On Sunday, I was talking to Carlos, a third grader, about something. We were talking about when we first met, which was during Bible Conference at Bob Jones University, and a few other things. He was telling me that he knew that I lived in Locust Grove, Georgia, and I told him that now I live in PR. He said to me, "Well, when you graduate from your job....."I told him that until the Lord leads me differently, I'm in PR for a good long time. We talked about my sister, and when I told him she was getting married this summer, he said, "So then she will be your sister in law?"
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Kids are funny
Last week, one of my students asked me if I was from Texas. While I appreciated the compliment =), I had no idea why he asked. Turns out I said something like "Oooweeee, this is gonna be fun" with a thick accent. See, I don't normally have an accent, except when I'm tired, or talking to people with a southern accent, or certain specific words, but not all the time. Funny thing is, 10 years ago, I lived in Texas for 7 years. It's hard to believe it's been that long.
On Sunday, I was talking to Carlos, a third grader, about something. We were talking about when we first met, which was during Bible Conference at Bob Jones University, and a few other things. He was telling me that he knew that I lived in Locust Grove, Georgia, and I told him that now I live in PR. He said to me, "Well, when you graduate from your job....."I told him that until the Lord leads me differently, I'm in PR for a good long time. We talked about my sister, and when I told him she was getting married this summer, he said, "So then she will be your sister in law?"
On Sunday, I was talking to Carlos, a third grader, about something. We were talking about when we first met, which was during Bible Conference at Bob Jones University, and a few other things. He was telling me that he knew that I lived in Locust Grove, Georgia, and I told him that now I live in PR. He said to me, "Well, when you graduate from your job....."I told him that until the Lord leads me differently, I'm in PR for a good long time. We talked about my sister, and when I told him she was getting married this summer, he said, "So then she will be your sister in law?"
Lizards and more
I never guessed it could be so hard to say the pledge of allegiance to the American flag.
This morning, it was. In chapel, I sit at the piano during the pledges, so I can be ready to play "My Country Tis of Thee" when they're done. The flags are sitting in the corner right next to me, and they're very close. This morning when I turned to face the American flag, a cute little lizard was looking out at me from one of the stars! I wasn't expecting it when I turned around, and I really wanted to laugh. It didn't help when halfway through the pledge it started moving its head back and forth, about the same time that a lizard crawled up the wall right outside the window. It's probably a really good thing all those kindergarteners couldn't see it, although I was enjoying it.
The mall this weekend was nice. There ended up only being three of us, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We left school at 10 and got back home around 7. We definitely got in our exercise for the day.
This weekend we're going to the beach, possibly shopping in old San Juan, and maybe even one of the forts. If we go to a fort it will be the one where there are tons of people flying kites on the "lawn" for lack of a better word. This time, I will use better sunscreen at the beach. Last time, I couldn't comfortably put on a seat belt for a week. That doesn't mean I didn't, Mom. =) Around here, no seatbelt is one of the very few things they will pull you over for. I guess they figure if you have a seatbelt on, you have a better chance of surviving any idiotic thing you do on the roads. And believe me, many idiotic things are done on the roads. Which reminds me, another item on the agenda for who knows when is learning to drive Priscilla's car-a manual transmission. Fun stuff, right? She's going home for a week during Thanksgiving to see her mom, who has cancer. So I'll be at home in the apartment for a week with the dear sweet cat, and the crazy car. Somehow I have to get to school, which is only one of the reasons I need to learn to drive that car.
This morning, it was. In chapel, I sit at the piano during the pledges, so I can be ready to play "My Country Tis of Thee" when they're done. The flags are sitting in the corner right next to me, and they're very close. This morning when I turned to face the American flag, a cute little lizard was looking out at me from one of the stars! I wasn't expecting it when I turned around, and I really wanted to laugh. It didn't help when halfway through the pledge it started moving its head back and forth, about the same time that a lizard crawled up the wall right outside the window. It's probably a really good thing all those kindergarteners couldn't see it, although I was enjoying it.
The mall this weekend was nice. There ended up only being three of us, but we really enjoyed ourselves. We left school at 10 and got back home around 7. We definitely got in our exercise for the day.
This weekend we're going to the beach, possibly shopping in old San Juan, and maybe even one of the forts. If we go to a fort it will be the one where there are tons of people flying kites on the "lawn" for lack of a better word. This time, I will use better sunscreen at the beach. Last time, I couldn't comfortably put on a seat belt for a week. That doesn't mean I didn't, Mom. =) Around here, no seatbelt is one of the very few things they will pull you over for. I guess they figure if you have a seatbelt on, you have a better chance of surviving any idiotic thing you do on the roads. And believe me, many idiotic things are done on the roads. Which reminds me, another item on the agenda for who knows when is learning to drive Priscilla's car-a manual transmission. Fun stuff, right? She's going home for a week during Thanksgiving to see her mom, who has cancer. So I'll be at home in the apartment for a week with the dear sweet cat, and the crazy car. Somehow I have to get to school, which is only one of the reasons I need to learn to drive that car.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Praise the Lord!
My violin's back! I was practicing for Sunday's offertory, when Mrs Santana and Carlitos walked in with my violin. I am so excited to have it back! And she won't let me pay for it. What a blessing from the Lord. He is taking care of my needs!
It's Friday!
Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but weekends usually mean sleep, fun, church, fellowship, more church, and maybe even some more sleep thrown in. And this Friday is payday. =) This weekend we're going to Plaza Las Americas, the big "American" mall closer to San Juan. Shopping has never been my favorite thing to do, but this is a really nice mall. I think my favorite part is the 2-floor Borders. Any books and music store that big is really dangerous. I could spend my life's savings, if I had one, at Borders. There's also a JCPenney's with 4 floors, multiple fountains, which I love, and right next door a freestanding Kmart that's the biggest one I've ever seen. Kmart with an escalator. It's a little strange, but nice. They also have pretty good pina coladas there for a halfway decent price. There's 5 of us teachers going, and it's going to be a lot of fun going anywhere with the group we've got.
This week has been pretty uneventful, unless you count the electricity going off this morning about 2 or 3. I woke up because my fan shut off at some point in the night, and I was starting to get really warm. So that made life interesting this morning, but we made it to school on time anyway.
Today I'm trying to finish the purchase order form for my piano books. It's crazy trying to order books and flashcards for 42 students of varying age and skill levels. It's been quite adventurous searching the internet trying to find ISBN numbers so that we get exactly what we want. That's why I'm actually sitting at a computer this early in the morning. Once we get books for everyone, lessons will be a lot easier.
As I'm sitting here in what will become the new library once everything gets set up, I'm listening to Mrs Rios teaching a 4th grader to read in English, and I'm reminded once again to pray for these children, especially the new students. It's got to be rough being thrown not only into a new classroom with new teachers and classmates, but also having everything done in a language you don't understand. They'll catch on quickly, but right now it's still really hard.
Almost forgot! I thought I'd post a link to the school newsletter since there's an article that I appear in. Enjoy
http://calvarypr.org/data/Crusader/
This week has been pretty uneventful, unless you count the electricity going off this morning about 2 or 3. I woke up because my fan shut off at some point in the night, and I was starting to get really warm. So that made life interesting this morning, but we made it to school on time anyway.
Today I'm trying to finish the purchase order form for my piano books. It's crazy trying to order books and flashcards for 42 students of varying age and skill levels. It's been quite adventurous searching the internet trying to find ISBN numbers so that we get exactly what we want. That's why I'm actually sitting at a computer this early in the morning. Once we get books for everyone, lessons will be a lot easier.
As I'm sitting here in what will become the new library once everything gets set up, I'm listening to Mrs Rios teaching a 4th grader to read in English, and I'm reminded once again to pray for these children, especially the new students. It's got to be rough being thrown not only into a new classroom with new teachers and classmates, but also having everything done in a language you don't understand. They'll catch on quickly, but right now it's still really hard.
Almost forgot! I thought I'd post a link to the school newsletter since there's an article that I appear in. Enjoy
http://calvarypr.org/data/Crusader/
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
First grade fun
I love teaching piano to first graders. They are so funny! Alejandro reminds me of Chris Bagwell. Anyway, today Alejandro was wiggling around as usual, although he refrained from the usual cartwheels today. I asked him if he was going to be a gymnast someday. He said, "No, I'm going to be a missionary."
"Really? Where are you going to go?"
"Alaska."
"Why Alaska?"
"Because they have snow. I've never seen snow before."
Later on in the conversation, I asked him what he thought missionaries do. His response? "tell the gospel and ask for money."
I had to bite my lip really hard to keep from laughing at him. His mom enjoyed hearing about it when I told her.
I'm still working on unpacking some of my things. I'm really making progress, but not finished yet. Saturday, Priscilla and I had an adventure at the bank. We both needed to cash checks. Normally we go to the branch of our bank that's in the mall, and there are a couple of employees there who speak English. I do speak and understand Spanish, but some of the highly specific words you need to know in a bank and other such places I don't always know, and the bank is one place that I'm not necessarily willing to experiment on. The branch we went to on Saturday didn't have any workers that spoke English, but thankfully there was a man in line who spoke English who was able to help. When he started talking, I understood what he said, but I wouldn't have known how to say it myself. The thing that made me laugh about the whole situation was something the man said while we were talking. We had a conversation about how I'm trying to learn Spanish, and he was telling me I need to practice. I was enjoying using Spanish with him, but I just had to laugh when this man who was fluent in English says "Como se dice 'te amo' en ingles?" I knew exactly what he was trying to get me to do, and I wasn't about to do it. At least now I know some of the vocab I need for the bank.
At this present moment I am violin-less. I have not played my violin for almost 3 weeks. 3 weeks ago a small piece broke off of the tailpiece. I've never had any problems with it before, never had to do anything to it, so it really scared me when I opened the case and saw strings pointing every which direction. I figured out what was wrong, and spoke with a few people about repair places. Several people mentioned the music store in the mall, but there's something that makes me a little nervous about taking my violin to a store that mostly deals in drums and electric guitars. So I started to pray that I would be able to find someone who could fix the violin and fix it right. I was also praying that I could understand what was going on whether it was understanding the Spanish, or finding someone to help me understand. A week ago Sunday, Mrs. Santana (one of the ladies in the church here) asked me why I wasn't playing in the orchestra. When I told her my violin was broken, she mentioned that she might be able to find a place to get it fixed. Finally it worked out that her brother knows someone that does violins, and she was able to take my violin to this person, who apparently comes highly recommended. The Lord answered my prayers through an avenue I hadn't even thought of. I don't have the violin back yet, but she is supposed to bring it to me soon. God has been so good to me!
Friday, September 16, 2005
Hello world!
I have officially entered the world of blogging. Mostly it's because my family and friends all want to know what's going on down here. I don't intend to post deep thoughts, just what's going on. I don't know how often I'm even going to be able to post, but for right now, here goes.
For those who don't know, I'm in my first year of teaching music at Calvary Baptist Christian School in Carolina, Puerto Rico. I teach 42 piano lessons every week, and 2 violin lessons. I'm also teaching music to each 5th grade class (there are three) once a week, a music appreciation class for middle school, and in my spare time, I play the piano for 3 choirs, 3 chapels, and 2 church services every week, and violin for 2 church services every week. This week has been a bit lighter, because we're having school pictures. Since those are taken in the church auditiorium, we can't have chapel this week. I have also had 2-3 students miss lessons because of picture time.
This weekend Priscilla (my roommate) and I are hopefully going to finish unpacking boxes and fixing our apartment. Last weekend we got our refrigerator, and I don't know that I've ever been more thankful for an appliance in my life. When you don't have air conditioning, a refrigerator is a huge blessing......it means cold drinks, cold food, even ice cream!
I'm still working on learning all my student's names. I have somewhere around 150 names to learn. The smaller classes I know all the names, and the one class of 15 I know all of them mostly because I spend a great deal of class time on crowd control with that group. The other classes are harder, especially 5C. In 5C, I have 3 Chris's, 2 Paolas, 3 Luis's, an Ian, and an Ilan along with many others. It's coming along though. The kids are nice enough to be patient with me and remember that while they only have my name to learn, I have so many to remember.
For those who don't know, I'm in my first year of teaching music at Calvary Baptist Christian School in Carolina, Puerto Rico. I teach 42 piano lessons every week, and 2 violin lessons. I'm also teaching music to each 5th grade class (there are three) once a week, a music appreciation class for middle school, and in my spare time, I play the piano for 3 choirs, 3 chapels, and 2 church services every week, and violin for 2 church services every week. This week has been a bit lighter, because we're having school pictures. Since those are taken in the church auditiorium, we can't have chapel this week. I have also had 2-3 students miss lessons because of picture time.
This weekend Priscilla (my roommate) and I are hopefully going to finish unpacking boxes and fixing our apartment. Last weekend we got our refrigerator, and I don't know that I've ever been more thankful for an appliance in my life. When you don't have air conditioning, a refrigerator is a huge blessing......it means cold drinks, cold food, even ice cream!
I'm still working on learning all my student's names. I have somewhere around 150 names to learn. The smaller classes I know all the names, and the one class of 15 I know all of them mostly because I spend a great deal of class time on crowd control with that group. The other classes are harder, especially 5C. In 5C, I have 3 Chris's, 2 Paolas, 3 Luis's, an Ian, and an Ilan along with many others. It's coming along though. The kids are nice enough to be patient with me and remember that while they only have my name to learn, I have so many to remember.
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