Weekly conversations

The excitement of the new school year is starting fade off. Which is nice because students are falling into the routine of the school day and so am I. This week we have had a lot of visitors at the school evaluating and seeing how the school is running. Which means I have been a little busier than normal and why I haven’t had a chance to write this week. Tomorrow we have an assembly in the afternoon and all the teachers are excited because they are bringing local food and they want to see our faces when we try it. I can only imagine how much entertainment my students will also get from this. I am excited to see what they all bring in. The assembly we are having is for our new building that was built on the school campus. It is comparable to a large garden shed with no walls. This is where students will meet to have school wide assemblies or school wide meetings. They just finished building the building when we arrived on the island and we are just now going to have the opening ceremony. I have no idea what we are doing but that is nothing out of the normal for me!

The best part of the school being in session for almost a month is I am finally getting to know my students and all the little things they do. At lunch the other day Virginia goes do you’re students do this weird eyebrow thing to you guys? Both Dana and I were like yes they do it all the time and it creeps me out. Whenever we ask our students a question they would look us in the eye and just raise their eyebrows. I had no idea what this meant and I was just like whatever I will just let it happen. So after this conversation I went back to my classroom and asked my students what it means when you raise your eyebrows and look someone in the eyes. They said oh teacher that means that we are saying yes or agreeing to you. It all makes sense and know I catch myself doing it right back at them. Once I think that I have this culture completely figured out I find something new about it.

Most of our nights in the house turn into us just talking about our day and all that occurred. Some of the topics that come up in conversation are kind of interesting but it never gets boring. The fact that technology is almost non-existent in our house means that some days we do a lot of talking. I really like just sitting around and talking. Virginia always has some little fun fact that she read about somewhere along the line that she adds in every once in a while. Dana and I always joke about how we are going to know so many weird facts once we get back from here. Tonight at our house we were all going through what we would like to describe as American food deprivation. Our little mart across the water only carries a very small variety of food. I would have to say my diet here consists of beef patties, potatoes, pasta, and grilled cheese sandwiches. We have been eating these meals for about two months straight and have started craving some different foods. We tend to joke around with the others about food they really like and describing it in great detail just to bug the other person. Tonight we were talking about chocolate and how much we miss have chocolate. We then got talking about s’mores and at one point Dana was plugging her ears because she was like stop talking about it its making it worse. To say the least next time we go downtown we are going to be on a mad hunt for s’more supplies.

With Love,

Abby