Segundo Dia

Our second day at the school was great. The students are so bright and curious about us and our culture. In the halls the students from other classes all want to practice their English on us by saying "hello, and how are you?" We are working with what they call junior 3 (third grade)throughout the day and taking the last hour to work with some upper grades. The first part of the day is all in Spanish, and the second half is all in English (including break time outside in a beautiful courtyard where they jump rope or play futbol or cards) Today we went up to junior 6 and the students had prepared some questions to ask us. They are working on interviewing skills like taking notes which are collected and graded by their teacher the following day. The students' questions were great and their interest in our lives in America was flattering. The only confusion I had was when one young man asked me how did I get up this morning? I told him I have an alarm set on my cell phone, to which he re-stated his question, did I feel good this morning (como te sientes hoy cuando levantes?). This is just one example of the type of kindness that we have found to be typical of our new friends in Argentina. Another friendly exchange worth mentioning was our adventure for helado a noche (ice cream last night) where we were welcomed to try small spoonfuls of each flavor, nothing like some taste testing to break the language barrier, and for a minute I felt like I was at 31 flavors until we sat outside to enjoy a lovely patio seat and to watch the tall palms that line the road sway in the wind.

Arival

We got to Buenos Aires after our plane was delayed for twelve hours in Houston. The first day at the school was great. We met our students and also had a meeting with the English Headmaster do discuss what other types of things that we can do to help the school. At the end of the day the students wait in lines outside in the courtyard as the flag is taken down. It was windy today and the flag was wrapped up so I was able to help right away in retrieval; as I did so the headmaster said that what she needed was a man to do the job. The students told me that I am the first male teacher that they have had. I hope that I can be share my positive attitude an enthusiasm for learning with them in these next couple months. Our supervising teachers are very nice young ladies who's classrooms are much simpler than what we are used to in the states. My first impressions of Buenos Aires are great. We had a nice dinner late last night. From what we understand it is normal to eat dinner around eleven pm but our bodies are not used to that quite yet. We just shared a frozen pizza at our apartment and are going to go out for ice cream (helado). Hablaremos con mas detalles manana.