Are you handsome? No, because I am a woman...

Where or where shall I begin?

I know that is has been way too long since my last post but I have been a busy little bee since then.... I have been teaching 2 classes...one from 2-6 and one from 6-10....so I get up, plan, go to work, come home, plan a little bit, go to bed...get up and it start's all over again. ... it has been crazy but if I did not love what I was doing I would be complaining about it.

(this is a picture of Sonja and I at her birthday party with one of her students; Belionel!)

I guess I will start with my most recent news because that is what I remember best. Today, we woke up and realized that we were out of water, toilet paper, eggs, and a few other odds and ends...We went to the colmado to see what we could find in there...We got in there and it was very overwhelming...people everywhere...We were not sure when to say what we needed, if we should just stand in line until someone would let us speak, wait until someone asked us...so we just stood there. We stood there and then some nice lady who was also standing in there (not working) said what do you guys need? So we told her, water, eggs, platanos y toilet paper. She yelled at the guy behind the counter and told him what we needed...he got everything for us except for the platanos because they were out.... A couple of minutes later she said ok how many platanos do you want? And I said, but they don't have any? And she said...I do..in my house, how many do you want? I will go get them for you.... So I told her six...she said come with me...So I followed her to her house just down the street and she gave me 6 plantanos out of her fridge...and I said, how nice, thank you so much and she said "it is the way of us here."

We got back to the store and went on our way without telling anyone where we lived and of course, without fail about 5 minutes later he came the owner with our eggs and water; he knew exactly where we lived!

As most of you probably could have assumed....The mosquitos are back at it AGAIN! The other night during class I kept noticing that my leg was itching but I could not figure out why...I got home, took my pants off....only to find 12 bites on one of my legs....I don't know what happened...since then they have been having a party with my leg.... Here is a picture for you to enjoy! I have been doing some research but have found nothing to help..except that I did see that they can smell their prey from 50 meters away which I thought was very interesting! A fun fact for you all! I am going back to Santo Domingo again this weekend, so I will talk with some people and see if they have any suggestions for me on how to fix this crazy problem that I am having.

So..I am going back to Santo Domingo..again...Why? Because I got invited to a wedding...am I nervous? Like you would not believe!! I don't know what to wear, what to think, what to say, what lanauge to think in, how to dance...all of the above! But I am also very excited because I think you all know how I feel about weddings! I also think you all know how I feel about good, latin music and watching people who can acutally dance ( which brings me to tell you all how sad I am that I am missing dancing with the stars this season). Anyway..I will be sure to take a lot of pictures of Victor and msyelf all dressed up, and of the wedding, and anything else that looks like fun!

What next? You are probably all wondering about the name of this blog "are you handsome? no, because I am a woman." I LOVE my students...they are so smart.... This week I have been teaching them about personality and apperance. I have been teaching them about being short, tall, quiet, talkative, shy, serious, pretty, handsome, etc.... I gave them a quiz yesterday and they had to write down the question that I said and then write the answer about themselves... Most of them wrote " Are you tall? yes I am. ARe you shy? No I'm not... one sweet, wonderful, smart girl wrote: "Are you handome? No, because I am a woman." My heart smiled when I read this... It shows me that people ARE learning..they DO get it! My sweet, sweet Alcibiades (the student who wants to ask me 3 questions every day after class) asked me the difference between Can I and May I... I love it!!!

I do have some students who are still getting on my nerves because they will not stop speaking Spanish.... today I couldn't take it any longer so I finally treated them like 5 year olds and told them if they did not stop I would put each one of them in a different corner of the room.... I told them if they were speaking Spanish they clearly did not want to learn English and if they did not want to learn English then they could leave.... after that they pretty much did not say another word...except like 20 minutes later one of the girls who I yelled at (who I acutally really like) said "teacher...are you mad at me?" To which I said, no Brekyn I am not mad, I just want you to stop. The other apologized to me after class...hopefully tomorrow we do not have those problems anymore. Because I spent two days yelling at that class I have a bit of a sort throat. When I walked into my other class I told them right away..I am not in a good mood, my throat hurts, do NOT speak Spanish, do NOT be rude and do NOT make me yell at you...during break one of my students brought me 2 cough drops...he said "here teacher... for your throat." I could have cried!

On Tuesday this week I was walking to school, carrying my purse, a huge bag, my computer, a stero, and a folder, which I carry every day...I was walking and I saw two of my students, Daniel and Diomedes...they stopped me and said teacher, we help you...so they helped me carry my things to school... by help I mean they took everything and I just walked. Then, yesterday it was around 1:15 and I heard a horn honk outside of our house... I looked out and there they were ...Daniel and Diomedes in a truck, they were there to pick me up! :) Today, I was walking to school ( secretly hoping to run into them again) and I turned my corner and there they were...sitting on a bench just waiting for me to walk by...again, I could have cried! They got up and said teacher let us help you...again they carried all of my things.

I am IN LOVE with generosity around here.

Anyway... it's after midnight, I have another long day ahead of me tomorrow.... catch you all next week sometime when my life slows down and I can acutally blog more often and hopefully catch you on skype!

Have a GREAT weekend!