by them. The school routine is... much like senior seminar (for all you bio and chem majors that might be reading this)...senior seminar 5 times in a day, until you realize that you should really get them doing hands-on stuff, too. :) Poor kids! All that to say, life is pretty "boring." I leave for school at 7 a.m., teach science for four hours, eat, teach French for one hour, try to stay awake to do work at school, come home, try to stay awake past 8 p.m., eat, prepare for the next day... One day a week of Spanish lessons (do you know that now since I live alone, I speak more French in a week than Spanish?), one day a week of salsa classes. (I love to dance! And Guatemalan guys love to dance! But they're short. I get thwacked in the head every time I turn or spin.)... Weekends? They vary slightly, but mostly the teachers get together at a restaurant Friday and/or Saturday night and eat and drink. Not much else has broken my routine. I haven't traveled much. I wandered around a market Saturday for 3 hours. That was nice. Bought candles, for when the electricity goes out, which seems to be at least once a week.

Well, I can't think of much more. Hope you enjoyed reading, I guess! Feliz noches!