Rocking that *International* Paradise

My 8 th graders are making me happy again.  We started reading a novel, The Maze Runner , by James Dashner, last week.  The book is 374 pages long, and so in order to finish it by the end of the year, I’ve been assigning about 40 pages of reading per class (they have class every other day, so they have 2 nights to complete this reading).  I was really excited to start the book, because I love teaching novels, and I knew that given the exciting plotline of the book, I could hook them in. I was also nervous about it.  When I taught The Hunger Games to my 7 th graders last fall, even though the kids loved the book, many of them still fell behind on the readings and would fail my reading quizzes—even when I basically gave out all of the answers before beginning the quiz.  Tonight, grading my first set of 8 th grade reading quizzes, I am pleasantly surprised to find that it seems all but 1 or 2 (in a class of 28) seem to have done the reading and passed the qu...

A week ago, when I found out Liz wouldn’t be coming, I thought this weekend would be long and boring, and that I would be in danger of spending it alone at home, moping.  How far that turned out to be from the truth!  This weekend has been perfect: relaxing, fun, active. Yesterday, Danielle and I made a quest to El Yunque with the goal of climbing a new trail.  Looking at the map, we tentatively decided to try for the top—El Yunque Peak; the highest point in the park.  However, we knew that time constraints and energy levels might turn out to be a factor.  (We started hiking at 1pm.  The gate to the national park closes at 6pm so we had to plan on being back to the car by 5pm.  The hike was supposed to take at least 3-4 hours round trip.  We knew it’d probably take us longer than that, due to side trips, rest breaks, and stopping to enjoy the scenery).  We set off boldly into uncharted (for us) territory.  Immediately, we were engulfed...

After a lazy morning, we decided to spend a few hours at the beach today.  We met to leave, and Danielle asked where we should go.  Usually, when we go to a local beach, the answer to that would either be “Pozuelo” or “Playa Caribe.”  Today, though, Jenni said, “I think we should go to Punta Guilarte.”  I gave her a puzzled look.  Where?  She explained it’s in Arroyo—a city maybe 10 minutes from Guayama.  Not twenty minutes later we were at the beach, and I’m still in shock that this gem has been hiding right under my nose for the past seven+ months.  Punta Guilarte is a balneario—a public beach—in Arroyo.  This means that you have to pay $3 to park your car, but the beach has facilities—showers, bathrooms, a few picnic tables, a snack stall, big blue garbage barrels, and lifeguard stands (though today I didn’t see a guard occupying them).  The beach sweeps along the coastline—covering perhaps as much as a half mile.  Today the p...

I live in a pretty safe neighborhood.  But at the same time…not.  What I mean is…I don’t feel unsafe in my neighborhood.  When I’m inside, I often leave the front door wide open.  Neighbors spend time on their front porches.  Yet just as often…when I’m not in the living room, I lock and deadbolt my front door.  Stuff happens.  Being a small town girl, though, I just never expected it to happen to me. Last Tuesday, when I went out to my car to head to school in the morning, I reached to unlock the driver’s side door, and stopped.  Sucked in my breath…and stared at the driver’s side back window.  Or lack thereof.  The window was laying on the back seat, shattered into tiny pieces.  In the front seat…the stereo was missing.  Of course. Shaken, I got into the car and drove to school, bits of glass falling from the window frame every time I made a corner.  Thankfully, I had absolutely nothing else of value in the car, s...

I won’t lie.  To say I was looking forward to my sister visiting me in Puerto Rico over her spring break in an understatement.  It was the highlight of my school year.  I am pretty sure I was more excited about spending a week with Liz than I was about taking a 7 night cruise with 3 of my best friends over my spring break.  And that’s saying something.  That cruise is going to be awesome. My sister is my other half.  She and I are perfect complements to each other.  Sometimes I think that if you combined the two of us into one person, you’d have the perfect woman.    She’s extroverted;  I’m introverted.  She loses things; I remind her where she put them.  She loves math and science; I love English and the arts.  I took a job teaching in Puerto Rico; her dream job is teaching at our old high school.  She’s the entertainment on a roadtrip; I’m the one who plans the itinerary and makes the reservations.  I coo...

I’ve realized that most of my recent posts have been about travel, people visiting me, or big events.  I think it’s time for a basic update on my life.  So here’s the news since Christmas.  ·          This semester, I started tutoring a 10 th grade student in English, 2 nights a week.  He speaks very little English, which was the main thing holding him back in the class.  I do my best to translate/summarize each of the piece of literature he reads in class into Spanish and make sure he understands the plot of each.  I’m not sure if it’s the best method to take, but it helped him pass the first test, at least.  ·          Our mouse problem from the beginning of January seems to have more or less gone away.  Or they’ve just become much sneakier.  Either way, we haven’t seen or caught one in over a month, and that’s just fine with me.  ·    ...

When I (and I think most of the other American teachers can say the same) was offered my job here, one of the “perks” the school director described was a daytrip for the American teachers on the director’s boat.  Mr. Delgado painted a vivid picture of how he would fill the boat’s cooler with food and drinks and take the American teachers out one weekend on the blue Caribbean waters, stopping at a secluded island to swim and enjoy the sun. It wasn’t what sold me on the job offer, but I’ll admit it sounded pretty nice. The first semester of school passed without this fabled boating trip coming to pass, though we made one attempt at scheduling it in November.  But finally, last weekend, when we had Monday off for Columbus Day, we received our promised outing. It just so happened to fall on my friend Lily’s last day with me, so she was able to come along and was treated to an experience most of my other visitors will not be privileged to.  Lucky her!  Lucky me! At 9:...