Dear Charles, #4
so i had my first day of work today. wasn't really how i thought my first day would go but it was alright. my schedule is like, crazy, crazy, crazy. i am working with almost every grade level from 1st through 10th grade, which is a good variety but i feel like i am constantly changing my mind set, and who i am talking to and how etc. especially because they're not only different grade levels but different languages. or...different levels in their english more like. i am doing a lot of one on one tutoring with ESL kids and helping them refine their papers or homework assignments, and then one on one with elementary helping them with spelling and word comprehension and stuff.
there's this one little girl named esther, and i am tutoring her on her math...shes in third grade, and from india, just to set this scene a little bit. so i was going over some multiplication/division cards with her and then she had a work sheet with long addition, subtraction, multip., and division to do. of course i am a graduated american teenager who only ever uses her calculator anymore (my argument all through grade school that i would always use a calculator has proven to be true...told you mom) so i had to re-teach myself how to do these problems and fast so that i didnt look like an idiot in front of this girl. so the first couple problems i let her do by herself...then my freakin job came in, she needed help. great. i did the problems with her and then checked my calculator (haha) on my ipod for help and got a different answer then she did, so i re did my math and realized the mistake and told her that we needed to fix it and she shook her head and said " no i think your computer is wrong, i learned it this way so its right" so clearly i have a case in my hands. we worked through it and i got her to understand how to work the problem out the right way. *phew* i thought i was gonna have to take out a third grader there for awhile.
the rest of my day was pretty slow...im not exactly sure what im really doing yet so i think everyday will be a bit of an adventure. and to think these people are letting me teach their children. hahaha. its weird for me to think that the current events class that i am teaching to 10th graders i am totally coming up with as i go along...and this is their high school education. but i guess i can give an assignment that i dont really know anything about and they do the research and come up with their own knowledge. it all works out. so lucky for me i can pretty much do all of this without knowing what the heck im doing. haha good good good.
i have to admit that everyday i just look forward to when i get to eat. the food has not let me down yet. except for the crickets i munched on this weekend...they were a bit of a disappointment. and by disappointment i mean they were gross and weird. but i'm trying everything that is offered to me...including steaming cups of mysterious liquids and food that looks like someone just threw it up. usually ends up pretty good...but its also usually pretty spicy. (the person just ate like 60 hot peppers, yay for me)
as for entertainment....i wont tell you guys that my house mate has all the seasons of 'friends' *cough cough* that i have been watching almost any free moment i get. YOU KNOW, all those moments that IM NOT enjoying this beautiful country and getting out and experiencing the culture or meeting strangers and creating memories that will last a life time...*cough.......cough..* alright im gonna go eat some yummy curry or something. Sawadee-ka, Anna