obnoxious :)... but it's hard to convey smiles in blogs sometimes :)

so... first day of school is over, and I survived. :)

It wasn't too bad, slightly chaotic at first, but I thought things quickly settled down as students figured out what was going on. There were still students who I saw that didn't know if they had passed the year before... I refrained from saying, "Well if you don't know, I'm going to go with a big fat NO!" I mean really, seriously? I let the other teacher answer that one...

Numbers were high, but still not as high as other high schools in this area. I'm not sure what the final total for the school is, but I do know that in the two first year classes there are 70 students and then in the one second year class there are 68. Other larger schools will have more sections (or in other words more classes per grade level), but we have a limited number of teachers, so one big ol' class will have to be. Obviously, it's tight quarters in the one second year class. Plus with the only one electric fan it's kind of miserable. I feel bad for the students, sitting on top of each other basically, and then the heat and humidity just make you feel like you're in a can of sardines.

Happily, the first year kids were pretty open and almost talkative when it came time to introduce the foreign teacher. It's so much more fun when people will make eye contact with you! :)

I also got over to the elementary school to check on their new library. We're off to a good start! Fortunately, the Librarian's course load was lightened (she was in charge of a content class, the canteen, and the library), so now she was given 2 vacant hours to use for the library. I'm also able to visit each day in the afternoon, so the library will be able to have kids at least for 3 hours a day. That is a huge accomplishment.

Today, a little kid named Andre wanted to check out a book about dinosaurs. Some of them are getting really excited. It's a fun thing to see! :)