Open House

Today I met over 50% of my students and their parents. It was great. I got to chat a little bit, a very little bit when they spoke limited English, and get to know their situations a bit. I have a class of 23 right now, 3 of which are new students, the other 20 have been together as a class for about 5 years, so it's like a group of best friends. They are really energetic, which will be great, because I like group work and discussions, but the trick will be harnessing all of their energy for good rather than evil. We'll see.

There were a few students who hung around all morning. Melvin, Anthony, and a girl whose name is escaping me right now.... But anyway, they were in my classroom for a while and we got to talk quite a bit. Anthony showed me pictures of his dad's new car on his cellphone (which will not be allowed tomorrow), and Melvin bought be M&Ms (which is allowed any time).

Overall it seems like a really great group of kids, and I'm excited to work with them all.

Amy already mentioned the sad news of our sub-director leaving. It was such a blow to all of the new American teachers. We really loved her. Hopefully she will be around this week so we can say our good-byes.

On a completely unrelated note, I was trying to make some simple peanut butter cookies just now. It's a weird recipe, one that has very few ingredients and no flour. I've made the recipe before, back in the states, and I added a little flour to it and they turned out great. But this time, I took my first pan out of the oven and tried squashing them with a fork, and they just crumbled. Part of it is I don't have an electric mixer, and it's really hard to mix peanut butter by hand, the bigger part, though, is that DR peanut butter is weird. It's a lot like organic peanut butter in the states, the stuff you have to stir up and keep in the fridge. But that's how everything is here. Most of it is organic, or has no preservatives. It's nice to see all of the food with tiny ingredients lists.

Well, I need sleep for the big day tomorrow. I love getting comments, so don't be shy. We love hearing from the US just like you like hearing from the DR. God's blessings!