Two more days...

Ahhhhhh!! I'm starting to freak out. I felt like this week would NEVER end and now I only have two more days of teaching. I am freaking out. I have met SOOOO many amazing people in this process and the mix of trying to keep up with my school work and teaching AND spend as much time with the AMAZING people I've met here is overwhelming. I have made so many good friends here at Maximo- people that I have looked forward to seeing on a daily basis & in two days I have to say good-bye. I am NOT good at goodbyes at all and I'm dreading it. It just blows my mind at how complete of a life you can make in 5 weeks. This place feels like home to me. I know it is not and I'm excited to go back home, but the mixture of all these emotions is draining. I couldn't sleep last night just thinking about everything that I've experienced here and all the amazing moments I've had. I've been blessed.

The fact that the TEFL has been one of the most challenging things I've done in my life has allowed me to grow that much closer with the people around me- the people that have carried me through the hard moments.... those people mean the world to me (not just here in Peru, but some of you have been such a strong support from back home with your encouragement through e-mails, verses and quotes, help with my school work- thanks Dad, I needed your creativity! and little messages to let me know you had thought about me). I'm blessed to have such wonderful people in my life back home.


I LOVE life. Can I just say- I love meeting people along the way, there are so many amazing people in this world. The hard part is when they only cross your path for a moment in time. But you take a part of everyone you meet & try and remember the unique strengths of each person and try and make yourself replicate that image just a bit & in doing that you are sharpened & become a better person each day. I try to anyway :).


Today I struggled to get going as I was just trying to take in every moment.. just the routine of it all & capture it in my mind. Waking up to the morning air that is in my room and the smell of sewer (there are some parts that are better then others) of the bathroom & getting in the shockingly cold water as I stare out my window that doesn't close :). Sounds rough.. but that is what I've become used to and it has become my comfort. Do I love the smell of sewer water? No. Is that my norm now, yes. Then my walk to school through the mercado de Confraternidad where I live. Seeing the people opening up their shops and starting their business of the day- all the street vendors that try to sell me fresh bread, juice, jello, meat... everything they line up along the streets to sell in the mornings. There are always people and kids to dodge as I make my way up to the main street. Then I turn onto the main street and it is quiet for the first stretch as they have torn out the street and are doing construction on it. It isn't until I get up a little ways that I walk along Avenida del sol with all the traffic of the taxis and the hussle and bussle of people commuting to work. I'm always on guard & crossing to the opposite side of the street is an art somedays as there is so much traffic... and believe me just because you are a pedestrian does not make you safe here.... you are at your own risk crossing the street. I pass the policia randomly standing about they way blowing their whistles... it still cracks me up.

Then I get to Maximo and have my morning warm-up where I study and work on my lessons before class starts. I get interupted consistantly but it is welcomed as I've made a lot of friends here. Everyone that works here knows who I am now and like I said it will be hard to leave them. Class all day long... our class is quite international. Lots of different English accents. Yesterday I was talking in class and this girl said to me "you have the cutest accent". I HAVE AN ACCENT? Who knew? ha ha- i think the word for that is ethnocentrism....aye Lindy. I suppose I do :).

It was today, as every day, a long day at Maximo but I'm really starting to be able to have FUN. I really like my class... & the professors of the course are great (except when they are critiquing me :)). Today was a good day! I was dreading it all week long as it was my day to teach grammar. My class turned out to be the best one I'd had so far. It was awesome!!!! We laughed, had fun and ENJOYED learning grammar. Weird. It felt sooo good walking out of the classroom today- It was a rush! I felt so good and successful because they learned the grammar & we had such a great class. I taught them the Future Perfect tense (which is known to be hard to understand). We learned the formula is subject + will have + past participle= future perfect. There has to be two different times and two different events to make this tense, such as "By the time you arrive, I will have cooked dinner" Two times=by the time you arrive & will have cooked. Two different events= arrived and cooked.... both happening in the future at two different moments but simontanously. Hmmmm... we had fun though. For my main task after doing practice I had them plan a wedding. I gave them a calendar of the months and then all of the tasks they will have needed to complete before they get married. They had to make sentences about how they would plan the wedding. For example, "By January 4th I will have picked a cake." They had a blast with it and one of the guys took it even further and added his own tasks such as "by March 4th I will have picked out the alcohol". Aye boys... but we all laughed a lot and I paired them in "couples" and they were all having fun joking with each other about the weddings- they got a kick out of it. One kid, Borris (the class clown) even went so far as to change the subject and told me "teacher, by the time WE get married....." pretty creative. I'll give him points for that one :). They are fun. We have a blast.

My reviews so far have been great! That has been encouraging because this place does not try to sugarcoat ANYTHING. They are pretty hard on you- which is good, I guess it will make me a better teacher in the long run. But I have surprised myself & am having fun with it. It has been great! Not to mention countless hours of work and not many nights of sleep. This blog is my daily break from "reality".

So yeah- today was hard, but really good. The best part of the day was when I told the students "I'll plan something fun for tomorrow since it is the last day" and they responded "Teacher, don't leave here"... it was an awesome moment. In some ways I wish I was sticking around here, but there is the real world and my purpose in coming out was so I could teach back in the US and I'm excited for what is to come of that. Lots to look forward to in the near future!

Off to plan "a fun lesson" like I promised my students. The final part of this blog will probably be about the journey home. Hopefully it says..."I caught all my flights and it was eventless". Here's to that- I could use some prayers over the next few days that I make it home by Sunday. That would be great. Love you all! Thanks for being by my side along this journey :).