Life at school Sept. 7, 2004

We have been so busy lately. We have found an apartment! Joe and I have been pounding the pavement once again each day looking for a place to move into. We already told our present landlord that we would only be staying a month, and we had nowhere to move to. We got really desperate when the simsaar (apartment finder) started to take us to our own apartment! He said he knew of a place where they took dogs and the couple was moving out at the end of October. We started walking toward our apartment and when we said our address we all had a good laugh. I lost sleep that night, however, not knowing if there were any apartments available anywhere in the area. It's crazy how it can be so difficult to find an apartment in a city this size. There seem to be empty balconies and buildings all over the place, but then there are no apartments to be had. It's not like you can just go to an apartment complex where apartments are opening up all the time.

We came back to the simsaar the next day, though, and he showed us a pretty good apartment. It's bigger than what we have now. It has a balcony and (yeah!!!!) an automatic washer. The floor is even wood instead of the all-over, glistening black tile that we have now. I think that we will be pretty comfortable there. The landlord has three children, and his son goes to the same school that we teach at but at a different campus. We had to drive a hard bargain, but we got a pretty decent price. (Today, the landlord said I was a good bargainer.) They seem to be very nice people and they live next door. They kept trying to impress us with the fact that no one can come upstairs unless we send the elevator down. Not only that, but no one can walk upstairs because there's an iron door blocking the stairs. Deluxe security :)

As for school, where do I begin. Our students are very normal. It took a few days for things to work themselves out. There were diagnostic tests to be given, and then we have the most messed up teaching schedule that may ever have existed. Every day the students and teachers have a completely new schedule. Some days, they have double periods of some subjects. Some days they have a single period. Some days they don't meet at all! I'm surprised that the students don't just wander around looking stupified (okay, many of them do). It's so hard as a teacher knowing what class is coming in next, especially when you teach 8 different classes.

However, taking that all in stride, we realize how great we have it. Today, the teachers were sitting around complaining about the students (yes, all teachers do this), and then, we realized - we were complaining about how hard the kids were working!! We were talking about how they wanted to copy down everything from the board, how they wanted to write all their assignments in complete sentences, and how they wanted to write essays instead of a few ideas. They are constantly asking questions. They worry excessively about each and every assignment. They want to know how exactly they should do everything. Much of this comes from the British and national systems where they have to learn a great deal by rote. Today, I even had two students stand up at their desk to answer a question in class.

I've also noticed that the students are more innocent here. They seem like they are maturing at a slower rate than students in the U.S. I think I've mentioned that they are all about two years younger than students in the States. My seniors are only about 16. However, I have to treat them much like middle school students. They don't seem to have the same kinds of problems and responsibilities as students in the U.S. at their age. On the other hand, they are much more responsible about their school work. They are very concerned with passing the S.A.T. and getting into unversities to be engineers, doctors, and pharmacists. These are the sought after positions.

The work they produce is very well done and neat. It's a shock for me after working in San Antonio. I don't know if one type of students is better or worse, just different. All in all, as we settle in, it gets easier. We will see how we feel in a couple of months.