week 8: progress report
It’s now been two months since my arrival in this country. On the one hand, the time has flown by so fast that it’s difficult to believe that Christmas is fast approaching and exams need to be prepared. On the other hand, I feel like I’ve been here for years. Days seem to pass me by like minutes, weeks like hours. It’s madness.
I am really getting to know my students and lately we’ve been doing some interesting work. The older classes are really showing their colours and have been preparing presentations on a topic of their choice. To prepare them for the presentation, I asked them to prepare some food, bring it in and explain to the class how they prepared it and what ingredients they used. They seem to enjoy this especially as we all have a little taste afterwards.
I am still having discipline problems but there is a meeting about this at the end of the week, which I hope will teach me a thing or two about taming the wild ones that don’t do as they’re told.
Talking of meetings, I was in one today with the parents of Octavo students, which consisted of a quick run through the end-of-year exam system (roughly equivalent to GCSE in terms of importance), introduction of new teachers (namely myself, as Adeline couldn’t join us), and a reminder to parents that their kids should be punctual and well behaved.
The meeting went well despite the last minute rush to get it organised. Four of us were in the office writing evaluations, averaging marks, signing the evaluation forms and stamping them for each student before 17:00 when the parents arrived.
Private lessons with my student in Septimo are going very well. We have two hours a week: Mondays and Wednesdays after school. She is really making progress and that feels very rewarding for both me and her. It is, however, unfortunate that there are others in her class who struggle far more in English and would benefit even more from private lessons if only they had the inclination and I had the time.
My Spanish is definitely coming along. The other day Christelle and I went to watch a Dominican film at the cinema. The film was rubbish and we left half way through but the point is I understood the majority of it. My spoken Spanish is coming along more slowly but I still feel that I’m making progress. Spanish lessons are certainly helping in that respect, although lately I haven’t had any because Fior, my teacher, has been very busy with other school business. What I really need are some Dominican friends that I can talk to all the time. Unfortunately, I don’t spend very much time with the Dominicans I know and I am obliged to speak English with my students. Christelle occasionally says the odd thing in Spanish but she speaks far too fast and, in any case, we mainly speak English as she needs the practice. So with whom do I speak Spanish, I hear you ask? Well, with the staff at the pizzeria, the guy at the cyber cafe, Fior, and now and then with my students in the playground.
I mentioned the weather in my last post. Rainy days are becoming ever more frequent. I’m told that between now and the end of the year this won’t change. But, like I said, showers are short and heavy. They never seem to last more than ten or fifteen minutes, during which time it literally pours down in buckets, and then stops just as abruptly as it began.
Marie-Christine has moved out and is now living and working in a hotel in Bayahibe. Hope it goes well for her because I’ve been told that working in hotels isn’t easy and staff get fired very easily. It is also very seasonal so the second they don’t need her anymore she will have no choice but to find a new job and lodgings.
Apart from all that, I’ve been reading a lot. Just finished The Celestine Prophecy, which I enjoyed very much and would recommend to anyone fascinated by meaningful coincidences and spirituality.
At the end of next week we have a week’s holiday. I will be spending most of that time preparing exams, which need to be finished by 13 November, but it will still be a welcome break from nine weeks of hard yet rewarding work.
Goodnight.
hello world!
No updates in recent days as I’ve been quite busy and very tired. Just wanted to show my face to let you all know that I’m still alive and kicking.
We are obviously entering the rainy season over here as it has rained nearly every day for the past week. Today I witnessed one of the most powerful showers I’ve ever exeprienced, which made a nice change from my post-power-cut-pathetic-pressure showers I usually take in the mornings – it’s just a shame it was outdoors.
The weather forecast for the next week says scattered storms and heavy rain from Monday through Friday. I don’t always believe the forecast but, in this case, I would be the first to bet my salary that Yahoo’s weather outlook is spot on. Despite the wetness, everything dries pretty quickly because temperatures remain between 25 and 30 degrees celsius.
I’ll be back later in the week with a more substantial update.
break my brake, why don’t you..
I locked my bike up outside Jumbo today to do a little shopping only to find when I returned that someone had broken the rear brake. The brake handle had actually been snapped off and not in a way that can be fixed. I doubt I’ll be able to find a new brake anywhere as there aren’t any specialist bike shops that I know of in La Romana.
The front brake still works, although not very well, but this isn’t ideal because in the event where I have to brake hard I will do one of two things: not stop in time or topple over the front of the bike and fly into the on-coming vehicle.
Damn those vandals!
4 become 3
We found out yesterday that Marie-Christine will be leaving us at the end of this week. Turns out that the school would prefer a French teacher from France rather than the Canadian variety. She put on a brave face when we were told but I think she’s a bit upset, not surprisingly. She will finish off the week and be replaced by a new teacher from Monday. The new teacher, Adeline, is a 29-year old, French mother of two, who moved here seven years ago. Her kids are in Nido and Pre-Primero in Colegio Buena Vista. More on her soon.
Meanwhile, Marie-Christine is determined not to go back to Canada and is looking for a new job in hotels in and around La Romana and Bayahibe. I feel for her as it really isn’t her fault she had to go, but at least she is taking the initiative and has the motivation to stay in the face of adversity. Best of luck to her.
las terrenas
Last week I was kindly invited to Las Terrenas by Philippe and Marie-France to join them and their girls for the weekend . Las Terrenas is a small town on the north coast of the D.R. about 250km east of Puerto Plata and 100km or so north of the capital. The north of the D.R. borders with the Atlantic Ocean and not the Caribbean Sea, as in the south.
We set off on Thursday after school and made a long weekend of it. The original plan was to leave on Friday but it’s a long drive so we left a day earlier. I was a bit surpised that they gave me Friday off school but didn’t complain, of course. Don’t think my pupils were that bothered either.
As it was already late afternoon/early evening by the time we left, we made the trip in two stages. It is a couple hours drive to the capital where we spent the night in a five-star hotel (very swanky!!). The hotel was very spacious and luxurious, and I spent the night with Christelle and Pauline playing video games in my room. Mostly we played Mario Karts (one of the greatest games ever invented, IMHO) but I lost interest and nearly commited suicide when the girls started playing the most pointless game ever invented. First off, it was a Pokemon game… You’d think that’s reason enough to jump off the balcony, right? Wait until you here what the point of the game is. You essentially just float around a 3-D environment with a virtual camera taking snaps of other pokemons. This must be done with speed and accuracy due to how fast things fly past the camera. At the end, you have a look through your photos and delete the ones you don’t like. Yep, that’s all there is to it. Whoever designed and took the time to write this so-called “game” obviously needs urgent psychiatric assistance – and a quick look at the definition of the word game in the dictionary. To my astonishment, the girls seemed to be having the time of their lives. I seem to have gone off on a bit of a tangent but felt it necessary given the utter crapness of the game. I also promised myself I’d mention it on the blog (in fact, there is a photo of Christelle playing it on my Flickr page – well, there will be when I get round to it).
Back to reality. We woke up early on Friday morning, had breakfast and set off to Las Terrenas. It was a very long and uncomfortable drive through fields, mountains and dirt tracks (thankfully, the Warots have a 4×4). The impressive scenerey took my mind off just how terrible the roads were and I was able to soak up views of sugar cane fields, awesome mountain ranges and the Atlantic Ocean, though only with my eyes and not the camera. I’m not very good with the whole taking photos at opportune moments thing.
We arrived in time for a late but delicious lunch in a restaurant owned by a French guy. By the looks of it their chef was also French, which probably explains why the food was so good. As a matter of fact, all the food over there was excellent. I haven’t eaten as well as I did this weekend for a while. We went out for every meal except breakfast and I enjoyed every morsel. Las Terrenas is home to a relatively large French-speaking community (I’m convinced that there’s a correlation between that and the delicious food).
We stayed in a cosey apartment across the road from the beach, in which I was spoiled with a double bed and my very own bathroom. The whole complex had the air of a hotel but was in fact a bunch of self-catering apartments with a reception, swimming pool and restaurant.
Aside from stuffing my face and enjoying the comfort of the apartment, I played a lot of cards with Christelle and Pauline, swam in the pool, swam in the ocean (which made a nice change from the Caribbean Sea), went snorkelling briefly (very cool!), played pool, went to bed late (Christelle’s fault for keeping me up all night chatting). In a nutshell, I had a wonderful and relaxing time. It was great to visit somewhere new, get to know my hosts a little better and have a long weekend. They really do spoil me.
This morning we left at 7am. I was knackered and slept a couple of hours in the car. This shaved a little time off the journey and the rest of the trip back seemed to fly by much faster than it did on the way there. We got back just after 1pm – at which point I should have had lunch – and I came here straight away to tell you lot about it. It’s now 4.30pm and I’m famished.
I have some photos but I’ll post them another day. Hasta la vista!
eyes wide shut
What with the usual early start this morning, a hot and sweaty ride to school, six lessons followed by one private lesson after school, half an hour of biology revision with Christelle and the ride home, I am beyond tired. I’ve reached the stage where my eyelids are closing of their own accord. Actually, I’m starting to wonder why I’m not in bed instead of here quenching my recently aquired thirst for blog writing.
Just quickly then. All is splendid in the Republican Dominic (that one’s for you, Maman). Still as hot and sunny as ever but I’m rapidly losing my tan due to the fact that I’m dressed in uniform during daylight hours. Also, haven’t been to the beach in a while but will do this weekend.
My lessons are going smoothly, although I still have the odd hyper-active student who can’t sit down and keep his/her mouth shut (his, for the most part). Christmas preparations are getting under way in most of my classes but I’m still trying to get my hands on a copy of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, for my Primero de Bachelierato class. If any of you feel like FedEx-ing one my way, please do so ASAP. A scripted version would be even better. I am even willing to pay postage, if you’re feeling stingy.
Must go. I’m shattered.
all i want to do is biiiiiiiiiicycle, biiiiiiiicycle…
Bought myself a bike today. I’m jolly chuffed as I’ve been meaning to do so for a while and, given the price, should have bought it weeks ago. I paid a mere 3000 pesos in Iberia – not the one in southwest Europe, the supermarket up the road. Think I’ll start doing my grocery shopping there as everything is twice as cheap, including bikes. Unfortunately they didn’t have any bike locks when I went there in the first place, so I had to go all the way down to Jumbo to get one then go back to Iberia to buy the bike. Spent about 100 pesos on moto conchos but eventually got a free ride home on my latest purchase (suckers!).
The price of a taxi from home to school is 100 pesos. So in the equivalent of thirty taxi-ride’s time I will have got my money back on the bike. I probably could have bought two bikes last month what with all the money I spent on taxiing around.
Ok, so I’m excited. I’ll stop talking about my bike and how great it is and leave you.
P.S. One last thing. It’s one of those bikes that I mentioned in a previous post that’s way beyond my needs (21 gears, suspension, metallic finish, ladi-da-da) but it was so cheap that I couldn’t resist. In any case, that’s all there was, apart from kid’s bikes, and I wouldn’t be caught dead on one of those.
a fair old book fair
Over the weekend a book fair was held in La Romana. But this wasn’t your average book fair, more of a cause for celebration. It took place on a relatively small square and attracted thousands of locals. The event takes place in a different city each year and is such a big deal that even the president, Leonel Antonio Fernández Reyna, popped over to see what was going on, or so I’m told because I didn’t actually see the guy.
After hearing so much about it from so many people, I decided on Sunday night to go and see what all the fuss was about (and try to pick up a copy of A Christmas Carol in the process). When I arrived the place was teaming with locals all shuffling about from stall to stall. There must have been at least a thousand people, probably more. There were all sorts of books – mostly in Spanish but also in other languages – including religious and educational material. I didn’t find what I was looking for but instead was offered a huge Spanish-English dictionary for 4000 pesos. When I refused, on the grounds that it was too big and beyond my needs, the guy tried to sell me a box set of smaller Spanish dictionaries and grammar references for an equally ridiculous 3900 pesos. I admitted that I didn’t have, and wasn’t willing to spend, that kind of money on something which I honestly didn’t need, but still he insisted. “What about-a credit. You want-a credit? You can-a come back tooomorrow, I give you my number.” I refused, telling him that I was unlikely to ever run into that kind of money, let alone before tomorrow (lying through my teeth, of course). I eventually took his number as this seemed to be the only way out and thanked my lucky stars he wasn’t asking me for mine.
As I wandered round I bumped into a few of my students, which in this place is an inevitability. You can never miss them or pretend to ignore them because as soon as they see you they yell, “TEACHER!!”.
There was a stage where people were performing various musical acts so I stayed to watch but boredom soon settled in and I headed home, to bed.
I was just dozing off when all of a sudden I see a bright flash, followed by a deafening bang, accompanied by an orchestra of about ten car alarms all sounding in unison. Now, car alarms over here are a bit special. Your average car is equipped with an almost musical alarm that plays a number of different tunes one after the other. Multiply that by ten and add a background of explosions from the firework display. You can only imagine the racket I experienced.
Attempting to sleep clearly wasn’t an option so I got my camera out to take some snaps of the impressive firework display. It isn’t the first time they’ve had such a wild and professional looking display of fireworks. In fact there have been four or five over the past month, although most of the time I’ve had no idea what they’re celebrating. In this case it must have been the end of the book fair and the president’s visit to La Romana (and last week, if I’m not mistaken, it was the national day). Didn’t mention the national day last week as I didn’t do much for it and found it to be more of a hindrance than anything else, what with shops and cyber cafes closed.
Got some wonderful shots of the fireworks.
See photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/20275307@N00/
* * *
In other news:
I sat around the flat playing chess most of Sunday.
Turns out the girls are keeping a close eye on the blog so had better watch what I say about menstrual cycles and the like.
Today I should have started private lessons after school with one of my students but it was cancelled. These lessons mean I’ll be spending an extra two hours a week in school but will also have a little extra hard currency to help pay the bills.
That’s all folks!
saturday night (taxi i hate the way you move)
Was meant to go out last night but plans didn’t work out. We were hoping to go to Altos de Chavón again to see a concert but couldn’t find a lift. Christelle and I ended up taking a taxi that got us as far as the entrance to Casa de Campo but couldn’t go any further as you need a special pass to get in. After much futile negotiation he drove us home and made us (I mean Christelle) pay a grossly excessive 600 pesos for the ride.
When we got back Christelle spent half the night phoning everybody in her phonebook to find us a lift but to no avail. We ended up watching TV and eventually she went home. As is always the case in situations like this one, someone phoned 15 minutes after she left to offer us a lift. By this time it was nearly 1AM and I decided to call a day and hit the sack.
I decided just to have one last zap through all 70 channels (most of which are a complete waste of air-time) and, to my surprise and utter delight, came across an episode of 24. For the unelightened, 24 is a highly addictive and thrilling series starring Keifer Sutherland as Jack Bauer, a counter-terrorist agent working for the US governement. So, of course, I watched a double dose of that then went to bed. Hyperventilating. Heart pounding. Adrenaline pumping.
Don’t bother leaving comments telling me I’m sad, I know I am. And I’m happy to be sad, so to speak.
