Please excuse my title. I've been feeling vulgar lately. I've also felt like rewatching Little Miss Sunshine.
It's officially been just over a month since I moved back to Honduras -- this time to a new school and a new town. I thought I'd begin by sharing a few exciting stories:
1) On the way to school, our van hit somebody. Well, actually two somebodies. On a bike. I was too far back to actually see it happen. Our van suddenly came to a jerking halt, and the people in the front gasped. The guy on the back of the bike (everybody here has pegs and rides with a passenger) smashed a huge spiderweb crack into the windshield with his face, and then walked away saying that his wrist hurt a little. No exchange of insurance info. No ambulance or police. No lawsuits. We were on our way within 10 minutes.
2) I accidentally locked a few parents and their kids into my classroom during parent orientation. I have two classrooms -- one for classtime and one large muscle room -- and the parents were in the other room playing with their kids. I had stepped outside, so I couldn't see that there was anyone in the other room. I'd been at school all day (it was evening), so I was tired, hungry, and not thinking clearly. Therefore, when they called for snack, I excitedly locked my classroom door and started making my way toward the cafeteria. Fortunately, I heard someone calling to the people in my classroom before I walked too far.
3) The debacle of a van that we continue taking to to school every morning (cracked windshield and all) had another small issue: the door fell off on the way home from school. When our driver couldn't get it back on, he called another driver to pick us up. After we'd all piled in his van, he couldn't get it started. Just as we thought we'd be walking home, the driver put the car in neutral and coasted down the rest of the mountain until the car had enough umph to start up. Naturally, this is what put Little Miss Sunshine in my brain.
Now that I've grabbed your attention with my exciting stories (which are less exciting if you've been checking my facebook statuses), I want to spend a few sentences gushing about my job. I like it. A lot. I have a class of eleven adorable 2-3 year olds. I would like to post pictures of them, but I'm not sure that's allowed. While I'm only a few weeks into the school year and I know that I'll get frustrated and worn out and hit low points, I feel really good about where I am right now. This is the age I love working with. I'm happy to get up every day. I look forward to going to work. I think about my students all the time, and it makes me happy rather than stressing me out. Even when a student throws a screaming, hitting, spitting fit, I leave work feeling at peace. I felt so out of place last year. I am a teacher and I like to teach, but I hated the teaching that I was doing. I'm now back where I feel happy, and I can see that my students are happy and are already learning a lot. I'm doing what I love.
And fuck the rest.
P.S. I tried putting the dance scene in here, but I can't find it anywhere. You'll just have to find the movie and watch it. It will make your day better, anyway.
