dye-cut machine & free water

first things first, my friend courtney has my memory card for my camera at the moment. this means i have no pictures :(

the title of this blog is: things i wish i had. i never realized how much i love dye-cut machines until i had to cut out and trace every single letter or shape that i wanted to use in my classroom. seriously, this week has consisted of tracing, cutting, gluing, retracing and some more cutting. brittan and i have spent majority of the nights in this week at home watching "it's always sunny in philedelphia" or watching movies while tracing, cutting, tracing, cutting, anddd some more tracing and cutting. i think we both are glad that decorating our classroom only happens once a year :) now, we look forward to the 2 weeks of freedom we have with our bulletin boards outside our classroom, then we get to re-do those! don't get me wrong, it's FUN. it's really fun. seeing your hard work pay off to make for a cutesy classroom. but it is time consumiiiiing and it has definately consumed our vidas this week.

onto the free water thing. here, when you go out to eat, a bottle of water is the same as a coke. or fanta. sooo, most of the time you're not drinking water because who wants to pay the same amount for the water when you can have a yummy fanta? so, that's something i miss. free water.

school starts officially on tuesday. on MONDAY, tomorrow, the students and parents are coming from 8:00am-11:00am to meet the teachers and pick up their books. our school is HUGE and there are going to be a TON of students. it should be interesting. the parents have a checklist to check off the things that they received. hopefully, i can communicate with them what to do on the checklist. some of the administration told us this week that they do not have our class listing, yet. keep in mind school starts officially on TUESDAY and they don't have our class list yet. those of you who are teachers in the states may feel the frustration that went on when we found out we won't know our class until the first day of school. the reason for this is; parents come on Monday to get books. when they are at the school, they may see a teacher that they want instead of the one they currently have. this being the case, the administration may change some class lists. different, huh? one of the english teachers said "i'm going to look really ugly so none of the parents want me" it really is shocking that the lists can be changed based off of a meeting, huh? well, hopefully i KNOCK everyone off their feet and they all want to be in my class :)

we don't have computers in our classroom :( BUT the good news is one of the maintenance guys told me i had an internet cord in my room. so maybeee i can skype with yall and show you my lovely classroom!

my "companera", or spanish co-teacher, is amazzzzing. i brought her a cookbook of southern flavor dishes and a spice that is made in alabama. when i gave it to her she was SOOO happy. i told her if there were some things in there that she didn't understand (the book is english) that i would love to help her out! and she said that she couldn't wait to make some of the things and bring them to the school for everyone to try!

so, we have our daily schedules for our students and i have never seen a school with so many specials. these students go to PE, recess, library, computer, music and art. i have one class from 8:00am-10:30am (really, 10:15 because the at 10:15 the students eat their "lonch" before they go to recess) and then another class from 11:00am-1:50pm. with the specials interrupted throughout the week, i can already see that time is going to be a struggle for me! and making sure that both classes are on the same page. while the students are in their specials, we have meetings with different people. some are with the english department, some are with our group of 2nd grade teachers and some are with my partner or with parents. it will be interesting to see how the schedule plays out. i'm anxious to see!

some fun things we did this week

*yuyo took us to a taco stand with carne asada tacos. HOLY MOLY. they were amazzzzing. and only 10 pesos, each.

*we went to the movies and saw los industructiables (the expendables). and ate a TON of palomitas (popcorn). i mean, a TON. it was delicious.

*we discovered a frozen yogurt place that brittan says tastes just like "Yoforia". i've never had yoforia but i know this place is THE BOMB. you can get as many toppings as you want. it's like TCBY on crack.

(i just realized all of these have to do with food...)

*we got our work visas! we are no longer illegal. we're legittttt.

*we went shopping at IDEA. it's the mexican version of IKEA. it has everything you can imagine for a home. we may or may not have gone a little crazy in there...

*we got our first paycheck! (i'm not sure if i've written about that yet) but it was nice getting some dinero. the school actually prorated the check for an extra week which was awesome. we get paid twice a month, on the 15th and on the 30th. so we'll be getting one more check soonish.

*i SHOULD be getting my double bed this week. i've been sleeping on a temporary twin bed since we got here.

ladies & gents,

i will post again soon with pictures! :)

keep praying for us.

and our alumnos (students).

and our cuerpos (bodies).

besos! :)

-meggie