September 4 - September 8

So Much For Being Anti-Social...

It was a busy week! On Monday, I went to my first practice with a Mexican Women's Softball League. The coach also happens to coach the Nuevo Leon women's team! It was awesome!!! And she refuses to speak anything but Spanish to me. She also decided that my name was too difficult, so she's calling me "Prima." Prima, in Spanish, means "cousin". Good thing I don't mind a little racism against me. She has small eyes, and I'm Chinese.... I'll let you put two and two together.

On Tuesday, we had Open House. It was a long night, but a lot of fun with the parents. They were all really nice and keen on working with me to help their kids. It was a lot different than what I had expected. Too often, rich families mean overzealous and overprotective parents who'll do anything to make sure their kid is at the top.

We ended up having a party at our house on Wednesday night. It was supposed to be a quiet dinner with our friend Roberto cooking, but the invitation went out, and a whole bunch of people came over for some good hamburgers cooked on the grill. We also indoctrinated some of our American friends into Canadian culture thanks to episodes of "Corner Gas."

Thursday night, we were invited to our friend Monique's house for dinner. Mmm... salad, garlic bread, and yummy spaghetti. We were exhausted though, and so the night ended early for us.

At school, we had a lot of stories... I have a class of kids who are exceptionally talented at drama. So when I said, "Maybe we should do a play..." one kid, Mauricio, stood up and immediately began miming in the middle of class. I couldn't stop laughing. He was actually really good!

Kris, however, had a not-so-funny event. He's been trying to start a chess club at school, and got chess boards and all the fifth graders excited about chess. He's asked whether there was a chess club he could help with for weeks now, and suddenly, the principal comes and tells him that a chess club is starting, and "could he tell the kids about it?" The Man strikes again.

My other incident occurred as we were doing a Reading lesson. I was teaching rhymes, and I started off with an example. "What rhymes with 'sun'?" And I began listing, "run, bun, ton, done, fun, etc." I tried asking the kids to rhyme, but it turned out it was more difficult for them than I thought. So, after several more examples, I asked the kids to give me suggestions for what rhymes with "pig." Several good examples were given, including "dig and big." Then one kid, who apparently was in some other world, pipes up and says, "ummm... hill?" Apparently, rhyming is not a strong suit in this class. We'll have to work on that.

All in all, a fun week with lots of anecdotes!