Adios, Max y Franzi!!!

Yesterday, I was so tired that I ended up going to sleep at 9:45 PM.  I'm not sure what it was that made me so tired...maybe just because it was Monday.   Lauren and I were late because the taxi driver who comes to drive us to Concepcion was twenty minutes late.   When we got there, some of the girls in my class ran out to give me a kiss.  They grabbed onto my arms to walk back up to the classroom together.  I didn't have much prepared for my youngest class, and a lot of them were late because it was raining.  I've been defaulting to reading them books at the end of class because it is a good way to teach and fill up the time.  They really liked the book, "Go, Dogs, Go."  They liked it so much they asked me to read it to them again.

We only had three students in our older class, and only one of them had done the homework I had assigned on Friday.  I was a bit disappointed.  My faith in them was restored when they did really well with the lesson I planned.  I'm making them ask me all questions in English now.  It works quite well.  I've also been trying to speak less in Spanish.  Sometimes I get blank looks, but I tell them to ask me questions.

When Lauren and I were in the taxi going back to Huancayo, there were two other guys in the taxi with us.  The man who was sitting next to Lauren started making conversation with us...well I guess with me because Lauren couldn't understand most of what he was saying.  He was delving a little too deep after awhile and I was hoping that he wouldn't follow us after we got out of the taxi.  We went to go try to find the post office, partly because I wanted to go and partly to lose the guy from the taxi.  It was starting to rain pretty heavily, so we gave up on our post office search, went to get our laundry at the mall, and then went home to eat lunch.

There's a new woman who is doing the cooking.  They are trying it out so that Mari has some of the load taken off of her back.  Personally, I think Mari is a better cook, but I'm glad she is getting some stress taken off of her.  Another woman had come to help her with the cleaning, but Mari told me that she left because she said it was too much work.  So crazy!  I had my Spanish lesson and then looked into web design again.  When Lauren came back from the mountain school, we went back out to look for the post office.  It started raining harder while we were walking there.  I got some postcards and some more information while we were there, then we headed back home through the rain.

I prepared some things for my older class and Mari was talking to Max and I at the same time.  Max was keeping his ankle elevated because he had rolled it for the second time playing sports with the kids at the mountain school.  When I finished I wanted to take a shower, but there was no water and Tino and Mari had gone upstairs.  I was so sad that I didn't get to take a proper shower that I dreamt that I was taking a shower.  I got up around 6:30 and there was water, so I took a nice shower.  :)

It was Max and Franzi's last day here, so Lauren and I said goodbye to them after we all had breakfast.  It's going to be strange not having them here.  Now there are just 4 volunteers here.

The same three girls came to greet me when Lauren and I got out of the taxi in Concepcion.  Paola, Milagros, Marycruz, and Jhon (no, that is not a typo) were asking me about my family and where I lived.  They were also asking about Lauren and if she was my sister, when we were both leaving, and lots of other questions.  It was nice because they were engaged, asking me questions in Spanish and I was answering in English.  Because of that, I went over vocabulary of the family.

Jhon is so cute.  He always comes up and says, "Hola, profesora," with a big smile on his face and then gives me a kiss on the cheek.  He's a bit shy which is why I think he looks a bit scared in the picture.  He's really smart, but a lot of times he gets drowned out by some of the girls who are guessing answers.

This is Jhon.  He looks a bit scared here, but when he smiles he is the cutest!

For the older class, more students were back.  Apparently they had gone to some event in Lima.  The boys had done their homework, but the girls hadn't.  I had been planning to go over the homework, but I decided to wait until tomorrow and then have our first exam on Thursday.  Lauren and I were tired, so we let the class out a little bit early.

The taxi driver of the taxi we were going to take was pushing the car up after the first taxi in the lineup left.  I was a little be wary of that, but we still went over to ask the driver about the cost.  He had to open the door up from the inside because there was no handle on the door.  The car looked okay, so I wasn't too worried, but I was definitely happy when we got back to Huancayo.  We stopped at a store to make copies on our way home.  When we got home, some boys were following us and threw two water balloons at us in front of our front door.  I was dry, but Lauren got soaked.  She was not happy about that.  When we went upstairs, lunch was ready for us.  We told Mari what had happened and she looked out the window and said, "Where are those boys?  I'll go and hit them back."  :)

I had my Spanish lesson a little bit late today, so I didn't make it to the mountain school.  Instead I graded the homework that was handed in today and went to look for some other books that I could read to my younger students.  When the others came back, we went into the living room to watch a movie.  Emil was the only one really watching it.  The rest of us were doing other things while we "watched."  Tino brought us some popcorn to eat while we watched.

Then we were called to eat dinner.  Tino ate dinner with us tonight since there were two empty seats.  After dinner we spent a lot of time talking and now, I'm finishing my blog.  I'm ready for a shower and then settling into the fresh sheets on my bed.  :)

Buenas noches!!!