2 Weeks in...

We’ve now been in the country for almost two weeks. We’re still learning new things everyday as we become more acclimated to the culture.

Life at home is pretty good. I am excited that as time goes on we have more and more things to do and prepare for. I don’t handle down time very well, which may be something that God is trying to teach me. I struggled a bit this weekend with being homesick. It’s hard to think of everything I’m missing by not being back in Texas. I just have to keep remembering that I feel that God led me here for a purpose and that I have things to learn from being here. I know it will get better as school begins and my time is filled with thoughts about teaching kids and learning Spanish once we begin at Berlitz.

I finally got my school assignment today and am teaching K-4. It’s been hard because they still don’t know how many kids are in each class because parents keep registering students daily. They were waiting to see if they needed me as a 2nd grade teacher, but not all the students from last year are coming back so they are using me in pre-school where they had an opening. I walked into the room and saw that everything was still up from last year. I had to take down everything from last year then begin to build things up as I wanted them. I had to think way back to when I worked at the CDRC (Child Development Research Center) and remember what it was like to work with 4 year olds. I used the shelving that I had to create centers and started putting a few things on the wall. I did not come prepared to work with 4 year olds, so we’ll see how this all goes. I’ll really have to work on being creative to fill the time and teach the standards.

These past weeks I’ve also realized how much of a control freak I am. Right now I feel like hardly anything is in my control and it’s driving me crazy! I know that I am a very independent person, but didn’t think it would affect what happened down here. Apparently, I really like to have control of everything and that’s one reason why the adapting process is taking longer than I would have liked. I feel that this is another thing that God wants to teach me. I could be learning a lot more than I planned on this year…

Overall things are going pretty well. As life gets a little busier it should be better. School starts on Wednesday so things should definitely pick up. We also begin training at Berlitz this weekend so that we can begin teaching English. I am looking forward to teaching as well as taking a Spanish class. I am ready to break the language barrier and finally fully understand what’s going on. I know life will get a lot easier once we understand the language and more about the culture.