Volkswagons everywhere. Bugs, Passats, Pointers, Golfs...yes, all sorts of Volkswagons, and they are everywhere! The streets of Puebla consist of honking horns belonging to speeding cars, vendors selling knickknacks, and jugglers dressed as clowns at intersections. Everything and everybody moves, nothing stops, even for red lights.
D'Amicis School has continued to be a learning experience. I have remained in the 6th grade with the English teacher Nelly. I have been reading to the class and team-teaching since the first day in class. However, this week I taught several lessons by myself, with her serving as a monitor for the students. We have discussed self-esteem as it relates to an individual's emotions, defense mechanisms, and jobs that would be appropriate for introverts and extroverts. We have also given vocabulary and spelling tests on English words from stories they have been reading and studying. Lastly, the students took a listening test on their English comprehension from several recorded selections.
I have noticed several things about my classroom and students. Initially, despite the fact that D'Amicis is a private school, the government supplies the textbooks and notebooks. Also, the textbooks used are more like small reading books that students in the US use as supplements to a text. However, my students have several of these smaller books and not a single large textbook. Also, students must be picked up at the classroom by a parent or older sibling, and are not immediately released to do as they please at the final bell. As to the bells, students do not consider themselves released by the bell, but remain (relatively) calm until the teacher releases them. The differences are interesting.
As to our adventures in Puebla, we have had several more. We have gone to a large market in the zocalo with hundreds of vendors selling everything you could possibly imagine: food, clothing, jewelry, wind chimes...the list goes on. We have also seen two new movies in the theater (subtitled in Spanish). We also visited the world's smallest volcano in La Libertad, which we climbed into (it has been extinct for some time now). We have also been to several museums which displayed, respectively, religious art in a convent and photographs of the Maras gangs in an old hospital. Since we are officially on Spring Break, we have planned out a rough idea of things we will be doing over the next two weeks, to include more museums, pyramids, fortresses, a trip to Metepec, and pottery factory. It should be interesting.
On a side note, several of my teachers found out about the Army education, and as a result, I have taught the 6th and 3rd grades how to march. This was somewhat difficult as the commands were in English, and I do not believe the 3rd graders knew why they were out in the soccer field walking around. However, it was interesting.
