It's the Final Countdown

Yup, listen to the song while you read this.  G'head.

Man, that is a whole lot of hair .  I'm jealous.  And I forgot how epic this song is.  But it's been in my head since we listened to it last night at Aminah's place.  We got together with Brian, Alec, Kate, and Nick and had a mellow sangria night.  At one point our music taste went retro and we were listening to some classic 80s hits (like this one).  Fun.

But actually, the title of this song is pretty accurate right about now: it's the final countdown to the end of my CELTA course.  Friday is that last day of the course, but my next and last day to teach is Thursday, so I've got four days to push through.  Woo!  This weekend we've been given a fair bit of work, but luckily tomorrow is some new national holiday created last year (Día de la Soberanía Nacional, or National Sovereignty Day, which commemorates the Battle of Vuelta de Obligado, where some fiercely patriotic Argentine troops stood up to the Brits and the French, who wanted to colonize the newly-independent Argentina) and we have the day off.  The battle actually took place on November 20th of 1845, not the 28th, but hey, I'll take the day off without complaint.  God knows I need the extra time to work on my assignments for the weekend.

The biggest one is what they're calling our Skills Assignment, where we have to come up with an authentic and original lesson plan to work on our students' receptive (listening or reading) and productive (writing or speaking) skills.  We have to find the text that they'll read or listen to and the come up with three activities to do with it, two for the receptive skill and one for the productive.  We have to justify all our choices, of course, and outline how we'd teach the lesson in 60 minutes.  They've told us that we can use these lessons for our last TP, which just happens to be 60 minutes long, so I'm using a song for mine, since my final class needs to include a listening segment.  I've chosen the song, so now it's just a matter of coming up with the activities and justifying it all in less than 1,000 words.  For those of you who know how I write (which is all of you because you're reading my blog), the word limit is a joke...I tend to be pretty prolific writer and always write way more than necessary.  At least the word limit will help keep me more concise (in theory).  So here's the song (called "Not on the Test" by Tom Chapin):

I like this song because it will give me a good, hopefully controversial topic to discuss with my students once they're done listening to and understanding what it says.  This upper-intermediate group really like talking, and they definitely have opinions to share, so I think that getting them going on the education system in Argentina should be right up their alley, after we bash the U.S. public education system when we talk about the song itself.  It's not too hard to understand what's being sung, and while the students will understand most of the words, I'll still have to teach them things like "No Child Left Behind", so there will be a good new vocab element to the lesson as well.  Or at least that's my intention.  We'll see, as I wrestle with the lesson plan and then actually teach the lesson, if it turns out that way.  Stay tuned.

Admittedly, I'm putting a good amount of pressure on myself to finish strong.  My eighth lesson, which I gave on Friday, earned me another "above standard" mark, and I can tell that both tutors are rooting for me to make this last lesson count as well.  Of course, I also just want to get an "above standard" grade one last time, because I just want to.  Duh.  (coughperfectionistcough)  So stay tuned.  I do have to finish the assignment by Tuesday but then, the nice thing is that everything will be almost planned, and I'll have two days to solidify it all.  Timing worked out rather well, don't you think?

Our second assignment for the weekend is entitled Lessons from the Classroom, and we just get to write about our feelings.  Yay!  Kind of, anyway: we're supposed to pick three or four of our strengths and weaknesses as teachers and describe them, backing up our choices with quotes from all the feedback we've gotten from our tutors during our TPs, and then speculate on how we'll either maintain or work on improving them.  Beyond that, we have to add some notes about what we've observed in other experienced teachers or in our fellow students that we'd like to incorporate into our own teaching repertoires, and comment on the resources we've used throughout the class (like the grammar books we used, etc).  It shouldn't take too much time or effort, but it still has to be done.  I should be getting to work...

But on a totally different note, let's talk about weather for a second.  Remember how I said in the last post that I was glad it was nice and sunny?  Well, I still am, but I would kill for a big chunk of snow in my bed right now.  Or a fan could work too.  Point being, my room is a stuffy sauna without the steam, even though I have the only window as open as it can be.  I'm wearing a tank top and running shorts and still sweating...I get up and wherever I was just sitting is slightly damp.  Ick.  I kinda miss winter, now that I don't have it (funny, I always want what I don't have...).  OK, no, I'm being dramatic.  I do miss winter in some ways because snowball fights and crunching ice on the sidewalk and snowboarding would be fun.  However, I'm glad that it's bordering on summer here and I get to be in the sunshine.  I will be thankful to be moving farther south into Patagonia as the height of summer comes...should be similar to summer in Colorado, and that I can definitely deal with.  But you all enjoy your snow and your ice and your soups and your sweaters and your boots and your scarves and your hats and your... (enough?  Yeah, ok.)

And this is what procrastination looks like.  Bam.

Sending love from the sweat puddle on my chair.

A Thanksgiving Picture Essay

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  It's sunny and warm, we got out of class an hour and a half early today, Brian lent me his guitar for the afternoon, and I've got a decent start on my lesson plan for tomorrow.  I'm thankful for who and what I have around me, both physically here and at a distance, so things are good!  Now if only I had a nice big feast to look forward to...



...with this...
(for those of you who don't have the pleasure of knowing this dish, it's called baked corn and it's sunshine in a casserole)
(also I was thinking of making some of this here but alas, I have no oven)

...and this... (the real stuff, maybe with a little orange zest in it, unlike the poor little canned version.  compare the one on the left with the one on the right.  which one would you go for?  that's what I thought.)

...and this...

(goodness gracious am I giving myself a monstrous and unfortunate Thanksgiving craving)

...and it just wouldn't be complete without this!

although admittedly, my portion would look something more like this.  gotta get those proportions right:

[chorus of angels singing]

Unfortunately, they don't make these things in Argentina.  I'm especially bummed about the pumpkin pie.  But I did make myself a different little feast:

Garlic-and-onion rice, sauteed broccoli, squash, onion, and red pepper in tomato basil sauce, and a pan-fried soy milanesa with (rare) grated cheese.  Not too shabby, eh?  It's time to get back to my lesson plan (#8 of 9!) but in the holiday spirit, I'll leave you with three little après dinner thoughts (two nice and appropriate and one not so serious).

"Thanksgiving, after all, is a word of action."  ~W.J. Cameron

AND why does this seem like a bad idea?  Actually why did it ever seem like a good idea?  I can already see it being the destructive tool of a jealous lover somewhere in the world.  Oopsies...

(from a side banner on Grooveshark; text reads: Enter the phone number of the friend you'd like to locate.) 

Haha sheesh.  Sending love from Argentina!  Cheers xx

and upward!

It's day thirteen of my CELTA course, as Neil reminded us today.  Only a week and a half left!  I'm exhausted at this point, but the end is in sight, so I push on.  My pillow is calling my name, saying we have a date for a little siesta, but two things I have to impart to you first.

One.  I rose to the challenge from my tutors today and my lesson got an 'above standard' mark!  It's what I was aiming for (what else would you expect) and I was pretty confident when I finished that I'd achieved my goal.  Nice to have the Fran reinforce that with her grading.  Only two more lessons left for me to teach...say what?

Two.  Here's how you know CELTA has taken over: you dream about teaching, in the few hours of sleep you scrape up every night.  So you go to bed thinking about your lesson, your brain carries on that train of thought while your body enjoys the short reprieve, and then you wake up knowing that you can't get teaching out of your brain and it's time to go back to school.  My future?  We'll see.

Onward

Another weekend come and gone since my last post.  This one was similar to the last one, except that I both a written assignment and a lesson plan to get done.  Friday afternoon, of course, was filled with lazing about, continuing my run of watching Star Wars all the way through, starting with the newer releases and saving the best (old ones) for last.  I intended to go for a run, but by the time I felt I had the energy, it was getting dark.  Guess I had to put that one off.

Friday night I met up with Alec, Brian, and a couple of Alec's Swedish friends to play music and hang out on Alec's balcony.  We had a good time, and this continued when we went to another of Alec's friend's apartment (she's also from Sweden, coincidentally).  Her building had a rooftop terrace, which we quickly occupied, and we stayed there for a good part of the evening (again, playing guitar and talking).  We started to play songs that everyone knew, generated good ole' sing-a-longs.  Super fun.  Alec worked for a small indie record label back in England, scouting out and signing worthy new bands.  At one point, he told me that he really liked my style of singing and playing guitar, and that he would sign me.  GAH best compliment ever!  This guy really knows his music, so I was pretty flattered.  He is obsessed with making a cappella trumpet sounds, which a couple girlies in Ellement, my group at CC, can do rather well, so I've also showed him one of our videos.  Again, the seal of approval (Sammi, your mouth trumpet is legendary now, and Marina, he digs your voice and thinks you're very pretty :) )!  But enough of that for now.

When we finally motivated ourselves to leave the Swedish girls' apartment, it was about 2 am, a good time to head to a bar or a club.  We tried to get into the same place we'd gone last weekend, Ferona, but it was full and the doorman said we would've had to wait a couple hours to get in.  It just so happened that right as we were about to walk away, Aminah and Jess (two more CELTees) walked out, a happy coincidence since we had gone to Ferona to find them.  We absorbed them into our group as we wandered to a different part of town looking for a good spot.  By the time we decided on a club and found it, Jess had decided to go home, but the rest of us went inside and danced away for a few hours.  At first, the DJ would play the beginning of well-known songs until the chorus arrived, at which point he'd cut the music (expecting people to shout-sing) and then switch to a different song.  Not the best idea, buddy.  Finally he either got the hint or got booted from the chair, but all the sudden we were listening to complete, uninterrupted songs!  And this new DJ (I think it must've been a new person) also knew how to layer one track over another, making for some cool mixes and smooth transitions.  This won't matter to most of the world, but I was in a dancing mood, so it made a difference to me.  Ha.

We lost track of time dancing, what with all the darkness and flashing lights that make it feel like eternal nighttime.  When we finally left the club, we were all surprised to emerge into daylight.  Oops.  None of us had intended to stay out that late, but we succeeded in staying up until 6 (or at least, that's what time I got back home).  Given the large amount of work I had to do, I only let myself sleep for a few hours before getting up to start powering through my lesson plan.  Of course, my work was laced with Star Wars and food breaks, but by mid-evening I had finished my lesson plan.  Woo!  I opted for an early bedtime and an early morning, so that I could get some rest and get a good amount of time on Sunday to work on my written assignment.  Turned out to be a good call.

I got up early and went for a short run, which felt so great until my knee started hurting.  Boo!  I even wore the knee brace I bought in Perú, so I'll bet that helped lessen the pain and the impact of the run.  HOWEVER this is bad bad news because it means that I've actually really done something bad to my knee that won't go away in a couple weeks.  Travis and I talked about this when I had so much trouble hiking in Perú...he told me about how he had strained his meniscus a few years ago and had to spend a good two and a half months doing nothing before it (mostly) healed.  I'm not sure if I have a meniscus problem or something else, but my pain seems similar to his, so it's a definite possibility.  Crap.  That means running is out of the question.  Wish I could teleport my trusty bicycle and ride it around here.

Anyway.  The run was good for all parts of me except for my knee, and I needed the exercise to get my ya-yas out.  I got an early start on my written assignment, worked all day with random breaks here and there, and finished at a reasonable time on Sunday evening.  Then early to bed, early to rise to get to school early for lesson prep.  Today we switched classes with the other TP group, so it was our first day with the upper-intermediate students.  We were flying blind today, because we hadn't gotten a chance to observe these students or even talk to the other teaching group about the students' strengths and weaknesses (apparently we were supposed to be given this time, but we weren't...c'est la vie).  This made planning a little tricky, because we had to completely guess how long certain activities would take and whether or not the students would be able to do them.  We were all pleasantly surprised, I think.  This group of students is smaller and more obedient, shall we say, so they're not always talking over each other in the middle of instructions and they pick up on things quickly.  I didn't expect such a marked difference between the skill levels, but it is really noticeable.  Our challenge with this group is not gonna be having enough authority and giving the simplest clearest instructions possible, like it was with the pre-int students; no, it's going to be getting them energized and enthusiastic about what we're doing.  Granted, today's lesson topics weren't the most exciting in the world (international cooperation and communication through means like the internet and the World Student Games, which apparently do exist), but the students didn't have any real enthusiasm or energy.  It's my personal challenge to change that now (*grin).

We also got our halfway-point progress reports today, and I did well, as I expected.  One nice thing about this course is that there are no surprises...you know when you did poorly, and you know when you're doing well.  With regular feedback after every teaching session, we all have consistent benchmarks for our progress and what we need to work on.  So it wasn't a surprise for me to see that Fran gave me all satisfactory, to-standard marks, plus a few above-standard marks in certain categories (for the record, we have something like 40 or 50 evaluation criteria, so getting a few above-standard grades isn't that special or unusual).  What did surprise me was that she said she wants to see more above-standard work out of me in my lesson plans, because she's confident that I'm capable of doing it. Of course, knowing me (little miss A student, disappointed with a B), I would love to get above-standard marks every time, and I told her that that's what I'm aiming for.  We agreed that I've shown good examples of all the teaching things they want us to learn, but it's just a matter of me consolidating them into one lesson, and doing so consistently.  Challenge acknowledged, master.  Now it's time to rise to the occasion.

This week will be an intense one for me, partly because of this new, higher bar, and also just because of the sheer volume of work I have to do.  I got one lesson out of the way today, but I have two more to do, on Wednesday and Friday, and now that our lessons plans are more a product of our own creativity and ideas, they take a lot longer to complete.  I'm not kidding when I say that each one will require eight or nine hours of work, minimum.  If I haven't done that much, I haven't thought of everything that I should've.  I'm seeing this week as the big hump to get over, because next week will be more low-key for me and then the course will be over.  So here's to hoping I have what it takes (I mean, I know I do, but hopefully I don't have to kill myself getting everything done).  Onward, ho!

A little bit more.

Three little tidbits to add to yesterday´s post.

1. Another thing I don´t like here is the subway.  I have a sort of love/hate relationship with it.  The subte proves super useful for getting around, but it´s so noisy!  Squeaking brakes and such.  Gives a me a wee headache every day.
2. I´ve reached 1,000 views for my blog!  Thanks to all of you.  Keep reading!
3. Today after our last class with the group of pre-intermediate students, they told us (or rather, Octavio told us) that we were the best teachers they´d had, and they all gave us kisses on the cheek, thanked us, and wished us luck.  I´ll miss this group, and it´s nice to know that we did actually connect with them during the two weeks we taught them.  A nice warm fuzzy feeling to add to the joy of Friday.

Back in the Saddle

This week, like the last one, has flown by like a rocket!  CELTA has kept me busy, as is to be expected.  I've taught twice this week and both classes have gone well.  Each time we have to plan more of the lesson on our own, with less and less information from our tutors.  Compare: in week one, this is the planning information they gave us for each lesson.

Reading, page 70.  Lead-in to topic - exercise 1.  Speak in pairs.  Feedback on content.  Gist task - exercise 2.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read alone.  Check in pairs.  Check as class.  Specific info task 1 - exercise 3.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read alone.  Check in pairs.  Check as class.  Specific info task 2 - exercise 4.  Demonstrate.  Check instructions.  Read individually.  Check answers in pairs.  Check answers as class.  Follow-up speaking - create some questions on topic.  Prepare individually.  Speak in pairs.  Feedback on content.  Feedback on language.

 In week two, this is what we get:

Grammar, page 89.  Continue context from yesterday.  Use guided discovery handout and sentences from text to clarify meaning, pronunciation, and form.  Exercise 1 - noticing language.  Exercise 2 - controlled practice.  Exercise 3 - less controlled practice.  Exercise 4 - freer practice (and/or speaking).  Feedback on content and language.

Much less helpful, right?  And here's what we have for next week:

Vocab, pages 114-115.

Ha.  Talk about weaning us.  I'm glad they do it this way (and in week four they don't tell us anything at all, so we generate the lesson completely on our own), but it makes for a lot more work every night you have to plan a lesson.  I've been consistently staying up until 1:30 or 2 in the morning finishing my plan and all the supplementary material we have to hand in before we teach, and then getting up early to get to school an hour early so I can print off student handouts and make any last-minute preparations.  You could say I'm a wee bit tired.  Throwback to my college days, when this was a pretty normal routine.  I'm a college grad now, though, which means I'm an old lady and keep an appropriately old-lady-like schedule..."early to bed and early to rise...".  At least, that's what I was (mostly) doing before I got back in the student saddle.

Despite that I may seem to be complaining (I'm not...that much), I'm still really enjoying the course and all the people in it.  We've started to develop good relationships with our students as we learn more about each other, but next week my teaching group will move to a different class where the students are at a higher level.  I'm not sure if I clarified this before, but there are a total of 12 of us who are taking the CELTA course, and we've been split into two teaching practice (TP) groups of 6 people each.  Within each group, three people teach per day, so we alternate teaching days.  My TP group has been working with students at a pre-intermediate level, while the other group is working with upper intermediate students.  Next week, we switch groups of students for the remaining two weeks of the course, so we all have the opportunity to work with learners at a couple of different skill levels.  Cool.

So today was my last lesson with our pre-int group...kinda sad, in a way.  I'm just about halfway through the course overall, and over halfway done with my teaching practice (I've done 5 of 9).  It's nice not to have to plan a lesson for tomorrow...now I just have to plan one for Monday, as well as doing a four-page little written assignment over the weekend.  Lots of work?  Yes.  Will I work all weekend?  Nope.  Three things are on my radar:

1. My friend Robin (also from Salida, lives here and has started a biking business with his college roomie)'s roomie (the one he started the business with) is leaving BA on Monday for a few weeks, so we're all working on some kind of get together before he takes off.  [P.S. How was that explanation for confusing?  I have to remember to be clear and concise for my students, so I have to get my unintelligible ya-yas out somewhere.  You lucky guinea pigs, you.]
2. On Sunday night there's a fútbol match between Boca and Racing, two national teams who are apparently pretty intense rivals.  My friend Greta (Argentine, in CELTA) and I are talking about going, because it would be a lot of fun with a properly crazy crowd.  We're still trying to find out about tickets and all that jazz, and this is still assuming we haven't totally procrastinated on our work come Sunday.
3. I haven't done any exercise besides walking to and from the subway station since I've been here (although I have started walking up and down the stairs at school instead of taking the elevator and everyone else is dong it too, because they feel lazy if they don't...haha!).  I could come up with all kinds of excuses if you like, but the fact of the matter is I've been lazy and I'm getting rather stir-crazy and I've decided to go for a run this weekend.  Here's hoping that it doesn't hurt my knee.

Other than that, my life is boring.  CELTA domintates.  Although I did still manage to find time to go watch the fútbol match between Argentina and Colombia (World Cup qualifiers) with some classmates in a bar near school.  Argentina won 2-1, but they didn't start really trying until the second half.  Both their goals were from deflected balls that the Colombian keeper couldn't hold on to, so they were rolling around in front of the net like early Christmas presents.  Apparently the Argentine team likes these presents.

Another fun little tidbit!  I met a teacher named Rebecca earlier this week who is from...guess where...Grand Junction!  She's been here in BA for about three years teaching English, after she took the CELTA (same as mine) and got a work visa.  Funny small world.  I love it.

I'll sign off this rambling post with two things I don't love about Argentina.  It's only fair, since last time I talked about all the good things.  So here's your food for thought:

• Inflation.  Even since we've been here, prices for some things at the supermarket have gone up, and even more so in the little fruit stands and places where they don't have set, tagged prices.  Some things (like cheese) are more expensive here than back home!  Ugh (stamps foot and rolls eyes).
• Spicy does not exist here.  Neither do black beans, tortillas, or a variety of veggies you can find at home.  This makes eating out somewhat monotonous...empanadas (delicious, but not for every day), pasta, pizza, paninis, etc.  Are you seeing the carbo loading going on here?  No wonder I'm stir crazy...my body wants to use all the bread I've been eating.  For the lack of spicy and a shortage of otherwise non-Italian food, I wish I was in Perú, or even better, in Oaxaca :) 

four things to love about argentina.

My, how time flies when you're having fun.  The past four days have been something of a blur, between class, teaching, lesson planning, a fútbol match, going out, and weekend homework.  I used my weekend to get behind on sleep instead of catching up, so we're gonna make this post a quickie.  I've been collecting an array of things in my head that I love about Argentina, so here they are, in no particular order (thus far):

1.  The men here, or at least some of them, are confident enough to give each other kisses on the cheek as a greeting.  This is a typical salutation between girls or girls and guys, but for two men to do it takes some guts, I think.  No one in Spain or Mexico dares to do it.  I've noticed that it seems to happen when the two guys are good friends, or maybe relatives.  Either way, nice show of no-homo affection!

2.  Empanadas and facturas.  Actually, make that all the pastries here.  And the bakeries they come from.  SO GOOD.  I don't know which group of European immigrants influenced the country enough to have a thriving pastry appetite, but I owe 'em one.  Empanadas are small, fist-sized pastried filled with savory delights, like corn, cheese, spinach, squash, or several types of meat if that's your fancy.  The dough is light and slightly flaky, with a nice balanced saltiness to it.  The facturas, on the other hand, are the sweet treats.  They're essentially half-moon croissants, made with sweet, flaky dough.  They come in various sizes; some are small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, while others are a good seven inches long.  Yum.

3.  The weather.  It's sunny and warm here, with the occasional thunderstorm.  Sure beats snow...

4.  The nightlife.  Granted, I've only been out one night thus far, but it was one of the best nights I've had in a long time: sangria and word/card games at Kate and Aminah's apartment (they are CELTA classmates) with other CELTees as well, then heading to a rooftop bar with a cool vibe around 2 am and staying there until sunrise, then heading to Alec's apartment with him and Brian (the CELTA comedians) to play guitar and sing for a while, then walking home with Brian (he lives across the street from me) talking, snacking on empanadas, and getting lost.  All told, I finally crawled into bed at 9:30 on Saturday morning.  I had no idea I could stay out that long, and it won't happen very often, but it was a great introduction to nightlife in BA.

That's all I care to come up with right now, but rest assured that more comments about Argentina and BA are on their way.  For now, I'm off to dream land...

I'm lovin' it

For the record, the above statement is gramatically incorrect and we shouldn't use it.  That's unfortunate.  It's one I actually use quite a bit.  So suck it, English language.  I'm sticking with it.  And I'm loving it.

Know what else I'm loving?  My CELTA course!  I know I say this every time, but my classmates really are fantastic.  We're coming out of our shells more and more, and we have some really funny people in this world.  Quick thinkers.  Example: today when Brian, our Scotsman, was teaching, one of the students told him that he scared them, because of his accent and the quickness of his speech.  I would've been taken aback, but no, not Brian.  He fired right back: "Well, you scare me."  BOOM.  I was shaking from laughing so hard while trying not to make a sound.  Second example: (background first: our tutors like to tell us not to do things when we teach because we'd be opening a can of worms, and we don't want to do that to ourselves) during our afternoon session, our tutor asked us what else came in cans besides Coca-Cola.  We're all listing things like soup and vegetables and then Alec casually says, "worms."  We almost didn't catch it, but then our tutor did a little double take and his clever mischief was discovered.  We all had a healthy laugh about that one too.  Come to think about it, laughter is one thing that we're all really good at, and we laugh a lot.  So even though the course is intensive and we're there for at least eight hours a day, it doesn't feel as bad as it good because we've got nice light and fun attitudes about it.

By today I've had an official hour of observed teaching practice, 20 minutes yesterday and 40 today.  I was more nervous yesterday, I think just because it was the first day and I always put a pressure on myself to do above and beyond well. The lessons for both days did go off decently, although my students the first day were a bit unruly.  Today's session was much better in that way...we had 5 women who are all interested in learning but could be directed more easily than the 8 students we had the day before.

Let me paint a picture of today's class for you.  We've got a group of students who basically get free lessons for putting up with our training in progress; they pay a deposit of 100 pesos and if they show up to 80% of our sessions, they get their money back at the end.  They're all pretty funny...since our class is in the middle of the morning, from 9:30 to 11:30, most of our students don't work, or at least not regularly.  So picture a room of middle-aged women and the token male (named Octavio) who likes to ask us girls awkward questions about boyfriends and succeeds in making us very uncomfortable somehow.  It's fun.  Today, we had 5 women: Dolly, Ana Maria, Mirta, Yoon, and Renee (see, I remember their names!).  There are three of us slated to teach each day, and while one works with the students, the rest of us in our group of six are seated in the back watching and writing down our observations.  Aminah went first today, then Brian (with the lovely escapade you read about earlier), and then me.  I woke up feeling pretty confident, and I wasn't nervous at all, so I was able to enjoy my lesson.  Our topic was horoscopes, and we had to talk about them in the context of a magazine article that we read about how some employers look up the star signs of potential hires to learn about their personalities and decide whether or not they'd be good candidates for the job.  You may be impressed, but don't be: at this point, all of our lessons and exercises are coming out of a workbook.  Each week we have more freedom and expectation to come up with our own stuff, until finally in week four we plan the entire lesson from scratch.  Our class is at a pre-intermediate level, but we were able to have some good discussions about horoscopes and their validity, and I felt that it went really well overall.  In our follow-up feedback session, it turned out that my classmates and our tutor shared my view of the lesson, which was encouraging, but I also got some good reminders and suggestions from everyone.

After this input session, we're given an hour for lunch, and return to the school at 2 pm for our afternoon instruction sessions, where one of our tutors walks us through types of example lessons and gives us more skills to add to our teaching arsenal.  This takes us till 5 pm, and then it's either time to head home or time to get going on the lesson plan for the next day.  Thus passes every day of the week for us.  The number of hours and amount of information that we cover makes for a long day, but for now I'm enjoying it.  I'm turning into a teacher!

Diving In

I started my CELTA class today!  I like all my fellow classmates, and our tutors seem to be pretty funny and truly interested in us and our success, so we're off to a good start.  We've already got a lot of work to do, and I think it'll only get more intense as we teach more involved lessons.  Tomorrow we're all splitting up the two-hour session with our learners and teaching a short activity each.  Talk about diving right in.  I think everyone in the class is unsure of what to expect, even though we observed our classes today and know generally what level the students are at, etc.  It's one thing to watch someone else teach and a whole different animal to do it yourself, but I'm glad that we're getting so much practice with this course, and starting right off the bat.  Stay tuned for the results...

Other than trying to recoop my health and energy to start class, I haven't been doing much for the past few days.  Taking it easy is good for me, and not something I do very often, so I suppose it was a good usage of time.  Since I've been pretty lazy and slightly bedridden, I've blasted through quite a few movies: Lord of the Rings (The Fellowship), Pirates #4, Crazy Stupid Love, Four Christmases, Water for Elephants, Puss in Boots...as well as catching up on past episodes of the Sing Off.  Disclaimer: I'm really not this much of a TV person.  I'd rather be outside doing something fun and active, but since my stomach wouldn't have liked that too well, and my knee won't let me go for a run anyway, I decided to give in to my sedate state and veg out.  I did enjoy it, but it's nice to be busy doing things again.  I may take that statement back next week when I'm run down, but for now I'm relishing in the purpose of each day.

Also, rather randomly, I've been doing some reflecting on life, relationships, and people, partly spurred by news from a dear friend of mine about the recent death of her father, and the anniversary of the death of a different dear friend's pops.  Both of these situations, though inherently very distinct from one another, seem incredibly unfair to me, and it's times like these when I have a hard time holding to my philosophy that everything happens for a reason.  I know eventually the reason will show from it, but is there ever really a reason that a loved one has to be taken away from us so suddenly and prematurely?  As cliché as it sounds, the obvious lesson from it is to appreciate the people you have in your life and let them know how much they mean to you, because they could be snatched away from you just like that.  Remind me again of why I've moved so far away from all the people I care about?

Interestingly enough, one of my housemates, Andrés (the elder) and I had a little conversation about this a few nights ago.  We were talking about the independence that so many kids in the states seem to adopt and feel entitled to, and how for some, family values have totally fallen by the wayside, in sharp contrast to the majority of people that I've met in Latin America.  He told me a story of a Colombian girl he knew who was here in Buenos Aires and decided to go home because she couldn't stand being so far away from all her family.  He asked me what I would do if one of my family members, like a grandparent, died...would I go back to be with everyone, or would I stay where I am in Buenos Aires?  I didn't have to think long about the answer, but I did pause for shame.  I honestly would stay where I am (this actually happened to me last summer while I was in Spain).  Is that bad?  I guess the biggest reason for me staying put is that plane tickets are expensive.  But that shouldn't be a deterrent if it was really important for me to get back home for a family affair.  Does that mean that I don't value my family enough?  Who's to determine how much is enough?  For the record, all my dear relatives who are reading this, I love you all with all I am, and I hope you know this.  But what does it mean if I say that, yet act differently?

I'll leave it as a rhetorical question, put out there as a thought provoker.  And on a happier note, I've been thinking a lot about what it is that makes traveling with someone, even a person you just met, such a special and trusting thing.  Let's think about the way I traveled around Perú, for example.  I met two guys in a bar, they invited me to go camping with them, and I didn't have a second thought.  This is totally not something I would do with two characters from a bar in Colorado.  I could flatter myself and say that I'm just an excellent judge of character and knew I didn't have anything to worry about, but that would be an exaggeration.  True, I didn't feel there was any cause to worry, but why was I so quick to trust?  And not just me, but them as well?  And all the travelers everywhere who have spontaneously decided to merge their paths and walk together for a while?  It's because there is some kind of unspoken camaraderie and trust amongst travelers.  I'm still working out exactly what this consists of, or how to explain it, but I think I'm making progress.  The most basic explanation I can proffer is that since we're all out of our routine and our comfort zone, to varying degrees, we're apt to drop all the precautions and prejudices we otherwise would've been instructed by, and we forge relationships with everybody we meet.  These bonds are crazy fast, but also remarkably strong.  Why?  I don't rightly know.

Stay tuned...and tell them that you love them.  I love you!

Rain! and more pictures

We're having quite a thunderstorm here in BA!  It's been sunny every day until today.  The thunder is awesome.

Also, I've added some more pictures for your viewing pleasure (and Mom, I added them here first, just for you):  Huaraz, Laguna Churup, Cuzco, the Lares trek, and Machu Picchu!

A post-birthday note.

I'm 22! + a day.  I'd like to report that I did many wonderful things for my birthday yesterday, but that would be a lie.  Truth be told, I've been sleeping for the majority of each day since I arrived in Buenos Aires, I suppose owing to the fact that I've been fighting some kind of bug.  Up until yesterday, it was just body aches and fatigue that got me down, but then things stepped up a notch.

I woke up yesterday midmorning, and decided to indulge my hankering to watch the Lion King.  There have been posters up for it everywhere since it's coming out in 3D, so I just had to take that little trip down memory lane.  The movie was great, and I tried to motivate myself to get out of bed when it was over, but no such luck.  I felt sleepy (like the two days prior) so I took a nice long nap.  I finally did talk myself into getting up, putting on some clothes, and going for a little stroll outside, since some exercise usually helps me to feel better.  I walked down Avenida Santa Fe to a cell phone store, where I put some credit on the chip that I'd purchased the day before, and then I hopped on the metro (locally known as the subte) to go find out where my class will be come Monday.  I was feeling tired still, so the stroll acquired a lazy pace, and I snacked on a delicious giant pear I'd bought from a fruit stand as I wandered around the neighborhood of Belgrano.  I finally found my school building, and noted the time as I walked away so I could get an idea of how long it might take me to get there on Monday morning for my first day of class.  6 pm, on the dot.  I made my way back to the subte and hopped on the train going in the opposite direction, towards home.  About two stops before mine, I started to feel increasingly dizzy and weak...all I wanted to do was sit down, but all the seats were taken.  By the time someone noticed that I wasn't doing so hot, my stop had arrived, so I thanked them for their concern but said that I would be fine.  Not.  My timing in getting off the subte couldn't have been better...right as I reached the top of the exit staircase, I was sweating and disoriented, and my vision was clouding over.  Great.  Luckily I was right by a galería, a small mall of sorts, so I sat on the ground in front of one of the shops to ride out the storm.  It took about ten seconds for a nice lady to come and ask me if I was alright, and if I wanted her to call health services or anything.  I told her that I just needed to sit for a minute to clear my head, and she walked away (just, as it turned out, into the shop next door to get them to call for help).  I don't know how long I was sitting there (couldn't have been more than a couple minutes) but my maladies gradually disappeared and I felt well enough to walk home, which I wanted to do quickly so I could be sick in bed rather than on the street.  Suffice it to say that I was scared, because that had never happened to me before, and I now had to acknowledge the fact that I was sick, and not just tired.

I lay low for a couple hours, and then, feeling better and stronger, decided to venture to my friend Robin's house, per his invitation.  Robin is a fellow Salidan (graduated the year before I started high school) who has co-founded a biking tour business here in BA with his college roommate, called Biking Buenos Aires.  Yay for getting people out of cars and onto two wheels!  Our high school Spanish teacher put us in touch, once she found out that I was headed to Argentina, and Robin has been a great help in answering my questions about the city and offering their couch if I need a place to crash (if I brought them peanut butter in return, which I did and they looked like kids at Christmas when they heard about it).  Robin and his roomies Mike, BJ, and Troy live about ten blocks from me, so it was a nice walk to get some "fresh" air.  When I arrived, the power was out in a two-block radius around their apartment, so I found their door by the light of my phone and was ushered in to a candlelit living room.  Shortly after I arrived, TR (another Salida kid spending a year of his high school career studying abroad in Neuquen) got back with a birthday cake...chocolate, walnuts, and dulce de leche.  So yummy!  I was serenaded in español and then cut the cake - by candlelight, which means that the pieces were all sorts of wacky, but it just added to the fun.  We all sat around and talked for a while, and then, *bling* the lights came back.  The open balcony door ushered in the sounds of people cheering on the street at the return of power.

The guys had been waiting to eat dinner, since they couldn't see to cook, and by the time the power came back, it seemed like a good time to call for delivery.  They decided to go for a new Chinese place, and though I wasn't feeling super hungry after my slice of cake, I ordered some too...Chinese makes for great leftovers.  We sat around eating and talking (and they gave me an avocado to go with my veggie rice, for my birthday!) our way through Chinese food, a bottle of wine from Neuquen that TR brought, and cake and ice cream (banana split!) for them until someone mentioned Forrest Gump.  Which of course got us all thinking about it and saying that, even as tired as we were, we'd stay up to watch that movie.  We gathered around the TV, but as the movie went on our numbers slowly dwindled, heavy eyelids winning over us one by one.  I dozed on the couch through the second half of the film, waking at random intervals but never for long.  By the time it was over, Mike and TR were the only ones left, and I decided it was time to head home, even though it turned out to be 3 in the morning (I was feeling a bit ill again, and wanted to be sick in my bed, not on their couch).  TR walked me down to the street to catch a cab, and not long afterwards I collapsed gratefully into my bed and slept until 1:45 this afternoon.

And thus passed my birthday.  Since I've been doing a lot of sleeping here so far (lame, yes) I haven't done a whole bunch else, except for that the night before last I was kindly taken around the center of town by two of my Colombian housemates, both names Andrés.  They are 18 and 19 and are here studying, and they're two of the nicest people I've met.  They took me downtown on the subte, and showed me the Obelisco, the Casa Rosada, Avenida Florida, and the Puente de la Mujer.  We walked and talked for a couple hours, and hung out in the communal kitchen eating and playing guitar (yes, the elder Andrés had a guitar!  I'm saved!) upon our return.  We stayed up past midnight, so they were technically the first ones to wish me a happy birthday and help me usher in my 22nd year.  What an interesting one it's been so far...

So, my priorities for the next three days before class starts: get well, finish the pre-course assignments for my class, get well, ride in the masa critica on Sunday, get well, hopefully meet up with some classmates prior to Monday, and let's see, did I mention get well yet?  Fingers crossed that yesterday was the low point and that from here I'll just be getting better.  Now to try to stay awake to do some homework!  Ta-ta for now, love, me.

Buenos Aires, buenas vibras

So, I made it.  Soooo relieved to be in a place with a bed!  Instead of a table.  If you can't imagine it already, spending a night in the airport is less than fun, but I did catch maybe an hour and a half of sleep in the food court sitting at a table with my head down.  Woke up to the sound of seven or eight guys drinking beers at 6 in the morning...hey, when in Rome, I guess.  I grabbed a cinnamon roll for breakfast and awaited Carlos's arrival with my duffel.  Awfully nice of him to drive it all the way out to the airport for me.  We didn't have much time to chat by the time he got there, and I got through security and to the gate just in time to start boarding the plane.

I flew with LAN, which turns out to be a really nice airline.  They give you blankets and pillows and each seat has a personal TV lodged in the back of the chair in front of it.  Somehow, by the greatest stroke of luck ever, I had the whole middle row to my self...3 seats beckoning for me to lay down and doze off.  Which is exactly what I did for the whole four-hour plane ride.  And I felt so much better!

Getting through immigration and customs was easy peasy, and per suggestion from my hosts in town, I took a bus service that left me right at the doorstep of my new home.  I've yet to wander around the neighborhood (Palermo), but it seems like a good area of town with everything I need within a few blocks.  Laura, the daughter of the woman who owns this place (Eva), is very friendly, as I'm getting a sense that most Argentines are, and I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up.  I have my own small room right next to a bathroom and kitchen on the second story of a really nice house which doubles as Eva's real estate office.  There are three little dogs, two Colombians, and one other Argentine girl who live here as well.

For the most part, I've unpacked everything and am settling in well.  I'm just now realizing how stinky all my clothes and sleeping bag and hiking boots are...the one window is wide open in here to help air everything out.  You know you've had a good trip and been in good places when this is the case.

In general, I'm getting a great feeling about being here...the buenas vibras are strong.  It's sunny and springtime, so what could be better?  Woo I'm in Argentina!

An observation

So, yes, it's currently 3:06 in the morning and I'm still awake.  I've been sitting at this same table at a restaurant in the Lima airport for the past...hmm...7 or 8 hours.  Yikes.  I think the people that work here are wondering what the crazy gringa is doing with her computer, her book, her headphones, and two backpacks.  Hey, it's a fair question (lucky for you all, I've been updating this blog, since I neglected it while I was off galavanting around in the mountains).

I'm about ready to pack it in and find a place to catch a couple zees before Carlos gets here with my other duffel bag that I left at his house when I departed Lima.  But as I was perusing my friend Louisa's blog, I realized I haven't done much reflecting about this trip thus far, and the rest of my plans for South America, or at least I haven't blogged about it.  So here's one little tidbit to make up for that: the sense of pride I get when I tell people what the next half year of my life is gonna look like.  You know, you meet new people in your travels, you always ask what they've done and where they're off to next, and they (hopefully) reciprocate the questions.  Everyone's got their interesting little story, and the most common response is that people are just traveling around through a few countries on the continent, which is awesome, and immediately links us as kindred spirits.  Even better is when you find someone who's got some other motive for being where they are, like volunteering or studying or working or whatever.  Proud to say that I fall into that category, generally.  True, Perú has been my playground, and I've been doing the usual touring about here, but then I think about what else I have ahead of me...my CELTA course in Buenos Aires, and then let's not forget the long-awaited four months of work in Patagonia at CP.  That one is really the gi-frickin-normous cherry on top of the cake, and it gives me some other sense of connection to and ownership of my future and this place.  It's pretty cool to see peoples' facial expressions when CP comes up, because I know how I would feel if I met someone telling me that that was their plan.  JEALOUS.  And inspired.  So I'm doing my best to honor those feelings and live up to them.  Boom.  Ready, go.

Just had to share.  Thanks for listening.