I haven't written in quite a while. I still haven't blogged about Desiree and Melia's visit (for which I have no excuse), but other than that I just kind of figured...I didn't have much going on to write about. But then I remembered that....95% of bloggers are people just documenting things from life: recipes, daily occurrences, tender moments, birthday parties, etc. Now, I may not have any sweet pictures of me hanging upside down from a zipline over a pit of jaguars, but I am still here---living and loving Brazil. So I guess it's time to end the hiatus. :)
A lot of people have asked what a "typical" day looks like here, and there isn't really a good answer for it; my schedule changes quite a bit and some days I laze at the beach and paint for hours, while others I spend running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything done. (Yes, that is probably a clear indication that I could distribute the work more evenly and have lots of productive and enjoyable days instead of peaceful laziness and somebody-kill-me-I-can't-get-this-all-done, but that is the life of Michelle...)
But I can tell you about what today looked like. :)
Background info: I've known for weeks that I was supposed to substitute today for an English class while their teacher went to administer the TOEFL. The class is on academic reading and writing, and they're a pretty basic level. Well, as anyone who has taught (or studied) a language will know, the terms "beginner", "intermediate", etc are pretty relative --- that is a "beginner" class often has a lot of diversity, and you never really know what level you're actually going to be working with. That being said, I had emailed the teacher a while ago asking what she wanted me to cover, what she had already covered with this group/what level they were, etc., and got a response...this morning.*
(*She did send a note suggesting that I talk about cultural differences in academic writing.)
Well, I had *no* clue how to teach about cultural differences in academic writing, especially to a group of unknown proficiency. That, combined with my normal procrastination, meant I didn't even start preparing this 2 hour class till...basically yesterday. So when I got back to working on it last night after kickboxing, the panic started to set in as I realized how much I still had to do and no real idea of
what I was going to do...Finally decided that the panic was outweighing the benefits of continuing to work (or at least try to) so I went to bed around 1.
Okay, now today:
Woke up around 7:30 (not too early, but still felt like it since I was up so late..) and decided it was better to work on my presentation and run if I had time left over, rather than go to a class for an hour and just hope that I could get everything done after. So I grabbed some food and started working! The progress was a bit frustrating, since I still wasn't really sure what to expect from this class, but it went reasonably well. I finished my prep around noon and decided I had time for a short run. Dashed out and got 3 miles, came home and showered/got ready and booked it to campus, where I was met by exactly one student. Apparently they had been pretty ambiguous about whether they really had class today, and she was the only one there. (I was kind of annoyed that I was so stressed over this class and literally had almost no one even show up.) We decided that we'd wait a while to see if more students came, so we watched an episode of Modern Family till people got there. We ended up with about six students, which was better.
The class went pretty well. All things considered, I was actually quite proud of my presentation and the activities I planned. The students did better than I expected with some of the harder ones, too. We talked about audience, tone, purpose, topic sentences, and creativity in writing (and ended the class by watching that awesome Ted talk on schools killing creativity).
After English I headed over to teach Nathalia her piano lesson. The lesson went great! She actually practiced really well this week and passed off almost everything! (Two weeks of teaching her gave me more sympathy for my old music teachers than anything else ever has. Sorry, Bruce.) After the lesson we chatted for a while and made misto quente (grilled ham and cheese). Theeeeennn we talked more with her dad and mom for a while. Finally the bishop was basically like, "Michelle has been here forever because you girls keep talking! Let's eat." haha. So then I stayed for more bread and cheese dinner lol.
I ended up staying almost 5 hours at their house tonight, and it was so fun! It was much longer than I had been planning to spend there, and I gave up a spin class in favor of white bread and candy. But I'm glad I made the decision I did. It was so fun to talk to them. Being in other peoples' homes like that is such a unique opportunity. It was so great to make plans for Nathalia's trip the US and talk about those things that only come up after 4 hours of conversation.
I wish I could remember all the fun little things that happened, but my two favorites:
1) Nathalia was *so* blown away by the fact that almost all houses in Utah have basements. "And you can go down in them?" She was so excited at the possibility of maybe even
sleeping in one of the basement guestrooms when she goes to the states. She said she doesn't think she's ever seen a house with a basement. Isn't that funny? It's so crazy to still be finding things that are surprising across cultures. I mean, I've lived in Brazil for over a year now (in total) and it had never occurred to me that there is pretty much nothing below ground level here, except the occasional parking garage. So fun!
2) Nathalia's mom, Christiane, was seriously
raving about how good her misto quentes were in the US (again, we're talking grilled ham and cheese, folks...nothing gourmet). She was like, "Oh, we found the BEST white bread at the store! We bought it every day. There was a little bear on the front. Do you have that kind in Utah??" And even more exciting: "They have ham that comes in SQUARES! Have you seen that? It's just the perfect size to fit on a piece of bread!"
I cannot even begin to adequately describe how adorable it was to watch Chris explain to me over and over again that they have "square ham" in the US and how incredible it was that you don't have to cut or fold your meat to fit on a sandwich, etc. It was SO FREAKING CUTE*.
*It also came up that Chris hates being called cute haha. When you call her cute you get a reaction about like when you tell a little kid they're going to marry that kid they've been chasing all recess. She gets this indignant expression and says, "No! Don't say I'm cute!" but I'm not even sure why she hates it so much because I said, "That's a good thing!" and she said, "I know! But I hate it!" haha. Still not sure why. But she gets such a cute expression every time and even sticks her tongue out when Nathalia calls her that haha. :D
Anyway, that's about how my day was. Nothing exciting, but at the same time it was a pretty beautiful and happy day: a run on the beach, teaching English, playing the piano, talking and laughing with friends,
and I even spotted a *new bird on my way home!
Life really is about the little things. :)
*It was a blue crowned manakin. I've never seen one before, and it was so cool! I'm so happy that I noticed it! I love birds, and it makes me so happy when I can identify them!! :D
